1,720,975 research outputs found
Bread for the Gods: Macro and microscopical analyses of bread fragments from a religious context in southeastern Italy
No full textLetter to the Editor Regarding “Contralateral Vasospasm in an Uncomplicated Elective Anterior Communicating Artery Aneurysm Clipping”
No full textLetter to the Editor Regarding “Posterior Calvarial Augmentation for Chiari Malformation Type 1 Refractory to Foramen Magnum Decompression”
No full textAssessment of the Incentive Rate to Favor the Energy Retrofit of Public Buildings: A Comprehensive Approach for an Italian University Facility
No full textThe Renovation Wave for Europe highlighted the role of the public building stock for which Directive 2012/27/EU has set an annual renewal rate of 3%, which should rise to reach the goal of decarbonization by 2050. In this paper, the energy retrofit of an educational building—at the academic level—in Southern Italy was investigated. The aim was to evaluate the incentive share, which could accelerate the energy efficiency process, to achieve a cost-effective nZEB. The results show that the highest incentive rate is required for interventions on the opaque building envelope, which are also those that allow the least energy savings. An incentive rate of about 45% for the energy efficiency of the transparent envelope is necessary to reduce the payback time by about 7 years. The efficiency of the plants and the installation of a PV system are energetically and economically convenient even without forms of economic incentive. Finally, if the building is brought to high energy standards—a primary energy saving of 46% and energy class A3—an incentive rate of 40% is required to repay the intervention in about 10 years
Letter to the editor regarding “How I do it: operative nuances of multiple burr hole surgery for moyamoya disease and syndrome”
No full textOptimization of a diabatic compressed air energy storage coupled with photovoltaics for buildings: CO2-eq emissions vs payback time
No full textThe necessary path towards sustainable development makes increasingly crucial the role of energy storage systems because the most affordable renewable energy sources (RES) are typically intermittent In this perspective compressed air energy storage (CAES) is one of the main alternatives to batteries and pumped hydro energy storage. This study shows how an integrated system coupling RES and CAES may significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions with acceptable payback times. The electrical load is provided by a representative building sample (RBS) located in Naples (Southern Italy), generated using the simulation-based large-scale uncertainty/sensitivity analysis of building energy performance (SLABE) methodology. A Pareto multi-objective optimization is performed via a brute-force search to minimize CO2-eq emissions and payback time. The design variables refer to a photovoltaic system design and to size and operation of an associated diabatic CAES. Two different application scenarios are envisaged: 1000 buildings and 2000 buildings. The avoided greenhouse gas emissions are about 55% and 51% with simple payback times of 14.3 years and 12.4 years, respectively. The results show that the proposed integrated framework, with the right mix of renewables, may lead to the complete satisfaction of the electrical load at reasonable costs
Sustainability and energy communities: Assessing the potential of building energy retrofit and renewables to lead the local energy transition
No full textEnergy Communities are based on principles of renewables, efficiency, local ownership, to improve energy supply and demand. This study evaluates performance of communities, moving from single buildings to the comprehensive performance. The method combines several tools, including DesignBuilder® and EnergyPlus for simulation, MATLAB® as optimization engine. To determine best options, three retrofit scenarios are compared using three performance indicators: primary energy consumption (PEC), CO2 emission, and running cost (RC). Moreover, evaluation of the investment - with specific economic indicators for helping the citizen to be able to understand the profitability of each individual intervention and so to help him in the choice once an economic constraint - is set. The first retrofit scenario involves insulation of both opaque transparent envelopes, while the second is a retrofit of only systems, through replacement of existing ones and introduction of renewable sources and batteries. Results show how the third scenario - a retrofit trade-off between the first two - offers the greatest PEC, CO2 emission, and RC reduction of 71.35%, 73.42% and 60.52%, respectively. Even from a purely economic view, the third intervention represents a better investment when considering annual economic savings, as shown by increasing net present values
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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