1,721,001 research outputs found
Natural lighting in sacred architecture
No full textIn sacred buildings light represents deity and the luminous scenario is the manifestation of a religious symbolism that overcomes all visual comfort requests. To the different architectonic styles corresponds a peculiar lighting scenario that reflects the religious thinking. In this paper, the architectonic styles have been classified in six luminous typologies on the basis of the luminous environment realized inside sacred buildings: Full of light, Semi-darkness, Light and shadow, Full of colors, Luminous pathway and Rays of light. The aim of the paper is to provide a useful instrument during the restoration intervention for a correct interpretation of the lighting concept in sacred building
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
On the thermal response of buildings under the synergic effect of heat waves and urban heat island
No full textGlobal and local climate change increases the occurrence and the magnitude of extreme phenomena, as urban heat island and heat waves. These phenomena seriously affect the quality of life in several aspects: society, health, environment; they also heavily affect the building sector, increasing the energy use for cooling and deteriorating the indoor thermal environment. This paper utilizes data from a continuous urban microclimatic monitoring over three years to quantify the impact of heat waves on the thermal quality of two reference residential buildings in the city of Rome, Italy. The synergic effect of heat waves with the urban heat island is also analysed. The observation period includes summers of 2015, 2016 and 2017. The buildings’ response is analysed through numerical thermal analyses in transient regime, taking into account several variants: thermal insulation, mechanical cooling system and thermal free-floating conditions, with different night ventilation strategies. Results show that daily average temperature and urban heat island intensity increase by up to 4.3 °C and 1.5 °C respectively during the heat waves with respect to the rest of the summer. The building cooling energy use rises up 87% during heat wave periods, while average operative temperature in free-running buildings increments by up to 3.5 °C. Results also show the impressive combined impact of heat wave and heat island: triplication of cooling energy use in the worst case and increase of the average operative temperature above 5 °C
The impact of humidity on vortex creation around isolated buildings
No full textThe effect of humidity on the climatic conditions and the turbulence around an isolated building has not been yet investigated in literature. This paper analyses the simultaneous effect of architectural and environmental parameters on the vortex creation around a building, focusing on the impact of relative humidity. Sixty-four 3D computational fluid dynamics simulations have been performed, coupling 4 values of inlet velocity, air temperature, solar radiation and building height with 4 values of relative humidity. Results demonstrated that the inclusion of humidity in the simulations has an impact on the vortex creation. Differences in values and trends of the vortex dimensions (Hc, Xc, and Lc) were obtained compared to previous studies where relative humidity was not considered. The highest percentage difference between the two studies regards the building height, where the addition of relative humidity made the Xc value decrease by up to 56%. Among the analysed environmental parameters, building height has the higher impact on the characteristics of the vortex, followed by air velocity. The results have been compared with the analytic formula of the ASHRAE Handbook. Cubic mathematical equations have been developed correlating the vortex dimensions with building height, air velocity and relative humidity
Positive effects of blue light on executive functions: future implications for air traffic controllers.
No full textUse of smartphone apps to monitor human exposure to solar radiation: Comparison between predicted and measured UV index values
No full textThe Ultra-Violet Index (UVI) is widespread used to communicate the UV radiation intensity to the general public. The knowledge of the UVI value and of its daily variation is essential for many techniques for monitoring the personal exposure to UV radiation. The UVI values are usually provided by the meteorological services and nowadays it is very common to find UVI forecast tools even in smartphone apps. In this paper, with the aim to evaluate the prediction accuracy of six smartphone apps, a measurement campaign of UVI has been carried out. The measurements have been conducted for the site of Pisa (central Italy), using a portable photoradiometer equipped with a UV erythemal irradiance probe (operating range 250–400 nm). The measured UVI values have been compared with the predicted UVI values (using smartphone apps). Bland-Altman and Passing-Bablok methods have been used to compare the data, the comparison has been conducted on the basis of 90 different UVI measurements, taken at different times, different days and different sky conditions. From the comparison between measured and predicted UVI values it has been possible to observe a general poor accuracy of the apps. The percentage deviations between measured and predicted UVI values were quite high and only one app was able to predict more than 70% of the measured data with an average percentage deviation lower than 30%
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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Outdoor Workers Exposed to UV Radiation: Comparison of UV Index Forecasting Methods
No full textUltra-Violet (UV) radiation covers only a minimal part of solar spectrum (5%) but produces severe effects on human health. Everyone is exposed to Sun but some outdoor workers categories are exposed not only in their leisure time but also during their working activities. To protect outdoor workers health, daily estimates of UV radiation are needed and without a national service providing a measured UV Index (UVI) in the Italian territory, UVI forecasting methods are welcomed. Forecasting methods can be classified in two major groups: methods based on the estimation of the UV total irradiance from solar total irradiance and methods based on regression models of measured UVIs. The former have greater uncertainties (about 30%) and are more suitable for epidemiologic studies, the latter, due to their better precision (about 10-20%), are more suitable for daily UVI evaluation
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