1,720,961 research outputs found
Effectiveness of VIPs and PCMs on the energy performance and thermal comfort in buildings
A strategy for improving the buildings energy efficiency is to diminish the energy demand for space heating and cooling. The European Directive has established a high standard of thermal insulation, involving stringent limits for building energy performance. However, such approach determines an increase of the cooling energy demand and noteworthy overheating of indoor spaces in the summer period. This study investigates through dynamic thermal simulations the effectiveness of new thermal insulation materials, such as Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIPs) and Phase Change Materials (PCMs), on reducing heating and cooling energy demands, as well as guaranteeing the thermal comfort into a test room located in three different locations (Catania, Rome and Wien). The energy demand for space cooling and heating have been evaluated for the different facade configurations, as well as the attainable indoor thermal comfort. The outcomes of the simulations in air-conditioned spaces highlight that the wall configurations that adopt VIPs allow reducing the heating energy needs but may increase the cooling energy needs. Remarkable differences are not detected for the heating and cooling energy demands when the PCMs are used. The daily fluctuation of the indoor operative temperature and the adaptive comfort model suggest that the PCM placed on the inner side of the walls shows a good thermal performance. The outcomes of the study outline the strengths and weakness of the analyzed facade configurations, which may help designers in the search for suitable solution
Do brain magnetic resonance and ultrasound perfusion imaging elucidate the role of PFO in patients affected by migraine with aura?
The adoption of green roofs for the retrofitting of existing buildings in the Mediterranean climate
Abstract: In recent years, the demand for air conditioning systems has increased considerably. Consequentially, the energy demand for building cooling has become a serious concern. In particular, the energy peak demand that is intensified by the urban heat island (UHI) effect is often a critical issue for the outdated electricity infrastructure in many countries. In order to rationalize the building energy consumption while ensuring indoor thermal comfort, this paper explores the possibilities offered by the retrofitting of existing uninsulated roofs in combination with night natural cooling strategies. To this end, a case study was selected in order to investigate the performance of an extensive green roof (GR) with and without natural ventilation (NV). The selected building is located in Catania, southern Italy, in a very mild climate. Free-running conditions were evaluated together with air conditioning conditions during the daytime and free cooling via natural ventilation at night. The hourly variation of cooling loads during a typical hot day and the overall performance of the different investigated scenarios were compared. Finally, suggestions about the value of the different investigated building retrofitting strategies are reported
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The 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
“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
We 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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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