1,720,957 research outputs found
Cost optimal analysis of energy refurbishment actions depending on the local climate and its variations
No full textThe cost optimal methodology indicated by the European Directive 2010/31/UE represents the starting point to support decisions for refurbishment interventions. The procedure is much more useful if considering the limited available investments from Public Authorities or privates and represents an important decision tool to define the owners' constraints and the economic commitment in the years. However, the results are usually affected by the influence of some variables, among which there are the climatic conditions, subject of the present investigation. To quantify some effects, the best costs/benefits ratio is evaluated among some improvement scenarios built on a series of energy efficiency measures, in the climatic conditions of some locations. The first set of calculations compares energy performance and global costs referring to climatic data taken from the Italian National Standard UNI 10349 edition 1994 and 2016. The second analysis is performed, for one location, on the basis of the two reference climatic datasets and the registered climatic data of the last 20 years. From the results analysis, it can be observed the need of indications by the European Commission on a regularly reference climatic data updating, to guarantee in all the countries affordable calculations for the cost optimal refurbishment solutions, and on the introduction of a tolerance/confidence range to take into account the real climate variations
A procedure to evaluate the most suitable integrated solutions for increasing energy performance of the building’s envelope, avoiding moisture problems
No full textThe subject of the research is oriented to typical buildings, often critical from the energy standpoint, which are
represented by social housings. The refurbishment target should be the NZEB model, even if it is very difficult to
find suitable general solutions. As the renovation design process depends also on the sustainability of costs, an
evaluation procedure, previously proposed, is widened to take into account this aspect, by considering
characteristics and constraints, and assuring reasonable costs for the most suitable solutions.
The methodology has been applied to a case study represented by a common building unit. The insulation
improvement is made through a choice of the most suitable combination of material and thickness, with the aim
not only of the energy saving, but also of the reduction of the risk of vapour condensation that depends, among
other things, on the position of the insulating materials within the wall’s structure. Some combined refurbishment
solutions for the building envelope are examined and the corresponding costs are evaluated. Moreover, to show the
importance of the problem in mild and continental climates, a comparison of the results in different climatic
conditions is presented
Refurbishment design through cost-optimal methodology: The case study of a social housing in the northern Italy
No full textThe energy retrofit of social housing buildings in Italy is a big challenge, for their poor energy performance and their large diffusion, but it is affected by several problems mainly due to lack of funds. Therefore, a solid methodological base to achieve optimal energy levels, considering the best balance with the costs, can be useful for a cheaper approach to their energy performance improvement. The cost optimal methodology indicated by the European Directive 2010/31/UE is here applied on a social housing building, located in the northern Italy, in order to demonstrate how it can be used as a supporting decision tool for refurbishment interventions on existing residential buildings, when limited investments from Public Authorities or privates are involved. A series of energy efficiency measures are defined in order to identify different improvement scenarios, related both to the envelope and to the technical systems. After a first step calculating the primary energy consumption and the Global Cost in accordance with the EN 15459:2007, the best costs/benefits ratio is evaluated among all the hypothesized scenarios. The results of the research are expected to be a stimulus for the definition of specific refurbishment plans for the energy efficiency increase of social housing
Photovoltaic technologies in historic buildings and protected areas: Comprehensive legislative framework in Italy and Switzerland
No full textThe launch on the market of innovative highly customized products, with a low visual impact colour and aesthetically wise promoted the integration of photovoltaic (PV) systems in protected areas. Despite the aesthetic, economic and energy advances, their integration therein is hampered by several legislative, and procedural barriers. For this reason, the study aims at reconstructing a European, Italian, and Swiss legislative and authorization framework to highlight prospects, potential, limits, and points of contact among such territories. The working methodology is structured in four parts: (i) the reference context's legislative analysis; (ii) definition of authorization processes; (iii) discussion with stakeholders; (iv) critical summary of the results. Thanks also to the introduction of specific targets and economic incentives, policies implemented in all territorial contexts push the use of solar energy in new buildings and restructuring. Several focus groups have been organized to discuss the existing legislation with different professional target groups (Heritage and Public Authorities, Designers). The results show that in Italy, due to the complex and fragmented authorization process, PV implementation slowed down over the years. In Switzerland, however, clearer criteria and simpler procedures encouraged their diffusion. In both territories, stakeholders need more training and updating about PV technologies, integration criteria, and implementation processes
Analysis and definition of a ZEB building at optimum level of efficiency and costs
No full textThe urban regeneration actions arise by the growing importance of information and communication technologies, moving to sustainable solutions, energy saving and security. New energy planning tools are adopted suggesting the legislator towards large-scale energy policies, by setting up all the information related to the building fabric whose representativeness can be defined through Reference Buildings. The aim of this study is the definition of a suitable methodology based on an energetic and economic approach able to detect refurbishment scenarios of existing buildings, in compliance with the ZEB requirements. For this purpose two residential reference buildings, located in Milan and Reggio Calabria representative of different climatic conditions, are defined aimed at analyzing the energy saving and the CO2 reduction of a series of refurbishment scenarios. Ten energy improvement packages, related both to the envelope and to the technical systems, are considered for the achievement of NZEB and ZEB target. Among these technologies, the best solutions are selected from an energy and economic point of view. Finally, the results are applied to the Italian buildings stock with the same characteristics of the reference building, through a simplified bottom-up approach
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
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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe 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
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