3,152 research outputs found
Reviewing the Role of Key Performance Indicators in Architectural and Urban Design Practices
No full textEnergy use and relative CO2 emissions drive climate change that affects both the environment and human health. Extreme events caused by climate change, such as heat waves, flooding, and droughts are increasingly frequent and dangerous and the quality of life in cities is progressively decreasing. The building sector is among the most energy intensive sectors and mitigation and adaptation strategies are needed to reduce the emissions and impacts of climate change. This article presents a literature review created using the SCOPUS database on 515 articles setup to investigate the role of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in architectural and urban design processes and to understand how KPIs can be used to improve sustainability in the design of buildings and cities. Findings from the literature review highlights the potentiality of KPIs as a tool for managing complexity and for measure performances starting from the early design stages up to the lifetime of buildings and, in general, design. In parallel, the analysis of results showed that KPIs are commonly used to evaluate performance at a very different scale, but the building scale is the most considered. The use of KPIs in architecture, focusing on sustainability, should be implemented more in the future to allow for a better control of architectural performances
Developing an objective measurement of emotional non-reactivity for the study of Mindfulness
No full textField monitoring in Mediterranean climate to quantify thermal performances of vertical greening systems
No full textGreen envelopes can provide environmental and ecological benefits in dense urban areas, improving air quality, mitigating Urban Heat Island effect, reducing energy use for air conditioning. The present study is based on field monitoring of the pilot project INPS Green Façade, built in Genoa (Italy) to quantify its environmental, economic, and social benefits. The vertical greening system was installed on the south wall of an office building built early in the last century and renovated in the 1980’s, owned by INPS (National Institute of Social Insurance). The facade is exposed to solar radiation several hr/day in summer and 1–2 hr/day during winter. The external walls are constituted by two layers of masonry spaced by a 51 cm air gap (resulting from the retrofitting works), with a layer of 5 cm of insulating material. An experimental investigation allows evaluating the thermal performances of a well vegetated vertical greening system during summer and winter. This study demonstrates that a green layer can mitigate outdoor and surface temperatures, thus improve conform conditions and reduce building surfaces warming up (contributing to urban heat island mitigation). The cooling capacity of vertical greening systems, with air temperature difference up to 10°C, can be exploited to reduce energy demand for air conditioning during summer. Although the energy saving for cooling strongly depends on several factors, the results obtained show a potential significant reduction of energy need for air cooling. The consequence of the vertical greening system on energy demand during winter is more complex to define because combined effects can be registered: prevention from solar radiation, shielding from the wind and a natural ventilation of the cavity
Disturbo, disabilità o disfluenza: il ruolo della fluenza nella riabilitazione cognitiva e motoria in età evolutiva.
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Comparison of teaching syllables or words on reading rate.
No full textThis study compares the effectiveness of two brief intervention programmes (word recognition and syllable recognition) aimed at increasing the reading rates of four pupils referred for reading problems. Results showed that the two word recognition training participant made signiificant gains in overall reading skills; however the two children receiving syllable recognition training treatment did not improove on any of the measure
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