1,932 research outputs found
Sustainability performance of hotel buildings in the Himalayan region
Full text linkThis study provides the first comprehensive overview of the sustainability performance of the hotel sector in the Himalayan region: Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone, using both environmental, economic, and technical criteria. In particular, the performance of 45 buildings in this region were measured and quantified in terms of life cycle based carbon footprint, life cycle costs, heat loss rate, number of guests, energy consumption, and area. Buildings were classified into three types: traditional, semi-modern and modern. The statistical analysis included testing for significant differences between such categories by means of ANOVA, and determination of the correlation between the same parameters. Results show a significant difference between the buildings' total carbon footprint and operation stage carbon footprint while, there is no significant difference between the buildings’ life cycle costs. Traditional buildings have on average the largest carbon footprint and life-cycle cost over the typical building lifespan of 50 years of building lifespan. The ANOVA tests highlight how heat loss rate, size of the building and number of tourists in the hotels are significantly different across the building types. A strong positive correlation is observed between environmental impact, economic impact and energy consumption for the household activities, and a negative correlation with the number of guests and building size. By considering several buildings, this study allows to draw new and more general conclusions about effective sustainability strategies in the whole hotel sector in the Himalayan region. In particular, it shows that reducing impacts in the operation stage should be highly prioritized, focusing on reducing energy consumption and heat loss and shifting to the use of renewable energy source
Comparative life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of lodging in the Himalaya
Full text linkThe main aim of the study is to assess the environmental and economic impacts of the lodging sector located in the Himalayan region of Nepal, from a life cycle perspective. The assessment should support decision making in technology and material selection for minimal environmental and economic burden in future construction projects.
The study consists of the life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of lodging in three building types: traditional, semi-modern and modern. The life cycle stages under analysis include raw material acquisition, manufacturing, construction, use, maintenance and material replacement. The study includes a sensitivity analysis focusing on the lifespan of buildings, occupancy rate and discount and inflation rates. The functional unit was formulated as the ‘Lodging of one additional guest per night’, and the time horizon is 50 years of building lifespan. Both primary and secondary data were used in the life cycle inventory.
The modern building has the highest global warming potential (kg CO2-eq) as well as higher costs over 50 years of building lifespan. The results show that the use stage is responsible for the largest share of environmental impacts and costs, which are related to energy use for different household activities. The use of commercial materials in the modern building, which have to be transported mostly from the capital in the buildings, makes the higher GWP in the construction and replacement stages. Furthermore, a breakdown of the building components shows that the roof and wall of the building are the largest contributors to the production-related environmental impact.
The findings suggest that the main improvement opportunities in the lodging sector lie in the reduction of impacts on the use stage and in the choice of materials for wall and roof
PJGilmw/Bioprospected_LCA: Bioprospected_LCA_v1.0.0
No full textGitHub repository associated with the research article currently under review (07/2022): Stochastic Ex-ante LCA Under Multidimensional Uncertainty: Anticipating the Production of Undiscovered Microalgal Compounds in Europe by Pierre Jouannais and Massimo Pizzol.
Developed by Pierre Jouannais, Aalborg University
Recuerdos de Massimo.
Full text linkEl presente ensayo recuerda la rica relación personal e intelectual entre Massimo Pavarini e Iñaki Rivera Beiras desde que el segundo conoció siendo muy joven a Pavarini. En ese sentido, el trabajo recuerda los inicios de su fecunda relación en la ciudad de Bologna cuando Iñaki Rivera acudía a presentar a Massimo Pavarini los desarrollos de lo que sería su tesis doctoral. Las contribuciones de Pavarini al proceso de aprendizaje de Rivera, en el terreno de una epistemología crítica en la penología contemporánea, son analizados como un homenaje a la memoria y a la obra del autor italiano, tras su fallecimiento en septiembre de 2015.This paper recalls the rich personal and intellectual relationship between Massimo Pavarini and Iñaki Rivera Beiras. In that sense , the work recalls the beginning of his fruitful relationship in the city of Bologna when Iñaki Rivera came to present Massimo Pavarini’ developments in what would be his PhD thesis. Pavarini contributions to the learning process of Rivera, on the ground of a critical epistemology in contemporary penology , are analyzed as a tribute to the memory and to the work of Italian author, after his death in September 2015 .El presente ensayo recuerda la rica relación personal e intelectual entre Massimo Pavarini e Iñaki Rivera Beiras desde que el segundo conoció siendo muy joven a Pavarini. En ese sentido, el trabajo recuerda los inicios de su fecunda relación en la ciudad de Bologna cuando Iñaki Rivera acudía a presentar a Massimo Pavarini los desarrollos de lo que sería su tesis doctoral. Las contribuciones de Pavarini al proceso de aprendizaje de Rivera, en el terreno de una epistemología crítica en la penología contemporánea, son analizados como un homenaje a la memoria y a la obra del autor italiano, tras su fallecimiento en septiembre de 2015
Sperm viral infection and male infertility: focus on HBV, HCV, HIV, HPV, HSV, HCMV, and AAV
No full textChronic viral infections can infect sperm and are considered a risk factor in male infertility. Recent studies have shown that the presence of HIV, HBV or HCV in semen impairs sperm parameters, DNA integrity, and in particular reduces forward motility. In contrast, very little is known about semen infection with human papillomaviruses (HPV), herpesviruses (HSV), cytomegalovirus (HCMV), and adeno-associated virus (AAV). At present, EU directives for the viral screening of couples undergoing assisted reproduction techniques require only the evaluation of HIV, HBV, and HCV. However, growing evidence suggests that HPV, HSV, and HCMV might play a major role in male infertility and it has been demonstrated that HPV semen infection has a negative influence on sperm parameters, fertilization, and the abortion rate. Besides the risk of horizontal or vertical transmission, the negative impact of any viral sperm infection on male reproductive function seems to be dramatic. In addition, treatment with antiviral and antiretroviral therapies may further affect sperm parameters. In this review we attempted to focus on the interactions between defined sperm viral infections and their association with male fertility disorders. All viruses considered in this article have a potentially negative effect on male reproductive function and dangerous infections can be transmitted to partners and newborns. In light of this evidence, we suggest performing targeted sperm washing procedures for each sperm infection and to strongly consider screening male patients seeking fertility for HPV, HSV, and HCMV, both to avoid viral transmission and to improve assisted or even spontaneous fertility outcome
Changes in human effective population size overlap the beginning and end of a critical time in European medieval history, also characterized by the Black Death epidemic
Full text linkThe intersection of historiography and archaeology has long pondered over the impact of known historical events on census size. In recent times, genetic methods have successfully traced changes over time in the genetic size of a given population. Moreover, the correlation between genetic and census sizes of a population is contingent on several demographic assumptions that are relatively simple for our species.
Our research endeavours to examine the changes in effective population size (Ne) in all human populations in the 1000 Genomes Project over the past two millennia. We compared our findings with estimates from historical censuses where available. Our investigation confirms what was already observed in France and reveals a common pattern found in most European populations, which manifests as a drastic population decrease beginning around the year 1300 and growth after the year 1600. This profile aligns well with known wars, famines, and epidemics that characterized these trying times in Europe. The most notable among them being the second plague epidemic, caused by Y. pestis, which in Europe commenced in 1347/8 and is also known as the "Black Death".
Our findings demonstrate that changes in genetic population size through time can serve as a dependable proxy for census size, which is independent of potential biases in the written historical record. Consequently, we provide a robust estimate of the impact caused by the population crisis that followed the year 1300 on the European genomic landscape in light of previous results. Our study offers a new paradigm for interpreting the past and underscores the potential of genetic methods in reconstructing historical events
PJGilmw/LCA_deep_uncertainty_fish_micro: LCA_deep_uncertainty_fish_micro_v1.0.0
No full textGitHub repository associated with a research article currently under review (04/2023) on a new procedure for ex-ante LCA under deep uncertainty applied on microalgae for health management in fish farms, by Jouannais.P , Blanco. CF, Pizzol. Massimo.
Developed by Pierre Jouannais, Aalborg University (2023)
Predoni a casa nostra e il geografo solidale: Massimo Quaini tra terra e acqua
Full text linkIn accordance with the main goals of this collection of essays in honour of Massimo Quaini, the text focuses on a peculiar character of the Ligurian geographer’s sensibility, his attention to landscape protectionresearch activity developed in the context of the humanistic geography. Starting from a personal narrative based on his own reminiscences and neglected memories, the author tries to shed light on the relationships between civil commitment and cultural reflection which characterize environmental sensitivity, bringing together his interests with Quaini’s emotional geographies. Finally, some of Quaini’s everyday practicalities are highlighted as the easiest doorway to improve the cognitive procedures of cultural geography
Is Felix Salten the author of the Mutzenbacher novel (1906)? Yes and no
No full textJosefine Mutzenbacher oder die Geschichte einer Wienerischen Dirne von ihr selbst erzählt, published in Vienna in 1906, represents one of the most fascinating cases of attribution of authorship in German literature. Although Josefine Mutzenbacher is usually attributed to Felix Salten, the author of the world-famous Bambi (1923), the novel’s authorship has never been confirmed, and many other candidates have been named as potential authors. Among them is Arthur Schnitzler, who published Reigen, a cycle of amorous adventures in Viennese society, in 1903. Some scholars, instead, have attributed the novel to such lesser-known writers as Ernst Klein and Willi Handl. The controversy surrounding the authorship of Josefine Mutzenbacher was the starting point for our stylometric analyses, and our results help to answer some unresolved questions in a debate that has lasted for more than 100 years. The analyses were performed using the R package Stylo, which enables an efficient application of Burrows’ Delta and its variants. Focusing on both the entire text and on the final pages, two different types of analysis were carried out: one combines 1200 different stylometric methods to compare the candidate authors Salten, Schnitzler, Bahr, Altenberg, Hofmannsthal, Klein and Handl; the other verifies the attribution using the ‘impostors’ method. The results show that the most probable author is Felix Salten, while none of the candidates could be identified as the author of the final pages, confirming the hypothesis that the text was left unfinished by Salten and completed by an as-yet-unidentified ghost-writer
Plastid Genotyping Reveals the Uniformity of Cytoplasmic Male Sterile-T Maize Cytoplasms
No full textCytoplasmic male-sterile (CMS) lines in maize (Zea mays) have been classified by their response to specific restorer genes into three categories: cms-C, cms-S, and cms-T. A mitochondrial genome representing each of the CMS cytotypes has been sequenced, and male sterility in the cms-S and cms-T cytotypes is linked to chimeric mitochondrial genes. To identify markers for plastid genotyping, we sequenced the plastid genomes of three fertile maize lines (B37, B73, and A188) and the B37 cms-C, cms-S, and cms-T cytoplasmic substitution lines. We found that the plastid genomes of B37 and B73 lines are identical. Furthermore, the fertile and CMS plastid genomes are conserved, differing only by zero to three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in coding regions and by eight to 22 SNPs and 10 to 21 short insertions/deletions in noncoding regions. To gain insight into the origin and transmission of the cms-T trait, we identified three SNPs unique to the cms-T plastids and tested the three diagnostic SNPs in 27 cms-T lines, representing the HA, I, Q, RS, and T male-sterile cytoplasms. We report that each of the tested 27 cms-T group accessions have the same three diagnostic plastid SNPs, indicating a single origin and maternal cotransmission of the cms-T mitochondria and plastids to the seed progeny. Our data exclude exceptional pollen transmission of organelles or multiple horizontal gene transfer events as the source of the mitochondrial urf13-T (unidentified reading frame encoding 13-kD cms-T protein) gene in the cms-T cytoplasms. Plastid genotyping enables a reassessment of the evolutionary relationships of cytoplasms in cultivated maize.Peer reviewe
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