1,720,992 research outputs found
Technical and Economic Valuation of Healthcare Building Upgrade
No full textThe construction cost for a building can be estimated through a synthetic-comparative approach, useful for the determination of the budget when a detailed project is not yet available. Budget determination can refer to a multi-year plan for the modernization of a built asset, its seismic retrofit, or energy-performance improvement. Based on Jevons’s law of indifference, stating that two identical goods—in a given market and in a given moment—have an identical value, this research examines applying it to inhomogeneous and complex assets, in this case healthcare facilities. Once costs of interventions, already performed on existing assets, are known, it is possible to compare the value of assets with similar features that express modernization or adjustment needs for an adequate building upgrade
Assessment of infection probability indices for airborne diseases in confined spaces: combination of CFD and analytical modelling
Full text linkThe paper presents a framework for probabilistic assessment of likelihood of infection from airborne diseases in confined spaces which are continuously occupied for relatively long periods (e.g., school classrooms). The proposed approach is based on a combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) pre-calculations and analytical post-processing, to define relevant indices of infection probability. The practical applicability of the method is demonstrated through a case study, where different ventilation scenarios are considered for a school classroom. Corresponding infection probability indices are determined globally for the group of occupants. Furthermore, since the method does not rely on the well-mixing assumption, local probability indices are determined for each occupied location. The obtained results confirm the intuition that an increase of ventilation and/or air filtration reduces the overall likelihood of infection, though the observed positive effect is not uniform within the space. The presented methodology can also be considered as complementary to simpler approaches
Exploring Patterns of Alcohol Consumption in Adolescence: the Role of Health Complaints and Psychosocial Determinants in an Italian Sample
No full textAdolescents are particularly prone to engage in health-risk behaviors such as alcohol and substance use, which can significantly impact their present and future lives. Our study explores the factors contributing to (1) regular alcohol use (i.e., at least 3 to 5 times in the last 30 days) and (2) binge drinking (i.e., drinking at least five glasses of alcohol in a single sitting in the last 12 months) in adolescents, in the 2014 and 2018 waves of the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey conducted in the Lombardy region, Italy. Data collection used a stratified cluster sampling method to obtain a representative sample of adolescents (N = 6506) aged 11, 13, and 15 years (49.7% females). We used structural equation models (SEM) to explore the association of individual-related factors, including health complaints (i.e., somatic problems and psychological problems) and psychosocial variables (i.e., perceived support from family, peers, and teachers), on regular alcohol consumption and binge drinking. Overall, 9.9% of adolescents reported regular alcohol drinking and 18.3% binge drinking. The findings highlighted that higher somatic problems are associated with increased regular alcohol use (OR=1.24, 95% CI: 1.04–1.46), and higher psychological problems are associated with increased binge drinking (OR=1.33, 95% CI: 1.15–1.55). Moreover, lower perceived support from teachers is significantly associated with both regular (OR=1.41, 95% CI: 1.25–1.59) and binge drinking (OR=1.42, 95% CI: 1.28–1.57), and lower perceived student support is associated with a reduced risk of both usual drinking (OR=0.87, 95% CI: 0.77–0.98) and binge drinking (OR=0.86, 95% CI: 0.78–0.96). The study findings emphasize the importance of tackling somatic and psychological health and psychosocial support, particularly in the school environment, through interventions aimed at controlling adolescent drinking habits
Concept per un sistema di produzione energetica a pompa di calore alimentato da acqua di mare per la riqualificazione energetica degli edifici storici
No full textGli edifici storici sono stati esclusi dall’ambito di applicazione del quadro normativo sull’efficienza energetica e la sostenibilità ambientale nel settore edilizio sin dall’emanazione delle Direttive 2002/91/CE e 2010/31/CE. È comunque possibile implementare sistemi alimentati da fonti energetiche rinnovabili in edifici storici, in sinergia con le reti impiantistiche esistenti e in accordo con i requisiti obbligatori di sicurezza. È presentato un caso studio che sottolinea il possibile utilizzo dell’energia contenuta nell’acqua di mare per la climatizzazione di edifici di alto valore storico ed architettonico
The valuation of public and private benefits of green roof retrofit in different climate conditions
No full textGreen roofs represent a suitable option for industrial buildings refurbishment, providing private and social benefits. Nowadays, in Italy green roof technology is still uncommon, because of high installation cost that drives the choice towards more traditional performing solutions, such as cool roofs (CRs). Thus, a thorough valuation of green roofs benefits in urban contexts is required to encourage their diffusion. This paper aims to valuate private and social costs and benefits generated by extensive green roofs (EGRs) compared with cool roofs in three Italian cities: Trieste, Ancona and Palermo. These contexts are characterized by different Mediterranean climate conditions (North, Centre and South Italy); moreover, residential areas overlooking industrial settlements take place in each of them, so it is possible to hypothesize a potential enhancement of landscape value in these properties, allowing to compare aesthetic benefits due to green roofs upon industrial buildings. The study has been based on literature review and on simulation of energy performances of EGR and CR alternatively considered as refurbishment solution for a reference industrial building taking place in each industrial settlement. For the social side, the externalities deriving from EGRs and CRs, such as aesthetic enhancement, biodiversity preservation and natural habitat provision, carbon reduction, air quality improvement, stormwater control, have been monetized according to available data for the cases of study. The analysis demonstrates that a private investor has a poor convenience to implement EGR rather than CR. On the other, a positive Net Present Value (NPV) derives from social cost-benefit analysis comparing EGR and CR, due to the EGR positive externalities. The valuation of the positive externalities let the calculation of economic incentives amount to promote the diffusion of green roofs in the Mediterranean area. On this basis, an annual reduction of local property tax has been considered as incentive form. Further, a sensitivity analysis with Monte Carlo simulation of both private and social benefits evaluation has been performed for each of three case studies. This technique properly evaluates the final effects on private investments in the presence of random unpredictable variables, depending either on climate conditions or on market observation, that influence their economic affordability. Finally, through the comparison of the three contexts, an overall discussion about of the influence of climate and urban conditions on the economic analysis has been conducte
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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