Search results for "Simulation."
showing 10 items of 4779 documents
Daylighting offices: A first step toward an analysis of photobiological effects for design practice purposes
2014
Abstract The research presented in this paper reports an analysis of daylight in three offices with different exposures and characteristics located in Naples (Italy). The goal was to fully investigate daylight characteristics, also considering the circadian impact of daylight entering these offices, with the hope to develop guidelines to better assess daylight quality in built environments. One of the main findings of this research is that the spectral distributions and CCTs of the light reaching the eye of a person seated at the desk in these offices are similar irrespective of the offices' different characteristics (dimensions, surfaces' spectral reflectances, external obstructions, etc.)…
On the impact of safety requirements, energy prices and investment costs in street lighting refurbishment design
2018
Abstract Street lighting is an indispensable feature for the night landscape of cities. It is important for road safety, users visual comfort, crime prevention and to augment the perceived personal safety. Realize and maintain an adequate street lighting service is very expensive for municipalities with significant impact on their budgets. For this reason, special attention should be paid to the design of new street lighting systems and to the refurbishment of existing ones, since many of them are inadequate. In light of this it is very important to implement street lighting designs that fulfil lighting requirements avoiding energy waste and light pollution and, at the same time, result eco…
Methods to Evaluate Lighting Quality in Educational Environments
2015
Abstract The current standard for lighting of indoor work places (EN 12464-1) essentially prescribes values of photometric quantities (illuminance, Unified Glare Index, etc.); therefore it does not allow a comprehensive analysis of the luminous environment. In Italy, educational buildings do not always comply with the standard requirements for lighting. Therefore an analysis of their current state is needed and this paper illustrates two methods, developed by the authors, to carry out this investigation: the former is based on the analysis of luminance maps obtained through the HDR imaging technique whereas the latter focuses on the evaluation of non-visual effects of light.
The effects of vegetation on indoor thermal comfort: the application of a multi-scale simulation methodology on a residential neighborhood renovation…
2017
Abstract Despite the acknowledged positive effects of vegetation at urban, neighborhood and building scales, there are still only limited comprehensive design tools for multi-scale evaluation of the microclimate and thermal benefits of plants and building-integrated vegetation (BIV) systems. The paper describes a case study in the city of Palermo (Italy) that applied simulation methodology to quantitatively assess the microclimate effects of different neighborhood and building retrofit scenarios where vegetation plays a main role. The simulation workflow moves from a micro-urban to a building scale assessment by linking the ENVI-met software to the building energy simulation program EnergyP…
Towards the definition of a sustainable Smart Model for the suburbs redevelopment
2020
Starting from the analysis of the problems that characterize the Italian suburbs, the application of a Smart Methodology to a real peripheral area is presented. In literature, several studies underline the urgent request of the city's periphery, enhancing local and national projects to increase the quality of life in the suburbs. In this framework, authors propose a multifunctional centre development, characterized by modern technologies (both structural and plant) to implement energy efficiency and social aggregation, in line with the citizen's needs. Once the simulation model of alternative solutions, such as construction type, energy system and social services, was elaborated in Matlab/S…
Life cycle energy performances and environmental impacts of a prefabricated building module
2018
Abstract The paper explores the energy performances and environmental impacts of a prefabricated building module located in Messina (Sicily, Italy) through an approach that combines both the non-steady state building simulation and the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The building uses renewable energy technologies and is usable in emergency situations or as simply temporary housing. Results show that the building module causes the emission of 1.5 t of CO2eq/m2 and consumes 29.2 GJ/m2 of primary energy during its life cycle. The building achieves the Net Zero Energy Building target even if it has relevant environmental impacts in the materials production stage (72% on average of the total…
The biomaterial polyphosphate blocks stoichiometric binding of the SARS-CoV-2 S-protein to the cellular ACE2 receptor
2020
The effect of the polyanionic polymer of inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) involved in innate immunity on the binding of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to the cellular ACE2 receptor was studied. The RBD surface comprises a basic amino acid stretch of four arginine residues which interact with the physiological polyP (polyP40) and polyP3. Subsequently, the interaction of RBD with ACE2 is sensitively inhibited. After the chemical modification of arginine, an increased inhibition by polyP, at a 1 : 1 molar ratio (polyP : RBP), is measured already at 0.1 μg mL−1. Heparin was ineffective. The results suggest a potential therapeutic benefit of polyP against SARS-C…
Argumentative reasoning and taxonomic analysis for the identification of medical errors
2015
Telemedicine consists of the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the practice of medicine. The massive digitalisation of the society is changing the behaviour of ordinary people even in medical sectors. The impact of digitisation is also having impacts on teleexpertise, where a medical professional can remotely ask some advices through the use of ICTs to provide treatment to a patient in critical conditions in remote environment. However, sometimes the outcome of such advice obtained remotely can lead to medical errors. In these situations, it is important to determine whether the causes of the errors could have been avoidable or not for the purposes of establishing …
Dependence of O2 diffusion dynamics on pressure and temperature in silica nanoparticles
2013
An experimental study of the molecular O2 diffusion process in high purity non-porous silica nanoparticles having 50 m2/g BET specific surface and 20 nm average radius was carried out in the temperature range from 127 to 177 °C at O2 pressure in the range from 0.2 to 66 bar. The study was performed by measuring the volume average interstitial O2 concentration by a Raman and photoluminescence technique using a 1,064 nm excitation laser to detect the singlet to triplet emission at 1,272 nm of the molecular oxygen in silica. A dependence of the diffusion kinetics on the O2 absolute pressure, in addition to temperature dependence, was found. The kinetics can be fit by the solution of Fick’s dif…
Memory effects and coverage dependence of surface diffusion in a model adsorption system
1999
We study the coverage dependence of surface diffusion coefficients for a strongly interacting adsorption system O/W(110) via Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice-gas model. In particular, we consider the nature and emergence of memory effects as contained in the corresponding correlation factors in tracer and collective diffusion. We show that memory effects can be very pronounced deep inside the ordered phases and in regions close to first and second order phase transition boundaries. Particular attention is paid to the details of the time dependence of memory effects. The memory effect in tracer diffusion is found to decay following a power law after an initial transient period. This beha…