The recent pandemic due to SARS-CoV-2 has brought to light the need for strategies to mitigate contagion between human beings. Apart from hygiene measures and social distancing, air ventilation ...highly prevents airborne transmission within enclosed spaces. Among others, educational environments become critical in strategic planning to control the spread of pathogens and viruses amongst the population, mainly in cold conditions. In the event of a virus outbreak – such as COVID or influenza – many school classrooms still lack the means to guarantee secure and healthy environments.
The present review examines school contexts that implement air ventilation strategies to reduce the risk of contagion between students. The analysed articles present past experiences that use either natural or mechanical systems assessed through mathematical models, numerical models, or full-scale experiments. For naturally ventilated classrooms, the studies highlight the importance of the architectural design of educational spaces and propose strategies for aeration control such as CO2-based control and risk-infection control. When it comes to implementing mechanical ventilation in classrooms, different systems with different airflow patterns are assessed based on their ability to remove airborne pathogens considering parameters like the age of air and the generation of airflow streamlines. Moreover, studies report that programmed mechanical ventilation systems can reduce risk-infection during pandemic events.
In addition to providing a systematic picture of scientific studies in the field, the findings of this review can be a valuable reference for school administrators and policymakers to implement the best strategies in their classroom settings towards reducing infection risks.
In line with current sustainability aims, in 2018 the European Commission launched Level(s), as a common framework for assessing the sustainability performance of buildings, unifying the European ...construction sector. In the last decades, several Green Building Rating Systems (GBRSs) have been broadly developed to promote buildings’ sustainability, bringing new challenges and opportunities for building-related participants. Although Level(s) was not conceived as a rating system, the construction sector will have to meet its criteria in the long run. Level(s) testers agree on the necessity to check its combability with local and international standards and methods.
This research aims to evaluate the affinity between five well-known GBRSs, namely, BREEAM, LEED, DGNB, CASBEE, and WELL, and Level(s), through i) the degree of correlation between indicators and macro-objectives; ii) commonalities in using standards and guidelines; and iii) life-cycle coverage.
Results show LEED as the most subjectively related system to Level(s) (81% affinity), while BREEAM and DGNB show greater affinity in regulations and life cycle coverage. Based on the respective adopted approaches, WELL and CASBEE have shown objectively far from fulfilling Level(s) principles.
The research outcomes could be valuable for GBRSs implementation, and for EU Commissioners, within the ongoing upgrading of EU sustainable strategies.
•A description of five well-known GBRSs and a literature review are provided.•The affinity between the criteria of the GBRSs and Level(s) framework is assessed.•The degree of correlation between indicators and macro-objectives is quantified.•GBRSs adopted standards and guidelines are compared to Level(s) recommendations.•The coverage of life-cycle stages by each GBRSs is also evaluated.
Rapid urbanization trends claim long-term urban planning and management strategies towards a more sustainable urban growth. In this context, neighborhoods show as fundamental units in large-scale ...sustainable approaches of socio-economic indicators to be replicated in urban development models. However, the number of evaluated districts is still too low compared to the number of buildings evaluated so far. To lay the potential weaknesses and strengths behind the use of sustainable certification tools at district level, the present study aims to examine all realized neighborhoods aligned with sustainability goals. To this end, a systematic review (SR) on neighborhood case studies that directly or indirectly employed neighborhood sustainable assessment (NSA) tools – in particular, amongst LEED-ND, BREEAM-C, CASBEE-UD, and Green Star- Community, DGNB-NSQ, – or that denied the applicability of NSA tools to develop tailored ones is provided. Case studies found in academic papers and NSA-tool official websites are examined through five research questions (RQs): i) number and level of certifications; ii) geographical and temporal distribution; iii) availability of data related to physical characteristics (i.e., size, density, number of dwellings, etcetera); iv) variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) addressed; v) authors outcomes. Evaluation of these realized case studies testified the practicality of NSA for achieving carbon neutrality target. However, the lack of data consistency and the significance given to the contextual features hindered the replication of the previous experiences and nudged the development of custom-fitted NSA tools. A more flexible framework adaptable to different contextual priorities and integrative of neighborhood projects worldwide is recommended.
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•Realized districts analyzed by five candidate NSA tools are examined.•Case studies are selected from academic papers and official website of NSA tools.•Certification levels, characteristics, and key performance indicators are discussed.•The drivers behind the shortages of NSA tools applications are assessed.•Outcomes recommend more integrative and flexible district-scale frameworks.
The importance of building ventilation in avoiding long-distance airborne transmission has been highlighted with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemics. Among others, school environments, in particular ...classrooms, present criticalities in the implementation of ventilation strategies and their impact on indoor air quality and risk of contagion. In this work, three naturally ventilated school buildings located in northern Italy have undergone monitoring at the end of the heating season. Environmental parameters, such as CO2 concentration and indoor/outdoor air temperature, have been recorded together with the window opening configurations to develop a two-fold analysis: i) the estimation of real air change rates through the transient mass balance equation method, and ii) the individual infection risk via the Wells-Riley equation. A strong statistical correlation has been found between the air change rates and the windows opening configuration by means of a window-to-volume ratio between the total opening area and the volume of the classroom, which has been used to estimate the individual infection risk. Results show that the European Standard recommendation for air renewal could be achieved by a window opening area of at least 1.5 m2, in the most prevailing Italian classrooms. Furthermore, scenarios in which the infector agent is a teacher show higher individual infection risk than those in which the infector is a student. In addition, the outcomes serve school staff as a reference to ensure adequate ventilation in classrooms and keep the risk of infection under control based on the number of the students and the volume of the classroom.
•Bottom-up protocol to rate urban stock energy behaviour before building upgrading.•Geographic Information System ease to store and analyse building-related data.•As built and upgraded energy models ...provide for buildings shortcomings.•The protocol is applied to a Mediterranean climate-dominated Spanish city.•The achieved benefits allow stakeholders in decision-making of buildings upgrading.
Current plans to combat the environmental global impact of the building sector have encouraged research on sustainable actions for increasing the renovation rate of many buildings whose performance is far from meeting current energy standards.
This paper presents a protocol for analysing the existing residential stock towards planning building upgrading actions. A Geographic Information System with building-related data is used to assess the housing stock following a bottom-up approach. The urban study sample is established using several criteria at building level. The potential for improvement of buildings is ascertained using DOE 2.2 energy models which incorporate standard passive strategies to reduce the current primary energy demand and the associated CO2 emissions.
The protocol is applied to the existing public housing developments built in the southern Spanish city of Córdoba, under Mediterranean conditions, during the urban expansion period which spanned 1951–1980.
The extrapolation of results to the urban study sample shows a 25 % reduction in CO2 emissions and a 40 % decrease in annual energy demand. Furthermore, the impact of typology and position on the energy behaviour of a given building is acknowledged.
The benefits achieved aim to help stakeholders in the implementation of energy retrofitting urban plans.
Complications after ankle and hindfoot arthroscopy Blázquez Martín, T; Iglesias Durán, E; San Miguel Campos, M
Revista española de cirugía ortopédica y traumatología,
2016 Nov - Dec, Letnik:
60, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
To evaluate the percentage of complications associated with ankle and hindfoot arthroscopy in our hospital and to compare the results with those reported in the literature.
A retrospective ...descriptive review was conducted on the complications associated with ankle and hindfoot arthroscopy performed between May 2008 and April 2013. A total of 257 arthroscopy were performed, 23% on subtalar joint, and 77% of ankle joint. An anterior approach was used in 69%, with 26% by a posterior approach, and the remaining 5% by combined access.
A total of 31 complications (12.06%) were found. The most common complication was neurological damage (14 cases), with the most affected nerve being the superficial peroneal nerve (8 cases). Persistent drainage through the portals was found in 10 cases, with 4 cases of infection, and 3 cases of complex regional pain syndrome type 1.
There have been substantial advances in arthroscopy of ankle and hindfoot in recent years, expanding its indications, and also the potential risk of complications. The complication rate (12.06%) found in this study is consistent with that described in the literature (0-17%), with neurological injury being the most common complication.
Ankle and hindfoot arthroscopy is a safe procedure. It is important to make a careful preoperative planning, to use a meticulous technique, and to perform an appropriate post-operative care, in order to decrease the complication rates.
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