The European Union (EU) has implemented several policies to enhance energy efficiency. Among these policies is the objective of achieving energy-efficient renovations in at least 3% of EU buildings ...annually. The primary aim of this study was to offer a precise environmental comparison among four similar district-heated multifamily buildings that have undergone identical energy efficiency measures. The key distinguishing factor among them lies in the HVAC systems installed. The chosen systems were as follows: (1) exhaust ventilation with air pressure control; (2) mechanical ventilation with heat recovery; (3) exhaust ventilation with an exhaust air heat pump; and (4) exhaust ventilation with an exhaust air heat pump with a Photovoltaic (PV) panel. This study involved a life cycle assessment that relied on actual material data from the housing company and energy consumption measurements. This study covered a period of 50 years for thorough analysis. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted to account for various future scenarios of energy production. The findings revealed that the building with an exhaust air heat pump exhibited the lowest greenhouse gas emissions and the shortest carbon payback period (GBPT), needing only around 7 years. In contrast, the building with exhaust ventilation without heat recovery showed the highest emissions and the longest carbon payback period (GBPT), requiring approximately 11 years. Notably, the results were significantly influenced by future scenarios of energy production, emphasizing the crucial role of emission factors in determining the environmental performance of distinct renovation scenarios.
Energy efficiency investments have become strategically important for the European Union. In particular, energy efficient renovation and investment in the existing building stock have become major ...challenges. Renovation of a building should involve a holistic and integrated design process, which considers all aspects of sustainability. The aim of this work is to suggest a mathematical model that weighs economic, social and ecological aspects into a measure that supports housing owners/decision makers to find the optimal renovation alternative from their perspective, taking factors such as budget, energy consumption, etc. into consideration. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) concerns structuring and solving multiple-criteria decision problems. MCDM has become popular in energy planning as it enables the decision maker to pay attention to all the criteria available and make the appropriate decision as per the priority of the criteria. In this study, the concept is introduced based on economic, social and ecological aspects assessed during a renovation project. A pedagogical example illustrates the suggested numerical system for comparing different renovation alternatives. The suggested method will facilitate decision-making processes in renovation projects and will allow decision makers to choose the best renovation alternatives that are in line with their business ideas and principles.
Purpose: To retrospectively compare dosimetrically three dimensional field-in-field tangents (3D F-in-F), Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) left ...breast irradiation plans. Materials and Methods: A total of 30 patients were included in this study. All patients diagnosed with early–stage malignant neoplasm of the breast prior to treatment. Patients were contoured with three main PTV-Chest wall (PTVCW), PTV-Axilla (PTVAX), and PTV-IMC (PTVIMC). Monaco treatment planning system was used to create the plans. For each patient, three treatment plans were created; three dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT), intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). The dose coverage of PTVs and the dose constraints of Organ-at-Risks (OARs) were compared and analyzed. Results: The dose objective to cover the PTVs; PTVCW, PTVAX, and PTVIMC were V40.43Gy (95%) ≥ 95%, V38.3Gy (90%) ≥ 95%, and V34.05Gy (80%) ≥ 95% respectively. Comparing the dose coverage of PTVCW between 3D-CRT and VMAT, resulted in a significant difference (P= 0.003) and the VMAT was superior for the coverage of target than 3D-CRT. For PTVAX, the coverage was 45.80±0.55, 45.96±0.73, and 45.58±0.63 for 3D-CRT, IMRT, and VMAT respectively. For PTVIMC, the coverage was 45.80±0.55, 45.96±0.73, and 45.58±0.63 for 3D-CRT, IMRT, and VMAT respectively.
Since the building sector is responsible for 40% of the energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions in the EU, the reduction of energy use has become a priority in this sector. The EU has adopted ...several policies to improve energy efficiency. One of these policies aims to achieve energy efficient renovations in at least 3% of buildings owned and occupied by governments annually. In Sweden, a large part of existing buildings was built between 1965 and 1974, a period commonly referred to as ‘miljonprogrammet’. Stora Tunabyggen AB, the public housing company in Borlänge municipality, begun a renovation project in the Tjärna Ängar neighborhood within the municipality with the greatest share of its buildings stock from this period. The pilot project started in 2015. The aim of this project was to renovate three buildings with similar measures, that is, by adding 150 mm attic insulation, replacing windows with higher performing ones (U-value 1 W/m ²K), by adding 50 mm of insulation to the infill walls and by the installation of flowreducing taps. The essential difference between the three renovation packages is the HVAC systems. The selected HVAC systems are (1) exhaust air heat pump, (2) mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and (3) exhaust ventilation. Life cycle cost analysis was conducted for the three building and sensitivity analysis for different values of discount rate and energy price escalation was performed. The study found that the house with exhaust ventilation has the lowest life cycle cost and the highest energy cost. The house with exhaust air heat pump has 3% higher life cycle cost and 18% lower energy use at 3% discount rate and 3% energy price escalation. The study found that mechanical ventilation with heat recovery is not profitable, although it saves energy. The sensitivity analysis has shown that the possible increment of price energy and lower discount rate give higher value for the future costs in life cycle cost analysis. This lead to the main finding of this thesis, which is that exhaust air heat pump is the best choice for the owner according to the available data and the assessed parameters.
Due to the significant development in the field of machine learning and patterns recognitions, the area of image processing has an important role in this context, especially in the field of ...medical images of various kinds. In this research, we have been developed powerful, simple, cost-effective and more accurate interpretation algorithm for recognition treated teeth In the X-ray images. There are many difficulties in determining the objects such as it is difficult to interpret the radiographic image because there are very subtle differences in X-rays, poor image quality representation and the splitting of all the teeth in the image of radiographic imaging. In this research, comprehensive methodology was proposed that enables the identification of the teeth that have been treated by the optimal features selection. Where the digital image was processed and then extracted statistical features of it using second order statistical and gray level co-occurrence matrix GLCM. Then, the optimal features were chosen, which express the pattern to be recognized, be categorized then to classify the extracted features. The results obtained showed great accuracy in the results obtained, where the features of homogeneity, contrast and correlation were chosen as expressive features of pulp canal therapy with standard deviations, 0.647%, 1.602% and 1.925% respectively, as well as the reconstructed dental crown with standard deviations of the aforementioned features", 1.07%, 2.80% and 0.57%, respectively, because they gave the lowest values of the standard deviation and thus the lowest percentage of error and therefore can be adopted as expressive features of the treated tooth.
Abstract Electrospun drug‐loaded polymers are used to make formulations that slowly release medication. This study creates ciprofloxacin (Cip)‐loaded fiber mats by melt electrospinning using ...polycaprolactone (PCL) and PEG4000 for controlled release of Cip. The increase in Cip concentration and PEG4000 percentages increases the mat thickness resulting in uniform morphology. The tensile strength of the PCL mat is significantly improved by adding higher concentrations of Cip while PEG inclusion reduced the tensile strength significantly. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) curves of PCL and PEG 4000 either as free components of after melt electrospinning are identical and both components shows a single endothermic peak at 63 and 61 °C respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirms the chemical stability of the raw materials, while X‐ray diffraction shows the conversion of PEG and Cip from crystalline to amorphous structure following melt electrospinning. Cip is released gradually over 72 h, and the release is increased in the presence of PEG with a maximum Cip release ≈25% after 72 h. The study provides new insights into the development of controlled release fiber mats loaded with antibacterial agents. This can help to develop formulations for wound dressings that improve the clinical outcomes.
Lipid nanoparticles have gained much attention due to their potential as drug delivery systems. They are safe, effective, and be targeted to particular tissues to deliver their payload. Niosomes are ...one type of lipid nanoparticles that comprise non-ionic surfactants which have proven to be effective due to their stability and biocompatibility. Different manufacturing processes have been reported for niosome preparation, but many of them are not scalable or reproducible for pharmaceutical use. In this study, microfluidic mixing was used to prepare niosomes with different lipid compositions by changing the type of non-ionic surfactant. Niosomes were evaluated for their physicochemical characteristics, morphology, encapsulation efficacy, release profiles of atenolol as a model hydrophilic compound, and cytotoxic activities. Microfluidic mixing allows for particle self-assembly and drug loading in a single step, without the need for post-preparation size reduction. Depending on the lipid composition, the empty particles were <90 nm in size with a uniform distribution. A slight but not significant increase in these values was observed when loading atenolol in most of the prepared formulations. All formulations were spherical and achieved variable levels of atenolol encapsulation. Atenolol release was slow and followed the Korsmeyer-Peppas model regardless of the surfactant type or the percentage of cholesterol used.
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In dairy industry, bovine mastitis is the most prevalent disease, which reduces milk production and causes economic losses. This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of Mycoplasma bovis and ...some bacteria causing mastitis in dairy farms and partial sequencing of 16SrRNA target genes and Quinolones Resistance Determining Regions (QRDRs) (gyrA and parC) in M. bovis isolates. 370 milk samples were obtained from farms located in villages in Fayoum governorate, Egypt. The examined milk samples (8,91%) were positive for the California mastitis test (CMT). Multiplex RT-PCR was used for the recognition of microorganisms causing mastitis (Staphylococcus (S.) aureus, Streptococcus species (spp.), Escherichia (E.) coli, and Mycoplasma (M.) bovis) from mastitic milk. The results revealed that E. coli was the most predominant (84.8%) followed by S. aureus (81.8%) while M. bovis was the lowest one (51.5%). Mixed infection with two or more mastitic bacterial agents was also identified. All 33 examined mastitic milk samples were diagnosed with mixed infection with E. coli, S. aureus, Streptococcus spp. and M. bovis (36.36%), E. coli and S. aureus (21.21%), and rephrase E. coli, M. bovis, and Streptococcus spp. (6.06%). The sequence analysis of M. bovis 16SrRNA genes illustrated a high similarity of examined isolates to strains previously deposited in the GenBank recovered from the same locality. The gyrA amino acids showed no substitution but showed 100% similarity with M. bovis isolates worldwide. However, the amino acid sequence of parC, showed substitution at positions 2 (Gln to Arg) (CAG >>CGT), 75 (Ile to Ser) (ATT>>AGC), and 79 (Asn to Asp) (AAC>>GAT). Sequence results can lead to the creation of appropriate treatment and control measures for M. bovis, while multiplex RT-PCR, can be exploited as a standard diagnostic method for major mastitis pathogens.
Hypercoagulability and hypofibrinolysis are among the symptoms exhibited by diabetic patients. Our study aimed to address the polymorphic nature of Alu DNA fragment in the human tissue plasminogen ...activator gene within diabetes mellitus (DM) Jordanian patients.
Genomic DNA was isolated from 76 DM patients and 60 non-diabetic Jordanian individuals, and the Alu fragment was amplified using PCR.
The results showed that 80% of the non-diabetic Jordanian subjects were homozygotes for the deletion of the Alu fragment (Alu-/-), 16.7% were homozygotes for its insertion (Alu+/+), and 3.3% were heterozygotes (Alu+/-). Besides, 36.8% of the diabetic patients exhibited the Alu-/- or Alu+/- genotype, and 26.3% were Alu+/+. The Alu-/- genotype occurred less frequently in the diabetic individuals.
The high frequency of the Alu-/- genotype constitutes a protective deletion with respect to DM within the normal subjects.
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