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Cities and nations worldwide are pledging to energy and carbon neutral objectives that imply a huge contribution from buildings. High-performance targets, either zero energy or zero carbon, are typically difficult to be reached by single buildings, but groups of properly-managed buildings might reach these ambitious goals. For this purpose we need tools and experiences to model, monitor, manage and optimize buildings and their neighborhood-level systems. The paper describes the activities pursued for the deployment of an advanced energy management system for a multi-carrier energy grid of an existing neighborhood in the area of Milan. The activities included: (i) development of a detailed monitoring plan, (ii) deployment of the monitoring plan, (iii) development of a virtual model of the neighborhood and simulation of the energy performance. Comparisons against early-stage energy monitoring data proved promising and the generation system showed high efficiency (EER equal to 5.84), to be further exploited.

Social housing represents a part of the whole building stock with a high risk of energy poverty, and it should be treated as a priority in renovation strategies, due to its potential for improvement and the need to fight that risk. Renovation actions are currently designed based on patterns that have been shown to be disparate from the reality of social housing. Thereby, a monitoring study is essential for the evaluation of the actual conditions. An in-depth characterization of a social housing neighborhood, located in the North of Portugal, was carried out. Indoor hygrothermal conditions were analyzed through a monitoring campaign. It was possible to identify the differences in indoor conditions of the dwellings and understand the influence of occupancy density and occupants’ behavior. In order to identify the actual occupancy and the type of use, a social survey was performed. A renovation action will soon take place, and a monitoring and survey plan is proposed for the post-renovation period, based on a previous evaluation of the renovation impact, using DesignBuilder software and the real occupancy profiles. In social housing context, since energy consumption for heating and cooling is punctual or non-existent, the focus of low energy renovation should be based on passive strategies that reduce the energy demand. The remaining energy needs should be supplied by renewable energy sources, reducing energy poverty, and enhancing quality of life.

Background and objectives: An Italian nationwide pre-participation screening approach for prevention of sudden cardiac death in athletes (SCD-A) in competitive sportspeople showed promising results but did not achieve international consensus, due to cost-effectiveness and the shortfall of a monitoring plan. From this perspective, we tried to provide an epidemiological update of SCD-A in Italy through a year-long internet-based search. Materials and Methods: One year-long Google search was performed using mandatory and non-mandatory keywords. Data were collected according to prevalent SCD-A definition and matched with sport-related figures from Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) and Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI). Results: Ninety-eight cases of SCD-A in 2019 were identified (48.0% competitive, 52.0% non-competitive athletes). Male/female ratio was 13:1. The most common sports were soccer (33.7%), athletics (15.3%) and fitness (13.3%). A conclusive diagnosis was achieved only in 37 cases (33 of cardiac origin), with the leading diagnosis being coronary artery disease in 27 and a notably higher occurrence among master athletes. Combining these findings with ISTAT and CONI data, the SCD-A incidence rate in the whole Italian sport population was found to be 0.47/100,000 persons per year (1.00/100,000 in the competitive and 0.32/100,000 in the non-competitive population). The relative risk of SCD-A is 3.1 (CI 2.1&ndash, 4.7, p &lt, 0.0001) for competitive compared to non-competitive athletes, 9.9 for male (CI 4.6&ndash, 21.4, 0.0001) with respect to female. Conclusions: We provided an updated incidence rate of SCD-A in both competitive and non-competitive sport in Italy. A higher risk of SCD-A among competitive and male athletes was confirmed, thus corroborating the value of Italian pre-participation screening in this population.

Roads are one of the main causes of loss of biodiversity, with roadkill one of the main causes of mortality. The aim of this research was to identify sites with a high probability of roadkill of medium and large mammals, and the environmental variables that would explain it. We used the favourability function (F) to build the predictive models. There were 57 explanatory variables, and we collected 685 records of 10 species of medium and large native wild mammals from the ECOBIO Uruguay databases. They were grouped into native forest and grassland species, according to the main habitat. Two models were developed, one with all the variables and one with the anthropogenic variables. For both groups, the model obtained with all the variables was the most significant according to the evaluation indices used. This made it possible to identify the hot spots of roadkill (F &gt, 0.6) for each of the groups. The anthropic variables were the ones that best explained these hot spots. This allowed the identification of sites where the probability of roadkill is high and requires a monitoring plan to implement mitigation measures in the future.

The European Commission Water Framework Directive (WFD) was established 16 years ago and forms the current basis for monitoring surface waters and groundwater in Europe. This legislation resulted in a necessary adaptation of the monitoring networks and programs for rivers, lakes, and transitional and coastal waters to the requirements of the WFD at German and European levels. The present study reviews the most important objectives of both the monitoring of surface waters and the principles of the WFD monitoring plan. Furthermore, we look at the changes water monitoring in Germany has undergone over the past sixteen years and we summarize monitoring results from German surfaces waters under the WFD. Comparisons of European approaches for biological assessments, of standards set for physical and chemical factors and of environmental quality standards for pollutants reveal the necessity for further European-wide harmonization. The objective of this harmonization is to improve comparability of the assessment of the ecological status of waters in Europe, and thus also to more coherently activate action programs of measures.