continuous monitoring

Thermal comfort in the historical urban canyon: the effect of innovative materials

Urban heat island (UHI) can considerably affect the thermal quality of the urban environment, especially within urban canyons, that have typically low sky view factor and limited surface heat re-emission capability. A huge research effort has been registered to develop mitigation solutions for UHI, such as cool materials and greenery. Nevertheless, it is not always possible to apply such strategies in historical urban environments due to constrains for the preservation of their cultural value that do not allow to modify the exterior architectural appearance of heritage buildings.

Microneeedle-based biosensor for minimally-invasive lactate detection

Here we report the first mediated microneedles-based biosensor for minimally invasive continuous sensing of lactate in the dermal interstitial fluid (ISF). To further demonstrate the capability of microneedle arrays as second generation biosensors we have functionalized gold microneedles with nanocarbons at which mediated electron transfer of lactate oxidase takes place.

How subjective and non-physical parameters affect occupants’ environmental comfort perception

Employees’ wellbeing and comfort perception demonstrated to largely influence their productivity and tolerability of slight thermal discomfort conditions in the working spaces. Their whole comfort perception indeed depends on several parameters related to physical boundary conditions but also to the adaptation capability of occupants themselves and other personal, difficult to measure, variables. According to the available standards and regulations, only physical and measurable environmental parameters must be considered to evaluate occupants’ comfort conditions.

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