Cultural heritage constitutive materials can provide excellent substrates for microbial colonization, highly influenced by thermo-hygrometric parameters. In cultural heritage-related environments, a detrimental microbial load may be present both on manufacts surface and in the aerosol. In this study, bacterial and fungal colonisation has been investigated in three Sicilian confined environments (archive, cave and hypogea), each with peculiar structures and different thermo-hygrometric parameters. Particular attention has been paid to microorganisms able to induce artifacts biodeterioration and to release biological particles in the aerosol (spores, cellular debrides, toxins and allergens) potentially dangerous for the human health (visitors/users). Results provided information on the composition of the biological consortia, highlighting also the symbiotic relationships between micro (cyanobacteria, bacteria and fungi) and macro-organisms (plants, bryophyte and insects). The results of this integrated approach, including molecular biology techniques, are essential for a complete understanding of both microbial colonization of the cultural objects and the potential relationship with illness to human.

This paper presents empirical evidence on the distributional impact of public higher education through analysis of a cross-sectional view of West Germany in 1997. In contrast to a widely-held hypothesis in economics, our findings do not show evidence for a regressive impact. The use of a net-transfer calculation clearly provides a progressive distributional effect of the benefits from subsidization -at least when viewed in the cross-sectional perspective. The decisive factors are (1) the general social stratification within and among the adjusted income deciles and (2) the incidence of the granted benefits. Complementary to the existing widespread literature in this field, we propose the BCa-bootstrap procedure in order to perform statistical inference.

No abstract

Income tax reform, Tax exemptions,

Building shape is of prime importance with regard to the acoustic aspects of achieving adequate indoor environmental quality. This paper presents experimental results obtained in a measurement programme carried out at CSTB, using reduced-scale models. The objectives were to identify the architectural forms of façades' best for noise mitigation, and to address the influence of façade architecture on indoor acoustic quality. Many façade typologies have been assessed in different situations involving combinations of structural and architectural elements, such as balustrades, balconies, loggias, etc. A systematic simulation of real configurations (buildings in front of one another, stacked or contiguous rooms, L or U buildings, etc.) contributes to developing our knowledge of sound propagation and insulation effects for improvement of urban dwellings.