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| 2. |
- Frischknecht, R., et al.
(författare)
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Comparison of the environmental assessment of an identical office building with national methods
- 2019
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Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - : IOP Publishing. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; , s. 012037-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The IEA EBC Annex 72 focuses on the assessment of the primary energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts of buildings during production, construction, use (including repair and replacement) and end of life (dismantling), i.e. during the entire life cycle of buildings. In one of its activities, reference buildings (size, materialisation, operational energy demand, etc.) were defined on which the existing national assessment methods are applied using national (if available) databases and (national/regional) approaches. The "be2226" office building in Lustenau, Austria was selected as one of the reference buildings. TU Graz established a BIM model and quantified the amount of building elements as well as construction materials required and the operational energy demand. The building assessment was carried out using the same material and energy demand but applying the LCA approach used in the different countries represented by the participating Annex experts. The results of these assessments are compared in view of identifying major discrepancies. Preliminary findings show that the greenhouse gas emissions per kg of building material differ up to a factor of two and more. Major differences in the building assessments are observed in the transports to the construction site (imports) and the construction activities as well as in the greenhouse gas emissions of the operational energy demand (electricity). The experts document their practical difficulties and how they overcame them. The results of this activity are used to better target harmonisation efforts.
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| 3. |
- Frischknecht, R., et al.
(författare)
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Comparison of the greenhouse gas emissions of a high-rise residential building assessed with different national LCA approaches - IEA EBC Annex 72
- 2020
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Ingår i: IOP Conference Series. - : IOP Publishing. ; , s. 022029-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: The international research project IEA EBC Annex 72 investigates the life cycle related environmental impacts caused by buildings. The project aims inter alia to harmonise LCA approaches on buildings. Methods: To identify major commonalities and discrepancies among national LCA approaches, reference buildings were defined to present and compare the national approaches. A residential high-rise building located in Tianjin, China, was selected as one of the reference buildings. The main construction elements are reinforced concrete shear walls, beams and floor slabs. The building has an energy reference area of 4566 m2 and an operational heating energy demand of 250 MJ/m2a. An expert team provided information on the quantities of building materials and elements required for the construction, established a BIM model and quantified the operational energy demand. Results: The greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts of the building were quantified using 17 country-specific national assessment methods and LCA databases. Comparisons of the results are shown on the level of building elements as well as the complete life cycle of the building. Conclusions: The results of these assessments show that the main differences lie in the LCA background data used, the scope of the assessment and the reference study period applied. Despite the variability in the greenhouse gas emissions determined with the 17 national methods, the individual results are relevant in the respective national context of the method, data, tool and benchmark used. It is important that environmental benchmarks correspond to the particular LCA approach and database of a country in which the benchmark is applied. Furthermore, the results imply to include building technologies as their contribution to the overall environmental impacts is not negligible. Grant support: The authors thank the IEA for its organizational support and the funding organizations in the participating countries for their financial support.
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| 4. |
- Brantsæter, A. L., et al.
(författare)
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Diet matters, particularly in pregnancy – Results from MoBa studies of maternal diet and pregnancy outcomes
- 2014
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Ingår i: Norsk Epidemiologi. - 0803-2491. ; 24:1-2, s. 63-77
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Awareness that maternal diet may influence the outcome of pregnancy as well as the long-term health of mother and child has increased in recent years. A new food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was developed and validated specifically for the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). The MoBa FFQ is a semi-quantitative tool which covers the average intake of food, beverages and dietary supplements during the first 4 to 5 months of pregnancy. It includes questions about intakes of 255 foods and dishes and was used from 2002 onwards. Data assessed by the MoBa FFQ is available for 87,700 pregnancies. Numerous sub-studies have examined associations between dietary factors and health outcomes in MoBa. The aim of this paper is to summarize the results from 19 studies of maternal diet and pregnancy outcomes, which is the complete collection of studies based on the MoBa FFQ and published before September 2014. The overall research question is whether maternal diet – from single substances to dietary patterns – matters for pregnancy outcome. The pregnancy outcomes studied till now include birth size measures, infants being small and large for gestational age, pregnancy duration, preterm delivery, preeclampsia, as well as maternal gestational weight gain and postpartum weight retention. As a whole, the results from these studies corroborate that the current dietary recommendations to pregnant women are sound and that maternal diet during pregnancy is likely to contribute to reduce the risk of pregnancy complications including preterm birth, preeclampsia, and reduced foetal growth. The results provide supporting evidence for recommending pregnant women to consume vegetables, fruit, whole grain, fish, dairy, and water regularly and lower the intake of sugar sweetened beverages, processed meat products and salty snacks. The results showing negative impact of even low levels of environmental contaminants support the precautionary advice on consumption of foods containing these. New findings are that particularly lean fish explained the positive association between seafood intake and foetal growth, and the indications of a protective effect of probiotic and antimicrobial foods on pregnancy outcomes. This points to the importance of diet composition for a healthy gut flora and the body’s immune response. Although these studies are observational and cannot infer causality, the results identify diet as an important modifiable lifestyle factor, suggesting that healthy eating, defined as following the official recommendations, is particularly important in pregnancy.
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| 6. |
- Amundadottir, Laufey T., et al.
(författare)
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A common variant associated with prostate cancer in European and African populations
- 2006
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Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - DeCODE Genet, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland. Univ Iceland, Landspitali Hosp, Dept Pathol, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland. Univ Iceland, Landspitali Hosp, Dept Urol, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland. Univ Michigan, Dept Human Genet, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA. Orebro Univ Hosp, Dept Urol & Clin Med, Orebro, Sweden. Karolinska Inst, Dept Med Epidemiol & Biostat, SE-17177 Stockholm, Sweden. Univ Michigan, Dept Urol, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA. Northwestern Univ, Feinberg Sch Med, Dept Urol, Chicago, IL 60611 USA. Washington Univ, Sch Med, Dept Psychiat, St Louis, MO 63110 USA. Univ Chicago, Dept Human Genet, Chicago, IL 60637 USA. Univ Michigan, Dept Internal Med, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA. : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 38:6, s. 652-658
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With the increasing incidence of prostate cancer, identifying common genetic variants that confer risk of the disease is important. Here we report such a variant on chromosome 8q24, a region initially identified through a study of Icelandic families. Allele -8 of the microsatellite DG8S737 was associated with prostate cancer in three case-control series of European ancestry from Iceland, Sweden and the US. The estimated odds ratio (OR) of the allele is 1.62 (P = 2.7 x 10(-11)). About 19% of affected men and 13% of the general population carry at least one copy, yielding a population attributable risk (PAR) of approximately 8%. The association was also replicated in an African American case-control group with a similar OR, in which 41% of affected individuals and 30% of the population are carriers. This leads to a greater estimated PAR (16%) that may contribute to higher incidence of prostate cancer in African American men than in men of European ancestry.
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| 9. |
- Brantsaeter, A. L., et al.
(författare)
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Maternal intake of seafood and supplementary long chain n-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids and preterm delivery
- 2017
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Ingår i: Bmc Pregnancy and Childbirth. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2393. ; 17:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Preterm delivery increases the risk of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Studies suggest that maternal diet may affect the prevalence of preterm delivery. The aim of this study was to assess whether maternal intakes of seafood and marine long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCn-3PUFA) from supplements were associated with preterm delivery. Methods: The study population included 67,007 women from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Maternal food and supplement intakes were assessed by a validated self-reported food frequency questionnaire in mid-pregnancy. Information about gestational duration was obtained from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. We used Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations between total seafood, lean fish, fatty fish, and LCn-3PUFA intakes and preterm delivery. Preterm was defined as any onset of delivery before gestational week 37, and as spontaneous or iatrogenic deliveries and as preterm delivery at early, moderate, and late preterm gestations. Results: Lean fish constituted 56%, fatty fish 34% and shellfish 10% of seafood intake. Any intake of seafood above no/rare intake (> 5 g/d) was associated with lower prevalence of preterm delivery. Adjusted HRs were 0.76 (CI: 0.66, 0.88) for 1-2 servings/week (20-40 g/d), 0.72 (CI: 0.62, 0.83) for 2-3 servings/week (40-60 g/d), and 0.72 (CI: 0.61, 0. 85) for >= 3 servings/week (>60 g/d), p-trend <0.001. The association was seen for lean fish (p-trend: 0.005) but not for fatty fish (p-trend: 0.411). The intake of supplementary LCn-3PUFA was associated only with lower prevalence of early preterm delivery (before 32 gestational weeks), while increasing intake of LCn-3PUFA from food was associated with lower prevalence of overall preterm delivery (p-trend: 0.002). Any seafood intake above no/rare was associated with lower prevalence of both spontaneous and iatrogenic preterm delivery, and with lower prevalence of late preterm delivery. Conclusions: Any intake of seafood above no/rare consumption was associated with lower prevalence of preterm delivery. The association was stronger for lean than for fatty fish. Intake of supplementary LCn-3PUFA was associated only with early preterm delivery. The findings corroborate the current advice to include fish and seafood as part of a balanced diet during pregnancy.
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| 10. |
- di Bari, R., et al.
(författare)
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Buildings LCA and digitalization: Designers' toolbox based on a survey
- 2022
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Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - : IOP Publishing. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 1078:1
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In a context of digitalization and increasing quality requirements, the building sector is facing an increasing level of complexity regarding its design process. This results in a growing number of involved actors from different domains, a multitude of tasks to be completed and a higher degree of needed expertise. New buildings are also required to reach higher performances in terms of environmental quality. To that regard, the exploitation of the full potential of digital tools can facilitate the integration of environmental aspects in the planning process, limit productivity shortcomings and reduce environmental impacts, which can result from an unaware decision making. Building environmental assessment can be performed through several Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based tools. “Pure calculation” tools quantify final buildings' environmental potential, while “complex tools” additionally support decision making during the planning process. It is often difficult to choose the best suitable tool, which strongly depends on the user's needs. Within the IEA EBC Annex 72, a survey was realized with the main objective of creating a comprehensive overview of the existing tools dedicated to buildings LCA. The questionnaire included the usability, functionality, compliance, data reliability and interoperability of the analysed tools. Lastly, based on the survey outcomes and their critical assessment, a procedure for the identification and selection of a tool has been proposed based on user's needs. As a result, this work outlines main features of currently available building LCA tools, for which there is a harmonized status in terms of usability and overall applied LCA methodology. Despite the need for more automatized workflows, tools' embedding is mostly not yet applicable in system chains or limited to a restricted number of tools.
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