In this paper, an integrated approach targeting sustainability, safety, and resilience is envisioned for the renovation of the post-World War II RC buildings clustered in urban outskirts. The solution stems as an enhancement of the widespread camouflage practice, which targets energy efficiency and architectural restyling by complementing the building with a technological double skin, self-supported on an independent exoskeleton. Based on this integrated approach, the exoskeleton can be further engineered to also enable structural safety and resilience. Life cycle thinking is addressed to re-conceive traditional structural design approaches, guaranteeing safety, while minimizing costs and environmental impacts over the building life cycle. Accurate selection of materials and dry technologies enables adaptability, reparability and maintenance, and total recyclability/reuse at end-of-life. The intervention is carried out from outside, avoiding relocation of the inhabitants and possible building downtime. The paper introduces a possible framework for engineers, technologists, and architects to design new holistic renovation interventions, for which innovative solution sets are required. Possible structural techniques to be coupled with energy refurbishment are proposed. As a proof of concept, the envisaged holistic renovation strategy is applied to a reference building, and benefits entailed in combining structural safety measures within an integrated intervention are commented.

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The paper investigates the in-plane performance of horizontal precast reinforced concrete (RC) cladding panels, typically adopted in one-storey precast industrial and commercial buildings.Starting from in-field observations of cladding panels failures in recent earthquakes, the seismic performance of typical connections is evaluated by means of experimental tests on full-scale panels under quasi-static cyclic loading. The failure mechanisms highlight the vulnerability of such connections to relative displacements and, therefore, the need to accurately evaluate the connections displacement demand and capacity.An analytical model is developed to describe the force-displacement relationship of the considered connections and compared to the experimental results. In order to determine the seismic vulnerability of such connections and provide design recommendations, linear and nonlinear analyses are conducted taking as reference a precast concrete structure resembling an industrial precast building. The results of the analyses show the importance of a correct estimation of the column's lateral stiffness in the design process and how an improper erection procedure leads to a premature failure of such connections.

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The objective of this paper is to document the extent and impact of income and of intergenerational effects. distribution of child and adult malnutrition in Education of adults in the household and the availability Guatemala; to analyze the relationship between selected of infrastructure are other important determinants of child, maternal, household and community children's growth attainment. Finally, even controlling characteristics and children's nutritional status; and to for income and other household and community outline the implications of the most important findings characteristics, ethnicity remains an important for nutritional policy.determinant of child nutritional status. The study also The prevalence of chronic malnutrition among reveals an increasing prevalence of excess weights and Guatemalan children in 2000 was the highest in Latin obesity among children and adults. Overnutrition tends America and among the highest in the world. The data to be higher among individuals living in urban areas and show very strong socioeconomic and geographic among non-poor and non-indigenous households. inequality. The econometric analysis reveals a strong This paper-a product of the Human Development Sector Unit, Latin America and the Caribbean Region-is part of a larger effort in the region to study poverty and human development processes. Copies of the paper are available free from the

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We use the natural experiment of twins at first birth to estimate the effects of unplanned fertility on the nutritional status and school enrolment of children in Romania, a country with a unique fertility history. A first-birth twins shock has negative impacts on children's human capital investments, particularly for later-born siblings. We infer that harsh pronatalist policies prior to the 1989 Revolution had adverse consequences for the human capital of Romanian children, and that policies to make fertility control easier will have significant positive impacts on children's health and schooling. Copyright 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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