Case Studies of Environmental Visualization

The performance gap between simulation and reality has been identified as a major challenge to achieving sustainability in the Built Environment. While Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) surveys are an integral part of better understanding building performance, and thus addressing this issue, the importance of POE remains relatively unacknowledged within the wider Built Environment community. A possible reason that has been highlighted is that POE survey data is not easily understood and utilizable by non-expert stakeholders, including designers. A potential method by which to address this is the visualization method, which has well established benefits for communication of big datasets. This paper presents two case studies where EnViz (short for “Environmental Visualization”), a prototype software application developed for research purposes, was utilized and its effectiveness tested via a range of analysis tasks. The results are discussed and compared with those of previous work that utilized variations of the methods presented here. The paper concludes by presenting the lessons drawn from the five-year period of EnViz, emphasizing the potential of environmental visualization for decision support in environmental design and engineering for the built environment, and suggests directions for future development

Synthesis of Polyfunctional Pyridines via Copper-Catalyzed Oxidative Coupling Reactions

An efficient and concise approach for the synthesis of polysubstituted pyridines has been achieved through copper-catalyzed oxidative sp³ C–H coupling of oxime acetates with toluene derivatives. Besides, benzylamine and <i>p</i>-toluenesulfonylhydrazone were also introduced to react with oxime acetates to enrich the diversity of this synthetic method. These transformations provide highly flexible and facile preparation of substituted pyridines and thus are useful in practical synthesis

Mussel-Inspired Chemical Modification of Cotton Fabrics for Oil/Water Separation

A hydrophobic and lipophilic cotton fabric based on mussel-inspired chemistry was developed to improve surface durability. The surface morphology and wettability of the modified fabrics were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis, and contact angle measurement. The water contact angle and surface wettability analysis showed that the modified cotton fabric had a water contact angle of 154.9°, and the modified cotton fabric could be driven by gravity to separate the mixture of oil and water and had good separation efficiency for different types of oil and water mixtures, which was equal to or greater than 97% on average. In addition, the oil/water separation flux could be controlled by adjusting the pore size of the modified fabric

OMS-2/H₂O₂/Dimethyl Carbonate: An Environmentally-Friendly Heterogeneous Catalytic System for the Oxidative Synthesis of Benzoxazoles at Room Temperature

A manganese octahedral molecular sieve (OMS-2) was found to be an efficient and recyclable heterogeneous catalyst for the oxidative synthesis of benzoxazoles in the gram-scale from phenolic imines at room temperature. H₂O₂ and biobased reagent dimethyl carbonate (DMC) were successfully employed as the environmentally friendly oxidant and solvent, respectively, in an OMS-2-catalysted redox reaction for the first time. Benzoxazoles could also be obtained from N-substituted 2-aminophenols via Cu­(OH)_<i>x</i>/OMS-2-catalyzed sequential oxidative transformation at elevated temperatures

Patient characteristics.

<p>AAD  = antiarrhythmic drugs; AF = atrial fibrillation; LAD  =  left atrial dimension; LVED  =  left ventricular end diastolic dimension; LVEF  =  left ventricular ejection fraction.</p

Freedom from recurrence after AF ablation.

<p>CI = confidence interval.</p

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical ablation.

<p>(A) Right thoracoscopic view of the bipolar clamp in place on the left atrial antrum, medial to the right PV. (B) Left thoracoscopic view of the bipolar clamp in place on the left atrial antrum, medial to the left PV. (C) The left atrial appendage is excised by stapling it with a stapler.</p

Cardiac procedures and peri-operative clinical characteristics.

a<p>Inotrope score = [doses of dopamine+dobutamine (in μg·kg^–1·min^–1)]+[doses of epinephrine+norepinephrine+isoproterenol (in μg·kg^–1·min^–1)]×100+[dose of milrinone (in μg·kg^–1·min^–1)]×15. Inotrope score quantifies the amount of inotropic agents infused when hemodynamic support was applied^7,8.</p><p>AV, aortic valve; CABG, coronary artery bypass grafting; CPB, cardiopulmonary bypass; ICU, intensive care unit; MV, mitral valve; RF, radiofrequency; TV, tricuspid valve.</p

Blood pressure (A), cardiac index (B), and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (C) changes curves in patients successful weaning from VA-ECMO and died on VA-ECMO.

<p>Blood pressure (A), cardiac index (B), and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (C) changes curves in patients successful weaning from VA-ECMO and died on VA-ECMO.</p

Patient demographic data and preoperative clinical status with respect to hospital outcomes.

<p>AF, atrial fibrillation; LVEF, left ventricular ejection fraction; NYHA, New York Heart Association functional class.</p