Occupants’ adaptation and design parameters influencing behavioural actions of occupants in naturally ventilated sustainable timber buildings

Existing studies have examined occupants’ adaptation and various parameters affecting thermal comfort of occupants in different buildings. However, there are limited studies that have examined occupants’ adaptation and design parameters in naturally ventilated sustainable buildings, especially structural timber buildings. As a result, this study considers a comparative analysis of occupants’ adaptation and examines various design parameters influencing behavioural actions of occupants in naturally ventilated structural timber buildings. The study evaluates indoor spaces of two dwelling units in each of the two sustainable timber case study buildings located in Western Europe. The research employed analysis of architectural design of the buildings, on-site measurements, and a thermal comfort survey. The parameters measured during the on-site survey include temperature and relative humidity at one hour intervals for twelve days during the summer period. The findings were compared with design parameters such as natural ventilation, size of opening, floor-to-ceiling height, and floor area of the spaces. The results showed more than 85% of the occupants in dwelling units with smaller floor area tend to adapt better to the thermal environment than those living in dwelling units with bigger floor area. It appears that at least 75% of the occupants in spaces with natural cross-ventilation tend to be more thermally satisfied than occupants in spaces with single-sided ventilation. The findings also revealed the risk of summertime overheating tends to be significantly reduced (p<0.05) when spaces have natural cross-ventilation, higher floor-to-ceiling height, and a larger floor area. Finally, the results showed the adaptation of occupants in naturally ventilated buildings and the ability to use control to adjust the thermal environment and reduce the overall annual energy consumption in sustainable buildings. Keywords: architectural design, comparative study, occupants’ adaptation, design parameters, behavioural actions, naturally ventilated sustainable timber building

A Conceptual Framework for a Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) Educative-Communication Approach

Global interest in Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) has grown following forecasts of a compound annual growth rate of 18.7% and a total of 5.4 GW installed worldwide from 2013 to 2019. Although the BIPV technology has been in the public domain for the last three decades, its adoption has been hindered. Existing literature asserts that proper information and education at the proposal or early design stage is an important way of addressing adoption barriers. However, there is a lack of BIPV communication approaches for research, and market proposals that focus on clear information about its benefits. This has limited the adoption of BIPV.. Based on this, the present study aims to develop a conceptual framework for an educative-communication approach for presenting BIPV proposals to encourage its adoption. This is aimed at developing holistic research and market proposals which justify scholarly investigation and financial investment. Using a multiple case study investigation and Design Research Methodology (DRM) principles, the study developed an approach which combines core communication requirements, the pillars of sustainability and a hierarchical description of BIPV alongside its unique advantages. A two-step evaluation strategy involving an online pilot survey and a literature-based checklist, was used to validate the effectiveness of the developed approach. Our results show that understanding environmental and economic benefits was found to be significantly important to people who are likely adopters of BIPV (p < 0.05), making these benefits crucial drivers of adoption. Statistical significance was also found between those who do not know the benefits of using solar energy for electricity, and interest in knowing these benefits (p < 0.05). We thus conclude that proper communication of these benefits can safely be advanced as important facilitators of BIPV adoption. In general, this study elaborates the need and strategies for appropriate dissemination of innovative ideas to encourage and promote adoption of technological advancement for a sustainable global future

Indoor comfort and adaptation in low-income and middle-income residential buildings in a Nigerian city during a dry season

This paper investigates occupants' comfort, adaptation and their responses during the dry season in low-income to middle-income residential buildings in Abuja, Nigeria. The study aims to provide empirical data on occupants' comfort through evaluating 171 households in four different locations in Abuja. The study considered a combination of different research methods for data collection. Post-occupancy surveys were used to evaluate the buildings and residents' adaptation within the thermal environment. Thermal comfort surveys were also carried out in eight low-income residential households to assess occupants' perception of the thermal environment. Based on the short duration of the physical measurements, building simulation was also used to examine thermal comfort of occupants for an extended period. The Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) results revealed over 70% of the occupants were dissatisfied with their thermal environment. The comfort surveys reported similar results with over 65% of the responses revealed being ‘uncomfortably warm’. The results showed an overall mean temperature of all the measured case studies to be 31.7 °C and the average temperature (predicted) of 30.7 °C. The neutral temperatures were in a range of 28°C–30.4 °C compared to the preferred temperature range of 27.5°C–29.4 °C. The prevalence of thermal discomfort highlights the need to explore the possibilities of reducing internal temperatures, particularly by passive means (fabric, shading, insulation etc.) given the need to avoid or reduce the need for air conditioning to make the buildings energy-efficient for low to middle income groups

A phylogenetic classification of the world’s tropical forests

Knowledge about the biogeographic affinities of the world’s tropical forests helps to better understand regional differences in forest structure, diversity, composition and dynamics. Such understanding will enable anticipation of region specific responses to global environmental change. Modern phylogenies, in combination with broad coverage of species inventory data, now allow for global biogeographic analyses that take species evolutionary distance into account. Here we present the first classification of the world’s tropical forests based on their phylogenetic similarity. We identify five principal floristic regions and their floristic relationships: (1) Indo-Pacific, (2) Subtropical, (3) African, (4) American, and (5) Dry forests. Our results do not support the traditional Neo- versus Palaeo-tropical forest division, but instead separate the combined American and African forests from their Indo-Pacific counterparts. We also find indications for the existence of a global dry forest region, with representatives in America, Africa, Madagascar and India. Additionally, a northern hemisphere Subtropical forest region was identified with representatives in Asia and America, providing support for a link between Asian and American northern hemisphere forests

An estimate of the number of tropical tree species

The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher’s alpha and an approximate pantropical stem total to estimate the minimum number of tropical forest tree species to fall between ∼40,000 and ∼53,000, i.e. at the high end of previous estimates. Contrary to common assumption, the Indo-Pacific region was found to be as species-rich as the Neotropics, with both regions having a minimum of ∼19,000–25,000 tree species. Continental Africa is relatively depauperate with a minimum of ∼4,500–6,000 tree species. Very few species are shared among the African, American, and the Indo-Pacific regions. We provide a methodological framework for estimating species richness in trees that may help refine species richness estimates of tree-dependent taxa

Phylogenetic classification of the world's tropical forests

Knowledge about the biogeographic affinities of the world’s tropical forests helps to better understand regional differences in forest structure, diversity, composition, and dynamics. Such understanding will enable anticipation of region-specific responses to global environmental change. Modern phylogenies, in combination with broad coverage of species inventory data, now allow for global biogeographic analyses that take species evolutionary distance into account. Here we present a classification of the world’s tropical forests based on their phylogenetic similarity. We identify five principal floristic regions and their floristic relationships: (i) Indo-Pacific, (ii) Subtropical, (iii) African, (iv) American, and (v) Dry forests. Our results do not support the traditional neo- versus paleotropical forest division but instead separate the combined American and African forests from their Indo-Pacific counterparts. We also find indications for the existence of a global dry forest region, with representatives in America, Africa, Madagascar, and India. Additionally, a northern-hemisphere Subtropical forest region was identified with representatives in Asia and America, providing support for a link between Asian and American northern-hemisphere forests.</p

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030

Occupants’ Perceptions of Comfort, Control, and Adaptation in Colonial Revival Style Residences

This study examines occupants’ perceptions of comfort, control, and adaptation in Colonial Revival style residences in the “Building America Climate” cold region of the United States. The research considered these buildings due to their attractiveness and availability in the study area. The research intends to address the following question—Do occupants’ perceptions of comfort significantly impact their perceptions of control and adaptation within the buildings? This study utilized indoor monitoring of variables in the summer, thermal comfort surveys (110 respondents), walk-throughs, observations, and informal interviews to collect data for analysis. The residents that perceived higher air movement and humidity also use control more often and are more often satisfied with the level of control. The differences between the mean neutral temperatures were within the range of 2.2 °C. On a seven-point scale, the mean thermal sensation votes (TSV) and thermal comfort (TC) were 3.25 and 5.05, respectively. The study revealed higher perceptions of the thermal environment among residents who spent longer hours in the buildings than those that spent fewer hours within the residences. The research implies that while there are limited options for control, the residents who spent longer hours in the buildings perceived themselves to be more comfortable and to be able to adapt better using available adaptive measures than those who spent fewer hours in the residences. The study notes that, as people migrate from one thermal environment to another, their adaptation level may change depending on certain factors, including the adaptive measures available to them. The research recommends the integration of transitional smart devices (such as remotely controlled thermostats, etc.), including control for the residents who spent fewer hours in those buildings

Indoor Comfort, Thermal Indices, and Energy Assessment of Multi-Family Colonial Revival Style Buildings

Colonial Revival style residences have unique architectural features amongst others. They are common multi-family residences in the United States with no or limited information about their performance. The research purpose is to assess indoor comfort, energy performance, and thermal indices in multi-family Colonial Revival style residences. The research questions include (i) Do Colonial Revival style buildings perform better than other old buildings? (ii) Do the buildings consume additional electricity than typical and other old buildings? The research examined four case studies in Hartford County, Connecticut. The investigation explored comfort surveys, monitoring, collection of actual electricity usage, and assessed thermal indices using mathematical models. The average indoor temperature of 25.4 °C and relative humidity (RH) of 61.3% are reported. About 67% of the residents are thermally comfortable. The research noted significance between thermal sensation and other variables, excluding how occupants feel about the air movement. The average number of hours of temperature exceeds 28.0 °C and 30.0 °C marks for over 11.4% and 2.5% of the time, respectively, except in one of the buildings. The mean indoor temperatures are within the applicable bands of the adaptive comfort models. The averages of actual thermal sensation vote (TSV) ranged from 3.32 to 4.37 on a 7-point sensation scale. The mean neutral temperatures varied from 24.2–25.6 °C. The average monthly electricity bill is within the national average for residences in summer, excluding in August. The mean wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 21.1–22.3 °C and summer simmer index (SSI) of 30.1–32.4 °C are calculated as feasible bands for thermal indices in the buildings. The basements are more comfortable than other spaces within the case studies. The research outcomes can be used for future developments of Colonial Revival style and other similar buildings. The study recommends interventions such as retrofit to improve the performance of some existing Colonial Revival style buildings, especially the older ones that are less insulated with outdated equipment and appliances