Post occupancy evaluation (POE) of LEED K-12 schools in the USA

2016 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.$14 billion dollars were spent on school construction, including new buildings, addition to upgrade of the existing buildings. If such staggering amount of money is spent on construction of schools, why not build them in such a way that schools last longer, are more efficient and are less harmful to the environment. In order for that to happen it is necessary that buildings perform in a way they are designed to perform. To help fill the voids between expected and actual performances of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) structures it is necessary to conduct a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE). The main purpose of this research is to promote the awareness of conducting the POE and inclusion of students in the POE. The important research questions for this research are: (a) how many schools conduct a POE? (b) Out of those who conduct, how many include students?: (c) Do these barriers to conduct POE's differ according to type of school district and region?; (d)What are the solutions for making a POE a routine evaluation with respect to the type of school district?. A survey was sent to 750 LEED K-12 schools in the USA, thirty five completed responses were received in a span of three weeks. Five schools (18.5%) out of the 27 schools conducted a POE, only 2 schools included students. It was observed that the barriers were: 'not familiar with how to conduct a POE, 'lack of financial resources,' 'question of ownership of POE,' 'participation,' 'Commitment,' 'low benefit-cost ratio' and 'time needed to complete the POE', were independent of the type of schools and region the school district is located. Solutions namely: 'Changing the attitude of school administrators', 'changing the attitude of construction professionals', and 'changing the attitudes of design professionals' and 'development of best practices for conducting a POE' were independent on the type of school district. This means that these solutions can be used all over the country in order to improve the negative situation of the POE in schools and thus help to improve the current situation of POE' in schools

Nitridonickelates: Preparation, Structure and Properties

Low valent nickel (less than +1) complexes are rare in nature, however they are regularly encountered in nitridonickelate chemistry. Ternary alkaline earth nitridonickelates exhibit a variety of interesting crystal structures with respect to their covalently bonded nitridonickelate anionic framework. The coordination geometry of low valent nickel in these compounds presents a unique structural feature with nickel being in linear coordination by nitrogen atoms. The nitridonickelate frameworks of compounds investigated in this work are: Ba2[Ni3N2]: The first ternary alkaline earth nitridonickelates with 2D Ni-N anionic network. The formal oxidation state of Ni is +0.67. Ba2(Ba6N)[NiN]6: The structure is made of o1D helical Ni-N anionic chains. Also, the structural stability of this compound´s structure type was found to occur over a wide range of substitution of Ba by Ca and Sr; a max. of 70 percent Ba could be successfully replaced by Sr and Ca atoms retaining the same structure type. The formal oxidation state of Ni is +0.83. Ba[NiN] and the solid solution series Ba[CuxNi1-xN]: The structure is made of 1D zig-zag Ni-N chains. The solid-solution series is isostructural to Ba[NiN] at lower content of Cu while, at higher content it resembles Ba[CoN] structure type, however at very high Cu content it again transforms to Ba[NiN] structure type. The formal oxidation state of Ni is +1.0. Sr2[Ni(CN)N]: The structure consists of N-Ni-(CN) dumbbells. The compound is the first example of cyano-nitridonickelate. The formal oxidation state of Ni is 0. The handling of the ternary alkaline earth nitridonickelates in specific and also of the other nitridometalates in general suffers greatly due to their being air and moisture sensitive. This requires synthetic methods suitable for air and moisture sensitive samples and also the respective instrumental setup for the measurement of their physical properties under inert atmosphere. Up to now no comprehensive investigation of the physical properties of the ternary alkaline earth nitridonickelates has been made. In this work an emphasis was given to systematically investigate the physical properties of the ternary alkaline earth nitridonickelates and to understand their structure specific physical properties. The common features of the investigated ternary alkaline earth nitridonickelates are: 1. the low valency of nickel. 2. the linear coordination of Ni and octahedral coordination of N. During this investigation the low valent character of nickel was experimentally confirmed with the help of X-ray absorption spectroscopy and the interpretation of magnetic susceptibility data where the magnetic moments of the nickel atoms were always consistent with that of a low valent nickel species. The results obtained from the magnetic measurements and electrical conductivity shows that the alkaline earth nitridonickelates order antiferromagnetically at low temperatures and show temperature dependent metallic conductivity whereas the cyano-nitridonickelate Sr2[Ni(CN)N] does not order at low temperature, is paramagnetic, and exhibits semiconducting behaviour. This investigation has provided a better understanding of ternary alkaline earth nitridonickelates with respect to the different structure they exhibit and their associated physical properties. This work motivates to extend the investigations of the physical properties of other nitridometalates. These also exhibit different crystal structures with respect to their nitridometalate anionic framework and thus, structure specific physical properties are also to be expected

Prevalence of cardiac autonomic dysfunction in patients with metabolic syndrome: a cross-sectional, observational study

Background: Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a distinguished disorder associated with diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome. The pathogenesis of CAN in patients with metabolic syndrome still remains unclear. This study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of cardiac autonomic dysfunction in patients with metabolic syndrome and to correlate different parameters of metabolic syndrome with cardiac autonomic dysfunction.Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, total 100 consecutive cases meeting the inclusion criteria and attending the Department of Medicine in Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi were enrolled. 50 subjects who satisfied the IDF criteria of metabolic syndrome were taken as cases and remaining 50 subjects (age and gender matched) who did not satisfy the IDF criteria were taken as controls. Comparison of categorical variables was made using chi-square or Fisher’s exact test. P-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: Majority of study population (i.e., 42%) belonged to the age group of 41-50 years. Overall prevalence of cardiac autonomic dysfunction (CAD) was 25%. Prevalence of CAD among cases and controls was 38% and 12%, respectively. Overall distribution of various parameters like waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, HDL-C and serum triglycerides was assessed in all subjects with respect to CAD. Statistically significant association of these parameters was seen with CAD (p-value ≤0.01).Conclusions: In this study, strong association was found between CAD and central obesity, impaired fasting glucose, high blood pressure and dyslipidemia. Thus, the metabolic disorders are good predictors of CAD

Flavour Enhanced Food Recommendation

We propose a mechanism to use the features of flavour to enhance the quality of food recommendations. An empirical method to determine the flavour of food is incorporated into a recommendation engine based on major gustatory nerves. Such a system has advantages of suggesting food items that the user is more likely to enjoy based upon matching with their flavour profile through use of the taste biological domain knowledge. This preliminary intends to spark more robust mechanisms by which flavour of food is taken into consideration as a major feature set into food recommendation systems. Our long term vision is to integrate this with health factors to recommend healthy and tasty food to users to enhance quality of life.Comment: In Proceedings of 5th International Workshop on Multimedia Assisted Dietary Management, Nice, France, October 21, 2019, MADiMa 2019, 6 page

Development of a core descriptor set for parastomal hernia repair

Aim: Parastomal hernia repair is a poorly evidenced area, with uncertainty around the optimum management. There is considerable heterogeneity within the patient cohort, and currently there is no standardization of patient descriptors in the reporting of parastomal hernia repair. The aim of this study was to develop a core descriptor set of key patient characteristics for patients undergoing surgical repair of a parastomal hernia for reporting in all parastomal hernia research. Method: A longlist of descriptors was generated from a review of the existing literature. The longlist was discussed with patients with lived experience of parastomal hernia repair. Colorectal, general and hernia surgeons took part in a three‐round international modified Delphi process using a nine‐point Likert scale to rank the importance of descriptors. Items meeting predetermined thresholds were included in the final set and discussed and ratified at the consensus meeting. Results: Seventy seven respondents completed round one, with 23 (29.8%) completing round three. Eighty six descriptors were rated across the three rounds, with 52 descriptors shortlisted. The consensus meeting ratified a final core descriptor set with 19 descriptors across eight domains: anatomy, contamination, disease, previous treatment, risk factors, symptoms, pathway and other hernia. Conclusion: The core descriptor set reflects characteristics that are important to surgeons when reporting on parastomal hernia repair. The use of this agreed core descriptor set may aid the reporting of future studies

Data Analysis as an Online Tool

The emergence of Data analysis and Internet of Things (IOT) has now established a foundation for representing and storing data from domains ranging from smart devices to smart cities. The data collected using sensor from IOT has been made available to the public and has helped a huge number of consumers of data to utilize such data sets for several applications starting from scientific experimentation and modulation to improving commercial activity forbusinesses.Following this has resulted in the requirement for the developing data analysis tools that ease the use for customers and allocating the most constructive tools for a problemstatement.To this end, we attempt to introduce data analysis tool as a web service, which empowers the consumer to make a simple HTTP request for processing data over the internet. Hence, by developing such tools as a web service, we signify the prospective of such a system to support both the progressive and beginner level of data consumer. Further, this work provides an example of the suggested tool on data available publicly, extracted from the day to day trafficdata.Data analysis has reformed the collection of data from day to day real life activities, hence validating a bunch of new web technologies introduced to as smart objects toappear.These objects can be utilized to improve consumer’s experience when initiating an interaction with a service. Certainly, a fixed example of huge IoT systems with authorization to enormous quantities of budding useful Data for data consumers is smart cities with traffic analysis

Preparation and evaluation of polyherbal facial scrub

The main objective of present study was to prepare a polyherbal scrub incorporated into gel. The use of natural ingredients to fight against acne, wrinkle and also to control secretion of oil is known as natural or herbal cosmetics. Herbal cosmeceuticals usually contain the plant parts which possess antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti aging properties. Herbal cosmetics are the safest product to use routine with no side effects and cosmeceuticals are the product which influences the biological function of skin. In this preparation Green apple , cinnamon, Millet, Sandalwood, Neem , Turmeric and honey is used as active ingredients and incorporated into the gel which is prepared with carbopol of different grades. Other ingredients like propylene glycol, Triethanolamine; methyl parahydroxy benzoate was added along with sodium lauryl sulfate into the gel. The prepared gel was evaluated for various parameters such as appearance, pH, viscosity, Spreadability, washability, irritability and found to be satisfied with all required characterizations. Thus, the developed formulation can be used as an effective scrub for using it to bear a healthy and glowing skin. Keywords:&nbsp;&nbsp; Polyherbal, Antioxidant, Anti Aging, Less Abrasive, Skin Exfoliat

Auditing of Dynamic Big Data Storage on Cloud Using TPA

ABSTRACT Cloud computing has includes many areas like IT companies, business line , al

Clinical Efficacy of ONC201 in H3K27M-Mutant Diffuse Midline Gliomas Is Driven by Disruption of Integrated Metabolic and Epigenetic Pathways

UNLABELLED Patients with H3K27M-mutant diffuse midline glioma (DMG) have no proven effective therapies. ONC201 has recently demonstrated efficacy in these patients, but the mechanism behind this finding remains unknown. We assessed clinical outcomes, tumor sequencing, and tissue/cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) correlate samples from patients treated in two completed multisite clinical studies. Patients treated with ONC201 following initial radiation but prior to recurrence demonstrated a median overall survival of 21.7 months, whereas those treated after recurrence had a median overall survival of 9.3 months. Radiographic response was associated with increased expression of key tricarboxylic acid cycle-related genes in baseline tumor sequencing. ONC201 treatment increased 2-hydroxyglutarate levels in cultured H3K27M-DMG cells and patient CSF samples. This corresponded with increases in repressive H3K27me3 in vitro and in human tumors accompanied by epigenetic downregulation of cell cycle regulation and neuroglial differentiation genes. Overall, ONC201 demonstrates efficacy in H3K27M-DMG by disrupting integrated metabolic and epigenetic pathways and reversing pathognomonic H3K27me3 reduction. SIGNIFICANCE The clinical, radiographic, and molecular analyses included in this study demonstrate the efficacy of ONC201 in H3K27M-mutant DMG and support ONC201 as the first monotherapy to improve outcomes in H3K27M-mutant DMG beyond radiation. Mechanistically, ONC201 disrupts integrated metabolic and epigenetic pathways and reverses pathognomonic H3K27me3 reduction. This article is featured in Selected Articles from This Issue, p. 2293