Occupant Usage and Behavior

The Metro Building is located at 600 NE Grand Ave in Portland, OR. Occupied by Metro, a regional governmental organization, the building houses roughly 400 employees over a total of 120,000 square feet of office space. The objective of our research, in collaboration with YGH architecture and New Buildings Institute, is to provide Metro with a cumulative plan of action to address energy inefficiencies due to occupant behavior, equipment, and furniture arrangement. A user survey was sent to all the Metro employees to understand how they feel about their work environment and to begin to brainstorm ways their environment could be improved. The survey included 15 questions related to temperature, lighting, and personal behavior. Of Metro\u27s 400 employess, 178 of them responded. The data was analyzed and several questions are represented in the two examples below.https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/research_based_design/1061/thumbnail.jp

Portland Metro Building Performance: Optimizing Energy Performance and Occupant Comfort at Portland Metro

The objective of this research is to investigate potential existing building retrofits to improve the work environment for building occupants as well as the overall building energy performance. Beginning with the building skin and moving to the individual cubicle, our team wanted to find a specific architectural solution that would help to reduce the Metro building’s overall energy consumption and help to create a more comfortable work environmenthttps://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/research_based_design/1063/thumbnail.jp

Infiltrating adenocarcinoma arising in a villous adenoma of the anal canal

Primary neoplasms arising in the anal canal are relatively unusual. In particular, adenomas and adenocarcinomas are distinctly rare entities in this region. We describe an infiltrating, well-differentiated adenocarcinoma arising in a villous adenoma from the distal anal canal, in an otherwise healthy patient at low risk for gastrointestinal malignancy. This is the case of an octogenarian man with a several year history of hemorrhoids and intermittent rectal bleeding, more recently complaining of continuous hematochezia. Examination revealed a blood-covered pedunculated mass with a long stalk protruding from the anus. The lesion was amputated at the bedside. Microscopic evaluation revealed an infiltrating well-differentiated adenocarcinoma, arising from a villous adenoma. This was further evaluated under anesthesia and complete excision of distal anal tissue was performed. Our report is the first describing the possible malignant degeneration of a villous adenoma in the anal canal

doi:10.3748/wjg.15.3560 © 2009 The WJG Press and Baishideng. All rights reserved.

CASE REPORT Infiltrating adenocarcinoma arising in a villous adenoma of the anal cana

Computational Fluid Dynamics for Early Stage Architectural Design

This project set out to evaluate the validity and usefulness of CFD within the contemporary Design Practice. Initially attempting to analyze a specifi c design it became clear a more general study was needed. Analyzing natural ventilation is an infi nitely complex process, to determine the level of simplication required for use involved breaking the natural process down and analyzing the pieces seperately and then together. By using this process it become clear how the process can be used by architecture fi rms within their design process.https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/research_based_design/1044/thumbnail.jp

Designing for Ventilation with CFD: Evergreen State College Costantino Recreation Center

The Costantino Recreation Center (CRC) houses the offi ces for all head coaches, athletic training, and recreation and athletics administrative staff. The CRC gymnasium holds three full-size basketball courts and four full-size volleyball courts, and can seat up to 1,500 for events. It was last re-modeled in 1990 to add a gymnasium, multi-purpose exercise room, offi ce space and wellness center, and general recreation use by students, faculty, staff and members of the community.https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/research_based_design/1045/thumbnail.jp

Monitoring pH-Triggered Drug Release from Radioluminescent Nanocapsules with X‑ray Excited Optical Luminescence

One of the greatest challenges in cancer therapy is to develop methods to deliver chemotherapy agents to tumor cells while reducing systemic toxicity to noncancerous cells. A promising approach to localizing drug release is to employ drug-loaded nanoparticles with coatings that release the drugs only in the presence of specific triggers found in the target cells such as pH, enzymes, or light. However, many parameters affect the nanoparticle distribution and drug release rate, and it is difficult to quantify drug release <i>in situ</i>. In this work, we show proof-of-principle for a “smart” radioluminescent nanocapsule with an X-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) spectrum that changes during release of the optically absorbing chemotherapy drug, doxorubicin. XEOL provides an almost background-free luminescent signal for measuring drug release from particles irradiated by a narrow X-ray beam. We study <i>in vitro</i> pH-triggered release rates of doxorubicin from nanocapsules coated with a pH-responsive polyelectrolyte multilayer using HPLC and XEOL spectroscopy. The doxorubicin was loaded to over 5% by weight and released from the capsule with a time constant <i>in vitro</i> of ∼36 days at pH 7.4 and 21 h at pH 5.0, respectively. The Gd₂O₂S:Eu nanocapsules are also paramagnetic at room temperature with similar magnetic susceptibility and similarly good MRI <i>T</i>₂ relaxivities to Gd₂O₃, but the sulfur increases the radioluminescence intensity and shifts the spectrum. Empty nanocapsules did not affect cell viability up to concentrations of at least 250 μg/mL. These empty nanocapsules accumulated in a mouse liver and spleen following tail vein injection and could be observed <i>in vivo</i> using XEOL. The particles are synthesized with a versatile template synthesis technique which allows for control of particle size and shape. The XEOL analysis technique opens the door to noninvasive quantification of drug release as a function of nanoparticle size, shape, surface chemistry, and tissue type