Enabling sustainable user interaction with domestic heating controls

Copyright @ 2011 University of BathThe way we live greatly effects the carbon emissions of our homes; heating accounts for nearly 60% of domestic energy consumption in the UK. This consumption is directly influenced by occupants through the use of their control systems. Using realworld data from buildings and observational data from users this research proposes guidelines for the design of more inclusive domestic heating controls. Two usercentred studies have been completed to date; one using controls under lab conditions and the other in a low-carbon housing development. In both studies controls were found to exclude users due to the cognitive demands placed on them, therefore creating an unnecessary barrier to reducing heat energy consumption in the home. The design principles proposed aim to help designers consider user needs when designing the interfaces of heating controls and energy management systems. By designing more inclusive and usable controls considerable energy savings could be made in the domestic context.This work is funded by the EPSRC and Buro Happold

An investigation into usability and exclusivity issues of digital programmable thermostats

This is the pre-print version of the Article - Copyright @ 2011 Taylor & FrancisWith nearly 60% of domestic energy consumption relating to space heating, the interaction between users and their heating controls is crucial in reducing consumption. Yet, many heating controls are complex and exclude people due to the demands placed upon their capabilities in terms of vision, reach, dexterity and thinking. This study explores the scale of and reasons for user exclusion in relation to digital programmable thermostats. The Exclusion Calculator was used to estimate the percentage of the population excluded from the use of three products. Full user testing was then conducted to elicit specific usability problems of the devices. The participants were a group of 14 younger users (aged 24–44) and 10 older users (aged 62–75). The exclusion calculations underestimated the actual exclusion significantly for both age ranges (p<0.05). None of the older users were able to complete the programming of the thermostats. Additionally, the cognitive demands of these systems were considered using a subjective workload assessment method, based on the NASA Task Load Index, and were found to be excessive. In conclusion, this study makes recommendations to facilitate the design of more inclusive digital programmable thermostats. It is argued that such changes could result in reductions in domestic heat energy consumption.This work is funded by the ESPRC and Buro Happold

Genus zero modular operad and absolute Galois group

In this article, we develop the geometry of canonical stratifications of the spaces $\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$ and prepare ground for studying the action of the Galois group $Gal (\overline{\mathbb{Q}} /\mathbb{Q})$ upon strata. We define and introduce a version of a gravity operad constructed for a class of moduli spaces $\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$, equipped with a hidden holomorphic involution. This additional symmetry is associated to a split quaternionic structure. We introduce a categorical framework to present this object. Interaction between the geometry, physics and the arithmetics are discussed. An important feature is that 0-divisors of the split quaternion algebra imply additional singular points, and lead to investigations concerning the geometry and mixed Hodge structures

Symmetries of genus zero modular operad

In this article combining survey and certain research results, we introduce a categorical framework for description of symmetries of genus zero modular operad. This description merges the techniques of recent "persistence homology" studies and the classical formalism of groupoids. We show that the contravariant "poset in groupoids" embodying these symmetries, provides a new avatar of profinite Grothendieck-Teichm\"uller group acting upon this operad but seemingly not related with representations of the Galois group of all algebraic numbers

Dessins for modular operad and Grothendieck-Teichmuller Group

A part of Grothendieck's program for studying the Galois group $G_{\mathbb Q}$ of the field of all algebraic numbers $\overline{\mathbb Q}$ emerged from his insight that one should lift its action upon $\overline{\mathbb Q}$ to the action of $G_{\mathbb Q}$ upon the (appropriately defined) profinite completion of $\pi_1({\mathbb P}^1 \setminus \{0,1, \infty\})$. The latter admits a good combinatorial encoding via finite graphs "dessins d'enfant". This part was actively developing during the last decades, starting with foundational works of A. Belyi, V. Drinfeld and Y. Ihara. Our brief note concerns another part of Grothendieck program, in which its geometric environment is extended to moduli spaces of algebraic curves, more specifically, stable curves of genus zero with marked/labelled points. Our main goal is to show that dual graphs of such curves may play the role of "modular dessins" in an appropriate operadic context