Resilient cooling strategies – A critical review and qualitative assessment

The global effects of climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heatwaves and power outages, which have consequences for buildings and their cooling systems. Buildings and their cooling systems should be designed and operated to be resilient under such events to protect occupants from potentially dangerous indoor thermal conditions. This study performed a critical review on the state-of-the-art of cooling strategies, with special attention to their performance under heatwaves and power outages. We proposed a definition of resilient cooling and described four criteria for resilience—absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, restorative capacity, and recovery speed —and used them to qualitatively evaluate the resilience of each strategy. The literature review and qualitative analyses show that to attain resilient cooling, the four resilience criteria should be considered in the design phase of a building or during the planning of retrofits. The building and relevant cooling system characteristics should be considered simultaneously to withstand extreme events. A combination of strategies with different resilience capacities, such as a passive envelope strategy coupled with a low-energy space-cooling solution, may be needed to obtain resilient cooling. Finally, a further direction for a quantitative assessment approach has been pointed out

Female Audit Partners and Extended Audit Reporting: UK Evidence

This study investigates whether audit partner gender is associated with the extent of auditor disclosure and the communication style regarding risks of material misstatements that are classified as key audit matters (KAMs). Using a sample of UK firms during the 2013–2017 period, our results suggest that female audit partners are more likely than male audit partners to disclose more KAMs with more details after controlling for both client and audit firm attributes. Furthermore, female audit partners are found to use a less optimistic tone and provide less readable audit reports, compared to their male counterparts, suggesting that behavioural variances between female and male audit partners may have significant implications on their writing style. Therefore, this study offers new insights on the role of audit partner gender in extended audit reporting. Our findings have important implications for audit firms, investors, policymakers and governments in relation to the development, implementation and enforcement of gender diversity

The financial viability of the fitness industry in Belgium

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether the fitness industry in Belgium is financially viable in its position as a growing commercial player within the framework of the European sport model where non-profit and public sport providers still have a strong impact. Design/methodology/approach – The authors evaluate the financial performance of the Belgian fitness industry using a time-trend analysis applying a cross-sectional research design for the years 2002 through 2007. Findings – The analysis shows that the Belgian fitness industry is not able to generate positive income figures despite large increases in sales revenues. In particular fitness chains generally accumulate losses. However, the Belgian fitness industry pursues an active investment policy resulting in high noncash expenses in depreciations negatively influencing accounting profit numbers. The operating cash flow generated by the Belgian fitness industry is, nevertheless, largely positive. Although no immediate liquidity problem exists, the fitness industry needs to improve its profitability in the long run in order to stay in business. Research limitations/implications – This study can be a starting point for further and more in depth financial performance evaluations of commercial actors in the field of sport. Differences and similarities between European countries should be investigated in order to generalize the findings. Practical implications – The conclusions could support regulators in policy decisions and business managers in strategic decisions relying on financial information in order to pilot their organization. Originality/value – Analyzing the financial performance of a sport industry at a national scale is challenging. However, this kind of analysis is not frequently performed for commercial sport providers such as the fitness industry. This is precisely where this paper wants to contribute

Effects of different cooling principles on thermal sensation and physiological responses

Applying low exergy cooling concepts in the built environment allows reduction of use of high quality energy sources. Non-uniform thermal conditions, which may occur due to application of lowex systems, can result in discomfort. Two different cooling principles were studied: passive (through convection in terms of increased air velocities) and active cooling (through convection or radiation). Furthermore, two different ventilation techniques were included: mixing and displacement ventilation. Ten male subjects (age: 20–29) were exposed to six different cases: (1) PC-C-M; passive cooling through mixing ventilation, (2) AC-C-M; active cooling through convection by mixing ventilation, (3) AC-C-D; active cooling through convection by displacement ventilation, (4) AC-R-M-C; active cooling through radiation by the ceiling and mixing ventilation, (5) AC-R-M-F; active cooling through radiation by the floor and mixing ventilation, and (6) AC-R-D-F; active cooling through radiation by the floor and displacement ventilation. Though all cases were designed at PMV˜0, subjective data indicate significant differences between the cases. For the prediction of thermal sensation and thermal comfort under non-uniform conditions, the operative temperature only is not sufficient. Combined local factors play an important role in the comfort assessment. Furthermore, non-uniform environments, as case 6, can achieve a comparable or even a more comfortable assessment compared to uniform environments