Evaluation of environmental design strategies for university buildings

This paper examines the performance of environmental strategies in seven recently constructed or refurbished university buildings in the UK. These buildings contain a range of administrative spaces, classrooms, libraries and studios, reflecting their often complex, multi-use, heterogeneous nature. The key features of each environmental strategy are described (including passive, mixed-mode or active systems), in the context of the occupants and spaces they serve and the level of interaction that they afford. Energy performance and occupant thermal comfort (assessed by user surveys) are analysed and compared with studies of other non-domestic buildings, which have typically focused on more predictable single administrative uses (e.g. government offices), and unusually effective operation scenarios (e.g. continuous monitoring by expert building managers). The paper concludes by examining two of the case studies that reflect an increasingly common model of ‘flexible’ environmental design in more detail, identifying key features of the strategies for each building that have had a significant impact on their performance. The design assumptions leading to these features will be explored, and key lessons identified, contributing towards the development of a more robust evidential basis for choosing appropriate environmental strategies for university and other non-domestic buildings in the UK

Considering the impact of situation-specific motivations and constraints in the design of naturally ventilated and hybrid buildings

A simple logical model of the interaction between a building and its occupants is presented based on the principle that if free to do so, people will adjust their posture, clothing or available building controls (windows, blinds, doors, fans, and thermostats) with the aim of achieving or restoring comfort and reducing discomfort. These adjustments are related to building design in two ways: first the freedom to adjust depends on the availability and ease-of-use of control options; second the use of controls affects building comfort and energy performance. Hence it is essential that these interactions are considered in the design process. The model captures occupant use of controls in response to thermal stimuli (too warm, too cold etc.) and non-thermal stimuli (e.g. desire for fresh air). The situation-specific motivations and constraints on control use are represented through trigger temperatures at which control actions occur, motivations are included as negative constraints and incorporated into a single constraint value describing the specifics of each situation. The values of constraints are quantified for a range of existing buildings in Europe and Pakistan. The integration of the model within a design flow is proposed and the impact of different levels of constraints demonstrated. It is proposed that to minimise energy use and maximise comfort in naturally ventilated and hybrid buildings the designer should take the following steps: 1. Provide unconstrained low energy adaptive control options where possible, 2. Avoid problems with indoor air quality which provide motivations for excessive ventilation rates, 3. Incorporate situation-specific adaptive behaviour of occupants in design simulations, 4. Analyse the robustness of designs against variations in patterns of use and climate, and 5. Incorporate appropriate comfort standards into the operational building controls (e.g. BEMS)

Quantifying Co-Oligomer Formation by α-Synuclein.

Small oligomers of the protein α-synuclein (αS) are highly cytotoxic species associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). In addition, αS can form co-aggregates with its mutational variants and with other proteins such as amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau, which are implicated in Alzheimer's disease. The processes of self-oligomerization and co-oligomerization of αS are, however, challenging to study quantitatively. Here, we have utilized single-molecule techniques to measure the equilibrium populations of oligomers formed in vitro by mixtures of wild-type αS with its mutational variants and with Aβ40, Aβ42, and a fragment of tau. Using a statistical mechanical model, we find that co-oligomer formation is generally more favorable than self-oligomer formation at equilibrium. Furthermore, self-oligomers more potently disrupt lipid membranes than do co-oligomers. However, this difference is sometimes outweighed by the greater formation propensity of co-oligomers when multiple proteins coexist. Our results suggest that co-oligomer formation may be important in PD and related neurodegenerative diseases.The authors are grateful for financial support provided by Dr Tayyeb Hussain Scholarship and the ERC (669237) (M. Iljina), the Schiff Foundation (A. Dear), Alzheimer’s Research UK and Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship (S. De), a fellowship from Fondazione Caritro, Trento (BANDO 2017 PER PROGETTI DI RICERCA SVOLTI DA GIOVANI RICERCATORI POST-DOC) (L. Tosatto), the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (P. Flagmeier), the Centre for Misfolding Diseases (A. Dear, P. Flagmeier, C. Dobson, T. Knowles), the ERC (669237) and the Royal Society (D. Klenerman). We are grateful to S. Preet for the expression and purification of A90C ɑS. We thank Y. Ye for providing tau k18

The role of clothing in thermal comfort: how people dress in a temperate and humid climate in Brazil

Abstract Thermal insulation from clothing is one of the most important input variables used to predict the thermal comfort of a building's occupants. This paper investigates the clothing pattern in buildings with different configurations located in a temperate and humid climate in Brazil. Occupants of two kinds of buildings (three offices and two university classrooms) assessed their thermal environment through 'right-here-right-now' questionnaires, while at the same time indoor climatic measurements were carried out in situ (air temperature and radiant temperature, air speed and humidity). A total of 5,036 votes from 1,161 occupants were collected. Results suggest that the clothing values adopted by occupants inside buildings were influenced by: 1) climate and seasons of the year; 2) different configurations and indoor thermal conditions; and 3) occupants' age and gender. Significant intergenerational and gender differences were found, which might be explained by differences in metabolic rates and fashion. The results also indicate that there is a great opportunity to exceed the clothing interval of the thermal comfort zones proposed by international standards such as ASHRAE 55 (2013) - 0.5 to 1.0 clo - and thereby save energy from cooling and heating systems, without compromising the occupants' indoor thermal comfort

Predição do índice de conforto térmico em edificíos de escritório na Alemanha

Ladrões internacionais indicam quais são as exigências sobre conforto térmico que devem ser alcançadas em espaços de escritório. Elas se baseiam em um modelo desenvolvido pelo Prof. Paul Ole Fanger, no Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy, na Dinamarca. Hoje, quarenta anos de pesquisa mostram uma evolução desses indicadores. Este trabalho consiste no desenvolvimento de uma ferramenta para avaliar o conforto térmico em espaços de trabalho de edifícios de escritório. A metodologia baseia-se em medições e questionários realizados no local. Para o estudo de campo utiliza-se uma unidade móvel equipada com sensores e um questionário pelos quais se obtêm respostas dos usuários sobre a qualidade térmica do ambiente de trabalho. Levantam-se as condições térmicas de trinta edifícios de escritório na Alemanha com diferentes sistemas de climatização. A correlação entre os dados objetivos e subjetivos permite desenvolver uma fórmula que calcula o nível de insatisfação térmica em um ambiente determinado, em função de aspectos locais. Para os edifícios estudados, a temperatura de conforto é 23,3 ºC e o percentual mínimo de usuários insatisfeitos é de 7%, sendo 2,3 K (Kelvin) menor que o modelo de Fanger, o que é significativo no balanço energético dos edifícios localizados em um clima da Europa central

Reciprocity as a foundation of financial economics

This paper argues that the subsistence of the fundamental theorem of contemporary financial mathematics is the ethical concept ‘reciprocity’. The argument is based on identifying an equivalence between the contemporary, and ostensibly ‘value neutral’, Fundamental Theory of Asset Pricing with theories of mathematical probability that emerged in the seventeenth century in the context of the ethical assessment of commercial contracts in a framework of Aristotelian ethics. This observation, the main claim of the paper, is justified on the basis of results from the Ultimatum Game and is analysed within a framework of Pragmatic philosophy. The analysis leads to the explanatory hypothesis that markets are centres of communicative action with reciprocity as a rule of discourse. The purpose of the paper is to reorientate financial economics to emphasise the objectives of cooperation and social cohesion and to this end, we offer specific policy advice

Indoor environmental quality and occupant satisfaction in green-certified buildings

Green building certification systems aim at improving the design and operation of buildings. However, few detailed studies have investigated whether green rating leads to higher occupant satisfaction with indoor environmental quality (IEQ). This research builds on previous work to address this. Based on the analysis of a subset of the Center for the Built Environment Occupant Indoor Environmental Quality survey database featuring 11,243 responses from 93 LEED-rated office buildings, we explored the relationships between the points earned in the IEQ category and the satisfaction expressed by occupants with the qualities of their indoor environment. We found that the achievement of a specific IEQ credit did not substantively increase satisfaction with the corresponding IEQ factor, while the rating level, and the product and version under which certification had been awarded, did not affect workplace satisfaction. There could be several reasons for this lack of relationships, some of which are outside the control of designers and beyond the scope of rating systems based primarily on design intent. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges and priorities that building professionals, researchers, and green building certification systems need to consider for moving us towards more comfortable, higher performing, and healthier green-rated buildings