Evaluation of different roof types concerning daylight in industrial buildings during the initial design phase: methodology and case study

Used properly, daylight can provide visual comfort, reduce energy consumption and improve health and safety at work. This paper investigates the influence that different roof types, (i.e., sawtooth roof, skylight and monitor), have on daylight levels, along with the construction cost in an industrial environment in Athens, Greece. Construction costs and daylight adequacy/uniformity are antagonistic phenomena, since as the distance between the roof openings increases, the construction cost is minimised, while the daylight levels and the uniformity are reduced. Therefore, an optimisation method is proposed in order to find the optimum distance between the roof openings. The selected building is a representative unit of Greek industrial facilities, while the optimisation method is based upon a multiparametric approach. This consists of three (3) different roof opening arrangement types with different geometric characteristics. The daylight metrics used are the Daylight Area, the Daylight Factor, the Mean Daylight Autonomy, the Uniform Daylight Index and the Annual Sunlight Exposure. Overall, sawtooth roofs represent the best choice for daylight provision in industrial buildings at the examined geographic location. Using the aforementioned optimisation method, the optimum solution of distances between the roof openings ranges from 10 m to 13 m

President vs. Parliament : The Elite Struggel in the Attempt to Privatize Russia

Only abstract. Paper copies of master’s theses are listed in the Helka database (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Electronic copies of master’s theses are either available as open access or only on thesis terminals in the Helsinki University Library.Vain tiivistelmä. Sidottujen gradujen saatavuuden voit tarkistaa Helka-tietokannasta (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Digitaaliset gradut voivat olla luettavissa avoimesti verkossa tai rajoitetusti kirjaston opinnäytekioskeilla.Endast sammandrag. Inbundna avhandlingar kan sökas i Helka-databasen (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Elektroniska kopior av avhandlingar finns antingen öppet på nätet eller endast tillgängliga i bibliotekets avhandlingsterminaler.The aim of this thesis is to look at how the process of privatization of state property, and thus state industry, had an effect in the problematic political symbiosis of the Russian legislature and executive, which ended in October 1993 with the shelling of the Russian White House. In the attempt to understand and analyze the political developments of the late Soviet and nascent Russian state in the period between 1990-1993, the notion of the State is approached as a "melange of social organizations" seeking to control resources and promote their interests. The institutional framework that was set during Mikhail Gorbachev's attempt to reform the USSR, was inherited by Russia, without drafting a new constitution. The lack of a complete and applicable legal framework in the process of privatization that was launched on January 1st 1992 by the govrnment of President Yeltsin allowed some "social organizations" to grasp or retain control of prosperous state companies, in a process named euphemistically "insider privatization". Starting with Pareto's premise that revolutions are mainly a matter of elite change, it is concluded that in Russia, contrary to other transitional cases, the elites of the old regime managed to remain intact in the new political circumstances. Those elite groups that managed to take advantage of the new chances that a new free market environment offered, mainly through their ability to control key assets of the economy during the socialist times, mobilized themselves and contested the role of state power in the reform process. The group of former industrial directors preserved its strong networking from the previous socialist system and managed to achieve the goals it had set, without difficulties: preserve the control of the most important state enterprises and prevent outside investors from obtaining ownership of enterprises. The difficulties Russia faced during its transition were a result of non functioning democratic institutions, preventing effective rule. It was obvious that the problematic co-existence of President and Parliament was a result of the failure of the political elite to introduce a viable consensus and face demanding financial problems

Urban outdoor thermal comfort of the hot-humid region

The study on outdoor comfort is becoming popular due to the fact that the thermoregulatory model is seen as inadequate in explaining outdoor thermal comfort conditions. Hot-humid region can be said as experiencing a critical environmental condition because of its constantly high temperature and humidity throughout the year. Thus, this study focus on the assessment of thermal comfort of outdoor urban spaces in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (3° 9’N and 101° 44’E). Survey on human response towards outdoor thermal comfort in hot-humid climate of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was carried out during day time between 0900h to 1800h along with measurement of environmental parameters such as air temperature (°C), wind velocity (m/s), radiant temperature (°C), relative humidity (%) and solar radiation (lux). A total of 123 samples were involved in this study which took place within four sites around Kuala Lumpur. Survey results were then correlated with the environmental parameters to further develop the comfort zone for hot-humid outdoor environment specifically for Kuala Lumpur and, generally, for hot-humid regions

How to make butter out of guns : the Turkish case and the Greek bitter lesson

Purpose: This paper aims at assessing the links between defence expenditure and the growth of the Greek and Turkish economies. The issue appears to be of particular interest for Greece, given the increased defence priorities of today on the one hand, and the shortage of resources on the other. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using NATO and SIPRI databases we construct a system of behavioural equations for both countries. We estimate the system using GMM to assess the extent to which the development of a domestic defence industrial base (DIB) will contribute to the growth of the economy, the reduction of unemployment via the spin-offs and the import substitution of defence equipment. Findings: The results indicate that unlike the positive impact of the Turkish defence industry on economic growth, the cost imposed on the Greek economy due to the negligible contribution of its defence industry is hard to bear in view of the recent geopolitical developments in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. Practical Implications: Promoting a sound defence industrial base contributes to growth. If the industrial base is considerably defence-oriented, contributes to self-sufficiency, immediate response in cases of emergency and less dependence on foreign suppliers. Originality/Value: Unless Greece proceeds to an import-substitution policy regarding defence procurement, the increased requirements in view of the recent geopolitical developments will impose a prohibitive cost on the economy.peer-reviewe

El paro colombiano 2021: poéticas rebeldes, rituales de perdón y crisis

A partir del paro colombiano (2021), y en diálogo con las experiencias mexicana y griega, en este artículo sostenemos que la violencia, en el contexto actual de crisis de la narrativa neoliberal, se incrementa y ante ella operan varios rituales de perdón con el objetivo de relegitimar la fuerza estatal y reconfigurar la cohesión social mediante la reinscripción de la memoria histórica. Finalmente, analizamos cómo la consigna “Ni perdón, ni olvido”, que de manera reiterada aparece en las rebeldías de estas tres experiencias, se vuelve la respuesta de las luchas contra los procesos estatales que buscan regular los conflictos sociales

Application of RELUX simulation to investigate energy saving potential from daylighting in a new educational building in UK

Daylighting is a renewable energy solution for illumination and visual comfort in buildings. Daylighting performance and its induced energy saving largely depends on various factors, including room geometry, window-to-wall ratio, window transmittance, surface reflectance of construction and surrounding obstructers, artificial lighting array, its daylight-related control strategies and so forth. During the last few decades, lighting simulation tools developed quickly to provide researchers and architects a faster and reliable ways to simulate complex lighting environment. The aim of this paper is to deal with a quantitative analysis of annual energy saving potential from daylighting in a real building using various methods. A case study of a newly constructed educational atrium building, Engineering and Science Learning Centre (ESLC) in the University of Nottingham, UK, is presented. Computational analysis using validated lighting simulation tool RELUX will be conducted to simulate the daylighting performance in the selected rooms. Particularly, an economical measurement of window transmittance and interior surface reflectance will be conducted, and the measured results will be input into the simulation software to increase the accuracy of simulation results. The annual energy saving potential in artificial lighting from daylighting is determined by European Standard EN15193 and also estimated using static climate-based Daylight Factor (DF) method and dynamic climate-based Daylight Coefficient (DC) methods

Preparation and thermal properties of mineral-supported polyethylene glycol as form-stable composite phase change materials (CPCMs) used in asphalt pavements

Tis work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51704040, 51778071, 51608058), the Scientifc Research Project of Hunan Provincial Department of Education for Excellent Young Scholars (16B007), Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Special Environment Road Engineering of Hunan Province (Changsha University of Science & Technology, kf160501), and Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Biohydrometallurgy, Ministry of Education (Central South University, MOEKLB1708)

Daylight adaptive smart indoor lighting control method using artificial neural networks

Accurate and efficient adjustment of maintained illuminance and illuminance uniformity in indoor environments with daylight variations is a tremendous challenge, mainly due to the nonlinear and time-variant nature of lighting control systems. In this paper, we propose a smart lighting control method for indoor environments with both dimmable (controllable) and uncontrollable external light sources. Targeting an indoor environment with multiple zones, each requiring a different lighting condition and equipped with an unequal number of photodetectors and dimmable light sources, this paper presents a novel control mechanism that determines the output flux of each luminary in such a way that each zone (1) receives the required maintained illuminance, (2) illuminance uniformity conditions are met inside each zone, and (3) the power consumption is optimized. This method uses a neural network to learn the impact of each luminary on the maintained illuminance of each zone and adjust the dimming level of the luminaries to establish the required illuminance in the zones. We also rely on photodetectors to measure the daylight illuminance continuously and use it as the bias value for the neural network. The new priority value allows losing some illuminance accuracy (by allowing lager difference between the actual and required maintained illuminance values) for low-priority zones to reduce power consumption. The method has been evaluated in different test cases by chaining the widely-used DIALux tool and some MATLAB toolboxes. The evaluation results show that the method can achieve considerable accuracy by yielding an average Mean Square Error of 1.2 between the demanded and sensed illuminance values. Furthermore, when all sensors except one reference sensor are removed from each zone (to increase user comfort or reduce cost), the mean square error is less than 25.4 across all considered test cases

Occupant productivity and office indoor environment quality : a review of the literature

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature to draw an understanding of the relationship between indoor environmental quality and occupant productivity in an office environment. The study reviews over 300 papers from 67 journals, conference articles and books focusing on indoor environment, occupant comfort, productivity and green buildings. It limits its focus to the physical aspects of an office environment. The literature outlines eight Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) factors that influence occupant productivity in an office environment. It also discusses different physical parameters under each of the IEQ factors. It proposes a conceptual model of different factors affecting occupant productivity. The study also presents a review of the data collection methods utilised by the research studies that aim to investigate the relationship between IEQ and occupant productivity. The study presents a comprehensive discussion and analysis of different IEQ factors that affect occupant productivity. The paper provides a concise starting point for future researchers interested in the area of indoor environmental quality