Design Studio of the Future

New communication media enable new design technologies. To investigate the mutual influence of a new medium like Virtual Reality (VR) and architectural design technologies, a laboratory called ‘the design studio of the future’ is established. In due time a design system will be developed offering different design technologies in an integrated environment. Interfaces within VR will support various approaches to the design problem. A large research program (Virtual Reality - Distributed Interactive Systems) is carried out to provide state-of-the-art tools for designers to experiment and to give feed back on the results

An Ontology Web Language Notation of the Industry Foundation Classes

In this paper we describe and discuss an OWL notation of IFCs, its advantages over generic XML schema representation, its various fields of possible application, and our implementation of it in a multi-agent framework

Analysis of Built Environment Influence on Pedestrian route choice behavior in Dutch Design Week using GPS Data

Visitors not only have specific destinations targeting the Dutch Design Week (DDW) exhibitions distributed all over the city, but also visit the city in between exhibition activities. The mixed environment makes modeling behavior of DDW visitors more complex than shoppers and tourisms only. This research pays special attention to the influence of built environment on pedestrian route choice. The built environment includes building and transportation infrastructure. GPS tracking data and social demographic information were collected during the event. Multinomial logit model and path size logit model are used to analysis route choice behavior. The results show that some built environment factors have significant influence on route choice. Shops are more attractive for aged visitors. Females prefer shorter routes more. In big event, the alternative routes with more sharing links could increase the possibility to choose

Virtual Reality Design Information System : distributed interactive simulation

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Dynamic nitrogen deposition thresholds during forest stand development in a Douglas fir forest analysed with two nitrogen models SMART2 and MERLIN

In contrast to the classical critical load (CL) concept, based on long-term steady-state conditions, a dynamic deposition threshold (DDT) is introduced. This DDT takes into account all relevant dynamic aspects of vegetation development/forest growth, mineralisation, immobilisation and denitrification, depending on the successional stage of the forest. DDT values for nitrogen were determined for a Douglas fir rotation by two process-based nitrogen models SMART2 and MERLIN using three different criteria for critical nitrogen leaching. During most of the rotation time, the predicted DDT values were higher than the corresponding traditional CL. SMART2 and MERLIN predicted a maximum DDT of 4.9 and 4.6 kmol N per ha per year (69 and 64 kg N per ha per year, respectively), when accepting a critical N leaching level of 1.73 kmol N per ha per year related to impacts on ground water quality. This is due mainly to relatively high tree uptake during the first 50 years of a forest rotation, compared to a long-term estim

Treatment of imported severe malaria with artesunate instead of quinine--more evidence needed?

Rapid and fast acting anti-malarials are essential to treat severe malaria. Quinine has been the only option for parenteral therapy until recently. While current evidence shows that intravenous artesunate is more effective than quinine in treating severe malaria in endemic countries, some questions remain regarding safety profiles and drug resistance. For imported severe malaria, additional unanswered questions are related to generalizability of the findings from endemic countries and to legal aspects, as there is no Good Manufacturing Practice-conform drug available yet. Here, the implications of existing evidence for the treatment of imported severe malaria are discussed