213 research outputs found

    Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low-Energy Residential Buildings: Current challenges, selected case studies and innovative solutions covering indoor air quality, ventilation design and control in residences. International Energy Agency Report, Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme, IEA EBC Annex 68

    Get PDF
    The objective of Subtask 4 in the IEA EBC Annec 68 was to integrate knowledge and results from remaining Subtasks and present them in the context with current knowledge. The focus of the Subtask 4 was on practitioners dealing with ensuring high Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in modern low-energy residences, the demands and challenges they meet during daily work. This especially includes architects and ventilation designers, facility managers, property developers and employees of public authorities. This publication is a result if Subtask 4’s work. It brings a collection of 24 “case studies” related to IAQ design and control in Low-Energy Residential Buildings. By a “case study” we mean a real life construction project, laboratory investigation or a simulation study that provides innovative approach. The case studies were selected to give the practitioners new insigts, inspiration and motivation to go along new paths leading to sustainable and comfortable homes of the future. The report is organized into three main chapters: “Ways to design residential ventilation in the future” and “Towards better performance and user satisfaction”. The descriptions of case studies are accompanied by “lessons learned” sections aiming directly at practical utilization of results as well as recommended future reading section providing the most important references

    Sensory substitution information informs locomotor adjustments when walking through apertures

    Get PDF
    The study assessed the ability of the central nervous system (CNS) to use echoic information from sensory substitution devices (SSDs) to rotate the shoulders and safely pass through apertures of different width. Ten visually normal participants performed this task with full vision, or blindfolded using an SSD to obtain information regarding the width of an aperture created by two parallel panels. Two SSDs were tested. Participants passed through apertures of +0%, +18%, +35%, and +70% of measured body width. Kinematic indices recorded movement time, shoulder rotation, average walking velocity across the trial, peak walking velocities before crossing, after crossing and throughout a whole trial. Analyses showed participants used SSD information to regulate shoulder rotation, with greater rotation associated with narrower apertures. Rotations made using an SSD were greater compared to vision, movement times were longer, average walking velocity lower and peak velocities before crossing, after crossing and throughout the whole trial were smaller, suggesting greater caution. Collisions sometimes occurred using an SSD but not using vision, indicating that substituted information did not always result in accurate shoulder rotation judgements. No differences were found between the two SSDs. The data suggest that spatial information, provided by sensory substitution, allows the relative position of aperture panels to be internally represented, enabling the CNS to modify shoulder rotation according to aperture width. Increased buffer space indicated by greater rotations (up to approximately 35% for apertures of +18% of body width), suggests that spatial representations are not as accurate as offered by full vision

    A monograph of Aspergillus section Candidi

    Get PDF
    Aspergillus section Candidi encompasses white- or yellow-sporulating species mostly isolated from indoor and cave environments, food, feed, clinical material, soil and dung. Their identification is non-trivial due to largely uniform morphology. This study aims to re-evaluate the species boundaries in the section Candidi and present an overview of all existing species along with information on their ecology. For the analyses, we assembled a set of 113 strains with diverse origin. For the molecular analyses, we used DNA sequences of three house-keeping genes (benA, CaM and RPB2) and employed species delimitation methods based on a multispecies coalescent model. Classical phylogenetic methods and genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition (GCPSR) approaches were used for comparison. Phenotypic studies involved comparisons of macromorphology on four cultivation media, seven micromorphological characters and growth at temperatures ranging from 10 to 45 °C. Based on the integrative approach comprising four criteria (phylogenetic and phenotypic), all currently accepted species gained support, while two new species are proposed (A. magnus and A. tenebricus). In addition, we proposed the new name A. neotritici to replace an invalidly described A. tritici. The revised section Candidi now encompasses nine species, some of which manifest a high level of intraspecific genetic and/or phenotypic variability (e.g., A. subalbidus and A. campestris) while others are more uniform (e.g., A. candidus or A. pragensis). The growth rates on different media and at different temperatures, colony colours, production of soluble pigments, stipe dimensions and vesicle diameters contributed the most to the phenotypic species differentiation.Czech Ministry of Health, the Charles University Research Centre program no. 204069, Czech Academy of Sciences Long-term Research Development Project, the project of Charles University Grant Agency, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research in Japan, the Grant-in-aid for JSPS research fellow and the Future Leaders - African Independent Research fellowship programme.https://www.journals.elsevier.com/studies-in-mycologyam2023BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant Patholog
    • 

    corecore