DGNB building certification companion: Sustainability Tool for Assessment, Planning, Learning, and Engaging (STAPLE)

In the construction industry, the popularity of sustainability and its benefits have been on the rise in recent years. Alas, with various building sustainability assessment schemes on the market, there is still no single general method for a comprehensive and inclusive design and building process for sustainable buildings. The literature describes several barriers of entry preventing actors in the industry from seeking sustainability certifications and prioritizing design methods, supporting sustainability in greater numbers. In the newly developed tool, “DGNB building certification companion: Sustainable Tool for Assessment, Planning, Learning, and Engaging (STAPLE)”, a new Excel-based, interactive, and iterative education focused platform is introduced, intended to engage dialog among stakeholders, building owners, and decision makers, and the assigned group team leaders, based on the five DGNB topics. In order to establish common levels of knowledge, terminology, and understanding for proper interdisciplinary discussions, which would result in suitable and timely decisions, personal and professional development is enabled by imbedded educational documents in multiple formats throughout the tool as plain-language, easily digestible summaries of various topics regarding sustainability and the DGNB certification scheme. The identified barriers are described in the tool followed by a solution to overcome them. The tool, tested at multiple stages of development and moulded by many individuals both within and outside of the sustainable building industry, has shown to achieve the primary goals of assessment of individual’s current knowledge, educating through multiple stages and formats, and the inspiring of conversation among team members through a graphical display of opinions. Based on user feedback, the conclusion was that this is a desired product on the market. This new approach is expected to dramatically reduce misunderstandings, conflicts, and mistakes during a sustainable design process, helping the design team plan a project to possibly obtain the highest DGNB score if desired and properly documented

Monitoring of the prompt radio emission from the unusual supernova 2004dj in NGC2403

Supernova 2004dj in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC2403 was detected optically in July 2004. Peaking at a magnitude of 11.2, this is the brightest supernova detected for several years. Here we present Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) observations of this source, made over a four month period, which give a position of R.A. = 07h37m17.044s, Dec =+65deg35'57.84" (J2000.0). We also present a well-sampled 5 GHz light curve covering the period from 5 August to 2 December 2004. With the exception of the unusual and very close SN 1987A, these observations represent the first detailed radio light curve for the prompt emission from a Type II-P supernova.Comment: (1) Jodrell Bank Observatory (2) University of Valencia (3) University of Sheffield 6 pages, 1 figure. To appear in ApJ letter

Decision Support for Redesigning Wastewater Treatment Technologies

This paper offers a methodology for structuring the design space for innovative process engineering technology development. The methodology is exemplified in the evaluation of a wide variety of treatment technologies for source-separated domestic wastewater within the scope of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. It offers a methodology for narrowing down the decision-making field based on a strict interpretation of treatment objectives for undiluted urine and dry feces and macroenvironmental factors (STEEPLED analysis) which influence decision criteria. Such an evaluation identifies promising paths for technology development such as focusing on space-saving processes or the need for more innovation in low-cost, energy-efficient urine treatment methods. Critical macroenvironmental factors, such as housing density, transportation infrastructure, and climate conditions were found to affect technology decisions regarding reactor volume, weight of outputs, energy consumption, atmospheric emissions, investment cost, and net revenue. The analysis also identified a number of qualitative factors that should be carefully weighed when pursuing technology development; such as availability of O&M resources, health and safety goals, and other ethical issues. Use of this methodology allows for coevolution of innovative technology within context constraints; however, for full-scale technology choices in the field, only very mature technologies can be evaluated

A black ring with a rotating 2-sphere

We present a solution of the vacuum Einstein's equations in five dimensions corresponding to a black ring with horizon topology S^1 x S^2 and rotation in the azimuthal direction of the S^2. This solution has a regular horizon up to a conical singularity, which can be placed either inside the ring or at infinity. This singularity arises due to the fact that this black ring is not balanced. In the infinite radius limit we correctly reproduce the Kerr black string, and taking another limit we recover the Myers-Perry black hole with a single angular momentum.Comment: 10 page

q-Deformed de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory Correspondence

Unitary principal series representations of the conformal group appear in the dS/CFT correspondence. These are infinite dimensional irreducible representations, without highest weights. In earlier work of Guijosa and the author it was shown for the case of two-dimensional de Sitter, there was a natural q-deformation of the conformal group, with q a root of unity, where the unitary principal series representations become finite-dimensional cyclic unitary representations. Formulating a version of the dS/CFT correspondence using these representations can lead to a description with a finite-dimensional Hilbert space and unitary evolution. In the present work, we generalize to the case of quantum-deformed three-dimensional de Sitter spacetime and compute the entanglement entropy of a quantum field across the cosmological horizon.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, revtex, (v2 reference added