HBIM: Low-cost sensors and environmental data in heritage buildings - A guide for practitioners and professionals

This guide is intended to introduce the heritage conservation professional to the use of low cost sensors to capture environmental data in occupied heritage buildings, for the purposes of enhancing the heritage preservation practice with the capability for real-time monitoring and analysis of the buildings state.The first part of this document is an introduction to the applications of sensors and data capture in buildings, followed by a more detailed discussion of the particular variables to be captured and the technology available. The second part is a guide to choosing equipment, deployment, and using the captured data, with recommendations for best practice

A guide for monitoring the effects of climate change on heritage building materials and elements

This report is concerned with advanced tools and methods for monitoring the effects of climate change in buildings. It addresses the expected changes, the effects on the fabric of a heritage building, and the mechanisms of deterioration. This will be addressed only using the data and measurements that is being collected as part of the HBIM process.This report was produced as a part of a Newton Fund-sponsored research project 'Heritage Building Information Modelling and Smart Heritage Buildings Performance Measurements for Sustainability

A comparison of data collection methods for spatial analysis

This report looks at three methods for capturing the geometry of buildings and their elements to be used in the generation of energy models of those buildings. A heritage building in Salford, UK, is used as a case study, receiving each data collection method. Energy models developed based upon data collected for this building is analysed for variations in geometry and predictions of energy performance

Outcomes of treatment of severe COVID-19 pneumonia with tocilizumab: a report of two cases from Tunisia

The SARS CoV-2 pandemic is a global health threat with high morbidity and mortality (1 to 4%) rates. COVID-19 is correlated with important immune disorders, including a “cytokine storm”. A new therapeutic approach using the immunomodulatory drug, Anti-IL6 (tocilizimub), has been proposed to regulate it. We report here the first Tunisian experience using tocilizimub in two severe cases of COVID-19 pneumonia. The diagnosis was confirmed by chest scan tomography. Biological parameters showed a high level of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) that increased significantly during hospitalization. The patients developed hypoxia, so they received intravenously 8 mg/kg body weight tocilizumab. There was a resultant decrease in the level of IL6, with clinically good evolution. Blocking the cytokine IL-6 axis is a promising therapy for patients developing COVID-19 pathology

The global burden of trichiasis in 2016.

BACKGROUND: Trichiasis is present when one or more eyelashes touches the eye. Uncorrected, it can cause blindness. Accurate estimates of numbers affected, and their geographical distribution, help guide resource allocation. METHODS: We obtained district-level trichiasis prevalence estimates in adults for 44 endemic and previously-endemic countries. We used (1) the most recent data for a district, if more than one estimate was available; (2) age- and sex-standardized corrections of historic estimates, where raw data were available; (3) historic estimates adjusted using a mean adjustment factor for districts where raw data were unavailable; and (4) expert assessment of available data for districts for which no prevalence estimates were available. FINDINGS: Internally age- and sex-standardized data represented 1,355 districts and contributed 662 thousand cases (95% confidence interval [CI] 324 thousand-1.1 million) to the global total. Age- and sex-standardized district-level prevalence estimates differed from raw estimates by a mean factor of 0.45 (range 0.03-2.28). Previously non- stratified estimates for 398 districts, adjusted by ×0.45, contributed a further 411 thousand cases (95% CI 283-557 thousand). Eight countries retained previous estimates, contributing 848 thousand cases (95% CI 225 thousand-1.7 million). New expert assessments in 14 countries contributed 862 thousand cases (95% CI 228 thousand-1.7 million). The global trichiasis burden in 2016 was 2.8 million cases (95% CI 1.1-5.2 million). INTERPRETATION: The 2016 estimate is lower than previous estimates, probably due to more and better data; scale-up of trichiasis management services; and reductions in incidence due to lower active trachoma prevalence

Pacifica: Poetry International: Revolutions in Tunisian Poetry

A collection of contemporary poetry from Tunisia, including poems in translation with their French and Arabic original texts

Monitoring Behavior-Based Mobile Robots

In behavioral control approaches to the architecture of robotic control systems both local sensed and remembered information is used to govern the behavior of the robot and promptly react to unexpected events. Such approaches are successful with environments that are partially known and dynamically changing environments. Nevertheless it is a local heuristic approach and there is no guarantee that the overall behavior will progress toward the given goal. In our work, we describe a formal framework for the execution monitoring of behavior-based mobile robots. This will provide behavior-based robots with a feed-back system that for example will inform the behavior selection or planning module of failures. The latter will change the selected strategies to attain the given goal

Experimental Investigation of the Breakdown Voltage of CO2, N2, and SF6 Gases, and CO2–SF6 and N2–SF6 Mixtures under Different Voltage Waveforms

This paper is devoted to a comparison study of the breakdown voltage of CO2, N2, and SF6 gases, and CO2–SF6 and N2–SF6 mixtures under different voltage waveforms, namely AC, DC, and lightning impulse voltages, in point–plane and sphere–sphere electrode arrangements. The influence of pressure, voltage polarity, and percentage of SF6 in CO2 and N2 were studied, and equivalencies between the breakdown voltage of SF6 and those of the considered mixtures were analyzed. It is shown that the breakdown voltage of SF6 is the highest, whatever the applied voltage waveforms. Similarly, for a given voltage waveform, the breakdown voltage of SF6 is the highest. The AC breakdown voltage is the lowest for all gases. The addition of small amounts of SF6 to CO2 and N2 significantly improved the breakdown voltages of both natural gases. For a given breakdown voltage, the ratio between the pressure of CO2 to that of SF6 was generally lower than the pressure of N2 to SF6, whatever the voltage waveforms

Linear models for total coverage problem with connectivity constraints using multiple unmanned aerial vehicles

International audienceThe use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has recently increased both in civilian and military operations, and the planning of their routes is critical. This research investigates a routing problem in which a UAV network, equipped with sensors, covers a given area and maintains connectivity with its neighbouring UAVs and the base station, while respecting to the UAVs lifetime. To cover the area, two integer linear programming models are formulated to solve two problems optimally. In the first one, covering means that all positions should be visited. However, in the second one, covering means that every position should be covered at least by one UAV. Due to the limited communication radius of the UAVs, connectivity then has to find inter-UAVs routing paths to satisfy the communication between UAVs and the base. We verify by experiments that the models, using Cplex, can provide an optimal solution of different area dimensions