Different Occupant Modeling Approaches for Building Energy Prediction

AbstractBuilding simulation tools have been developed to represent physical phenomena, but discrepancies between actual and modeled phenomena still persist. Various sources of the gap have been identified such as physical uncertainties, limitations of tools, subjective assumptions, simplification of the model, etc. One source of these discrepancies, which is non-negligible, is the non-static behavior of building occupants. Two approaches have recently emerged for occupant modeling: stochastic approach and agent approach. The two approaches account for what has not been considered in the deterministic approach. Particularly, this paper introduces a new concept, random walk approach. This paper explores three approaches with experimental evidences and literature review. The paper reports that the occupant modeling must be carefully selected based on the characteristics of occupancy pattern

Benign metastasizing leiomyoma of the lung

Benign leiomyomas of the uterus are uncommonly found in association with benign smooth muscle tumors beyond the confines of the uterus. Benign metastasizing leiomyoma (BML) is a rare disease in which the lung is described to be the most afflicted extrauterine organ. We present a brief review of the literature, along with case reports for four patients who were followed up after resection of a pulmonary lesion or after pathological confirmation by biopsy. The clinical course of BML varies from chronic asymptomatic appearance to rapid progression, leading to respiratory failure and death. Our BML patients did not complain of pulmonary symptoms, such as cough, dyspnea, or chest tightness. Pathology revealed benign leiomyomas with no atypia and mitotic activity <5 per 10 high-power field. Immunohistochemical staining was positive for actin and desmin. A standard treatment for BML has not yet been established. Because of the hormone-sensitive characteristics of BML, treatments are based on hormonal manipulation along with either surgical or medical oophorectomy. Benign metastasizing leiomyoma can be observed in postmenopausal women. We observed four patients who did not receive adjuvant hormonal therapy because they were postmenopausal or perimenopausal. All patients are still healthy and show no evidence of recurrence or progression of the disease

베이지안 추정법을 이용한 주택선택의 다항프로빗 모형 분석

We employ a multinomial probit model to understand the housing choice of Koreans, more specifically to understand the decision factors that affect Koreans’ housing decisions. The data used are from surveys conducted in July, 2006, and we use the Gibbs sampling technique in analyzing them. Apparently the housing decision is based on three dimensions–types of housing, size of places, and home ownership. A household may make its decision by simultaneously considering these three dimensions given its income and decision factors. Therefore, it would be ideal to categorize the alternatives based on these three dimensions. Due to the limited data, we treated the home ownership decision as if it were given outside the model or, in other words, as if a household made the decision before taking the type and size into account. From the results, we can see the followings: Firstly, the estimate of the coefficient of the alternative specific variables is negative and significant in all equations. Secondly, a household which decides to purchase housing is more likely to buy AS rather than HS. This is understandable considering Koreans’ inclination toward apartments

베이지안 추정법을 이용한 주택선택의 다항프로빗 모형 분석

We employ a multinomial probit model to understand the housing choice of Koreans, more specifically to understand the decision factors that affect Koreans’ housing decisions. The data used are from surveys conducted in July, 2006, and we use the Gibbs sampling technique in analyzing them. Apparently the housing decision is based on three dimensions–types of housing, size of places, and home ownership. A household may make its decision by simultaneously considering these three dimensions given its income and decision factors. Therefore, it would be ideal to categorize the alternatives based on these three dimensions. Due to the limited data, we treated the home ownership decision as if it were given outside the model or, in other words, as if a household made the decision before taking the type and size into account. From the results, we can see the followings: Firstly, the estimate of the coefficient of the alternative specific variables is negative and significant in all equations. Secondly, a household which decides to purchase housing is more likely to buy AS rather than HS. This is understandable considering Koreans’ inclination toward apartments

MR Imaging of Medullary Streaks in Osteosclerosis: A Case Report

We present a case of medullary sclerosis of the appendicular skeleton in a patient with chronic renal insufficiency for whom MR imaging findings were characteristic. T1- and T2-weighted MR images showed multiple vertical lines (medullary streaks) of low signal intensity in the metaphyses and diaphyses of the distal femur and proximal tibia

Mild Hypothermia Attenuates Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 Induction via Activation of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase-1/2 in a Focal Cerebral Ischemia Model

Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in cerebral vascular endothelium induced by ischemic insult triggers leukocyte infiltration and inflammatory reaction. We investigated the mechanism of hypothermic suppression of ICAM-1 in a model of focal cerebral ischemia. Rats underwent 2 hours of middle cerebral artery occlusion and were kept at 37°C or 33°C during occlusion and rewarmed to normal temperature immediately after reperfusion. Under hypothermic condition, robust activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK1/2) was observed in vascular endothelium of ischemic brain. Hypothermic suppression of ICAM-1 was reversed by ERK1/2 inhibition. Phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in ischemic vessel was attenuated by hypothermia. STAT3 inhibitor suppressed ICAM-1 production induced by stroke. ERK1/2 inhibition enhanced phosphorylation and DNA binding activity of STAT3 in hypothermic condition. In this study, we demonstrated that hypothermic suppression of ICAM-1 induction is mediated by enhanced ERK1/2 activation and subsequent attenuation of STAT3 action

Blood culture contamination in hospitalized pediatric patients: a single institution experience

PurposeBlood culture is the most important tool for detecting bacteremia in children with fever. However, blood culture contamination rates range from 0.6% to 6.0% in adults; rates for young children have been considered higher than these, although data are limited, especially in Korea. This study determined the contamination rate and risk factors in pediatric patients visiting the emergency room (ER) or being admitted to the ward.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective chart review of blood cultures obtained from children who visited Yonsei Severance Hospital, Korea between 2006 and 2010. Positive blood cultures were labeled as true bacteremia or contamination according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Healthcare Safety Network definitions for laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infection, after exclusion of cultures drawn from preexisting central lines only.ResultsAmong 40,542 blood cultures, 610 were positive, of which 479 were contaminations and 131 were true bacteremia (overall contamination rate, 1.18%). The contamination rate in the ER was significantly higher than in the ward (1.32% vs. 0.66%, P6 years, respectively).ConclusionOverall, contamination rates were higher in younger children than in older children, given the difficulty of performing blood sampling in younger children. The contamination rates from the ER were higher than those from the ward, not accounted for only by overcrowding and lack of experience among personnel collecting samples. Further study to investigate other factors affecting contamination should be required

Towards Efficient and Accurate CT Segmentation via Edge-Preserving Probabilistic Downsampling

Downsampling images and labels, often necessitated by limited resources or to expedite network training, leads to the loss of small objects and thin boundaries. This undermines the segmentation network's capacity to interpret images accurately and predict detailed labels, resulting in diminished performance compared to processing at original resolutions. This situation exemplifies the trade-off between efficiency and accuracy, with higher downsampling factors further impairing segmentation outcomes. Preserving information during downsampling is especially critical for medical image segmentation tasks. To tackle this challenge, we introduce a novel method named Edge-preserving Probabilistic Downsampling (EPD). It utilizes class uncertainty within a local window to produce soft labels, with the window size dictating the downsampling factor. This enables a network to produce quality predictions at low resolutions. Beyond preserving edge details more effectively than conventional nearest-neighbor downsampling, employing a similar algorithm for images, it surpasses bilinear interpolation in image downsampling, enhancing overall performance. Our method significantly improved Intersection over Union (IoU) to 2.85%, 8.65%, and 11.89% when downsampling data to 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8, respectively, compared to conventional interpolation methods.Comment: 5 pages (4 figures, 1 table); This work has been submitted to the IEEE Signal Processing Letters. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Growth characteristics and productivity of cold-tolerant “Kowinearly” Italian ryegrass in the northern part of South Korea

The objective of this research is to evaluate differences in growth characteristics and productivity between Kowinearly and Florida 80 Italian ryegrass varieties in regions with severely cold winters. This research was carried out in Suwon (in central South Korea) and Yonchun (in northern South Korea) during the 2002 2006 growing seasons. Kowinearly is a diploid variety with green leaf colour and a semi prostrate growth habit in autumn and a semi-erect one in spring. There were differences among the varieties in terms of cold tolerance, heading date, and forage yield in Yonchun. The winter field survival of Kowinearly was 85%, while that of Florida 80 was 43%. The dry matter yield of Kowinearly in Yonchun was 9,662 kg/ha, which was 31% more than that of Florida 80. In Suwon, the heading date of Kowinearly was May 7, which was 2 days later than that of Florida 80. In Yonchun, Kowinearly’s heading date was May 12, 1 day earlier than that of Florida 80. These results indicate that Kowinearly has good cold tolerance, and that in spring, it starts growth earlier than Florida 80, because of its higher cold tolerance.Keywords: Italian ryegrass, Kowinearly, cold tolerance, new variety, forage cro