A critical case study of decision criteria in architectural competitions

This paper analyzes a number of design proposals submitted within the framework of a large architectural competition in view of their eco-efficiency. As all new or refurbished buildings in Central Europe need to meet certain minimum energy performance requirements, many architectural competition announcements encourage participating planners to propose low-energy, passive or even plus-energy buildings, and also to take into account the ecological performance of building parts. Especially for public buildings, which are often seen as role models, competition announcements feature many environmental criteria addressing building envelope, HVAC-systems, and eco-impact of materials. It is difficult to compare project submissions (for example in terms of energy performance), as the quality and amount of information for each project varies widely. In most competitions, a professional jury chooses the “best” projects and it is debatable if ecological and energy performances are considered in the process. In this context, this paper presents results of a case study conducted in Austria. The entries of a competition for refurbishment and extension of a school building are analyzed using submitted project narratives as well as simple heating demand calculations. The outcome is subsequently compared with the Jury's final ranking of the submissions. The results can shed some light on the following questions: Do the competition entries provide sufficient information to evaluate their thermal and ecological behavior in general? Did the ecological and thermal performance influence the outcome of the competition and final Jury's ranking of the submitted proposals

Use of calibrated building simulation to investigate comfort conditions in a healthcare facility

Design activity regarding healthcare buildings must not only address the energy efficiency aspects but also account for the indoor thermal comfort conditions. Indeed, the occupants of this category of buildings are affected by different kinds of health issues. Thus, particular efforts are required in order to ensure conditions adequate for therapies and medical treatments. Simulation can be a helpful tool in designing new buildings, particularly in case of complex clinics and hospitals. When analyzing existing facilities, a proper calibration is a necessary step to reduce discrepancies between simulated and measured performance. This improves the reliability of the model itself and allows its use for many purposes, from the assessment of energy performance to the evaluation of indoor thermal comfort, under a broader range of operating conditions and use patterns. In the present contribution, a calibrated model of a healthcare facility in Vienna, Austria, was developed for the assessment of both thermal performance and comfort conditions. The facility, built in the early ‘90s with later expansions, consists of different rooms and spaces in which several therapeutic activities are performed. Long-term measurements of the air temperature were conducted every 10 minutes for the period between March and June 2015 and used for calibrating the model. During the same period, occupants were interviewed concerning their thermal comfort sensations and detailed shortterm measurements were collected to calculate thermal comfort indicators, including Fanger’s Predicted Mean Vote and Predicted Percentages of Dissatisfied. The same indices were also calculated through the calibrated simulation model and compared to experimental results and subjective evaluations. The resulting model is finally used to extrapolate the assessment of thermal comfort conditions beyond the measurement period

Introducing a novel model for simulating large loop excision of the transformation zone (LLETZ) using 3D printing technique

Purpose: Electrosurgery is the gold-standard procedure for the treatment of cervical dysplasia. The quality of the outcome depends on the accuracy of performance, which underlines the role of adequate training of surgeons, especially, as this procedure is often performed by novice surgeons. According to our knowledge, medical simulation has up until now lacked a model, which focuses on realistically simulating the treatment of cervical dysplasia with the concerning anatomy. Methods and result: In our work, we present a model created using 3D printing for holistically simulating diagnostic, as well as surgical interventions of the cervix, as realistically as possible. Conclusion: This novel simulator is compared to an existing model and both are evaluated. By doing so, we aim to provide novice gynecologists with standardized and high-quality simulation models for practicing to improve their proficiency. © 2021, The Author(s)

Evaluating Generative Ad Hoc Information Retrieval

Recent advances in large language models have enabled the development of viable generative information retrieval systems. A generative retrieval system returns a grounded generated text in response to an information need instead of the traditional document ranking. Quantifying the utility of these types of responses is essential for evaluating generative retrieval systems. As the established evaluation methodology for ranking-based ad hoc retrieval may seem unsuitable for generative retrieval, new approaches for reliable, repeatable, and reproducible experimentation are required. In this paper, we survey the relevant information retrieval and natural language processing literature, identify search tasks and system architectures in generative retrieval, develop a corresponding user model, and study its operationalization. This theoretical analysis provides a foundation and new insights for the evaluation of generative ad hoc retrieval systems.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Overview of the 5th International Competition on Plagiarism Detection

Abstract This paper overviews 18 plagiarism detectors that have been evaluated within the fifth international competition on plagiarism detection at PAN 2013. We report on their performances for the two tasks source retrieval and text alignment of external plagiarism detection. Furthermore, we continue last year’s initiative to invite software submissions instead of run submissions, and, re-evaluate this year’s submissions on last year’s evaluation corpora and vice versa, thus demonstrating the benefits of software submissions in terms of reproducibility.Potthast, M.; Hagen, M.; Gollub, T.; Tippmann, M.; Kiesel, J.; Rosso, P.; Stamatatos, E.... (2013). Overview of the 5th International Competition on Plagiarism Detection. CLEF Conference on Multilingual and Multimodal Information Access Evaluation. 301-331. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/46635S30133

High correlation of temporal muscle thickness with lumbar skeletal muscle cross-sectional area in patients with brain metastases.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the correlation of temporal muscle thickness (TMT), measured on routine cranial magnetic resonance (MR) images, with lumbar skeletal muscles obtained on computed tomography (CT) images in brain metastasis patients to establish a new parameter estimating skeletal muscle mass on brain MR images. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the cross-sectional area (CSA) of skeletal muscles at the level of the third lumbar vertebra on computed tomography scans and correlated these values with TMT on MR images of the brain in two independent cohorts of 93 lung cancer and 61 melanoma patients (overall: 154 patients) with brain metastases. RESULTS: Pearson correlation revealed a strong association between mean TMT and CSA in lung cancer and melanoma patients with brain metastases (0.733; p<0.001). The two study cohorts did not differ significantly in patient characteristics, including age (p = 0.661), weight (p = 0.787), and height (p = 0.123). However, TMT and CSA measures differed significantly between male and female patients in both lung cancer and melanoma patients with brain metastases (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that TMT, measured on routine cranial MR images, is a useful surrogate parameter for the estimation of skeletal muscle mass in patients with brain metastases. Thus, TMT may be useful for prognostic assessment, treatment considerations, and stratification or a selection factor for clinical trials in patients with brain metastases. Further studies are needed to assess the association between TMT and clinical frailty parameters, and the usefulness of TMT in patients with primary brain tumors