Research Paper: Room-scale profiles of space use and electricity consumption in non-domestic buildings

Understanding activities within premises can contribute to a fuller understanding of energy use within buildings and the building stock. Analysis of detailed surveys of over 300 non-domestic premises has produced empirical room-scale space-use profiles for 16 premises types. Electricity consumption and internal gains resulting from the operation of electrical appliances have been characterized for 295 combinations of internal space use and premises activity type. For each combination, the outputs include the energy-use intensity (kWh/m/year) profiles for: overall appliance consumption; 14 end uses of appliances (e.g. lighting, catering, computing); and 18 groups of appliance activity descriptions (e.g. sales, office work, process). These profiles of characteristics were created for application in an urban-scale energy-use model, based upon premises floor space recorded in property taxation data, without the need for detailed energy surveys of premises. Appliance electricity consumption and internal gains are revealed at a finer spatial resolution than previous methods, indicating the diversity of energy-use characteristics in greater detail than for entire homogenized premises or premises types. This method may be used for evaluating the current electricity consumption and consequent carbon emissions from the non-domestic building stock (or parts thereof) and for estimating the effects of potential interventions

Three-Dimensional High-Resolution Urban Thermal & Mechanical Large Eddy Simulation Interactive Physics Between Buildings, Land Cover And Trees

This paper describes the development of a 3D model of the non-domestic building stock of England and Wales. The model’s purpose is to assess energy use in the stock, and study conservation options. Previous stock models have used data on floor area by activities, and have not represented building geometry. The present model by contrast combines digital maps and property taxation data to build a 3D representation in which separate premises are located within buildings, with floor areas on each level. Sub-activities per floor are also represented in 2D. A case study of the London Borough of Camden is presented

3DStock: A new kind of three-dimensional model of the building stock of England and Wales, for use in energy analysis

This article describes the development of a new three-dimensional model of the British building stock, called ‘3DStock’. The model differs from other 3D urban and stock models, in that it represents explicitly and in detail the spatial relationships between ‘premises’ and ‘buildings’. It also represents the pattern of activities on different floors within buildings. The geometrical/geographical structure of the model is assembled automatically from two existing national data sets. Additional data from other sources including figures for electricity and gas consumption are then attached. Some sample results are given for energy use intensities. The first purpose of the model is in the analysis of energy use in the building stock. With actual energy data for very large numbers of premises, it is possible to take a completely new type of statistical approach, in which consumption can be related to a range of characteristics including activity, built form, construction and materials. Models have been built to date of the London Borough of Camden and the cities of Leicester, Tamworth and Swindon. Work is in progress to extend the modelling to other parts of Britain. Because of the coverage of the data, this will be limited however to England and Wales

Prevalence and clinical characteristics of left ventricular dysfunction among elderly patients in general practice setting: cross sectional survey

Objective: To assess the prevalence and clinical characteristics of left ventricular dysfunction among elderly patients in the general practice setting by echocardiographic assessment of ventricular function. Design: Cross sectional survey. Setting: Four centre general practice in Poole, Dorset. Subjects: 817 elderly patients aged 70-84 years. Main outcomes: Echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular systolic function including measurement of ejection fraction by biplane summation method where possible, clinical symptoms, and signs of left ventricular dysfunction. Results: The overall prevalence of left ventricular systolic dysfunction was 7.5% (95% confidence interval 5.8% to 9.5%); mild dysfunction (5.0%) was considerably more prevalent than moderate (1.6%) or severe dysfunction (0.7%). Measurement of ejection fraction was possible in 82% of patients (n=667): in patients categorised as having mild, moderate, or severe dysfunction, the mean ejection fraction was 48% (SD 12.0), 38% (8.1), and 26% (7.9) respectively. At all ages the prevalence was much higher in men than in women (odds ratio 5.1, 95% confidence interval 2.6 to 10.1). No clinical symptom or sign was both sensitive and specific. In around half the patients with ventricular dysfunction (52%, 32/61) heart failure had not been previously diagnosed. Conclusions: Unrecognised left ventricular dysfunction is a common problem in elderly patients in the general practice setting. Appropriate treatment with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors has the potential to reduce hospitalisation and mortality in these patients, but diagnosis should not be based on clinical history and examination alone. Screening is feasible in general practice, but it should not be implemented until the optimum method of identifying left ventricular dysfunction is clarified, and the cost effectiveness of screening has been shown

The desire for new humanisms

This paper articulates our desire for new humanisms in a contemporary cultural, economic and global context that has been described as posthuman. As researchers committed to modes of radical, critical, politicised and inclusive education, we are mindful of the significance of social theory and its relationship with articulations of social justice. Whilst sympathetic to the potentiality of posthuman thought we grapple with the imperative to embrace new humanisms that historicise and recognise global inequalities that concurrently exist in relation to a myriad of human categories including class, age, geopolitical location, gender, sexuality, race and disability. We focus in on the latter two categories and draw on ideas from postcolonial and critical disability studies. Our argument considers the problem of humanism (as a product of colonial Western imaginaries), the critical responses offered by posthuman thinking and then seeks to rearticulate forms of new humanism that are responsive to the posthuman condition and, crucially, the political interventions of Postcolonial and Critical Disability Scholars. We then outline six new humanist projects that could productively feed into the work of the Journal of Disability Studies in Education

Energy use intensities in London houses

This research compares domestic metered energy data, for both gas and electricity consumption, against characteristics drawn from a building stock model of Greater London, UK. The energy analyses are limited to houses (single-building, single household) with one standard electricity meter and one mains gas meter as the principal subset. This provides a sample of almost 1.2 million, or 75%, of London’s stock of houses. Energy use was normalised by calculated floor area, providing an energy use intensity (EUI; kWh/m2/yr), which allows properties of all sizes to be compared. Examination of EUIs of each built form versus Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) current energy efficiency (Asset Rating value) indicates weak, or very weak, correlation between the two, particularly for electricity

Waste heat recovery from urban electrical cable tunnels

Electrical power distribution within cities is most often distributed through underground cables located just below the road surface. Due to steadily increasing electricity demands, many power suppliers are making large investments in housing these cables in underground tunnels. These urban cable tunnels often extend to many kilometres in length. Through the electrical loading of the cables a significant amount of heat is generated. Often this heat has to be removed through ventilation in order to avoid overheating the cables and to provide safe conditions for access. As opposed to rejecting the heat to the atmosphere, this low grade energy could potentially be recovered, upgraded if necessary, and distributed to nearby heat users above ground. This paper discusses possible heat recovery methods applicable for urban electricity distribution networks, i.e. transformers and cable tunnels. It also presents results from a modelling-based preliminary feasibility study which used cable tunnels in London as a case study

Interleukin-4 induction of the CC chemokine TARC (CCL17) in murine macrophages is mediated by multiple STAT6 sites in the TARC gene promoter

BACKGROUND: Macrophages (Mθ) play a central role in the innate immune response and in the pathology of chronic inflammatory diseases. Macrophages treated with Th2-type cytokines such as Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and Interleukin-13 (IL-13) exhibit an altered phenotype and such alternatively activated macrophages are important in the pathology of diseases characterised by allergic inflammation including asthma and atopic dermatitis. The CC chemokine Thymus and Activation-Regulated Chemokine (TARC/CCL17) and its murine homologue (mTARC/ABCD-2) bind to the chemokine receptor CCR4, and direct T-cell and macrophage recruitment into areas of allergic inflammation. Delineating the molecular mechanisms responsible for the IL-4 induction of TARC expression will be important for a better understanding of the role of Th2 cytokines in allergic disease. RESULTS: We demonstrate that mTARC mRNA and protein are potently induced by the Th2 cytokine, Interleukin-4 (IL-4), and inhibited by Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) in primary macrophages (Mθ). IL-4 induction of mTARC occurs in the presence of PI3 kinase pathway and translation inhibitors, but not in the absence of STAT6 transcription factor, suggesting a direct-acting STAT6-mediated pathway of mTARC transcriptional activation. We have functionally characterised eleven putative STAT6 sites identified in the mTARC proximal promoter and determined that five of these contribute to the IL-4 induction of mTARC. By in vitro binding assays and transient transfection of isolated sites into the RAW 264.7 Mθ cell-line, we demonstrate that these sites have widely different capacities for binding and activation by STAT6. Site-directed mutagenesis of these sites within the context of the mTARC proximal promoter revealed that the two most proximal sites, conserved between the human and mouse genes, are important mediators of the IL-4 response. CONCLUSION: The induction of mTARC by IL-4 results from cooperative interactions between STAT6 sites within the mTARC gene promoter. Significantly, we have shown that transfer of the nine most proximal mTARC STAT6 sites in their endogenous conformation confers potent (up to 130-fold) IL-4 inducibility on heterologous promoters. These promoter elements constitute important and sensitive IL-4-responsive transcriptional units that could be used to drive transgene expression in sites of Th2 inflammation in vivo

The DisHuman child

In this paper we consider the relationship between the human and disability; with specific focus on the lives of disabled children and young people. We begin with an analysis of the close relationship between ‘the disabled’ and ‘the freak’. We demonstrate that the historical markings of disability as object of curiosity and register of fear serve to render disabled children as non-human and monstrous. We then consider how the human has been constituted, particularly in the periods of modernity and the rise of capitalism, reliant upon the naming of disability as antithetical to all that counts as human. In order to find a place for disabled children in a social and cultural context that has historically denied their humanity and cast them as monstrous others, we develop the theoretical notion of the DisHuman: a bifurcated complex that allows us recognise their humanity whilst also celebrating the ways in which disabled children reframe what it means to be human. We suggest that the lives of disabled children and young people demand us to think in ways that affirm the inherent humanness in their lives but also allow us to consider their disruptive potential: this is our DisHuman child. We draw on our research projects to explore three sites where the DisHuman child emerges in moments where sameness and difference, monstrosity/disability and humanity are invoked simultaneously. We explore three locations – (i) DisDevelopment; (ii) DisFamily and (iii) DisSexuality – illuminating the ways in which the DisHuman child seeks nuanced, politicized and complicating forms of humanity

Provocations for critical disability studies

This article posits a number of provocations for scholars and researchers engaged with Critical Disability Studies. We summarise some of the analytical twists and turns occurring over the last few years that create a number of questions and concerns. We begin by introducing Critical Disability Studies; describing it as an interdisciplinary field of scholarship building on foundational disability studies theories. Critical Disability Studies scholarship is being produced at an exponential rate and we assert that we need to take pause for thought. We lay out five provocations to encourage reflection and debate: what is the purpose of Critical Disability Studies; how inclusive is Critical Disability Studies; is disability the object or subject of studies; what matters or gets said about disability; and how can we attend to disability and ability? We conclude by making a case for a reflexive and politicised Critical Disability Studies