A comparison of metrics proposed for circadian lighting and the criterion adopted in the WELL Building Standard.

Since the discovery that intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells influence the body’s circadian rhythms, there has been a desire to quantify this effect in terms helpful to lighting designers. The effect of lighting on occupants’ circadian rhythms has implications for their health and well-being, and, for the workplace, this can affect productivity and absenteeism. There is not yet a universally agreed way to account for how different lighting choices might determine these effects. Various models have been proposed that attempt to quantify, at least relatively, these effects; in each case adopting some form of action spectrum associated with melatonin suppression, as this hormone is known to be critical in the circadian process. It is has been established that the effects vary according to the wavelength of the light, and the total effect is normally modelled as a weighted sum, despite evidence that effects from different wavelengths combine non-linearly or even in opposition. Different metrics are compared for various real light sources but these are shown not to agree, thus different design choices would be made according to the model adopted. The WELL Building Standard has adopted the use of Equivalent Melanopic Lux to formulate lighting criteria. Consequences for the selection of light sources and the specification of internal illuminance are examined

Day-ahead forecasting of grid carbon intensity in support of HVAC plant demand response decision-making to reduce carbon emissions

Electrical HVAC loads in buildings are suitable candidates for use in demand response activity. This paper demonstrates a method to support planned demand response actions intended explicitly to reduce carbon emissions. Demand response is conventionally adopted to aid the operation of electricity grids and can lead to greater efficiency; here it is planned to target times of day when electricity is generated with high carbon intensity. Operators of HVAC plant and occupants of conditioned spaces can plan when to arrange shutdown of plant once they can foresee the opportune time of day for carbon saving. It is shown that the carbon intensity of the mainland UK electricity grid varies markedly throughout the day, but that this tends to follow daily and weekly seasonal patterns. To enable planning of demand response, 24-hour ahead forecast models of grid carbon intensity are developed that are not dependent on collecting multiple exogenous data sets. In forecasting half-hour periods of high carbon intensity either linear autoregressive or non-linear ANN models can be used, but a daily seasonal autoregressive model is shown to provide a 20% improvement in carbon reduction

Energy saving claims for lighting controls in commercial buildings

Lighting systems consume a significant proportion of the energy used in commercial buildings, and the control of lighting use is an important determinant of the energy performance of buildings. A review and meta-analysis of lighting energy studies in commercial premises is undertaken to investigate difficulties with reported energy-saving claims for popular lighting control methods. Earlier studies have indicated that in some installations automated controls may save very little energy if they are replacing manual control. However, even where manual control would be a reasonable expectation, such as in private offices, it has been common practice to report saving in energy compared to the lights being used throughout the working day, which leads to overstatement of the energy-saving potential. However, generally, user behaviour cannot be reliably predicted, which makes it difficult to quantify properly the benefits of adding automatic controls. It is argued that savings should instead be quantified with reference to published norms for lighting use in commercial buildings

A Literature Review Outlining the Importance of Blinds and Shutters as a Sustainable Asset that has the Potential to enhance the Productivity of Occupants in the UK

Blinds and Shutters in the UK are still thought of as an optional window dressing rather than a low cost sustainable building asset that can enhance a window/glazing system’s performance and in return, save energy through passive thermal measures and measurable solar performance. Although the array of benefits is validated for blinds and shutters there are historic barriers to realising the potential for saving energy. Simple behavioural change related to the use of existing products would be a no cost productivity and energy benefit. Use of blinds and shutters is based on the need of a variety of factors in both commercial and domestic markets. These factors can be categorized into three broad areas namely energy savings, comfort (inclusive of visual, thermal and acoustic preferences) and occupant satisfaction which contribute to improving the health, well-being and productivity of occupants. In recent publications it has been demonstrated how thermal, visual, acoustic and controllability of occupants’ working environments impacts productivity. The business case for linking productivity to ‘green’ working environments has been made by the World Green Building Council (WGBC) highlighting how productivity of staff is a greater incentive for commercial buildings to become more sustainable. This study incorporates a literature review of the sustainable benefits of shading and illustrates how they are an asset to the building façade in creating dynamic, comfortable and potentially productive environments for the commercial sector. However, we highlight the difficulties of this research and outline a potential future study

Large Differences in Publicly Visible Health Behaviours across Two Neighbourhoods of the Same City

Background: There are socioeconomic disparities in the likelihood of adopting unhealthy behaviours, and success at giving them up. This may be in part because people living in deprived areas are exposed to greater rates of unhealthy behaviour amongst those living around them. Conventional self-report surveys do not capture these differences in exposure, and more ethological methods are required in order to do so. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed 12 hours of direct behavioural observation in the streets of two neighbourhoods of the same city which were similar in most regards, except that one was much more socioeconomically deprived than the other. There were large differences in the publicly visible health behaviours observed. In the deprived neighbourhood, we observed 266 more adults smoking (rate ratio 3.44), 53 more adults drinking alcohol (rate ratio not calculable), and 38 fewer adults running (rate ratio 0.23), than in the affluent neighbourhood. We used data from the Health Survey for England to calculate the differences we ought to expect to have seen given the individual-level socioeconomic characteristics of the residents. The observed disparities between the two neighbourhoods were considerably greater than this null model predicted. There were also different patterns of smoking in proximity to children in the two neighbourhoods. Conclusions/Significance: The differences in observed smoking, drinking alcohol, and physical activity between these tw

The Exhibition as an Experiment: An Analogy and its Implications

The analogy of the exhibition as an experiment suggests innovative curatorial approaches that challenge institutional practices. This analogy has however a historical precedence in modernism when itbecame paradigmatic of the exhibitions at the Museum of ModernArt in New York in the 1940s, defining the curatorial approach of its founding director Alfred J Barr. This article considers this early useof the analogy of the exhibition as an experiment and further reflects on its redefinition at the turn of the 20th century by examining how both the notions of the exhibition and of the experiment havechanged over time. In particular, the article examines the different meanings and practices inferred by the concepts of the exhibition and the experiment in the first decades of the 20th century and in the present. It outlines how correspondences between cultural and scientific paradigms can be deployed to tease unacknowledged synergies between two modes of knowledge production (i.e. the art exhibition and the experiment) and address questions of presentness, authority and legitimacy that they imply

Antiproliferative effect of immunoliposomes containing 5-fluorodeoxyuridine-dipalmitate on colon cancer cells

We have investigated the antiproliferative action towards CC531 colon adenocarcinoma cells of target cell-specific immunoliposomes containing the amphiphilic dipalmitoyl derivative of 5-fluorodeoxyuridine (FUdR-dP). FUdR-dP incorporated in immunoliposomes caused a 13-fold stronger inhibition of CC531 cell growth in vitro, during a 72-h treatment, than FUdR-dP in liposomes without antibody, demonstrating that the prodrug is efficiently hydrolysed to yield the active drug, FUdR, intracellularly. The intracellular release of active FUdR was confirmed by determining the fate of H-3-labelled immunoliposomal FUdR-dP. Treatments shorter than 72 h with FUdR-dP in immunoliposomes resulted in anti-tumour activities comparable to, or even higher than, that of free FUdR. The shorter treatments reflect more closely the in vivo situation and illustrate the potential advantage of the use of immunoliposomes over non-targeted liposomal FUdR-dP or free FUdR. Association of tumour cell-specific immunoliposomes with CC531 cells was up to tenfold higher than that of liposomes without antibody or with irrelevant IgG coupled, demonstrating a specific interaction between liposomes and target cells which causes an efficient intracellular delivery of the drug. Since biochemical evidence indicates a lack of internalization or degradation of the liposomes as such; we postulate that entry of the drug most likely involves the direct transfer of the prodrug from the immunoliposome to the cell membrane during its antigen-specific interaction with the cells. followed by hydrolysis of FUdR-dP leading to relatively high intracellular FUdR-levels. In conclusion, we describe a targeted liposomal formulation for the anticancer drug FUdR, which is able to deliver the active drug to colon carcinoma cells with high efficiency, without the need for the cells to internalize the liposomes as such

Why Are There Social Gradients in Preventative Health Behavior? A Perspective from Behavioral Ecology

Background: Within affluent populations, there are marked socioeconomic gradients in health behavior, with people of lower socioeconomic position smoking more, exercising less, having poorer diets, complying less well with therapy, using medical services less, ignoring health and safety advice more, and being less health-conscious overall, than their more affluent peers. Whilst the proximate mechanisms underlying these behavioral differences have been investigated, the ultimate causes have not. Methodology/Principal Findings: This paper presents a theoretical model of why socioeconomic gradients in health behavior might be found. I conjecture that lower socioeconomic position is associated with greater exposure to extrinsic mortality risks (that is, risks that cannot be mitigated through behavior), and that health behavior competes for people’s time and energy against other activities which contribute to their fitness. Under these two assumptions, the model shows that the optimal amount of health behavior to perform is indeed less for people of lower socioeconomic position. Conclusions/Significance: The model predicts an exacerbatory dynamic of poverty, whereby the greater exposure of poor people to unavoidable harms engenders a disinvestment in health behavior, resulting in a final inequality in health outcomes which is greater than the initial inequality in material conditions. I discuss the assumptions of the model, and it