1,937 research outputs found
Energetic Retrofit of Historical Downtown Buildings: Cost Effectiveness and Financing Options
Today several energy saving measures are being taken worldwide. As a component of these, the energy efficiency of the buildings should be increased. Given the high ratio of the existing, ineffective building stock, large-scale retrofit actions are going to be needed to reduce their energy usage. The historical districts and the heritage buildings stand as special part of the above question, as several limitations increase the complexity of their retrofit. In present paper, the authors are introducing retrofit possibilities for the traditional apartment house type, widespread in the past Austro-Hungarian downtowns. A detailed methodology for complex renovation is divided to three main aspects: energy efficiency, monument protection guidelines and feasibility. By combining the above aspects, optimized renovation scenarios and their cost efficient financing implementation are surveyed. Results show, that the energy saving and heritage respecting solutions are not economically feasible enough to be appealing for private investors. The retrofit, however, is much needed to increase the life quality of residents, save energy, and protect the unique architectural character, now constantly endangered by demolitions. The authors suggest solutions for the above problem by creating possible financing scenarios, which can be used as a benchmark for preliminary decision making in case of a planned retrofit.Supported by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary (http://www.nka.hu/)
Pediatric Terrorism Preparedness National Guidelines and Recommendations: Findings of an Evidenced-based Consensus Process
A cadre of experts and stakeholders from government agencies, professional organizations, emergency medicine and response, pediatrics, mental health, and disaster preparedness were gathered to review and summarize the existing data on the needs of children in the planning, preparation, and response to disasters or terrorism. This review was followed by development of evidence-based consensus guidelines and recommendations on the needs of children in disasters, including chemical, biological, and radiological terrorism. An evidence-based consensus process was used in conjunction with a modified Delphi approach for selection of topic areas and discussion points. These recommendations and guidelines represent the first national evidence-based standards for pediatric disaster and terrorism preparedness
Measurement of excited-state transitions in cold calcium atoms by direct femtosecond frequency-comb spectroscopy
We apply direct frequency-comb spectroscopy, in combination with precision cw
spectroscopy, to measure the transition
frequency in cold calcium atoms. A 657 nm ultrastable cw laser was used to
excite atoms on the narrow ( Hz) clock transition, and the direct output of the frequency comb was
used to excite those atoms from the state to the state. The resonance of this second stage was detected by observing a
decrease in population of the ground state as a result of atoms being optically
pumped to the metastable states. The transition frequency is measured to be kHz; which is an improvement by almost four orders of magnitude over
the previously measured value. In addition, we demonstrate spectroscopy on
magnetically trapped atoms in the state.Comment: 4 pages 5 figure
QCD thermodynamics with nonzero chemical potential at and effects from heavy quarks
We extend our work on QCD thermodynamics with 2+1 quark flavors at nonzero
chemical potential to finer lattices with . We study the equation of
state and other thermodynamic quantities, such as quark number densities and
susceptibilities, and compare them with our previous results at . We
also calculate the effects of the addition of the charm and bottom quarks on
the equation of state at zero and nonzero chemical potential. These effects are
important for cosmological studies of the early Universe.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures. Some small text and figure change
The equation of state with nonzero chemical potential for 2+1 flavors
We present results for the QCD equation of state with nonzero chemical
potential using the Taylor expansion method with terms up to sixth order in the
expansion. Our calculations are performed on asqtad 2+1 quark flavor lattices
at .Comment: Talk given at the XXV International Symposium on Lattice Field
Theory, July 30-4 August 2007, Regensburg, German
Heavy-Light Decay Constants: Conclusions from the Wilson Action
We report on the results of a MILC collaboration calculation of ,
, , and their ratios. We discuss the most important
errors in more detail than we have elsewhere.Comment: LATTICE98(heavyqk) 3 latex pages and 3 postscript figures. The
perturbative correction calculated by Kuramashi has been adjusted to take
into account the fact that we match to the continuum at the kinetic mass of
the heavy meson, not the pole mass. This produces a 2 to 4 MeV change in
final results for decay constants, and has negligible effect on decay
constant ratio
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