Some remarks on the first Hardy-Littlewood conjecture

Starting from the first Hardy-Littlewood conjecture some topics will be covered: an empirical approach to the distribution of the twin primes in classes mod(10) and a simplified proof of the Bruns theorem . Finally, it will be explored an approach based on numerical analysis: Monte Carlo Method and Low discrepancy Sequences will be used to prove the convergence of the conjecture to the expected values.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

La imagen postmortem y el rito de los invitados: Un análisis de la escopía de la despedida

Es una buena descripción de la forma tradicional en la que regionalmente se organiza la ritualidad hacia la muerte, con un importante contenido analítico en torno a la cuestión de la muerte, desde la antropología y el psicoanálisis, principalmente como transdisciplinariedad con la que traban los estudios visuales.Es un trabajo terminal de grado en el cual se aborda la fotografía postmortem como una práctica que se mantiene socialmente, y que incluye actividades y formas de asumir el procesamiento de la pérdida en su relación con el manejo de las imágenes fotográficas

Introduction

People spend about 60% of their time in their homes: environments in which the person should feel comfortable and be healthy on account of the technical services and systems in their building (Jia, Srinivasan, & Raheem, 2017). The supply of a comfortable environment should be achieved in an energy efficient way, especially if we are to achieve the EU 2020 or 2030 targets of residential energy consumption. However, in spite of the technological advancements and energy efficient technologies that have already been developed to provide comfort, energy consumption is not decreasing at the rate it should (Tsemekidi Tzeiranaki et al., 2019). There are several complex factors affecting energy consumption of which occupant behaviours is one of them, and building systems, services, and products being some of the others. Moreover, the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) field seems to focus mainly on the thermal and other physiological aspects of comfort and energy expenditure. Yet, collaboration of the IEQ field with the fields of energy engineering and social sciences to combine knowledge to have a better grasp of both sides –building and occupant- of the issue of consumption, does not seem to occur (D’Oca, Hong, & Langevin, 2018; Sovacool, 2014). Therefore, the problem that energy savings have not been achieved with the currently available technological developments could be related to the behavioural factors influencing energy consumption

Conclusion and recommendations

This research provided insights into the comfort and energy-consuming behaviours of home occupants and into grouping these home occupants based on their individual differences. This was achieved by using a human-centered approach to an engineering challenge, by assuming comfort as a holistic experience of the home environment, and by treating the ‘occupant-environment’ interactions as a dynamic system. Such an approach drew methods typically used in design and ethnographic research, by gathering both qualitative and quantitative data from both the occupant and the building. The occupant data was collected quantitatively with the use of a questionnaire (self-reported) and qualitatively with interviews (procedural knowledge) and finally with generative techniques (interpretive knowledge). In such a way, different types of occupant knowledge were elicited and collected. The building data was gathered with checklists, monitoring, and energy readings. With the questionnaire data and a clustering technique -the TwoStep cluster analysis- five distinct types of occupant, or archetypes, were discovered and they were progressively enhanced and substantiated with the interview and generative techniques data. Additionally, data of building characteristics, indoor environmental factors, and actual energy consumption completed the details of the archetypes. The following paragraphs provide the conclusion and recommendations drawn from this research. First each of the key questions are answered followed by the answer to the main research question; in which the final description of the archetypes is presented. This is followed by the strengths and limitations of this work and recommendations for the future process. Then for each archetype, environmental design parameters are presented. This finishes with recommendations for future research and the implications of this work

Home Occupant Archetypes:

This research is aimed at better understanding how occupants use energy in their homes from a comfort-driven perspective, in order to propose customized environmental characteristics that could improve the occupants’ comfort while reducing energy consumption. To propose such bespoke environmental features and feedback, occupant archetypes were produced based on the intentions and motivations behind comfort behaviours. Building upon the aim of this thesis, the following main research question was proposed: How can energy behaviours be studied from a comfort-driven perspective in order to facilitate the development of environmental features that support more efficient occupant behaviours and that provide the comfort needs of the person? A mixed-methods human-centered design approach was developed for which four steps were required to answer the main research question, reflecting also the four parts of this dissertation. 1. An extensive and multidisciplinary literature review investigated behavioural theories and comfort theories to find out what the drivers behind behaviours are and to understand comfort from a holistic and integrative lens, including social and psychological comfort. Additionally, an overview of energy use in residential buildings was presented, along with the links between energy consumption and occupant behaviours, thus explaining the problems of performance gaps and the rebound effect. The review eventually proposes that energy consumption, behaviours, and comfort are elements of an interacting system, as many behavioural expressions exercised at home are comfort-driven and several of these comfortdriven behaviours result in energy use. This part was the platform on which a questionnaire was developed based on constructs that motivate behaviour: locus of control, attitudes towards energy, environmental needs, and emotions towards home, in addition to other variables such as health status, demographics, and energy consuming habitual actions. Thus, the questionnaire is a tool that consolidates in a single instrument a self-reported assessment of energy consumption patterns and comfort behaviours. The resulting questionnaire was composed of previously validated instruments that were adapted to the context to assess the corresponding constructs and was composed of 65 variables. 2. The newly developed questionnaire was pilot tested with a population consisting of master students of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of the TU Delft. The pilot was launched to make corrections and adjust the questionnaire and to validate the effectiveness of the analysis method to cluster respondents. The TwoStep cluster analysis was chosen as it is a method normally used in the segmentation of health behaviours and was originally developed to group customers in marketing. More recently, it has been used in studies assessing different types of behaviours, especially in the healthcare field. The pilot ensured that the segmentation method was appropriate for the types of variables involved. The cluster analysis produced a model of six clusters, which was successfully validated according to a process that ensures that the groups are both stable and reliable. Subsequently, the questionnaire was administered to the full sample of 761 respondents –mainly composed of students and employees- and was analysed accordingly with the method. The final model was also validated. The final model resulted in five distinct home occupant clusters, which differed on their comfort needs, attitudes towards energy, environmental control beliefs, and emotions towards their home environment. These clusters were the basis of the forthcoming archetypes. 3. In order to better develop the archetypes, occupant-related qualitative data and environment-related quantitative data was needed. A field study was designed to interview occupiers in their homes and to gather building data. To gather building data, a comprehensive checklist inventoried building characteristics related to energy expenditure, such as type of glazing, type of ventilation, type of appliances, etc. Additionally, the indoor environmental parameters (relative humidity, carbon dioxide, and temperature) were monitored, and finally, actual energy consumption readings were taken for a month during the summer period. Parallelly, in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted, which are techniques used to gather qualitative behavioural data from the home occupants. Questions related to their energy consuming habits and practices were asked, as well as about their environmental needs for comfort and energy attitudes. Interviews were analysed with a text mining technique: sentiment analysis, which allows assessing the sentiments associated with the topics discussed. Both qualitative and quantitative data were used to complete the previously found statistical clusters, in order to develop the five final archetypes that are the following: Archetype 1: Restrained Conventionals; Archetype 2: Incautious realists; Archetype 3: Positive savers; Archetype 4: Sensitive wasters; Archetype 5: Vulnerable pessimists. 4. Self-reported data and interviews allow collecting explicit knowledge: a type of knowledge that is readily available and is related to facts and memories. When verbally expressed, these facts and memories tend to be processed through biases and conscious filters. As a result, to produce more accurate and complete archetypes, another type of knowledge is also needed: tacit knowledge. This is a type of knowledge is related to feelings, intuitions, and emotions, which tends to be difficult to express with verbalizations. To collect it, focus group sessions were designed to assess the home occupants’ tacit knowledge in terms of what it means to use energy in their homes and what the ideal home experience is. This was collected with the generation of collages that the participants produced with visual and tactile materials, after which they described the process and meanings of their creations. The data was analysed with the use of affinity diagrams that allows to group large amounts of qualitative data into manageable categories and to see the relations between the categories. The results showed two categories: building and occupant, with five sub-categories in total: behavioural aspects, psychological aspects, energy aspects, financial aspects, and home aspects. Each of these subcategories was composed of codes extracted from the collages produced and from the verbal explanations given by the participants. Finally, the data was related back to each of the archetypes, in order to produce final fully-fledged archetypes. The results show that each archetype has different needs, expectations, and experiences as to how they appraise energy and how they desire comfort in their own houses. Consequently, this gives insights into the fact that each of the archetypes is different, they each need differing environmental features to satisfy their comfort needs, to achieve that comfort, and to perceive the impact of their comfort behaviours on the energy outputs of their household. The differing characteristics that each archetype exhibited were translated into preliminary customized design parameters or bespoke environmental features for each of them. They are summed up as follows: the Restrained Conventional needs large windows for a view and a connection to the outside. Because they value personal space and social interaction at home, yet have low environmental control, the plan of the home needs to give a transition from private to social. They are conservative in the energy use and concerned about their finances: energy feedback can be given to them relating their practices to monetary consequences. The Incautious Realist places importance on having the right size and layout for particular purposes: therefore, they need modularity that they can manually control, due to their high external control. They also value safety and privacy, so the interactions with façade elements need to ensure them that their environment is safe and private. They have a high concern about finances, yet they have a high expenditure. To boost their consumption and their need for control, their home can be equipped with a control station from which they can control appliances, and see their consumption as a financial reflection. The Positive Saver places value on the cleanliness and orderliness of the place, thus they need surfaces and spaces that are easy to clean and reach. They are the biggest savers of all the archetypes and this seems to be due to their environmental concerns. To reduce even further their consumption, feedback can be given to them by translating their comfort actions –oven use, etc. - into environmental consequences. The Sensitive Waster needs softness and tactile sensations in their house. They also place importance on having high freedom of their practices in their house. They are the largest energy waster, and they do not worry about their finances, however, they do value the environment and the future. A smart feature can be designed for them to save more energy by equating their practices to ecological consequences to have a more conservative energy use. The Vulnerable Pessimist places emphasis on the aesthetics of the house, the technologies, and the gadgets. They also value a sense of community and connectedness to their neighbourhood. As result, they need homes that allow for these interactions, in small complexes or pavilions. They do not worry about financial aspects, however their expenditure is middle-range: to improve it; they can receive feedback from the consumption of their community as an awareness tool. The findings of this study can help to improve energy predictions, by making more accurate models with different types of occupants. Furthermore, for the existing housing stock, corporations can use the archetypes to tailor the indoor environmental features and interfaces to the future occupant; or, similarly, different occupants can be better allocated to better matching existing dwellings. As for the design of the future stock, architects and contractors can make use of the archetypes by having a more inclusive design process, by answering real needs of the future occupant and improving the decision making of architects. For policies and energy efficiency programs, knowing that there are different types of occupants can allow to bridge gaps between occupant and provider, by encouraging a participatory or inclusive research and design phase, for the design of devices, feedbacks, and interfaces tailored to the specific archetype

Estilo de inversión en los fondos internacionales del mercado español

Los artículos publicados quedan en propiedad del Instituto Español de Analistas Financieros (IEAF), que administra los derechos de reproducción y copia de los mismo

La influencia arquitectónica de Óscar Niemeyer

Óscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer was a great Brazilian architect with a peculiar style in his works. For him, architecture had to become a great work of art capable of touching people on an emotional level. Oscar Niemeyer is recognized for breaking the schemes that were held in architecture. Each of his works is governed by his feelings and way of understanding the world. His work places him as one of the best architects both professionally and personally. He left a legacy in the utilization of light and the use of external and internal spaces, as well as in the construction of flexible and usable materials. Niemeyer caused a global transformation that is not limited to the architectural sector, but also the political and social.Óscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer fue un gran arquitecto brasileño con un estilo peculiar en sus obras. Para él la arquitectura debía convertirse en una gran obra de arte capaz de tocar a las personas a nivel emocional. Óscar Niemeyer es reconocido por romper los esquemas que se tenían en la arquitectura. Cada una de sus obras se rigen por sus sentimientos y forma de entender el mundo. Su trabajo lo ubica como uno de los mejores arquitectos tanto a nivel profesional como personal. Dejó un legado en el uso de la luz y aprovechamientos de espacios externos e internos, así como en construcción de materiales flexibles y aprovechables. Niemeyer causo una transformación global que no se limita al sector arquitectónico, sino también al político y social

ACTAS DE LAS CUARTAS JORNADAS INTERNACIONALES DE LENGUA INGLESA. CULTURA DE LOS PAÍSES DE HABLA INGLESA.

La publicación que presentamos es el producto de los trabajos presentados por los disertantes de las Cuartas Jornadas Internacionales de Lengua Inglesa. Cultura de los países de habla inglesa, aprobadas por Resolución Rectoral Nº 277/15, en el marco de las actividades extracurriculares de la Escuela de Lenguas Modernas, destinadas a proporcionar un espacio de encuentro, reflexión e intercambio para la comunidad educativa y académica cuyo objeto de estudio es el idioma inglés

Integrating qualitative and quantitative research to develop the final archetypes

To better understand home energy consumption, it is important to study the behaviours of occupants in their homes, especially in relation to their comfort needs. A mixed methods study comprising of a questionnaire, interviews, indoor environmental parameters monitoring, and energy consumption readings was performed to group home occupants based on their behavioural patterns. The TwoStep cluster analysis produced five clusters of home occupant with the data from 761 questionnaire respondents. The clustering model comprised of 28 variables including constructs of emotions, comfort affordances, and locus of control. Then, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted and IEQ monitoring and energy readings were taken with 15 of the questionnaire respondents. The results of the field study were used to substantiate the findings of the questionnaire. The combination of the statistical clusters with the data from the field study resulted in five archetypes: five distinct types of home occupants, differing in their behavioural motivations towards achieving comfort, and their use of energy when doing so. This study shows that a mixed methods approach is valuable for better understanding energy consumption and implementing archetype-customized lines of action to reduce energy use and maintain comfort