Urban building energy modelling for retrofit analysis under uncertainty

Urban building energy modelling (UBEM) is a growing research field that seeks to expand conventional building energy modelling to the realm of neighbourhoods, cities or even entire building stocks. The aim is to establish frameworks for analysing combined urban e˙ects rather than those of individual buildings, which city governments, utilities and other energy policy stakeholders can use to assess the current environmental impact of our buildings, and, maybe more importantly, the future e˙ects that energy renovation programmes and energy supply infrastructure changes might have. However, the task of creating reliable models of new or existing urban areas is diÿcult, as it requires an enormous amount of detailed input data – data which is rarely available. A solution to this problem is the introduction of archetype modelling, which is used to break down the building stock into a manageable subset of semantic building archetypes, for which, it is possible to characterize their parameters. It is the focus of this thesis to explore and develop new methods for stochastic archetype characterization that can enable archetype-based UBEM to be used for accurate urban-scale time series analysis.The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part acts as an introduction to case study data of the residential building stock of detached single-family houses (SFHs) in Aarhus, Denmark, which is used throughout the thesis for demonstration purposes.The second part concerns the development of methods for archetype modelling. Bayesian methods for archetype parameter calibration are presented that incorporates the variability of the underlying cluster of buildings, and correlation between parameters, to enable informed predictions of unseen buildings from the archetype under uncertainty. The capabilities of archetype-based UBEM are further widened through the introduction of dynamic building energy modelling that allows for time series analysis.The third part of the thesis is devoted to demonstrating the usefulness of the proposed archetype formulation as a building block for urban-scale applications. An exhaustive test scheme is employed to validate the predictive performance of the framework before establishing a city-scale UBEM of approx. 23,000 SFHs in Aarhus. It is used to forecast citywide heating energy use from 2017 up until 2050 under uncertainty of energy renovations and climate change.Overall, the proposed archetype-based UBEM framework promises very useful for fast, flexible and reliable urban-scale time series analysis, including forecasting the effects of energy renovation or city densification, to establish an informed basis for energy policy decision-making

Irlen Syndrome: Why the Cool Coloured Shades?

In a world of inclusive education and assistive technologies, it is more important than ever to ensure every member of the class is given the opportunity of a sound education. This may present a challenge when almost every classroom includes students with additional and specific needs. MISViS (Meares-Irlen Syndrome Visual Stress) is one example of a learning disability that will require additional accommodations, but can be readily managed once a teacher is familiar with the individual’s needs

Komponenten des gerichteten Proteintransports in Säugetierzellen

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Improving Privacy Settings for Facebook by Using Interpersonal Distance as Criterion

The possibility to define custom privacy settings in Facebook has been improved over the last years. Still,numerous users do not know how to change those settings or do not use the settings because they are cumbersome to use. Within this paper a new method for defining the privacy settings in online social networks is presented that uses the social distance between users as setting criterion. This approach was tested as a paper prototype in a first user study with 10 participants. Results show that the number of errors was significantly decreased and that the subjective evaluation of the interface was promising

A New Approach to Harness Probiotics Against Common Bacterial Skin Pathogens: Towards Living Antimicrobials

In this study, the potential of certain lactic acid bacteria—classified as probiotics and known to be antimicrobially active against pathogens or food-poisoning microorganisms—was evaluated with respect to their activity against bacterial skin pathogens. The aim of the study was to develop a plaster/bandage for the application of inhibitory substances produced by these probiotics when applied to diseased skin. For this purpose, two Streptococcus salivarius strains and one Lactobacillus plantarum were tested for production of antimicrobials (bacteriocin-like substances) active against Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens using established methods. A newly designed membrane test ensured that the probiotics produce antimicrobials diffusible through membranes. Target organisms used were Cutibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Moreover, the L. plantarum 8P-A3 strain was tested against additional bacteria involved in skin disorders. The Lactobacillales used were active against all potential skin pathogens tested. These probiotics could be enclosed between polymer membranes—one tight, the other permeable for their products, preserved by vacuum drying, and reactivated after at least three months storage. Importantly, the reactivated pads containing the probiotics demonstrated antibacterial activity on agar plates against all pathogens tested. This suggests that the probiotic containing pads may be topically applied for the treatment of skin disorders without the need for a regular antibiotic treatment or as an adjunctive therapy

To tender or not to tender?: deliberate and exogenous sunk costs in a public good game

In an experimental study, we compare individual willingness to cooperate in a public good game after an initial team contest phase. While players in the treatment setup make a conscious decision on how much to invest in the contest, this decision is exogenously imposed on players in the control setup. As such, both groups of players incur sunk costs and enter the public good game with different wealth levels. Our results indicate that the way these sunk costs have been accrued matters especially for groups on the losing side of the contest: Given the same level of sunk costs, contributions to the public good are lower for groups which failed to be successful in the preceding between-group contest. Furthermore, this detrimental effect is more pronounced for individuals who play a contest with deliberate contributions before