Enhancing Egress Drills: Preparation and Assessment of Evacuee Performance

This article explores how egress drills-specifically those related to fire incidents-are currently used, their impact on safety levels, and the insights gained from them. It is suggested that neither the merits of egress drills are well understood, nor the impact on egress performance well characterized. In addition, the manner in which they are conducted varies both between and within regulatory jurisdictions. By investigating their strengths and limitations, this article suggests opportunities for their enhancement possibly through the use of other egress models to support and expand upon the benefits provided. It is by no means suggested that drills are not important to evacuation safety-only that their inconsistent use and the interpretation of the results produced may mean we (as researchers, practitioners, regulators, and stakeholders) are not getting the maximum benefit out of this important tool

Don't Fall Off the Adaptation Cliff: When Asymmetrical Fitness Selects for Suboptimal Traits

The cliff-edge hypothesis introduces the counterintuitive idea that the trait value associated with the maximum of an asymmetrical fitness function is not necessarily the value that is selected for if the trait shows variability in its phenotypic expression. We develop a model of population dynamics to show that, in such a system, the evolutionary stable strategy depends on both the shape of the fitness function around its maximum and the amount of phenotypic variance. The model provides quantitative predictions of the expected trait value distribution and provides an alternative quantity that should be maximized (“genotype fitness”) instead of the classical fitness function (“phenotype fitness”). We test the model's predictions on three examples: (1) litter size in guinea pigs, (2) sexual selection in damselflies, and (3) the geometry of the human lung. In all three cases, the model's predictions give a closer match to empirical data than traditional optimization theory models. Our model can be extended to most ecological situations, and the evolutionary conditions for its application are expected to be common in nature

A Multi-Agent-Based Platform for the Early Integration of Photovoltaic Systems in Building Façades

The envelope of a building offers a so far unused potential for the energy generation. Modern technologies allow a full integration of solar components into the façade or other parts of the building shell. This promotes the expansion of renewable energies without increasing the necessary areas for green field installations. However, their early integration into the planning process of a building is still a complex and labour intensive task. Our approach aims to simplify the procedure by improving methods and technologies like Building Information Modelling and Industry Foundation Classes, and later combining them with a Multi-Agent-based platform. This work presents the necessary steps to digitally describe building integrated solar elements in an open standard. Therefore, we mark the need of an expansion to the IFC structure and afterwards suggest a solution to classify these products correctly. Next, we introduce a Multi-Agent-System as well as the defined agents to facilitate their integration process. Using sample processes, we finally demonstrate our platform’s approach and explain its related elements

BIM-based Collaboration Platform for the Holistic Integration of Energy Active Façade Components

In the future renewable energy sources will inevitably be needed to satisfy the world-wide energy demand. One of the most important sources of renewable energy is solar energy. Today, solar power parks are built and photovoltaic elements are placed onto rooftops. However, in large urban regions there is little space for solar parks and rooftops are already occupied with solar systems or have to serve other needs. In contrast to roof surface areas, the building façades offer large spaces that are not utilised yet. Therefore, Energy Active Façade Components (EAFC) might be used to increase the (electrical and/or thermal) solar yield noticeable. The successful accomplishment of construction projects requires accurate planning in every aspect. A variety of processes has to be managed involving stakeholders of many domains (e.g., architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and vendors). The continuously increasing complexity of structures and buildings necessitates a thereto adapted level of project management and construction techniques. A major evolution in the construction sector was the introduction of computer-based systems in management, design, and engineering domains. As these domains are depending from each other, a comprehensive management of all project relevant aspects requires a software environment providing appropriate interfaces for information exchanges and a collaborative working mentality of the project participants. The origin of the in this paper introduced development of a BIM-based collaboration platform lies within the complexity of EAFC. EAFC (e.g., building-integrated photovoltaic or building-integrated solar thermal components) come with a wide range of properties, requirements, and constraints that have to be regarded during all project phases. In particular, giving the opportunity of a holistic consideration of all these aspects and a facilitation of the integration of EAFC in the building process as early as possible is a main goal of this research. Therefore, a concept of a collaboration platform is introduced. A BIMserver implementation provides the core for the coordination of the project participants and the exchange of building and product models. Model-based data is exchanged in the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard, as well as other information shall be distributed in open file formats. A multi-agent system brings a decent level of automation and intelligence into this environment. This is needed as the complexity of EAFC combined with the dependencies between the involved stakeholders make their integration a tough challenge

Lateral diffusion of lipids and glycophorin in solid phosphatidylcholine bilayers. The role of structural defects.

The lateral mobility of the lipid analog N-4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3 diazole phosphatidylethanolamine and of the integral protein glycophorin in giant dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine vesicles was studied by the photobleaching technique. Above the temperature of the chain-melting transition (Tm = 23 degrees C), the diffusion coefficient, Dp, of the protein [Dp = (4 +/- 2) X 10(-8) cm2/s at 30 degrees C] was within the experimental errors equal to the corresponding values DL of the lipid analog. In the P beta 1 phase the diffusion of lipid and glycophorin was studied as a function of the probe and the protein concentration. (a) At low lipid-probe content (cL less than 5 mmol/mol of total lipid), approximately 20% of the probe diffuses fast (D approximately equal to 10(-8) - 10(-9) cm2/s), while the mobility of the rest is strongly reduced (D less than 10(-10) cm2/s). At a higher concentration (cp approximately 20 mmol), all probe is immobilized (D less than 10(-10) cm2/s). (b) Incorporation of glycophorin up to cp = 0.4 mmol/mol of total lipid leads to a gradual increase of the fraction of mobile lipid probe due to the lateral-phase separation into a pure P beta 1 phase and a fraction of lipid that is fluidized by strong hydrophilic lipid-protein interaction. (c) The diffusion of the glycophorin molecules is characterized by a slow and a fast fraction. The latter increases with increasing protein content, which is again due to the lateral-phase separation caused by the hydrophilic lipid-protein interaction. The results are interpreted in terms of a fast transport along linear defects in the P beta 1 phase, which form quasi-fluid paths for a nearly one dimensional and thus very effective transport. Evidence for this interpretation of the diffusion measurements is provided by freeze-fracture electron microscopy

Machine code functions in BIM for cost-effective high-quality buildings

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is one way of making the complex building processes less expensive and more reliable. This paper first analyses existing experience with building processes which include building-integrated solar systems as one example of buildings with high ecologic ambitions. Based on the analysis, it is proposed to include functions in machine code into the next version of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). For the machine code functions, several formats are proposed and the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed IFC extensions are discussed. As several formats have specific advantages and disadvantages, it is recommended to offer them as an option. For simple conventional buildings, the existing IFC version 4 seems appropriate. Buildings which include innovations which add complexity to the building process can profit most by the savings generated by exchanging machine code functions. The cost-effectiveness can be increased because more knowledge can be shared due to the confidentiality of the machine code, less time is needed for variations of the models, the higher accuracy of detailed models can be used, more competition is possible due to the modularity of the functions and less mistakes while exporting and importing models are made using the same validated model

Flexible filtering of heterogeneous data using the example of the design and simulation of building integrated photovoltaics

According to the Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology, all participants must be provided with the information relevant to their tasks in the required level of detail at the appropriate time. In the future, the amount of detailed digital information will further increase. Therefore, we propose rule-based filtering beyond the purely class-based extraction of subsets of the overall model. The source of digital information can be a central data model, from digital product data of component manufacturers or generally from the worldwide web. After the rule-based filtering, automatic parsing into the target language takes place. As an application example, we demonstrate this methodology for the simulation of buildingintegrated photovoltaics as an example. According to the Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology, all participants must be provided with the information relevant to their tasks in the required level of detail at the appropriate time. In the future, the amount of detailed digital information will further increase. Therefore, we propose rule-based filtering beyond the purely class-based extraction of subsets of the overall model. The source of digital information can be a central data model, from digital product data of component manufacturers or generally from the worldwide web. After the rule-based filtering, automatic parsing into the target language takes place. As an application example, we demonstrate this methodology for the simulation of buildingintegrated photovoltaics as an example