Improving a building’s indoor environment quality

The quality of indoor air is directly related to the amount of Ventilation in a building. A person’s health, comfort and well-being can be significantly affected by the quality of the indoor air. Building ventilation systems are used to introduce fresh air from outdoors into the building while exhausting “old” air. The amount of ventilation in a building affects the indoor air quality by introducing clean outside air into the building. The heating or cooling system will have to work harder to maintain a comfortable interior temperature. In order to mitigate the effects of ventilation on the heating and cooling system, most mechanical heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) systems are designed to re-circulate a significant portion of the indoor conditioned air. The recirculation of old air has a detrimental effect on the indoor air quality and should be monitored to verify that the air still meets the minimum standards for building occupancy and use. Mechanical Ventilation System Active (mechanical) ventilation systems use fans to draw fresh outside air into the building. Mechanical ventilation systems can provide consistent air flow to interior spaces and can be designed to maximize the indoor environment quality by controlling factors such as air speed, air quality, temperature and humidity. High efficiency filter systems can improve indoor air quality when they are integrated into building’s HVAC system. Passive Ventilation System Cross-Ventilation System Stack Ventilation Hybrid Integrated Ventilation Systems Methods of improving indoor air quality during Construction Construction activities can produce a significant amount of air pollution that can pose a health threat to construction workers and future building occupants. There are many strategies to avoid indoor air quality problems during construction and to mitigate long term effects. Most of the methods for controlling indoor air quality during construction must be planned and implemented before construction begins. Construction Air Quality Plan An indoor air quality plan should be prepared an implemented before construction of the building. The plan should address the following factors. Methods for controlling the pollutant source Mitigation of indoor air contaminant dispersion Education for employees and subcontractors regarding the method of pollution control Ways to verify implementation of the plan Improving air Quality during Construction Proper cleanup and material storage during and after construction can significantly reduce the amount of air pollution generated by construction activities. Some good procedures to follow include; Protecting porous materials from air contaminants before and after installation Using a vacuum with high-efficiency filter to clean up debris Using wetting agents to control dus

Air-conditioners condensate recovery system for buildings

Most conventional cooling systems produce water as a byproduct, which can be recovered and put to good use. In order to product cool air from a compressed refrigerant, a set of coils allow a hot, high-pressured refrigerant to dissipate its heat and condense into a liquid. An expansion valve is then typically used to evaporate and cool the refrigerant. This cool gas then runs through a set of coils that allows it to absorb heat and cool the air, which is blown over the coils and into the inside of the building. This process cools the warm coils, so when the warm air blowing past the coils reaches its dew point the moisture in the air condenses onto the coils, producing what is essentially distilled water. This byproduct of air conditioning units is called as Condensate drain water. The quality of condensate created by Air Conditioners is typically very high, having low amounts of suspended solids, a neutral to slightly acidic pH, and low temperatures. These characteristics make the condensate adequate for several non-potable uses such as irrigation, cooling tower make-up or toilet flushing. In addition to quality water, high recovery capacity is a major benefit of these systems. Although the amount of condensate produced can vary greatly and depends on the size and operational load of the Air-conditioning system as well as the ambient temperature and humidity within a particular region. A rule of thumb created by Karen Guz (Director of the Conservation Department for the San Antonio Water System, USA) is that 0.1 to 0.3 gallons of condensate per ton of air being chilled is produced every hour that the system is operating. Seizing this opportunity by replacing or supplementing potable water with the recovered condensate can considerably reduce a building’s demand for potable water. By implementing a condensate recovery system free, clean and unused water will be replacing costly, treated, high demand potable water. Decreasing the use of potable water within buildings plays a major role in conserving municipal sources. Moreover following potential LEED credits can be achieved. Water Efficient Landscaping a. WE Credit 1.1 b. WE Credit 1.

Prediction of Compaction Characteristics of Coal Bottom Ash

Compaction is the process of artificially improving the mechanical properties of soil. However, determination of compaction characteristics in laboratory using Proctor compaction test is time consuming and expensive. Hence, there is a need of correlating compaction characteristics with other physical properties of bottom ash which can be obtained easily. This paper describes an innovative solution to predict the compaction properties of coal bottom ash for the preliminary assessment prior to geotechnical engineering related field applications. The data for required parameters of bottom ash for the model development were collected through a literature survey representing different parts of the world. After stepwise regression analysis, specific gravity and uniformity coefficient were found to be the most significant input parameters to predict the compaction characteristics of bottom ash. These parameters were then used to develop the models to predict maximum dry density and optimum moisture content of bottom ash using multiple regression analysis. The developed models were accurate with a prediction accuracy less than ±3% for both maximum dry density and optimum moisture content models. These empirical models were also presented graphically. According to those predictive curves, maximum dry density increases with increasing uniformity coefficient and specific gravity while optimum moisture content reduced

Automatic Glaucoma Detection by Using Funduscopic Images

This paper describes an automatic system to identify glaucoma disease from funduscopic images by using digital image processing. Glaucoma caused by increase of pressure in eye and damages in optic nerve. Glaucoma tends to be grown and may not show until final stage. Through this system, doctors can easily identify patient’s condition quickly and do treatment. Rural people also will get advantage through this system. Glaucoma is identified through cup to disc ratio (CDR) calculation and orientation of the blood vessels in this system. For that Optical disk’s inner circle (cup) and outer circle (disc) is extracted. From that radius is calculated. The outer and inner circles are extracted by using average and maximum grey level pixels respectively with the use of histogram. Then find contours and draw circle which is best fitting the contours. The radius of cup and disc are found. After calculating CDR, the abnormal image can be found if CDR exceeds a particular threshold value. Otherwise it is normal image. The system extracts the blood vessels and through the orientation of the blood vessel glaucoma is identified

Agent-based autonomous systems and abstraction engines: Theory meets practice

We report on experiences in the development of hybrid autonomous systems where high-level decisions are made by a rational agent. This rational agent interacts with other sub-systems via an abstraction engine. We describe three systems we have developed using the EASS BDI agent programming language and framework which supports this architecture. As a result of these experiences we recommend changes to the theoretical operational semantics that underpins the EASS framework and present a fourth implementation using the new semantics

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified

Influential factors on brand equity of Trincomalee tourism destination

Destination Marketing has converted a prevalent national strategy in the globalized world gradually, and numerous countries have recognized it as one of the critical national income originators. With Pricing Strategies, Advertisement, Publicity, and Positive Word of Mouth (WOM) are some of the best tactics to achieve competitive advantage and to sustain in the market. Therefore, this research is contributing to identifying the factors that are influencing Brand Equity in Trincomalee Tourist Destination. To accomplish the goals of this research, the data was collected from the convenience sample of 60 International Tourists in Trincomalee Division. The respondents have provided the data utilizing a close-ended questionnaire. SPSS Software is used for data analysis. The results of this study indicate that the Advertisement, Publicity and WOM have positively correlated with Brand Equity except for Price. 64.6% variation of Brand Equity can be explained by Price, Advertisement, Publicity and WOM. Further analyses reveal that the Price, Publicity, Advertisement and WOM individually indicate a high level of attribution, 42% of tourists expressed neutral ideas regarding the safeness of Sri Lanka. This study provides outcomes that could be valuable to the Tourism Industry for strategic planning and to compete in this industry

Dried distillers grains with solubles as a non-forage fiber source in lactating dairy cow diets.

Dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) is a co-product of ethanol industry and traditionally fed as an alternative to soybean meal and corn. It has been recognized as an excellent source of energy, attributed to having high concentrations of digestible neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and fat. The dairy industry utilizes approximately 40 to 45% of DDGS produced in the United States. However, still there are challenges to overcome when feeding DDGS to lactating dairy cows. Greater concentrations of highly degradable non-forage fiber and polyunsaturated fatty acids and less physically effective non-forage fiber are considered as the negative qualities associated with DDGS. Five studies were conducted to overcome challenges of feeding DDGS to lactating dairy cows. The overall objectives of the all studies were to increase the efficiency of utilizing DDGS as a feed ingredient in lactating dairy cow diets and decrease the feed cost. The first study evaluated the effect of replacing starch from corn with non-forage fiber from DDGS and soybean hulls on nutrient flow to the omasum, ruminal nutrient digestibility, total tract nutrient digestibility, and nitrogen partitioning of lactating dairy cows. Results from the study suggested that when lactating dairy cows are fed DDGS to replace starch from corn, they derive energy through digesting non-forage fiber and crude fat of DDGS. The second study evaluated the effect of concentrations of forages and DDGS on production performance of lactating dairy cows. Results suggested that when lactating dairy cows were fed DDGS at 18% on DM basis with adequate forage fiber (\u3e21%), cows had greater milk production without having any adverse effects such as milk fat depression. The third study evaluated the effect of concentrations of forages and DDGS on ruminal fermentation and nutrient digestion in lactating dairy cows. This study demonstrated that DDGS had different degradation patterns and rate of passages with low and high forage concentrations. The fourth study evaluated the effects of concentrations of forages and DDGS on in situ degradability of DDGS. This study demonstrated that non-forage fiber of DDGS had less degradability with low forage diets whereas it had greater non-forage fiber degradability with high forage diets. The fifth study was conducted to evaluate the effect of DDGS on the fatty acid composition of rumen digesta and milk when fed with different forage concentrations. This study demonstrated that forage and DDGS concentrations in the diet change the fatty acid composition of rumen digesta and milk. Variations in the trans fatty acids in the milk and rumen digesta were not sufficient to explain the variations observed with milk fat concentration and yield. Finally, it was concluded that DDGS is not an effective fiber source to maintain milk fat concentration. But feeding DDGS at 18% of DM with sufficient forage fiber to lactating dairy cows maintain healthy rumen conditions and greater milk production without having any adverse effects such as milk fat depression at a lower feed cost