Evaluating Tradeoffs Between Hazard-Resistance and Environmental Impacts: a Multi-Criteria Approach to Building Design and Life Cycle Performance

Principles of green building design and hazard-resistant design are often employed individually to enhance building performance, but for different objectives and evaluated with different units of measurement. At a fundamental level, however, hazard resistant design and green building design are motivated by shared principles and evaluated with shared assessment tools, although often with outcomes presented in different units of measurement. The goal of this research is to quantify the influence of hazard resistant design principles on green building performance&mdash;namely, life cycle environmental impact&mdash;and, conversely, to quantify the influence of green building design principles on hazard resilience, focused here on seismic performance. This dissertation represents a compilation of three studies that combine to evaluate and quantify how a) structural design principles for hazard resistance influence life cycle environmental impacts of a building and b) principles of green building design influence building hazard-resistance. Each chapter examines the life cycle environmental impacts and seismic performance of a series of code-conforming, reinforced concrete office buildings in southern Los Angeles, varied with respect to non-structural green building features, structural frame and member configurations, and structural concrete properties. When taken together, the results of each study provide insight into the tradeoffs and synergies between life cycle hazard performance and environmental impact. The results also support broader goals for the intersection of hazard-resistant and green design, not limited in application to buildings (nor only reinforced concrete as a structural material). A key methodological contribution of this dissertation is development of an innovative approach that transforms building component damage fragilities into specific material volumes for post-hazard component restoration and then translates these material quantities into distributions of post-hazard environmental impacts. Finally, this dissertation applies the concepts of multi-objective analysis and life cycle assessment to evaluate the multi-metric, systems-based nature of building design, construction, operation, and performance in the 21st century.</p

Evaluating Tradeoffs Between Hazard-Resistance and Environmental Impacts: a Multi-Criteria Approach to Building Design and Life Cycle Performance

Principles of green building design and hazard-resistant design are often employed individually to enhance building performance, but for different objectives and evaluated with different units of measurement. At a fundamental level, however, hazard resistant design and green building design are motivated by shared principles and evaluated with shared assessment tools, although often with outcomes presented in different units of measurement. The goal of this research is to quantify the influence of hazard resistant design principles on green building performance—namely, life cycle environmental impact—and, conversely, to quantify the influence of green building design principles on hazard resilience, focused here on seismic performance. This dissertation represents a compilation of three studies that combine to evaluate and quantify how a) structural design principles for hazard resistance influence life cycle environmental impacts of a building and b) principles of green building design influence building hazard-resistance. Each chapter examines the life cycle environmental impacts and seismic performance of a series of code-conforming, reinforced concrete office buildings in southern Los Angeles, varied with respect to non-structural green building features, structural frame and member configurations, and structural concrete properties. When taken together, the results of each study provide insight into the tradeoffs and synergies between life cycle hazard performance and environmental impact. The results also support broader goals for the intersection of hazard-resistant and green design, not limited in application to buildings (nor only reinforced concrete as a structural material). A key methodological contribution of this dissertation is development of an innovative approach that transforms building component damage fragilities into specific material volumes for post-hazard component restoration and then translates these material quantities into distributions of post-hazard environmental impacts. Finally, this dissertation applies the concepts of multi-objective analysis and life cycle assessment to evaluate the multi-metric, systems-based nature of building design, construction, operation, and performance in the 21st century

Seismic Vulnerability of Hillside Buildings in Northeast India

In northeast India, rapid urbanization and limited available land leads to the construction of multi-story, reinforced concrete frames with masonry infill walls on steep hillsides with weak soils. This thesis analyzes the seismic performance of archetypical hillside reinforced concrete buildings with stepped foundations in Aizawl, Mizoram using the results of incremental dynamic analysis to quantify collapse risk and identify potential failure mechanisms. The findings show that shear critical columns exacerbate structural vulnerabilities created by stepped hillside configurations. In an earthquake, structural failure likely will begin with axial failure of the half-length base columns at the top of the slope, followed by sequential failures in downslope columns. Collapse is predicted to occur from exceedance of column shear capacity in stories supported by half-length columns on stepped, not flat, foundations. The findings demonstrate that improved column shear capacity and above-code detailing may mitigate the seismic vulnerability of Aizawl’s hillside reinforced concrete buildings

Virus-like particles: A flexible platform for universal influenza vaccine development

Human influenza remains a global public health threat, namely due to its evolutionary adaptability, which hinders effective prevention. Vaccination is currently the predominant tool in the prevention of infectious disease. However, current production methods for influenza vaccines are not only logistically inadequate in the face of a pandemic, but also rely on targeting two surface proteins on the influenza virus, which are prone to antigenic drift. As a consequence, a new vaccine needs to be developed for each new seasonal epidemic. Additionally, the vaccine strain needs to be selected around eight months prior to administration and can often be mismatched leaving the population unprotected. A ‘universal’ vaccine, effective irrespective of the surface proteins, would be desirable to offer cross-protectivity across strains. Tandem core virus-like particles (VLPs), expressed in methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris, are an exciting alternative to current manufacturing methods. VLPs, due to their inherent safety profile and advances in genetic engineering, have excellent potential both as standalone vaccines for the virus from which they are derived, or as platforms for the display of foreign antigens. The hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) is able to spontaneously self-assemble, forming icosahedral particles that are inherently immunogenic. Moreover, the HBcAg is capable of carrying antigen inserts in the major insertion region (MIR) which are displayed on the particle surface. In order for VLPs to be considered a viable alternative, their bioprocessing must be optimized. Currently, various issues are at play including problems with formation, solubility and immunogenicity, often clone dependent. In this work, two genetically linked HBcAg monomers, carrying different inserts in the MIR, were used to study the effects on fermentation efficiencies using two different induction strategies. Rationalizing an induction strategy would enable the development of an efficient process to produce and purify VLPs. Results indicate that increased biomass is not always synonymous with increased protein expression. Moreover, protein expression and solubility appear to be linked with the complexity of the inserts displayed on the VLP surface. The aim of this work is to improve the bioprocessing of VLPs in a microbial expression system, using tandem core technology. This proposed method is cheap and rapidly scalable, reduces the cost per dose and eliminates the long production timelines associated with current manufacturing. The very nature of VLPs and the comparable ease of production would enable this to be promoted as a platform process, for a myriad of disease targets

Estimates of genetic parameters of distal limb fracture and superficial digital flexor tendon injury in UK Thoroughbred racehorses

A retrospective cohort study of distal limb fracture and superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) injury in Thoroughbred racehorses was conducted using health records generated by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) between 2000 and 2010. After excluding records of horses that had both flat and jump racing starts, repeated records were reduced to a single binary record per horse (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 66,507, 2982 sires), and the heritability of each condition was estimated using residual maximum likelihood (REML) with animal logistic regression models. Similarly, the heritability of each condition was estimated for the flat racing and jump racing populations separately. Bivariate mixed models were used to generate estimates of genetic correlations between SDFT injury and distal limb fracture. The heritability of distal limb fracture ranged from 0.21 to 0.37. The heritability of SDFT injury ranged from 0.31 to 0.34. SDFT injury and distal limb fracture were positively genetically correlated. These findings suggest that reductions in the risk of the conditions studied could be attempted using targeted breeding strategies

Early modern Oxford bindings in twenty-first century markup

Purpose – The Bodleian Binders Book contains nearly 150 pages of seventeenth century library records, revealing information about the binders used by the library and the thousands of bindings they produced. The purpose of this paper is to explore a pilot project to survey and record bindings information contained in the Binders Book. Design/methodology/approach – A sample size of seven pages (91 works, 65 identifiable bindings) to develop a methodology for surveying and recording bindings listed in the manuscript. To create a successful product that would be useful to bindings researchers, it addressed questions of bindings terminology and the role of the library in the knowledge creation process within the context that text encoding is changing the landscape of library functions. Text encoding formats were examined, and a basic TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) transcription was produced. This facilitates tagging of names and titles and the display of transcriptions with text images. Findings – Encoding was found not only to make the manuscript content more accessible, but to allow for the construction of new knowledge: characteristic Oxford binding traits were revealed and bindings were matched to binders. Plans for added functionality were formed. Originality/value – This research presents a “big picture” analysis of Oxford bindings as a result of text encoding and the foundation for qualitative and statistical analysis. It exemplifies the benefits of interdisciplinary methods – in this case from Digital Humanities – to enhance access to and interpretation of specialist materials and the library's provenance record

Technology and the Glass Imagination: Isolation and Closeness from the Window to the Screen

In computer and cell phone screens, as in 19th-century architecture, glass employs a frame to show a specific picture, and keeps us at a distance from what lies behind it. Glass\u27 dichotomies in technology (transparency and reflection, isolation and closeness) have become stronger metaphors for our experience with technology. This paper will look at the similarities between the language and metaphors created by glass in 19th-century architecture and 21st century technology, and glass\u27 role in connecting us to and alienating us from the world \u27outside.\u27 In so doing, the role of glass in the imagination and its impact on modernity will be explored through the lens of Charles Baudelaire\u27s Paris Spleen and Walter Benjamin\u27s Arcades Project. Paying due attention to the historical and psychological theories of the screen from Anne Friedberg and Sherry Turkle, and incorporating Isobel Armstrong\u27s literary and material history of glass, this paper will then explore glass\u27 impact as an instrument of technology. The unique properties of glass have impacted the future and the imagination, always transforming how we interact with the [virtual] world. Glass is now, more than ever, both connecting us to and distancing us from our surroundings