Sensitivity of night cooling performance to room/system design: surrogate models based on CFD

Night cooling, especially in offices, attracts growing interest. Unfortunately, building designers face considerable problems with the case-specific convective heat transfer by night. The BES programs they use actually need extra input, from either costly experiments or CFD simulations. Alternatively, up-front research on how to engineer best a generic night cooled office – as in this work – can thrust the application of night cooling. A fully automated configuration of data sampling, geometry/grid generation, CFD solving and surrogate modelling, generates several surrogate models. These models relate the convective heat flow in a night cooled landscape office to the ventilation concept, mass distribution, geometry and driving force for convective heat transfer. The results indicate that cases with a thermally massive floor have the highest night cooling performance

Evolution of energy performance of houses and the interaction with energy performance regulation: an analysis of the Flemish EPBD-database

Energy performance regulations for buildings are continuously updated. Projections within the future are being made, fixing now what will be the standards for new buildings for the following decades. The construction sector itself is also evolving, trying not only to follow those new rules, but often trying to look ahead, developing, testing and launching today the prototypes of tomorrow’s buildings and components. To optimise public and private decision making, one has to analyse both the current status as well as the ongoing evolutions and the interactions between the market and the regulatory framework. Within this scope, analyses are conducted in Flanders on the EPBD-database, which contains detailed data on all new residential buildings since 2006. The analysis presented in this paper shows the impact and importance of specific regulations and incentives. In spite of the tightening regulations, huge discrepancies remain visible between a small yet increasing group of low energy, and passive house ‘pioneers’ and premium hunters, as opposed to a trailing group, flirting with the legally imposed limits. The analysis of the data therefore proves the role of as well as some challenges for future decision making, while quantifying the real status and evolutions of the building sector

Crossing geographical, legal and moral boundaries: the Belgian cigarette black market

Objectives: To describe and analyse the cigarette smuggling trade in Belgium and its role in the international cigarette black market. Design: Analysis of Belgian customs and prosecution files concerning the cigarette smuggling trade in the period 2000 to 2006 and interviews with law enforcement authorities and private tobacco industry. Results: Analyses were made of the geographical aspects, the modus operandi and the participants of the cigarette smuggling trade in Belgium. Belgium is mainly a transit country. The cigarettes are transported via the fine-meshed Belgian highway network to the UK, which is often the destination country of the cigarettes. China is the most popular country of origin, especially for counterfeited cigarettes. In order to transport the cigarettes often use was made of legal transport companies and warehouses were frequently used to store the cigarettes. Many of the persons involved in the Belgian cigarette smuggling trade are strongly connected to legitimate business activities. Conclusions: Belgium is an important transit country for cigarette smuggling to the UK. This study pictures the illicit tobacco trade as a complex, ambiguous phenomenon involving several legal and illegal participants whereby the transit of cigarettes across the licit/illicit divide is paralleled by the moral careers of those who smuggle them, not to mention those who consume them. From the legal world to the illegal and back again, this trade and its practitioners and customers blur the line between criminality and non- criminality. Dealing with this phenomenon therefore requires more than a strategy focusing on these lawbreakers alone

Assessing physiological response mechanisms and the role of psychosocial job resources in the physical activity health paradox : study protocol for the Flemish Employees' Physical Activity (FEPA) study

Background: In the current labour system many workers are still exposed to heavy physical demands during their job. In contrast to leisure time physical activity (LTPA), occupational physical activity (OPA) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality, termed the physical activity (PA) health paradox. In order to gain more insight into the PA health paradox, an exploration of structural preventive measures at the workplace is needed and therefore objective field measurements are highly recommended. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the protocol of the Flemish Employees' Physical Activity (FEPA) study, including objective measurements of PA, heart rate (HR) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) to gain more insight into the PA health paradox. Methods: A total of 401 workers participated in the FEPA study across seven companies in the service and production sector in Belgium. The participants comprised 167 men and 234 women, aged 20 to 65years. OPA and LTPA were assessed by two Axivity AX3 accelerometers on the thigh and upper back. Ambulatory HR was measured by the Faros eMotion 90 degrees monitor. Both devices were worn during two to four consecutive working days. In addition, CRF was estimated by using the Harvard Step Test. Statistical analyses will be performed using Pearson correlation, and multiple regression adjusted for possible confounders. Discussion: This study aims to provide a better insight in the PA health paradox and the possible buffering factors by using valid and objective measurements of PA and HR (both during LTPA and OPA) over multiple working days. The results of the study can contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular disease by providing tailored recommendations for participants with high levels of OPA and by disseminating the results and recommendations to workplaces, policy makers and occupational health practitioners

Turbulence consideration on wind resource assessment : state of the art

Nowadays, the interest on turbulence effect related to wind turbines has extensively growth within the wind energy community. Turbulence and wind shear are essential characteristic of wind, which can provide indications about the behavior of wind itself. It is well-know that a slight variance in wind speed generate large deviation in the output energy of wind turbine because of the cubic relationship between wind velocity and power output. Although, the phenomenon of turbulence is still not complete solved, both in terms of mathematical and intuitive understanding, the practical implications of this issue have encouraged multiple efforts at turbulence predictions by any reasonable approach. The present study is an attempt to pull together current finding related to the effect of turbulent loading on the wind turbine performance assessments. Accordingly, an exhaustive compilation regarding the issue of turbulence on wind resource assessment and a comprehensive literature review covering the different methodologies considering the subject within wind turbine application are presented. The issue of turbulence is discussed focusing on the wind speeds from various directions. Furthermore, the study presents a preliminary overview of the state of the art of the numerical calculation of wind-turbine aerodynamics. Moreover, a comprehensive examination of the status of research around turbulence treatment on wind turbine applications is presented. Hence the relevance of considering turbulence on wind resource assessment and the techniques and methods used for it are highlighted

The music industry on (the) line? Surviving music piracy in a digital era

After successive years of growth during the 1990s, decreasing compact disc sales have been plaguing the music industry since 2000. Although several other reasons have been cited to explain the decline in sales, the music industry mainly puts the blame on physical and digital piracy. This article discusses both opportunities and challenges for the industry to survive in the digital era. Besides an analysis of the contemporary piracy problem, the industry is scanned for vulnerabilities with particular attention for organised crime involvement. The digitalisation of the music environment and the emergence of file sharing activities have pushed the industry towards on line music distribution. It is argued that this digital evolution and shift in business plan are beneficial to the reduction of organised crime involvement in the music industry

Implementation of non-invasive prenatal testing by semiconductor sequencing in a genetic laboratory

Objectives: To implement non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for fetal aneuploidies with semiconductor sequencing in an academic cytogenomic laboratory and to evaluate the first 15-month experience on clinical samples. Methods: We validated a NIPT protocol for cell-free fetal DNA sequencing from maternal plasma for the detection of trisomy 13, 18 and 21 on a semiconductor sequencing instrument. Fetal DNA fraction calculation for all samples and several quality parameters were implemented in the workflow. One thousand eighty-one clinical NIPT samples were analysed, following the described protocol. Results: Non-invasive prenatal testing was successfully implemented and validated on 201 normal and 74 aneuploid samples. From 1081 clinical samples, 17 samples showed an abnormal result: 14 trisomy 21 samples, one trisomy 18 and one trisomy 16 were detected. Also a maternal copy number variation on chromosome 13 was observed, which could potentially lead to a false positive trisomy 13 result. One sex discordant result was reported, possibly attributable to a vanishing twin. Moreover, our combined fetal fraction calculation enabled a more reliable risk estimate for trisomy 13, 18 and 21. Conclusions: Non-invasive prenatal testing for trisomy 21, 18 and 13 has a very high specificity and sensitivity. Because of several biological phenomena, diagnostic invasive confirmation of abnormal results remains required