Managing performance design of smart homes

Smart homes are considered a vital technology in an aging society as they compensate for a shortage in care workers. However, often smart homes do not perform well. Performance management is well known in the manufacturing industry but not common in the building industry. The performance approach is the practice of thinking and working in terms of ends rather than means. It is concerned with what a building or a building product is required to do, and not with prescribing how it is to be constructed. Performance based building (PBB) includes amongst others functional briefing and performance assessments. However, an overview of tasks in PBB is lacking and the principle has not yet been applied to smart homes. Aim of this research is to contribute to performance management in the construction of health smart homes by identifying tasks and proposing a task assignment. Tasks are identified by studying the extended reporting of the Performance Based Building Network (PeBBu). In conclusion we may say that PBB of health smart homes primarily differs from traditional building in the way tasks are performed. PBB demands that the client does not design (specify how to build) but restricts himself to specifying why he wants and why he wants it. PBB also demands that the designers and contractors are selected on both price and capabilities. Besides these alterations in how tasks are performed merely two tasks are added. These are the verification of the realized design and the monitoring of performance of the building in use

Why national narratives are perpetuated: A literature review on new insights from history textbook research

National narratives have often served to mobilize the masses for war by providing myths and distorted interpretations of the past, while conversely wars were major sources for producing national narratives. Because national history is very likely to remain a central topic in history education, albeit in ways that differ from how the topic was used fifty years ago, it is important to gain a greater understanding of the underlying structures and mechanisms of these narratives in history textbooks. After outlining the historical interconnectedness of the emerging nation states and history teaching, this review article explains the complexity of the history textbook as an educational resource. Next, we identify some current problems and challenges in history textbook research. We continue by discussing promising research trends related mainly to national narratives, such as the analysis of images, the use of digital tools, and studies of the autonomy of textbook narratives and of history textbooks in relation to other media. Another recent reorientation is textbook research that uses a holistic approach. By this we mean studies that examine the history textbook as a whole: composition, periodization, visual intertextuality and chapters that do not at first glance appear to focus on national history. These studies offer new insights and explanations for the perpetuation of national narratives in history textbooks

Monitoring mosselzaadinvang met MZI Wieringen in Waddenzee 2008

In de Waddenzee is in 2008 een experiment uitgevoerd ten behoeve van verbreding van kennis over mosselzaadinvang (MZI) op de percelen Wieringen 36 en 37. Hierbij is gebruik gemaakt van twee op de bodem geplaatste kooiconstructies met daarin collectortouwen die het zaad in kunnen vangen. Doel van het project is het onderzoeken van de mogelijkheden voor mosselinvang met behulp van speciaal ontwikkelde kooiconstructies met ‘fuzzy rope’ touw als collectoren. Hierbij is door Wageningen IMARES de invangcapaciteit, invangefficiëntie en groei-efficiëntie op de collectortouwen bepaald en zijn het aantal mossellarven in het water gemonitord. Een ander doel voor de ondernemer was ervaring opdoen met het plaatsten en oogsten van de installatie. Verder zijn observaties van en door de kweker gerapporteerd; dit betreft (1) de oogst, (2) de aanwezigheid van vogels en zeezoogdieren en (3) de visuele kenmerken van de invangsystemen, waarbij de landschappelijke effecten met behulp van foto’s in beeld zijn gebracht. Voor effecten op bodem en bodemfauna wordt gerefereerd aan het PRODUS project. De gekozen locatie is geschikt voor mosselzaadinvang; dit blijkt uit de aanwezigheid van schelpdierlarven in het water en schelpdierbroed en -zaad op de touwen. Ook de constructie is technisch/biologisch geschikt voor zaadinvan