High performance low-energy buildings

The era of legislation and creditable methods towards producing sustainable buildings is upon us. Yet, a major barrier to achieving environmental responsive design is in the lack of available information at the programming or pre-design phases of a project. The review and evaluation of climate as well as energy-efficient strategies could be difficult to consider at these preliminary stages. Until recently, introducing energy simulation tools at the design stage has been difficult and perhaps next to impossible at a pre-design or programming stage. However, analysis of this sort is essential to &lsquo;green building rating&rsquo; or performance assessment schemes such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environment Assessment Method). This paper discusses the implementation of a particular tool, ENERGY-10, where &lsquo;basecase&rsquo; building defaults are compared to a low-energy case which has applied multiple energy-efficient strategies automatically. An annual hour-by-hour simulation provides a daylighting calculation with a subsequent thermal evaluation. Calculation results provide energy consumption, peak load equipment sizing, a RANK feature of the energy-efficient strategies, reporting of CO2, SO2 and NOx reduction, optimum glazing type as well as excellent graphic output. Consideration is given as to the approach of how such information can be introduced into the building project brief enforcing a low-energyperformance target.<br /

VLA Observations of a Complete Sample of Radio Loud Quasars between redshifts 2.5 and 5.28: I. high-redshift sample summary and the radio images

We present high resolution (arcsecond or better) observations made with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array of 123 radio-loud quasars with redshifts in the range $2.5 \leq z \leq 5.28$ that form a complete flux limited sample ($\geq 70$ mJy at 1.4 GHz or 5 GHz). Where possible, we used previous high resolution VLA observations (mainly A array at 1.4, 5 and 8 GHz) from the NRAO archive and re-imaged them (43 sources). For the remainder, new observations were made in the A array at 1.4 and 5 GHz. We show images of the 61 resolved sources, and list structural properties of all of them. Optical data from the SDSS are available for nearly every source. This work represents a significant increase in the number of high redshift quasars with published radio structures, and will be used to study the properties and evolution of luminous radio sources in the high redshift universe

Remote spectral imaging with simultaneous extraction of 3D topography for historical wall paintings

PRISMS (Portable Remote Imaging System for Multispectral Scanning) is designed for in situ, simultaneous high resolution spectral and 3D topographic imaging of wall paintings and other large surfaces. In particular, it can image at transverse resolutions of tens of microns remotely from distances of tens of metres, making high resolution imaging possible from a fixed position on the ground for areas at heights that is difficult to access. The spectral imaging system is fully automated giving 3D topographic mapping at millimetre accuracy as a by-product of the image focusing process. PRISMS is the first imaging device capable of both 3D mapping and spectral imaging simultaneously without additional distance measuring devices. Examples from applications of PRISMS to wall paintings at a UNESCO site in the Gobi desert are presented to demonstrate the potential of the instrument for large scale 3D spectral imaging, revealing faded writing and material identification

W-band waveguide-packaged InP HEMT reflection grid amplifier

This letter presents a 79-GHz broadband reflection-type grid amplifier using spatial power combining to combine the power of 64 unit cells. Each unit cell uses a two-stage cascade configuration with InP HEMTs arranged as a differential pair. A broadband orthogonal mode transducer (OMT) separates two orthogonally polarized input and output signals over a 75 to 85GHz range. In conjunction with the OMT, a mode converter with quadruple-ridged apertures was designed to enhance the field uniformity over the active grid. Measurements show 5-dB small signal gain at 79GHz and an 800-MHz 3-dB bandwidth. The amplifier generates an output power of 264mW with little evidence of saturation

An integral inequality of an intrinsic measure on bounded domains in Cn

published_or_final_versio

The Royal Free Hospital score: a calibrated prognostic model for patients with cirrhosis admitted to intensive care unit. Comparison with current models and CLIF-SOFA score

Prognosis for patients with cirrhosis admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) is poor. ICU prognostic models are more accurate than liver-specific models. We identified predictors of mortality, developed a novel prognostic score (Royal Free Hospital (RFH) score), and tested it against established prognostic models and the yet unvalidated Chronic Liver Failure-Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (CLIF-SOFA) model

Responses of plasma concentrations of A type natriuretic peptide and B type natriuretic peptide to alacepril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, in patients with congestive heart failure [4]

This article has 2 parts, letter by Bernard Cheung and the reply by Michihiro Yoshimurapublished_or_final_versio

Comment on "Peierls Gap in Mesoscopic Ring Threated by a Magnetic Flux"

In a recent letter, Yi et al. PRL 78, 3523 (1997), have considered the stability of a Charge Density Wave in a one-dimensional ring, in the presence of an Aharonov-Bohm flux. This comment shows that, in one dimension, the stability of the Charge Density Wave depends on the parity of the number of electrons in the ring. This effect is similar to the parity effect known for the persistent current in one-dimensional rings.Comment: Latex, 1 page, 2 figure