Frobenius submanifolds

The notion of a Frobenius submanifold - a submanifold of a Frobenius manifold which is itself a Frobenius manifold with respect to structures induced from the original manifold - is studied. Two dimensional submanifolds are particularly simple. More generally, sufficient conditions are given for a submanifold to be a so-called natural submanifold. These ideas are illustrated using examples of Frobenius manifolds constructed from Coxeter groups, and for the Frobenius manifolds governing the quantum cohomology of CP^2 and CP^1 \times CP^1.Comment: 23 pages. LaTeX 2

Overview of building simulation in Europe

Slides from a presentation which provides and overview of building simulation in Europe

Teaching employability skills through simulation games

This paper examines the use of a business simulation game to test its effectiveness in promoting the awareness of employability skills in undergraduate students. A mixed approach using an-online survey tool was used to record student perceptions of how their employability skills were developed across ten courses and three faculties. The survey was conducted before the unit started, and on completion. Key emerging themes show that students demonstrated an increased awareness and development of their employability skills. They acquired and developed their skills by learning how to operate a small business start-up using a business simulation game. This research project was limited to one core unit in the curriculum, and the project is university specific. A cross university research project would add further value to the research project. Students are able to articulate the skills they have acquired and developed thus showing elements of self-awareness. An increase in student’s social capital is likely to enhance their career decisions. This paper will be of value to institutions wishing to evaluate the use of serious business simulation games to embed employability skills into the curriculum

Jordan manifolds and dispersionless KdV equations

Multicomponent KdV-systems are defined in terms of a set of structure constants and, as shown by Svinolupov, if these define a Jordan algebra the corresponding equations may be said to be integrable, at least in the sense of having higher-order symmetries, recursion operators and hierarchies of conservation laws. In this paper the dispersionless limits of these Jordan KdV equations are studied, under the assumptions that the Jordan algebra has a unity element and a compatible non-degenerate inner product. Much of this structure may be encoded in a so-called Jordan manifold, akin to a Frobenius manifold. In particular the Hamiltonian properties of these systems are investigated

Frobenius Manifolds: Natural submanifolds and induced bi-Hamiltonian structures

Submanifolds of Frobenius manifolds are studied. In particular, so-called natural submanifolds are defined and, for semi-simple Frobenius manifolds, classified. These carry the structure of a Frobenius algebra on each tangent space, but will, in general, be curved. The induced curvature is studied, a main result being that these natural submanifolds carry a induced pencil of compatible metrics. It is then shown how one may constrain the bi-Hamiltonian hierarchies associated to a Frobenius manifold to live on these natural submanifolds whilst retaining their, now non-local, bi-Hamiltonian structure.Comment: 27 Pages, LaTeX, 1 figur

Simulation support for performance assessment of building components

The determination of performance metrics for novel building components requires that the tests are conducted in the outdoor environment. It is usually difficult to do this when the components are located in a full-scale building because of the difficulty in controlling the experiments. Test cells allow the components to be tested in realistic, but controlled, conditions. High-quality outdoor experiments and identification analysis methods can be used to determine key parameters that quantify performance. This is important for achieving standardised metrics that characterise the building component of interest, whether it is a passive solar component such as a ventilated window, or an active component such as a hybrid photovoltaic module. However, such testing and analysis does not determine how the building component will perform when placed in a real building in a particular location and climate. For this, it is necessary to model the whole building with and without the building component of interest. A procedure has been developed, and applied within several major European projects, that consists of calibrating a simulation model with high-quality data from the outdoor tests and then applying scaling and replication to one or more buildings and locations to determine performance in practice of building components. This paper sets out the methodology that has been developed and applied in these European projects. A case study is included demonstrating its application to the performance evaluation of hybrid photovoltaic modules

Editorial: Pacific education: research and practice.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Tanya Wendt Samu on the call for teachers to be responsive to the diversities between group of learners as well as within groups of learners and another by Fran Cahill on the discussion of the difficulties that Samoan adolescents have in living within the traditional Samoan culture of home

Deformations of the Monge/Riemann hierarchy and approximately integrable systems

Dispersive deformations of the Monge equation u_u=uu_x are studied using ideas originating from topological quantum field theory and the deformation quantization programme. It is shown that, to a high-order, the symmetries of the Monge equation may also be appropriately deformed, and that, if they exist at all orders, they are uniquely determined by the original deformation. This leads to either a new class of integrable systems or to a rigorous notion of an approximate integrable system. Quasi-Miura transformations are also constructed for such deformed equations.Comment: 9 pages LaTe

An engineering approach to modelling of dynamic insulation using ESP-r

The use of Dynamic Insulation (DI) can enable recovery of conduction heat loss through a building envelope. This is an active process that allows air to move through the fabric against the temperature gradient. Additionally it promises better indoor air quality, primarily due to filtration properties of the construction material [11]. This paper is concerned with quantifying the energy savings and enhancement of human comfort if this technology is integrated into a building. To ascertain the impact of the technology on whole-building performance, it is necessary to undertake detailed dynamic modelling. A suitable building and plant simulation computer tool (ESP-r) was employed to do this. A technique for modelling the dynamic insulation was developed and validated against known analytical solutions. A full-size test house was then simulated, in the UK climate, with and without DI. Comparative results show that better thermal comfort and energy savings are possible with the use of DI. The results obtained have been translated into suggestions for best practice

History and development of validation with the ESP-r simulation program

It is well recognised that validation of dynamic building simulation programs is a long-term complex task. There have been many large national and international efforts that have led to a well-established validation methodology comprising analytical, inter-program comparison and empirical validation elements, and a significant number of tests have been developed. As simulation usage increases, driven by such initiatives as the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, such tests are starting to be incorporated into national and international standards. Although many program developers have run many of the developed tests, there does not appear to have been a systematic attempt to incorporate such tests into routine operation of the simulation programs. This paper reports work undertaken to address this deficiency. The paper summarizes the tests that have been applied to the simulation program ESP-r. These tests have been developed within International Energy Agency Annexes, within CEN standards, within various large-scale national projects, and by the UK's Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. The structure used to encapsulate the tests allows developers to ensure that recent code modifications have not resulted in unforeseen impacts on program predictions, and allows users to check for themselves against benchmarks