Harm A. Weber academic center, post-occupancy building performance and comfort perceptions

The Weber Center at Judson University, a mixed mode, naturally ventilated building in a continental climate, has been in operation for just over a year, with initial occupancy in August 2007. This paper compares the design objectives and building performance expectations against the first year of actual energy consumption in a first of a series of post-occupancy evaluations. The paper contrasts the building performance with general user satisfaction and perceptions of comfort through a post- occupancy evaluation of user surveys and interviews. The innovations involved in this building, particularly mechanical strategies atypical in contemporary practice within this climate and region, have introduced some interesting problems that have been documented in the post-occupancy evaluation process, while confirming many of the original intentions of the design

Harm A. Weber academic center, post-occupancy building performance and comfort perceptions

The Weber Center at Judson University, a mixed mode, naturally ventilated building in a continental climate, has been in operation for just over a year, with initial occupancy in August 2007. This paper compares the design objectives and building performance expectations against the first yearof actual energy consumption in a first of a series of post-occupancy evaluations. The paper contrasts the building performance with general user satisfaction and perceptions of comfort through a post occupancy evaluation of user surveys and interviews. The innovations involved in this building, particularly mechanical strategies atypical in contemporary practice within this climate and region, have introduced some interesting problems that have been documented in the post-occupancy evaluation process, while confirming many of the original intentions of the design

A highly virulent variant of HIV-1 circulating in the Netherlands.

We discovered a highly virulent variant of subtype-B HIV-1 in the Netherlands. One hundred nine individuals with this variant had a 0.54 to 0.74 log <sub>10</sub> increase (i.e., a ~3.5-fold to 5.5-fold increase) in viral load compared with, and exhibited CD4 cell decline twice as fast as, 6604 individuals with other subtype-B strains. Without treatment, advanced HIV-CD4 cell counts below 350 cells per cubic millimeter, with long-term clinical consequences-is expected to be reached, on average, 9 months after diagnosis for individuals in their thirties with this variant. Age, sex, suspected mode of transmission, and place of birth for the aforementioned 109 individuals were typical for HIV-positive people in the Netherlands, which suggests that the increased virulence is attributable to the viral strain. Genetic sequence analysis suggests that this variant arose in the 1990s from de novo mutation, not recombination, with increased transmissibility and an unfamiliar molecular mechanism of virulence

A highly virulent variant of HIV-1 circulating in the Netherlands

We discovered a highly virulent variant of subtype-B HIV-1 in the Netherlands. One hundred nine individuals with this variant had a 0.54 to 0.74 log10 increase (i.e., a ~3.5-fold to 5.5-fold increase) in viral load compared with, and exhibited CD4 cell decline twice as fast as, 6604 individuals with other subtype-B strains. Without treatment, advanced HIV-CD4 cell counts below 350 cells per cubic millimeter, with long-term clinical consequences-is expected to be reached, on average, 9 months after diagnosis for individuals in their thirties with this variant. Age, sex, suspected mode of transmission, and place of birth for the aforementioned 109 individuals were typical for HIV-positive people in the Netherlands, which suggests that the increased virulence is attributable to the viral strain. Genetic sequence analysis suggests that this variant arose in the 1990s from de novo mutation, not recombination, with increased transmissibility and an unfamiliar molecular mechanism of virulence