Energy-Efficient-Homes : Designing energy-efficient architecture in an urban context

Zugl. erschienen in: Energy Efficient Housing for Iran : Pilot Buildings in Hashtgerd New Town. - Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013 (Young Cities Research Paper Series ; 4) http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus-39369 Zugleich gedruckt veröffentlicht im Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin unter der ISBN 978-3-7983-2565-4.The concept for the Energy- Efficient- Homes is part of a holistic approach to develop urban structures with energy-saving features, high quality, low carbon emissions and affordable costs for middle and lower income classes. The process of developing this concept includes a design for energy-efficient housing in an Iranian new town project with potential for mitigation in the region and climate adaptation. The method of developing a spatial concept according to the energy-relevant aspects of urban and architectural morphology and integrating it into the socio-cultural context of the “Shahre Javan Community”, the pilot settlement in Hashtgerd New Town, is designed to provide an economic strategy for a practical basic energy standard that has been adapted to the region. The courtyard housing scheme of the Energy- Efficient- Homes shows a new development derived from the vernacular approach of spatial hierarchy considering the major morphological aspects of orientation and compactness. With the use of new technologies for energy efficiency, this basic standard of spatial organisation and design can also be upgraded to meet higher standards. The chosen research methodology for the Energy-Efficient-Homes is performed for a residential pilot project in the “Shahre Javan Community”. To ensure the appropriateness to the pilot project, the methods of research are integrated in a planning process. The method suitable for combining scientific and planning results is the research-by-design process. In a systematic work process, the findings of a general approach and specific design allow for the evaluation and definition of further steps. By applying this scenario-specific methodology for architectural and urban design supposition, that have been obtained from a general approach, to real planning situations, the assessment can be performed on different scales. Finally, the results gathered in the design process are used to revise the formulation of the initial approach. The findings of the design and research process for the Energy-Efficient-Homes are transferred to a final design proposal for an urban unit in the pilot area. By transforming the design and adaptation measures from the typological approach into a specific design scenario, the challenges for the practical application of such a general approach can be weighted and evaluated. Furthermore, the realistic scenario serves as a basis for cost estimations, energy simulations and constructional detailing. Architectural models and drawings are used to define a standard for materials and energy objectives. The definition of adaptive design measures out of the research and planning process and the identification of urban, architectural and technical elements for developing the Energy-Efficient-Homes led to a distinction between a Basic Principle and possible Upgrades. This categorisation helps to define different standards as well as a scientific basis for the planning process of energy-efficient housing in the region. The Basic Principle is the design strategy for energy-efficient architecture and urban design from a spatial approach without any additional technical demands. It contains all planning and design measures to increase energy efficiency through the spatial configuration, such as building orientation and compactness, site suitability and cultural context. It can be seen as a low-cost approach and defines a minimum standard for energy efficiency in the Middle East. The upgrading measures include possibilities to raise the standard of the basic principle. Supplementary technologies can be integrated into the spatial approach. Possible Upgrades include simple mechanical elements for light and energy guidance, such as sun-shutters, furthermore the use of the ground temperature by means of earth tubes and a concept of heat exchangers, and finally the application of higher technological materials, such as photovoltaic fabrics to generate supplementary energy. The measures are characterized by a planning dimension as well as a technological and economic dimension. The choice of upgrading measure is dependent on the economic and technological context. The upgrade defines the standard for maximum energy efficiency in the region

Energy Efficient Housing for Iran : Pilot Buildings in Hashtgerd New Town

Zugleich gedruckt erschienen im Universitätsverlag der Technischen Universität Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2528-9, ISSN 2193-6099This volume introduces a cost-neutral method to reduce the energy demand of residential buildings in the climatic conditions of the Tehran region. "Architectural Energy Efficiency" describes how the energy demand of residential buildings can be lowered through a conscious and intelligent design. It indicates the high energy saving potential that can be achieved through architectural design and introduces different measures to minimise energy consumption in dwellings in this particular climate region. Furthermore, it presents the designs of three different housing estates called "New Generation Residential Pilot Projects". The main objective of these pilot projects is energy efficiency; however, the aim is to achieve further benefits including high quality architecture, flexibility, low-carbon emissions, affordability as well as cultural and social adaptation. Energy efficiency as the main objective is effected within these pilot building complexes through a conscious design. Due to the fact that these schemes are developed by different groups and each has its own specific targets, the results present different approaches to achieve the high quality, energy and cost-efficient architecture. The research on how to reach energy efficiency through architectural measures, as well as the design of different energy-efficient residential complexes, is intended to raise awareness among responsible institutions, decision makers, investors as well as the general public for energy-efficient architecture, especially in cases where efficiency is simply achieved through climate-responsive design. When the pilot projects are implemented in Tehran’s research area, the buildings created according to the Young Cities’ research and design activities will certainly arouse public interest and quickly become everyday practice within the region

Different forms of workplace bullying involvement and its link to personality, power, social status and well-being

Workplace bullying research is dominated by a victim perspective that is investigated with variable-centered approaches. Thus, we know little about the interplay of bullying exposure and perpetration. The current study employs a person-centered approach to identify employees that show different patterns of workplace bullying involvement. Moreover, the current study aims to identify predictors and outcomes of latent class membership. Self-reported online survey data were collected among employees with different working backgrounds (N = 1,492) via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Latent class analysis revealed four classes, i.e., (1) mild bullying involvement, (2) bully-victims (3) non-involved and (4) victims. These classes were meaningfully linked with the big five dimensions, trait aggression, dominance, power and social status, as well as vigor and burnout. Specifically, bully-victims scored high on extraversion, neuroticism, trait aggression, dominance, power, burnout and low on status, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and vigor. Victims on the other hand scored also high on neuroticism and – compared with non-involved – lower on agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness and higher on trait aggression, dominance and burnout. Victims showed the lowest levels of extraversion and status. Scholars and policy makers need to be aware of different patterns of being involved in workplace bullying in order to create effective interventions

Patterns of workplace bullying involvement and its link to personality, power and social status

Just like many school aggression researchers (see the review of studies in Olivier et al., 2021), many scholars investigating workplace bullying assume the existence of types of involved employees. Commonly, scholars distinguish four types of employees: Uninvolved employees, victims, perpetrator, and provocative victims (also called ‘bully-victims’; e.g., Zapf & Einarsen, 2020). So far, empirical evidence supporting such a typology is lacking so far. Studies on workplace bullying mostly focused solely on the victim perspective (Einarsen et al., 2020; see also the review of studies in Gupta et al., 2020) and only a handful of studies investigate the perpetrator perspective (see the enumerated studies in Nielsen & Einarsen, 2018). Only a few studies include both perspectives (e.g., Fernández-del-Río et al., 2021; Sischka et al., 2021). However, these studies applied a variable-centered approach and treated workplace bullying exposure and perpetration as separate variables. Thus, they leave us somewhat in the dark with respect to the existence of the aforementioned typology. The current study employs a person-centered approach (i.e., latent class modelling) to identify groups of employees that show different patterns of workplace bullying involvement. Moreover, the current study aims to identify predictors of group membership. We investigate the individual disposition hypothesis (Nielsen & Einarsen, 2018), assuming that individual characteristics such as personality traits may be related to being involved in bullying and could therefore be typifying features of workplace bullying groups. Moreover, according to some researchers in workplace bullying, individual characteristics such as certain personality traits (big five dimensions, trait aggression, dominance) are particularly appropriate to identify and distinguish workplace bullying subgroups (Matthiesen & Einarsen, 2007; see also Nielsen et al., 2017). On the other hand, power and social status represent enabling structures (Salin, 2003) of workplace bullying, and power imbalance is often seen as a defining feature of workplace bullying (Einarsen et al., 2020). Thus, we investigate whether different workplace bullying groups differ with regard to perceived power and social status. To test our hypotheses, respondents were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk; Buhrmester et al., 2011; Crump et al., 2013) using CloudResearch (Litman & Robinson, 2020) to participate in an online survey. The final sample contained 1,492 respondents (53.8% females, n = 802), with ages ranging from 19 to 77 (M = 40.2, SD = 10.8). Most respondents worked full time (91.2%, n = 1,360). The survey contained the Short-Negative Acts Questionnaire (S-NAQ; Notelaers et al., 2019) that was applied from the victim as well as from the perpetrator perspective. Furthermore, we assessed the big five with the Mini-IPIP (Donnellan et al., 2006), trait aggression with the brief aggression questionnaire (Webster et al., 2014), and dominance with the domineering subscale of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (Soldz et al., 1995). Moreover, power and social status were assessed with a newly developed bipartite measure of social hierarchy (Yu et al, 2019). A latent class modelling approach was employed. Statistical fit indices, substantive interpretability and utility, as well as classification diagnostics were jointly considered to determine the number of workplace bullying classes. Latent class structure analysis revealed that the classes were meaningfully linked with the big five dimensions, trait aggression, dominance, power and social status. The cross-sectional and self-reported nature of the study. Scholars and policy makers need to be aware of different patterns of being involved in workplace bullying in order to create effective interventions. Personality factors as well as power and social status are important correlates of workplace bullying involvement.8. Decent work and economic growt

The Shahre Javan Community Detailed Plan : Planning for a Climate Responsive and Sustainable Iranian Urban Quarter

Zugleich gedruckt veröffentlicht im Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin unter der ISBN 978-3-7983-2451-0.This report presents the major accomplishments of the ‘Shahre Javan Community’ pilot project as the main pilot project of the German-Iranian Young Cities research project,. ‘Shahre Javan’ is Farsi and stands for ‘Young City’. The pilot project uses an integrated planning and research process to explore aspects of energy and resource efficiency, climate and environmentally conscious solutions for urban form, architecture, landscape planning, transportation planning, water and energy management, and environmental assessment. It is about the upgraded Iranian detailed plan (‘Tarh-e Tafsili’) for a nearly 45 ha large pilot project area in the southern part of the Hashtgerd New Town, Iran. It includes innovations derived during the strategically integrative urban development and research process, in an effort to reach more climate responsive and more sustainable urban development. Thus, several of the presented solutions go above and beyond the standard content of an Iranian detailed plan. Hence, this publication does not present the or an approved formal Iranian detailed plan. Rather, it combines a reflection of research background, approach, and process with a kind of a hybrid detailed plan report which includes common Iranian detailed plan contents and new and innovative elements as well as research findings going beyond the detailed plan scale and content. Printed Version published by Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin (www.univerlag.tu-berlin.de), ISBN 978-3-7983-2451-

اهداف و دستاوردها

This is the second volume of the Young Cities Research Papers series presenting the scientific results from the mutual Iranian-German research project “Young Cities—Urban Energy Efficiency. Developing Energy- Efficient Urban Fabric in the Tehran-Karaj Region”. The project is funded for the German side by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF. From the Iranian side, the Building and Housing Research Center BHRC and the New Towns Development Corporation NTDC as the main project partners are both affiliated to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development MHUD. The Young Cities Research Papers shall disseminate the scientific results gained from the Young Cities project and the related PhD, post doctoral and senior expert research. The first two volumes are published following the completion of the first of the overall project’s pilot project, i.e. the New Quality pilot project buildings in Hashtgerd New Town. Hashtgerd New Town, 65 km to the west of Tehran and 30 km to the west of Karaj in the Alborz Province in Iran, forms the spatial focus of the Young Cities project. It is the place of intervention and for testing and trying the solutions and concepts developed for energy-efficient and sustainable urban design and planning, infrastructure provision, and object planning by the Iranian and German project partners. The solutions and concepts shall, however, be applicable and transferable to other places in the Tehran-Karaj region as well as in Iran and in the Middle East North Africa region MENA. The New Quality buildings as the first of the pilot projects to be completed are residential buildings. It was planned jointly by the Iranian and German partners from a typical Iranian residential building scheme widely to be found in the region’s new settlements and New Towns and adapted by small scale interventions for economical improvements regarding building quality, construction layout, and energy-efficiency. The pilot project has been erected by the Housing Investment Company hic, Tehran, under supervision of BHRC and TU Berlin including an on-site vocational training workshop for construction site staff aiming at improved building quality and use of the new materials and construction technologies introduced. The erection of the New Quality pilot project, now, is completed. The pilot project, however, goes on by the seamless start of monitoring of the buildings performance during use regarding energy consumption, water consumption and building quality. The results from the monitoring will be fed into the development of the other pilot projects, into the tested and tried concepts and solutions to be presented and disseminated as the project’s output, and into the project evaluation assessing the effects from the project. The present second volume is to introduce the overall Young Cities project with its accomplishments up to August 2010. It is divided into four main parts on the background of the project, its objectives and methodological approach, the results and accomplishments reached so far, and an outlook on the future progress of the project. The accomplishments form the main part and the focus of the volume since the series is devoted primarily to the results from the project. However, as the first volume in English language, the Young Cities project is also introduced with respect to some background information and primarily to its objectives and methodology forming the introduction into the whole series as is the first volume for Farsi language readers. Printed Version published by Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin (www.univerlag.tu-berlin.de), ISBN 978-3-7983-2387-

Regulation of superoxide production in neutrophils: role of calcium influx

Upon stimulation, activation of NADPH oxidase complexes in neutrophils produces a burst of superoxide anions contributing to oxidative stress and the development of inflammatory process. Store-operated calcium entry (SOCE), whereby the depletion of intracellular stores induces extracellular calcium influx, is known to be a crucial element of NADPH oxidase regulation. However, the mechanistic basis mediating SOCE is still only partially understood, as is the signal-coupling pathway leading to modulation of store-operated channels. This review emphasizes the role of calcium influx in the control of the NADPH oxidase and summarizes the current knowledge of pathways mediating this extracellular calcium entry in neutrophils. Such investigations into the cross-talk between NADPH oxidase and calcium might allow the identification of novel pharmacological targets with clinical use, particularly in inflammatory diseases