Evaluation on overheating risk of a typical Norwegian residential building under future extreme weather conditions

As the temperature in the summer period in Norway has been always moderate, little study on the indoor comfort of typical Norwegian residential buildings in summer seasons can be found. Heat waves have attacked Norway in recent years, including in 2018 and 2019. Zero energy buildings, even neighborhoods, have been a hot research topic in Norway. There is overheating risk in typical Norwegian residential buildings without cooling devices installed under these uncommon weather conditions, like the hot summers in 2018 and 2019. Three weather scenarios consisting of present-day weather data, 2050 weather data, and 2080 weather data are investigated in this study. The overheating risk of a typical Norwegian residential building is evaluated under these three weather scenarios. 72 scenarios are simulated in this study, including different orientations, window-to-wall ratios, and infiltration rates. Two different overheating evaluation criteria and guidelines, the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) and the CIBSE TM 59, are compared in this study

Simulation and optimization study on a solar space heating system combined with a low temperature ASHP for single family rural residential houses in Beijing

A pilot project of the solar water heating system combined with a low temperature air source heat pump (ASHP) unit was established in 2014 in a detached residential house in the rural region of Beijing, in order to investigate the system application prospect for single family houses via system optimization design and economic analysis. The established system was comprised of the glass heat-pipe based evacuated tube solar collectors with a gross area of 18.8 m2 and an ASHP with a stated heating power of 8 kW for the space heating of a single family rural house of 81.4 m2. The dynamic thermal performance of the pilot system was measured for continuous 20 days under typical cold climate conditions and the test data was used to validate the TRNSYS simulation model established. On the basis of model validation, system optimizations of both the existing pilot household and the typical rural house with good building insulation were undertaken to figure out the system economical efficiency in the rural regions of Beijing. The results show that the payback periods of the solar space heating system combined with the ASHP with the collector areas 15.04-22.56 m2 are 17.3-22.4 years for the established pilot household on the current electricity price level of 0.5 RMB/kWh, comparing with the reference condition of the fully ASHP space heating. It is further found that the equivalent solar heat price per kWh is too high under the current solar market cost price and collector technology. To put forward the integrated solar space heating for reducing carbon emission, it is suggested that the Beijing municipal government should offer some financial subsidy to compensate the equivalent solar heat price per kWh

Human Ecology, Process Philosophy and the Global Ecological Crisis

This paper argues that human ecology, based on process philosophy and challenging scientific materialism, is required to effectively confront the global ecological crisis now facing us

A comprehensive approach for modelling horizontal diffuse radiation, direct normal irradiance and total tilted solar radiation based on global radiation under Danish climate conditions

A novel combined solar heating plant with flat plate collectors (FPC) and parabolic trough collectors (PTC) was constructed and put into operation in Taars, 30 km north of Aalborg, Denmark in August 2015. To assess the thermal performance of the solar heating plant, global radiation, direct normal irradiance (DNI) and total radiation on the tilted collector plane of the flat plate collector field were measured. To determine the accuracy of the measurements, the calculated solar radiations, including horizontal diffuse radiation, DNI and total tilted solar radiation with seven empirical models, were compared each month based on an hourly time step. In addition, the split of measured global radiation into diffuse and beam radiation based on a model developed by DTU (Technical University of Denmark) and the Reduced Reindl correlation model was investigated. A new method of combining empirical models, only based on measured global radiation, was proposed for estimating hourly total radiation on tilted surfaces. The results showed that the DTU model could be used to calculate diffuse radiation on the horizontal surface, and that the anisotropic models (Perez I and Perez II) were the most accurate for calculation of total radiation on tilted collector surfaces based only on global radiation under Danish climate conditions. The proposed method was used to determine reliable horizontal diffuse radiation, DNI and total tilted radiation with only the measurement of global radiation. Only a small difference compared to measured data, was found. The proposed method was cost-effective and needed fewer measurements to obtain reliable DNI and total radiation on the tilted plane. This method may be extended to other Nordic areas that have similar weather

Osteotropic Therapy via Targeted Layer-by-Layer Nanoparticles

Current treatment options for debilitating bone diseases such as osteosarcoma, osteoporosis, and bone metastatic cancer are suboptimal and have low efficacy. New treatment options for these pathologies require targeted therapy that maximizes exposure to the diseased tissue and minimizes off-target side effects. This work investigates an approach for generating functional and targeted drug carriers specifically for treating primary osteosarcoma, a disease in which recurrence is common and the cure rate has remained around 20%. This approach utilizes the modularity of Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assembly to generate tissue-specific drug carriers for systemic administration. This is accomplished via surface modification of drug-loaded nanoparticles with an aqueous polyelectrolyte, poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), side-chain functionalized with alendronate, a potent clinically used bisphosphonate. Nanoparticles coated with PAA-alendronate are observed to bind and internalize rapidly in human osteosarcoma 143B cells. Encapsulation of doxorubicin, a front-line chemotherapeutic, in an LbL-targeted liposome demonstrates potent toxicity in vitro. Active targeting of 143B xenografts in NCR nude mice with the LbL-targeted doxorubicin liposomes promotes enhanced, prolonged tumor accumulation and significantly improved efficacy. This report represents a tunable approach towards the synthesis of drug carriers, in which LbL enables surface modification of nanoparticles for tissue-specific targeting and treatment.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (P30 CA14051 (NCI))National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (5 U54 CA151884–02 (CCNE))National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01 AG029601 (NIA))National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01 EB010246 (NIBIB))David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT (Koch Institute Swanson Biotechnology Center)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Graduate Research Fellowship)National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia)Massachusetts Institute of Technology (David H. Koch (1962) Chair Professorship in Engineering

Spelling Errors Among Online Learners in the Moderated Discussion Board: A Case Study of Virtual University of Pakistan

The study investigates the errors among online learners and their probable causes in the Moderated Discussion Board (MDB) of Virtual University of Pakistan (VUP). The main objective of the MDB is to invite comments from students on a given topic; students place their comments within a given time limit and get graded accordingly. Misspelling is a natural and common phenomenon among the second language (L2) learners. However, due to the availability of spell check software options, misspellings should get minimized in online discussions. For the present study, the spelling mistakes committed by the graduate students of Business English (ENG201) course were analyzed. The findings demonstrated many types of spelling mistakes including inconsistent rules, ambiguous words, vowel substitutions, consonant substitutions, space inaccuracy, inflectional endings, double consonants, consonant omissions, vowel omissions, tense mistakes and letter reversals. Some of the causes explored were quick and direct typing on the interface, keyboard adjacency and not using the spell check software. The results revealed that major spelling mistakes were due to the lack of inappropriate guidance, insufficient practice and lack of adequate awareness about inflectional morphology. Some recommendations to improve spelling mistakes either on students end or through teaching techniques have been suggested at the end

Spelling Errors Among Online Learners in the Moderated Discussion Board: A Case Study of Virtual University of Pakistan

The study investigates the errors among online learners and their probable causes in the Moderated Discussion Board (MDB) of Virtual University of Pakistan (VUP). The main objective of the MDB is to invite comments from students on a given topic; students place their comments within a given time limit and get graded accordingly. Misspelling is a natural and common phenomenon among the second language (L2) learners. However, due to the availability of spell check software options, misspellings should get minimized in online discussions. For the present study, the spelling mistakes committed by the graduate students of Business English (ENG201) course were analyzed. The findings demonstrated many types of spelling mistakes including inconsistent rules, ambiguous words, vowel substitutions, consonant substitutions, space inaccuracy, inflectional endings, double consonants, consonant omissions, vowel omissions, tense mistakes and letter reversals. Some of the causes explored were quick and direct typing on the interface, keyboard adjacency and not using the spell check software. The results revealed that major spelling mistakes were due to the lack of inappropriate guidance, insufficient practice and lack of adequate awareness about inflectional morphology. Some recommendations to improve spelling mistakes either on students end or through teaching techniques have been suggested at the end