Implication of global warming on air-conditioned office buildings in Australia

With the accelerated trend of global warming, the thermal behavior of existing buildings, which were typically designed based on current weather data, may not be able to cope with the future climate. This paper quantifies, through computer simulations, the increased cooling loads imposed by potential global warming and probable indoor temperature increases due to possible undersized air-conditioning system. It is found from the sample office building examined that the existing buildings would generally be able to adapt to the increasing warmth of 2030 year Low and High scenarios projections and 2070 year Low scenario projection. However, for the 2070 year High scenario, the study indicates that the existing office buildings, in all capital cities except for Hobart, will suffer from overheating problems. When the annual average temperature increase exceeds 2°C, the risk of current office buildings subjected to overheating will be significantly increased. For existing buildings which are designed with current climate condition, it is shown that there is a nearly linear correlation between the increase of average external air temperature and the increase of building cooling load. For the new buildings, in which the possible global warming has been taken into account in the design, a 28-59% increase of cooling capacity under 2070 High scenario would be required to improve the building thermal comfort level to an acceptable standard.

Combination strategies for a factor analysis phone-conditioned speaker verification system

This work aims to take advantage of recent developments in joint factor analysis (JFA) in the context of a phonetically conditioned GMM speaker verification system. Previous work has shown performance advantages through phonetic conditioning, but this has not been shown to date with the JFA framework. Our focus is particularly on strategies for combining the phone-conditioned systems. We show that the classic fusion of the scores is suboptimal when using multiple GMM systems. We investigate several combination strategies in the model space, and demonstrate improvement over score-level combination as well as over a non-phonetic baseline system. This work was conducted during the 2008 CLSP Workshop at Johns Hopkins University.

Implication of global warming on air-conditioned office buildings in Australia

As climate change will entail new conditions for the built environment, the thermal behaviour of air-conditioned office buildings may also change. Using building computer simulations, the impact of warmer weather is evaluated on the design and performance of air-conditioned office buildings in Australia, including the increased cooling loads and probable indoor temperature increases due to a possibly undersized air-conditioning system, as well as the possible change in energy use. It is found that existing office buildings would generally be able to adapt to the increasing warmth of year 2030 Low and High scenarios projections and the year 2070 Low scenario projection. However, for the 2070 High scenario, the study indicates that the existing office buildings in all capital cities of Australia would suffer from overheating problems. For existing buildings designed for current climate conditions, it is shown that there is a nearly linear correlation between the increase of average external air temperature and the increase of building cooling load. For the new buildings designed for warmer scenarios, a 28-59% increase of cooling capacity under the 2070 High scenario would be required.

New edition leaves scope for "human factor" in research

The Media and Communications in Australia, edited by Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner (3rd edition). Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2010, 362 pp. ISBN 978-1 74237-064-4; reviewed by Lee Duffield, Queensland University of Technology.

Broad Bean Stain Virus: Identification, Detectability with ELISA in Faba Bean Leaves and Seeds, Occurrence in West Asia and North Africa and Possible Wild Hosts

Abstract During a survey of faba bean viruses in West Asia and North Africa a virus was identified as broad bean stain virus (BBSV) based on host reactions, electron microscopy, physical properties and serology. An antiserum to a Syrian isolate was prepared. With this antiserum both the direct double antibody sandwich ELISA (DAS-ELISA) and dot-ELISA were very sensitive in detecting BBSV in leaf extracts, ground whole seeds and germi nated embryos. Sens it i vity was not reduced when the two-day procedure was replaced by a one-day procedure. us i ng ELISA the vi rus was detected in 73 out of 589 faba bean samples with virus-like symptoms collected from Egypt (4 out of 70 samples tested), Lebanon (6/44) , Morocco (017), Sudan (19/254), Syria (36/145) and Tunisia (8/69). This is the first report of BBSV infection of faba bean in Lebanon, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia. speci es i ndi genous to Syri a were Fourteen wild legume susceptible to BBSV infection, with only two producing obvious symptoms. The virus was found to be seed transmitted ~n Vicia palaestina.

Accumulation of recombinant cellobiohydrolase and endoglucanase in the leaves of mature transgenic sugar cane

A major strategic goal in making ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass a cost-competitive liquid transport fuel is to reduce the cost of production of cellulolytic enzymes that hydrolyse lignocellulosic substrates to fermentable sugars. Current production systems for these enzymes, namely microbes, are not economic. One way to substantially reduce production costs is to express cellulolytic enzymes in plants at levels that are high enough to hydrolyse lignocellulosic biomass. Sugar cane fibre (bagasse) is the most promising lignocellulosic feedstock for conversion to ethanol in the tropics and subtropics. Cellulolytic enzyme production in sugar cane will have a substantial impact on the economics of lignocellulosic ethanol production from bagasse. We therefore generated transgenic sugar cane accumulating three cellulolytic enzymes, fungal cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I), CBH II and bacterial endoglucanase (EG), in leaves using the maize PepC promoter as an alternative to maize Ubi1 for controlling transgene expression. Different subcellular targeting signals were shown to have a substantial impact on the accumulation of these enzymes; the CBHs and EG accumulated to higher levels when fused to a vacuolar-sorting determinant than to an endoplasmic reticulum-retention signal, while EG was produced in the largest amounts when fused to a chloroplast-targeting signal. These results are the first demonstration of the expression and accumulation of recombinant CBH I, CBH II and EG in sugar cane and represent a significant first step towards the optimization of cellulolytic enzyme expression in sugar cane for the economic production of lignocellulosic ethanol.

The influence of glass types on the performance of air-conditioned office buildings in Australia

Windows are one of the most significant elements in the design of buildings. Whether there are small punched openings in the facade or a completely glazed curtain wall, windows are usually a dominant feature of the building's exterior appearance. From the energy use perspective, windows may also be regarded as thermal holes for a building. Therefore, window design and selection must take both aesthetics and serviceability into consideration. In this paper, using building computer simulation techniques, the effects of glass types on the thermal and energy performance of a sample air-conditioned office building in Australia are studied. It is found that a glass type with lower shading coefficient will have a lower building cooling load and total energy use. Through the comparison of results between current and future weather scenarios, it is identified that the pattern found from the current weather scenario would also exist in the future weather scenario, although the scale of change would become smaller. The possible implication of glazing selection in face of global warming is also examined. It is found that compared with its influence on building thermal performance, its influence on the building energy use is relatively small or insignificant.

Verbal instruction abolishes fear conditioned to racial out-group faces

Previous research has shown resistance to extinction of fear conditioned to racial out-group faces, suggesting that these stimuli may be subject to prepared fear learning. The current study replicated and extended previous research by using a different racial out-group, and testing the prediction that prepared fear learning is unaffected by verbal instructions. Four groups of Caucasian participants were trained with male in-group (Caucasian) or out-group (Chinese) faces as conditional stimuli; one paired with an electro-tactile shock (CS+) and one presented alone (CS). Before extinction, half the participants were instructed that no more shocks would be presented. Fear conditioning, indexed by larger electrodermal responses to, and blink startle modulation during the CS+, occurred during acquisition in all groups. Resistance to extinction of fear learning was found only in the racial out-group, no instruction condition. Fear conditioned to a racial out-group face was reduced following verbal instructions, contrary to predictions for the nature of prepared fear learning.

On the resistance to extinction of fear conditioned to angry faces

The present study investigated whether, like fear conditioned to pictures of snakes and spiders, fear conditioned to angry faces resists extinction even after verbal instruction and removal of the shock electrode. Participants were trained in a differential Pavlovian fear conditioning procedure with angry face or happy face conditional stimuli (CSs). Prior to extinction, half the participants in each group were informed that no more unconditional stimuli would be presented and the shock electrode was removed. In the absence of this manipulation, participants showed resistance to extinction after training with angry face CSs, but not after training with happy face CSs. Instructed extinction and electrode removal abolished fear conditioning regardless of the emotion expressed by the CS faces. This finding suggests that fear conditioned to angry faces, like fear conditioned to racial out-group faces, is more malleable than fear conditioned to snakes and spiders.

Energy use, indoor temperature and possible adaptation strategies for air-conditioned office buildings in face of global warming

This paper discusses and summarises a recent systematic study on the implication of global warming on air conditioned office buildings in Australia. Four areas are covered, including analysis of historical weather data, generation of future weather data for the impact study of global warming, projection of building performance under various global warming scenarios, and evaluation of various adaptation strategies under 2070 high global warming conditions. Overall, it is found that depending on the assumed future climate scenarios and the location considered, the increase of total building energy use for the sample Australian office building may range from 0.4 to 15.1%. When the increase of annual average outdoor temperature exceeds 2 °C, the risk of overheating will increase significantly. However, the potential overheating problem could be completely eliminated if internal load density is significantly reduced.

Impact of global warming on the design and performance of air-conditioned office buildings in Australia

As global warming entails new conditions for the built environment, the thermal behavior of existing air conditioned office buildings, which are typically designed based on current weather data, may also change. Through building computer simulations, this paper evaluates the impact of global warming on the design and performance of air-conditioned office buildings in Australia, including the increased cooling loads imposed by potential global warming and probable indoor temperature increases due to possible undersized air-conditioning system, as well as the possible change in energy use and CO2 emission of Australian office buildings. It is found that the existing office buildings would generally be able to adapt to the increasing warmth of 2030 year Low and High scenarios projections and 2070 year Low scenario projection. However, for the 2070 year High scenario, the study indicates that the existing office buildings, in all capital cities except for Hobart, will suffer from overheating problems. If the energy source is assumed to be the electricity, it is found that in comparison with current weather scenario, the increased energy uses would translate into the increase of CO2 emissions by 0 to 34.6 kg CO2 equivalent/m2, varying with different future weather scenarios and with different locations.