Key influences on office comfort and energy performance in different climates

This paper investigates the magnitude of influence of climate, architectural design and occupants on thermal comfort and final energy consumption in offices in different climates. A parametric study for a typical cellular office room has been conducted using the simulation software EnergyPlus. Two different occupant scenarios are each compared with three different architectural design variations and modelled in the context of three different locations for the IPCC climate change scenario A2 for 2030. The parameters evaluated in this study are final energy consumption and adaptive thermal comfort according to ASHRAE Standard 55. The study shows that the impact of occupants on final energy performance is larger than the impact of architectural design in all investigated climates, but the impact of architectural design is predominant concerning thermal comfort. Warmer climates show larger optimisation potential for comfort and energy performance in offices compared to colder climates.

Swedes aim high with renewables in transport

Swedes are well aware of what dependency on imported oil means and the oil crises of the 1970s forced them to reduce their usage dramatically. The use of oil in the residential and services sector has fallen by 90% since 1970 largely due to the transition to electricity and district heating. Energy use in the transport sector, however, has proved harder to rein in. Despite taxes, subsidies and other incentives, oil products still supplied 91% of the country’s energy for transport in 2010 and continues to rise. It represents 23% of the country’s final energy use.

Thermal simulation studies of a low energy university building in Australia

A key criterion by which any building will be judged when its environmental impact is assessed is its thermal performance. This paper describes the simulation of an office module in a three-storey university building in south eastern Australia. The module, located at the north-west corner of the top floor of the building, was chosen because it is likely to have the highest cooling load - a primary concern of energy conscious designers of commercial buildings for most parts of Australia.

In the paper, the initial key assumptions are stated, together with a description of a "reference" or base case, against which improvements in thermal performance were measured. The simulation process identified the major influences on thermal performance. This enabled changes in materials and construction, as well as basic design concepts to be evaluated. Features incorporated into the base case such as a metal roof and glazed walkway were found to have adverse influence on energy consumption, and were consequently rejected in preference for an improved design which included a hypocaust slab system on the roof of the office module. The final design was predicted to reduce the annual energy consumption for heating and cooling by 72% and 76% respectively.

La performance thermique est l'un des critegraveres cleacutes de l'eacutevaluation environnementale de tout bacirctiment. Cet article deacutecrit la simulation d'un module de bureau appartenant agrave un immeuble de trois eacutetages d'une universiteacute du sud-est de l'Australie. Ce module, situeacute agrave l'angle nord-ouest de l'eacutetage supeacuterieur du bacirctiment a eacuteteacute choisi car c'eacutetait lui qui, vraisemblablement, avait la charge de refroidissement la plus eacuteleveacutee, ce qui est une preacuteoccupation majeure des concepteurs conscients des problegravemes d'eacutenergie des bacirctiments commerciaux dans la plus grande partie du pays. Le processus de simulation a fait apparaicirctre trois influences principales sur la performance thermique par rapport agrave un cas de base. Cela a permis d'eacutevaluer les modifications apporteacutees aux mateacuteriaux et agrave la construction ainsi qu'aux avant-projets. Les caracteacuteristiques inteacutegreacutees dans le cas de base comme le toit meacutetallique et la passerelle vitreacutee avaient une influence neacutefaste sur la consommation d'eacutenergie et ont donc eacuteteacute rejeteacutees au beacuteneacutefice d'un concept ameacutelioreacute qui comprenait une dalle de type hypocauste sur le toit du module de bureau. Le concept final devrait reacuteduire la consommation annuelle d'eacutenergie pour le chauffage et le refroidissement de 72 % et 76 % respectivement, ce qui donne une ideacutee de la valeur ajouteacutee au processus de production agrave partir de proceacutedures avanceacutees de modeacutelisation et de simulation.

Temporal dynamics of oocyte development, plasma sex steroids and somatic energy reserves during seasonal ovarian maturation in captive Murray cod Maccullochella peelii peellii

The temporal dynamics of oocyte growth, plasma sex steroids and somatic energy stores were examined during a 12 month ovarian maturation cycle in captive Murray cod Maccullochella peelii peelii under simulated natural photothermal conditions. Ovarian function was found to be relatively uninhibited in captivity, with the exception that post-vitellogenic follicles failed to undergo final maturation, resulting in widespread pre-ovulatory atresia. Seasonal patterns of oocyte growth were characterised by cortical alveoli accumulation in March, deposition of lipids in April, and vitellogenesis between May and September. Two distinct batches of vitellogenic oocytes were found in Murray cod ovaries, indicating a capacity for multiple spawns. Plasma profiles of 17β-oestradiol and testosterone were both highly variable during the maturation period suggesting that multiple roles exist for these steroids during different stages of oocyte growth. Condition factor, liver size and visceral fat stores were all found to increase prior to, or during the peak phase of vitellogenic growth. Murray cod appear to strategically utilise episodes of high feeding activity to accrue energy reserves early in the reproductive cycle prior to its deployment during periods of rapid ovarian growth.

Conjugated linoleic acid decreases fat accretion in pigs evaluation by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry

Thirty female Large White × Landrace pigs (average weight 57·2 (SD 1·9) kg) were allocated to one of six dietary treatments containing 0, 1·25, 2·5, 5·0, 7·5 or 10·0 g 55 % conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) isomers (CLA-55)/kg diet and fed for 8 weeks. Each pig was scanned at 0, 28 and 56 d and again at post slaughter using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to determine the temporal pattern of body composition responses. Values determined by DXA were adjusted using regression equations generated from validation experiments between chemically and DXA-predicted values. Overall, there was a significant linear reduction in fat content with the increasing levels of CLA in the diet (P=0·007, P=0·011, P=0·008 at week 4, week 8 and for the carcass, respectively). The greatest improvement was recorded at the early stages of CLA supplementation and for the highest dose of CLA (week 4, -19·2 % compared with week 8, -13·7 %). In the first 4 weeks of feeding CLA, pigs receiving 10 g CLA-55/kg diet deposited 93 g less fat/d than pigs fed basal diets (P=0·002) compared with only 6 g less fat than control animals in the final 4 weeks. Lean content and lean deposition rate were maximised at 5 and 2·5 g CLA-55/kg diet for the first 4 weeks (P=0·016) and the final 4 weeks of treatment (P=0·17), respectively. DXA estimates of bone mineral content and bone mineral density were not affected by CLA supplementation throughout the experiment. These data demonstrate that dietary CLA decreases body fat in a dose-dependent manner and that the response is greatest over the initial 4 weeks of treatment.

Energy production and use

The analysis and researches of many scholars and field specialists have gone into these 30 papers. They discuss many of the environmental problems and challenges to human life and existence presented by local and other exploitations and ongoing developments in Southeast Asian countries and marine areas. The authors use tabulated data and unpublished research in the eight sections on: underlying societal drivers and responses to environmental change; climate change and air quality; land transformation and its consequences; hydrology and hydrological cycles; changes in coastal and marine environments; vulnerabilities and adaptations to global environmental changes; and a final paper on a common need for action. This important volume includes reference, data, bibliographies and index.

Interfacial energy states of moisture-exposed cracks in mica

Results of crack growth observations on mica in water-containing environments are described. The study focuses on equilibrium crack states for reversed loading cycles, i.e., for initial propagation through virgin solid and subsequent retraction-repropagation through healed or misoriented-healed interfaces. Departures from these equilibrium states are manifest as steady-state forward or backward crack velocities at specific applied loads. The equilibria are thereby interpreted as quiescent, threshold configurations G = W_E, with G the Griffith mechanical-energy-release rate and W_E the Dupré work of adhesion, on crack velocity (v-G) diagrams. Generally, W_E is found to decrease with concentration of water, in accordance with a Gibbs formalism. Hysteresis is observed in the forward-backward-forward crack propagation cycle, signifying a reduction in the adhesion energy on exposure of the open interface to environmental species prior to healing. This hysteresis is especially marked for those interfaces that are misoriented before healing, indicating that the structure of the underlying solid substrate as well as of the intervening fluid is an important consideration in the interface energetics. The equilibrium states for different environments can be represented on a simple energy-level diagram, as differences between thermodynamic end-point states: initial, closed-interface states refer to crystallographic bonding configurations ahead of the crack-tip adhesion zone; final, open interface states refer to configurations behind the crack-tip zone. The significance of this diagram in relation to the fundamental atomic structure of interfaces in fracture and other adhesion geometries, including implications concerning kinetics, is discussed.

High-performance multifunctional graphene yarns: toward wearable all-carbon energy storage textiles

The successful commercialization of smart wearable garments is hindered by the lack of fully integrated carbon-based energy storage devices into smart wearables. Since electrodes are the active components that determine the performance of energy storage systems, it is important to rationally design and engineer hierarchical architectures atboth the nano- and macroscale that can enjoy all of the necessary requirements for a perfect electrode. Here we demonstrate a large-scale flexible fabrication of highly porous high-performance multifunctional graphene oxide (GO) and rGO fibers and yarns by taking advantage of the intrinsic soft self-assembly behavior of ultralarge graphene oxide liquid crystalline dispersions. The produced yarns, which are the only practical form of these architectures for real-life device applications, were found to be mechanically robust (Young's modulus in excess of 29 GPa) and exhibited high native electrical conductivity (2508 ± 632 S m(-1)) and exceptionally high specific surface area (2605 m(2) g(-1) before reduction and 2210 m(2) g(-1) after reduction). Furthermore, the highly porous nature of these architectures enabled us to translate the superior electrochemical properties of individual graphene sheets into practical everyday use devices with complex geometrical architectures. The as-prepared final architectures exhibited an open network structure with a continuous ion transport network, resulting in unrivaled charge storage capacity (409 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1)) and rate capability (56 F g(-1) at 100 A g(-1)) while maintaining their strong flexible nature.