Fieldwork Test Research of the Impact on Building Physical Environment on Six Types of Atrium Space in Cold Climates

Since the research on verification to passive design strategies in sustainable building is at the initial stage,and its test method and verification conclusion are not scientific enough to validate,this paper proposes the necessity of building physical environmental monitoring to quantitative optimization of passive strategies efficiency from the perspective of architecture design and building environment. Adopting comparative research method,this research chooses six types of atrium space in cold climate in China as a prototype,focusing on building physical environmental performance difference in and between atrium and building main space. Spatial parameters of the atrium space will be divided into four factors: spatial geometry,interfacial properties,internal and external related categories. With subdividing these four factors into sub-factors,this paper makes crosscomparison among the sub-factors to clarify passive strategies effectiveness in atrium. Data comparison analysis shows that Winter atrium passive strategy in cold regions from traditional view is not obvious in practical application,and test data need to be stratified refined in atrium design in case of optimizing passive strategy from building prototype perspective.

Study on the Improvement Strategies of Physical Environment for Square in Severe Cold Regions' Rural Areas

To improve the comfortable physical environment for square in severe cold regions' rural areas. This paper applies the methods of questionnaires,field testing and statistical analysis to compare and analyze two different square cases of Qingyunpu in Liaoning Province,and conclude the main factors which affect the physical environmental comfort. The improvement strategies for physical environment of rural square are put forward from the aspects of site selection,road position,orientation,landscape design,and ground pavement material selection,aiming to provide the design basis for the physical environment of square in severe cold regions' rural areas.

Deep reinforcement learning and 3D physical environments applied to crowd evacuation in congested scenarios

To avoid crowd evacuation simulations depending on 2D environments and real data,we propose a framework for crowd evacuation modeling and simulation by applying deep reinforcement learning(DRL)and 3D physical environments(3DPEs).In 3DPEs,we construct simulation scenarios from the aspects of geometry,semantics and physics,which include the environment,the agents and their interactions,and provide training samples for DRL.In DRL,we design a double branch feature extraction combined actor and critic network as the DRL policy and value function and use a clipped surrogate objective with polynomial decay to update the policy.With a unified configuration,we conduct evacuation simulations.In scenarios with one exit,we reproduce and verify the bottleneck effect of congested crowds and explore the impact of exit width and agent characteristics(number,mass and height)on evacuation.In scenarios with two exits and a uniform(nonuniform)distribution of agents,we explore the impact of exit characteristics(width and relative position)and agent characteristics(height,initial location and distribution)on agent exit selection and evacuation.Overall,interactive 3DPEs and unified DRL enable agents to adapt to different evacuation scenarios to simulate crowd evacuation and explore the laws of crowd evacuation.

Organizational Modes and Environmental Conditions of the Severe Convective Weathers Produced by the Mesoscale Convective Systems in South China

Composite radar reflectivity data during April-September 2011-2015 are used to investigate and classify storms in south China(18-27°N;105-120°E). The storms appear most frequently in May. They are either linear;cellular or nonlinear systems, taking up 29.45%, 24.51% and 46.04%, respectively, in terms of morphology. Linear systems are subdivided into six morphologies: trailing stratiform precipitation(TS), bow echoes(BE), leading stratiform precipitation(LS), embedded line(EL), no stratiform precipitation(NS) and parallel stratiform precipitation(PS). The TS and NS modes have the highest frequencies but there are only small samples of LS(0.61%) and PS(0.79%) modes.Severe convective wind(≥17m s-1at surface level) accounts for the highest percentage(35%) of severe convective weather events produced by cellular systems including individual cells(IC) and clusters of cells(CC). Short-duration heavy rainfall(≥50 mm h-1) and severe convective wind are the most common severe weather associated with TS and BE modes. Comparison of environmental physical parameters shows that cellular convection systems tend to occur in the environment with favorable thermal condition, substantial unstable energy and low precipitable water from the surface to300 hPa(PWAT). However, the environmental conditions favoring the initiation of linear systems feature strong vertical wind shear, high PWAT, and intense convective inhibition. The environmental parameters favoring the initiation of nonlinear systems are between those of the other two types of morphology.

Geospatial Analysis of Flood Vulnerability Levels Based on Physical Characteristics and Resilience Capacity of Peri-Urban Settlements in Nigeria

Flooding is becoming a yearly reoccurring event in many communities and cities in Nigeria, leading to the destruction of properties and deaths;hence, we must take measures to either prepare for the impact or curb the occurrence. The study identified flood vulnerability levels of communities in Isoko North LGA based on physical environmental domains such as land use, elevation, and proximity to river channel (drainage) using geospatial techniques. Also, attributes that could contribute to the resilience capacity building of the communities were assessed. From the study, 73.93% of the entire area is moderately and highly vulnerable to flood, while among the communities, seventeen (17) are categorized as moderately vulnerable, and four (4) are lowly vulnerable. The overall resilience capacity of the communities indicated can build a substantial capacity towards community resilience (3.02, 0.06). However, there is a need to encourage collaboration with stakeholders to improve mitigation action and enhance various shortcomings toward resilience capacity building.

Evaluation of social network conservation in historical areas of mountainous towns in Chongqing, China

Over recent decades,historical areas conservation has become an important strategy to improve urban competitiveness in the global economy.As shown in existing studies that the conservation of historical areas mainly focused on the physical environment,there is still room for the non-physical study,and researches on the social network conservation in mountainous historical areas are particularly insufficient.Therefore,this paper aims to establish an evaluation system which is helpful for the social network conservation of historical areas.The evaluation system is based on social network analysis and the information of social relationships gathered in field surveys using a specifically designed questionnaire method in four mountainous towns in Chongqing,China.And it was analyzed from three perspectives,i.e.,by the basic statistical properties,condensate subgroup,and centrality.Then five analysis indicators were conceived,including density,lambda set,k-core,degree centrality,and betweenness centrality.The analysis results demonstrate that the social networks of the four towns show different indicators,which are respectively relevant to completeness degree,edgerelatedness level,local stability,structural balance,and concentrated trend of social relationships.Results from SNA modeling indicate that neighborhood residents of historical areas who have more stable and healthier social relationships are relatively not easily be destroyed.The results also illustrate that the social networks structure is influenced by the terrain,form,and function of historical areas,and the change of historical areas is caused by"individual-family-society".Finally,the strategies guiding the social network conservation are put forward from two aspects.These findings suggest that the conservation and management of social network and aborigines in historical areas should be emphasized to increase the collective benefits and vitality.

A Comparison of Relative Humidity between Two Swedish Buildings with Different Ventilation Solutions

This project is based on measurements of the parameter relative humidity, RH (%), in two buildings: one with natural ventilation and one with mechanical ventilation. Both buildings are located in central Sweden, which constitutes a representative climate zone with respect to Swedish conditions. An important factor for the indoor environment, which affects human health and well-being, is the level of the relative humidity, RH (%). Research studies show that the healthiest level should be in the range of 40% - 60%. Surveys have revealed that about 70% of the employees at Swedish offices, schools and kindergartens experience that the air is too dry during the winter season. Previous studies show that the level of relative humidity in the indoor environment influences the prevalence of respiratory infections and allergies. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the relative humidity differ between the two buildings, and if this may be a cause of the health problems that users are affected by. During many years, users have complained about the environment in the building with mechanical ventilation and that they suffer from health problems. The method used in the study is air measurements of the two parameters, relative humidity and air temperature in the two buildings using data loggers. The indoor environment is affected by the outdoor climate and therefore instruments are placed outdoors to record seasonal variations. The measurements were carried out during the period October 2014 to September 2015 to include all of Sweden’s four seasons with completely different climatic conditions. The results of this study show that the relative humidity in the mechanically ventilated building is consistently significantly lower than in the building with natural ventilation whatever the time of year and temperature indoors. This study shows that mechanical ventilation in buildings affects the indoor environment negatively with respect to human health during most time of the year and this fact must be taken into consideration for the existing as well as the planning of new ventilation systems.

The Impact of Nature, The Teaching and Learning of Elementary Lessons in Students 9-11 Years Old (Case Study: Shiraz Elementary Schools)

In today’s world some changes have been occurred in human lifestyle,these changes,along with the advantages,have led to a series of disadvantages including their disconnection with the nature.One of the most important areas to re-establish the relationship is the school.The presence of nature at schools,and holding some classes in nature,in addition to meeting the special needs of children causes their separation from those small and boring classes as well as their interest in courses.This study aimed to investigate the role of nature in children’s learning.For this purpose,third,fourth and fifth grade classes of 3 schools were held outside the school environment and in the nature in 5 courses.The study is a combinational research and field,indirect observation and library data collection methods were applied,where in the indirect observation,two types of questionnaires were prepared related to the students and teachers and were randomly distributed among 580 students and 50 elementary school teachers.Test reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and it was obtained to be 0.890.The results of this study indicate that the physical place as one of the factors in children’s learning has the maximum impact on teaching and learning of children.At the end of the study and by investigating the existing factors in the environment we understood that the expansion of the nature and natural light of it causes the students’interest in lessons in nature.

Influence of built environment and user experience on the waterfront vitality of historical urban areas: A case study of the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, China

Urban waterfronts are important gateways that reflect a city’s image and characteristics.Evaluating waterfront vitality and its influencing factors is critical for guiding urban waterfront planning and redevelopment.Hourly human movement data,provided by the Baidu Heatmap,were used to explore the weekday and weekend urban vitality spatial distribution characteristics of the waterfronts of the Qinhuai River in Nanjing.Global(ordinary least squares)and local(multiscale geographically weighted regression)models revealed the influence of physicaleenvironmental characteristics(objective)and spatial experience evaluation factors(subjective)on urban vitality.(1)The Qinhuai River waterfront urban vitality agglomeration characteristics were similar between weekdays and weekends,and the core vitality areas were distributed in the dense tourism,commercial,and residential areas along the river.(2)The evaluation of catering experience had the strongest positive correlation with vitality,whereas the waterfront distance had the strongest negative correlation.(3)The influence of each factor on waterfront vitality in the study area exhibited considerable spatial differences,with attenuation trends observed from the east-to-west river sections.This study shows the urban vitality distribution characteristics of the Qinhuai River waterfront spaces.Exploring the influence of physicaleenvironmental and spatial evaluation factors on the vitality distribution can provide a scientific basis and reference for urban waterfront planning and redevelopment focusing on cultivating vitality.

Risk factors associated with mortality of COVID-19 in 3125 counties of the United States

Background:The number of cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States has risen sharply since March 2020.A county health ranking and roadmaps program has been established to identify factors associated with disparity in mobility and mortality of COVID-19 in all counties in the United States.The risk factors associated with county-level mortality of COVID-19 with various levels of prevaIence are not well understood.Methods:Using the data obtained from the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps program,this study applied a negative binomial design to the courtty-level mortality counts of COVID-19 as of August 27,2020 in the United States.In this design,the infected counties were categorized into three levels of infections using clustering analysis based on time-var ying cumulative con firmed cases from March 1 to August 27,2020.COVID-19 patients were not analyzed in dividually but were aggregated at the county-level,where the coun ty-level deaths of COVID-19 con firmed by the local health agencies.Clustering analysis and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used in our statistical analysis.