Multi-functional photonic spin Hall effect sensor controlled by phase transition

Photonic spin Hall effect(PSHE), as a novel physical effect in light–matter interaction, provides an effective metrological method for characterizing the tiny variation in refractive index(RI). In this work, we propose a multi-functional PSHE sensor based on VO_(2), a material that can reveal the phase transition behavior. By applying thermal control, the mutual transformation into different phase states of VO_(2) can be realized, which contributes to the flexible switching between multiple RI sensing tasks. When VO_(2) is insulating, the ultrasensitive detection of glucose concentrations in human blood is achieved. When VO_(2) is in a mixed phase, the structure can be designed to distinguish between the normal cells and cancer cells through no-label and real-time monitoring. When VO_(2) is metallic, the proposed PSHE sensor can act as an RI indicator for gas analytes. Compared with other multi-functional sensing devices with the complex structures, our design consists of only one analyte and two VO_(2) layers, which is very simple and elegant. Therefore, the proposed VO_(2)-based PSHE sensor has outstanding advantages such as small size, high sensitivity, no-label, and real-time detection, providing a new approach for investigating tunable multi-functional sensors.

A New Dynamic and Vertical Photovoltaic Integrated Building Envelope for High-Rise Glaze-Facade Buildings

Substantially glazed facades are extensively used in contemporary high-rise buildings to achieve attractive architectural aesthetics.Inherent conflicts exist among architectural aesthetics,building energy consumption,and solar energy harvesting for glazed facades.In this study,we addressed these conflicts by introducing a new dynamic and vertical photovoltaic integrated building envelope(dvPVBE)that offers extraordinary flexibility with weather-responsive slat angles and blind positions,superior architectural aesthetics,and notable energy-saving potential.Three hierarchical control strategies were proposed for different scenarios of the dvPVBE:power generation priority(PGP),natural daylight priority(NDP),and energy-saving priority(ESP).Moreover,the PGP and ESP strategies were further analyzed in the simulation of a dvPVBE.An office room integrated with a dvPVBE was modeled using EnergyPlus.The influence of the dvPVBE in improving the building energy efficiency and corresponding optimal slat angles was investigated under the PGP and ESP control strategies.The results indicate that the application of dvPVBEs in Beijing can provide up to 131%of the annual energy demand of office rooms and significantly increase the annual net energy output by at least 226%compared with static photovoltaic(PV)blinds.The concept of this novel dvPVBE offers a viable approach by which the thermal load,daylight penetration,and energy generation can be effectively regulated.

Role of outdoor trees on pedestrian wind and thermal conditions around a pre-education building for sustainable energy management

Finding sustainable energy resources is essential to face the increasing energy demand.Trees are an important part of ancient architecture but are becoming rare in urban areas.Trees can control and tune the pedestrian-level wind velocity and thermal condition.In this study,a numerical investigation is employed to assess the role of trees planted in the windward direction of the building complex on the thermal and pedestrian wind velocity conditions around/inside a pre-education building located in the center of the complex.Compared to the previous studies(which considered only outside buildings),this work considers the effects of trees on microclimate change both inside/outside buildings.Effects of different parameters including the leaf area density and number of trees,number of rows,far-field velocity magnitude,and thermal condition around the main building are assessed.The results show that the flow velocity in the spacing between the first-row buildings is reduced by 30%-40% when the one-row trees with 2 m height are planted 15 m farther than the buildings.Furthermore,two rows of trees are more effective in higher velocities and reduce the maximum velocity by about 50%.The investigation shows that trees also could reduce the temperature by about 1℃around the building.

Debris flow runout behaviors considering the influences of densely populated buildings

Debris flows pose serious risks to communities in mountainous areas,often resulting in large losses of human life and property.The impeding presence of urban buildings often affects the runout behavior and deposition of debris flows.But the impact of different building densities and sizes on debris flow dynamics has yet to be quantified to guide urban planning in debris flow risk zones.This study focused on a debris flow that occurred in Zhouqu County,Gansu Province,China on August 7th,2010,which was catastrophic and destroyed many buildings.The FLO-2D software was used to simulate this debris flow in two scenarios,i.e.the presence and the absence of buildings,to obtain debris-flow intensity parameters.The developed model was then used to further analyze the influence of large buildings and narrow channels within the urban environment.The simulation results show that considering the presence of buildings in the simulation is essential for accurate assessment of debris flow intensity and deposition distribution.The layout of buildings in the upstream urban area,such as large buildings or parallel buildings which form narrow channels,can affect the flow velocity and depth of debris flow heading towards downstream buildings.To mitigate damage to downstream buildings,the relative spacing(d/a)between upstream and downstream buildings should not exceed a value of two and should ideally be even lower.These findings provide valuable insights for improving the resistance of mountainous cities to urban debris flows.

Deterioration Reason and Improvement Measure of the Retarding Effect of Protein Retarder on Phosphorus Building Gypsum

The retarding effect of protein retarder on phosphorus building gypsum(PBG)and desulfurization building gypsum(DBG)was investigated,and the results show that protein retarder for DBG can effectively prolong the setting time and displays a better retarding effect,but for PBG shows a poor retarding effect.Furthermore,the deterioration reason of the retarding effect of protein retarder on PBG was investigated by measuring the pH value and the retarder concentration of the liquid phase from vacuum filtration of PBG slurry at different hydration time,and the measure to improve the retarding effect of protein retarding on PBG was suggested.The pH value of PBG slurry(<5.0)is lower than that of DBG slurry(7.8-8.5).After hydration for 5 min,the concentration of retarder in liquid phase of DBG slurry gradually decreases,but in liquid phase of PBG slurry continually increases,which results in the worse retarding effect of protein retarder on PBG.The liquid phase pH value of PBG slurry can be adjusted higher by sodium silicate,which is beneficial to improvement in the retarding effect of the retarder.By adding 1.0%of sodium silicate,the initial setting time of PBG was efficiently prolonged from 17 to 210 min,but little effect on the absolute dry flexural strength was observed.

Effect of building energy efficiency standards on carbon emission efficiency in commercial buildings

The building sector plays a crucial role in the worldwide shift toward achieving net-zero emissions.Building energy efficiency standards(BEESs)are highly effective policies for reducing carbon emissions.Therefore,exploring the provincial variations in carbon emission efficiency(CEE)in the building sector and identifying the effect of BEESs on CEE is crucial.This study focuses on commercial buildings in China and applies a difference in differences model to evaluate the impact of BEESs on the CEE of commercial buildings.The slacks-based measure–data envelopment analysis model is employed to assess the CEE of commercial buildings in 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2019.Furthermore,heterogeneous tests are used to explore how climate characteristics and economic conditions affect the efficiency of BEESs.The results indicate that BEESs positively influence the CEE of commercial buildings.Specifically,a 1%increase in the intensity of BEESs causes a 0.1484%increase in the CEE of commercial buildings.Moreover,the impact of BEESs is particularly pronounced in the southern and western provinces.This study provides valuable scientific evidence for governments to enhance BEESs implementation.

Study on Evacuation Strategy of Commercial High-Rise Building under Fire Based on FDS and Pathfinder

With the development of economy and society and the growth of population,the high-rise and multi-function of commercial buildings have become an international trend.But it also poses huge fire hazards.Most of the existing studies’research objects are predominantly high-rise residential buildings,without considering the impact of different functional zones(Standard floor,entertainment zone,office zone,equipment room and so on)and personnel distribution of commercial buildings evacuation.And the influence of using elevators to carry evacuees on the refuge floor on personnel evacuation is rarely studied.In this work,the fire scenario of the Yangtze River InternationalConferenceCenter,a high-rise commercial building,is simulated with the Pyrosim programto get the necessary parameters under various fire scenarios and to calculate the available evacuation time TASET.At the same time,according to the complex functional zone of the commercial high-rise building and the distribution of people in different time periods,a reasonable evacuation strategy is developed and simulated by Pathfinder software.The results indicate that unorganized evacuation will lead individuals to take the erroneous evacuation route,resulting in a vast region of congestion;comprehensive consideration of the time staggering and the reasonable distribution of evacuation routes can significantly improve evacuation efficiency,and the TRSET of night and working hours is 36.6%–55.3%and 49.9%–79.6%of unorganized evacuation,respectively.For the night fire,60%of the people use elevator-refuge floor to evacuate is the optimal strategy;for the fire during working hours,half of the people on standard floors use the elevator to evacuate and people on multifunctional floors evacuate in four batches is the best plan.The results of this study can provide viable solutions and a foundation for analyzing the fire evacuation and safety of big commercial high-rise buildings.

Farm buildings and agri-food transitions in Southern France:Mapping dynamics using a stakeholder-based diagnosis

This study's goal is to present a dynamic portrait of the farm-buildings environment in Occitania,in Southern France,in order to better identify the transitions underway in agri-food chains.To this end,we undertook a ter-ritorial diagnosis based on actor statements,using 28 semi-structured interviews across Occitania.This diagnosis was enriched by graphic modelling,which enabled the spatialization of the dynamics described.We show that the process of standardisation of farm buildings prevails in the majority of the territories studied.This phenomenon has intensified in recent years with the development of vast photovoltaic-roofed sheds,accentuating the farm-land conversion and soil sealing.At the same time,in areas with strong environmental,landscape and heritage contexts,a'new adventure in farm buildings'(2022 survey)is taking shape.It is primarily driven by local short food chains,which rely on self-construction,repurposing and refurbishment,the sharing of tools and equipment,and which favour the use and reuse of local resources.This study shows that farm-buildings dynamics crystallise many challenges confronting the reterritorialisation of agriculture and food production.

Enhancing Building Facade Image Segmentation via Object-Wise Processing and Cascade U-Net

The growing demand for energy-efficient solutions has led to increased interest in analyzing building facades,as buildings contribute significantly to energy consumption in urban environments.However,conventional image segmentation methods often struggle to capture fine details such as edges and contours,limiting their effectiveness in identifying areas prone to energy loss.To address this challenge,we propose a novel segmentation methodology that combines object-wise processing with a two-stage deep learning model,Cascade U-Net.Object-wise processing isolates components of the facade,such as walls and windows,for independent analysis,while Cascade U-Net incorporates contour information to enhance segmentation accuracy.The methodology involves four steps:object isolation,which crops and adjusts the image based on bounding boxes;contour extraction,which derives contours;image segmentation,which modifies and reuses contours as guide data in Cascade U-Net to segment areas;and segmentation synthesis,which integrates the results obtained for each object to produce the final segmentation map.Applied to a dataset of Korean building images,the proposed method significantly outperformed traditional models,demonstrating improved accuracy and the ability to preserve critical structural details.Furthermore,we applied this approach to classify window thermal loss in real-world scenarios using infrared images,showing its potential to identify windows vulnerable to energy loss.Notably,our Cascade U-Net,which builds upon the relatively lightweight U-Net architecture,also exhibited strong performance,reinforcing the practical value of this method.Our approach offers a practical solution for enhancing energy efficiency in buildings by providing more precise segmentation results.

Controllable thermal rectification design for buildings based on phase change composites

Phase-change material(PCM)is widely used in thermal management due to their unique thermal behavior.However,related research in thermal rectifier is mainly focused on exploring the principles at the fundamental device level,which results in a gap to real applications.Here,we propose a controllable thermal rectification design towards building applications through the direct adhesion of composite thermal rectification material(TRM)based on PCM and reduced graphene oxide(rGO)aerogel to ordinary concrete walls(CWs).The design is evaluated in detail by combining experiments and finite element analysis.It is found that,TRM can regulate the temperature difference on both sides of the TRM/CWs system by thermal rectification.The difference in two directions reaches to 13.8 K at the heat flow of 80 W/m^(2).In addition,the larger the change of thermal conductivity before and after phase change of TRM is,the more effective it is for regulating temperature difference in two directions.The stated technology has a wide range of applications for the thermal energy control in buildings with specific temperature requirements.

Building the Capacity of Health Professionals in Monitoring and Evaluation in a Public Health Institution: Experience of the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) of Côte d’Ivoire

Background: In the context of the fight against HIV, a lack of skills in monitoring and evaluating the personnel in charge of activities has been identified at the national level. It was the subject of a priority axis of the national plan for monitoring and evaluating the fight against HIV (2006-2010) that was aimed at strengthening the capacities of actors in this area. To increase the critical mass of competent human resources in the short term, the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) of Côte d’Ivoire organized monitoring and evaluation training sessions for healthcare professionals from 2011 to 2016. Methods: A single case study with multiple levels of analysis was carried out, combining a qualitative survey and a literature review. An evaluation was carried out six months after each training session. In addition, the results of the pre- and post-tests and of the daily and final evaluations that accompanied the various training sessions were used to provide further information. The qualitative data collected were analyzed using INVIVO 15 software. Results: Some 89 health professionals (69% men and 31% women) working at the national level (51% at the central level, including 58% in health programs) and in development partner agencies (37%) participated in this capacity building program. Most participants were senior health managers (56%), data managers (23%), and statisticians and computer scientists (10%). Almost all the trainings were financed by 16 technical and financial partners (85%), mainly the MEASURE Evaluation project (27%). Conclusion: M&E training, despite all its imperfections, has made it possible to identify M&E training needs at the national level and to increase the critical mass of national skills and to have some culture in M&E.

A Stroke-Limitation AMD Control System with Variable Gain and Limited Area for High-Rise Buildings

Collisions between a moving mass and an anti-collision device increase structural responses and threaten structural safety.An active mass damper(AMD)with stroke limitations is often used to avoid collisions.However,a strokelimited AMD control system with a fixed limited area shortens the available AMD stroke and leads to significant control power.To solve this problem,the design approach with variable gain and limited area(VGLA)is proposed in this study.First,the boundary of variable-limited areas is calculated based on the real-time status of the moving mass.The variable gain(VG)expression at the variable limited area is deduced by considering the saturation of AMD stroke.Then,numerical simulations of a stroke-limited AMD control system with VGLA are conducted on a high-rise building structure.These numerical simulations show that the proposed approach has superior strokelimitation performance compared with a stroke-limited AMD control system with a fixed limited area.Finally,the proposed approach is validated through experiments on a four-story steel frame.

Dynamic response of buildings under debris flow impact

This study employs the smoothed particle hydrodynamics–finite element method(SPH–FEM) coupling numerical method to investigate the impact of debris flow on reinforced concrete(RC)-frame buildings. The methodology considers the variables of debris flow depth and velocity and introduces the intensity index IDV(IDV = DV) to evaluate three different levels of debris flow impact intensity. The primary focus of this study is to investigate the dynamic response and failure mechanism of RC-frame buildings under debris flow impact, including structural failure patterns, impact force and column displacement. The results show that under a highintensity impact, a gradual collapse process of the RCframe building can be observed, and the damage mode of the frame column reflects shear failure or plastic hinge failure mechanism. First, the longitudinal infill walls are damaged owing to their low out-of-plane flexural capacity;the critical failure intensity index IDV value is approximately 7.5 m2/s. The structure cannot withstand debris flows with an intensity index IDV greater than 16 m2/s, and it is recommended that the peak impact force should not exceed 2100 k N. The impact damage ability of debris flow on buildings mostly originates from the impact force of the frontal debris flow, with the impact force of the debris flow body being approximately 42% lower than that of the debris flow head. Finally, a five-level classification system for evaluating the damage status of buildings is proposed based on the numerical simulation and investigation results of the disaster site.

Studies of an event-building algorithm of the readout system for the twin TPCs in HFRS

The High-energy Fragment Separator(HFRS),which is currently under construction,is a leading international radioactive beam device.Multiple sets of position-sensitive twin time projection chamber(TPC)detectors are distributed on HFRS for particle identification and beam monitoring.The twin TPCs'readout electronics system operates in a trigger-less mode due to its high counting rate,leading to a challenge of handling large amounts of data.To address this problem,we introduced an event-building algorithm.This algorithm employs a hierarchical processing strategy to compress data during transmission and aggregation.In addition,it reconstructs twin TPCs'events online and stores only the reconstructed particle information,which significantly reduces the burden on data transmission and storage resources.Simulation studies demonstrated that the algorithm accurately matches twin TPCs'events and reduces more than 98%of the data volume at a counting rate of 500 kHz/channel.

eQUEST Based Building Energy Modeling Analysis for Energy Efficiency of Buildings

Building energy performance is a function of numerous building parameters.In this study,sensitivity analysis on twenty parameters is performed to determine the top three parameters that have the most significant impact on the energy performance of buildings.Actual data from two fully operational commercial buildings were collected and used to develop a building energy model in the Quick Energy Simulation Tool(eQUEST).The model is calibrated using the Normalized Mean Bias Error(NMBE)and Coefficient of Variation of Root Mean Square Error(CV(RMSE))method.The model satisfies the NMBE and CV(RMSE)criteria set by the American Society of Heating,Refrigeration,and Air-Conditioning(ASHRAE)Guideline 14,Federal Energy Management Program(FEMP),and International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol(IPMVP)for building energy model calibration.The values of the parameters are varied in two levels,and then the percentage change in output is calculated.Fractional factorial analysis on eight parameters with the highest percentage change in energy performance is performed at two levels in a statistical software JMP.For building A,the top 3 parameters from the percentage change method are:Heating setpoint,cooling setpoint and server room.From fractional factorial design,the top 3 parameters are:heating setpoint(p-value=0.00129),cooling setpoint(p-value=0.00133),and setback control(p-value=0.00317).For building B,the top 3 parameters from both methods are:Server room(pvalue=0.0000),heating setpoint(p-value=0.00014),and cooling setpoint(p-value=0.00035).If the best values for all top three parameters are taken simultaneously,energy efficiency improves by 29%for building A and 35%for building B.

Progress in Resource Utilization of River Sediment in the Field of Building Materials

At present,there is a great demand for building materials in the market,and the market prospect of building materials is relatively considerable.Through studying the composition of river sediment and its resource utilization in the field of building materials,this paper expounds the current domestic scholars research on river sediment in building materials,and summarizes the current problems and challenges,so as to provide a reference for the sustainable development of river sediment in the field of building materials.

A Fine-grained Building Height Control Method for Heritage Areas from the Perspective of Visual Integrity

This study proposes a refined methodology for controlling building heights in heritage areas.In order to protect the visual integrity of the heritage area,buildings should not obstruct the view from important site points and viewpoints to the periphery.By calculating the building height thresholds that buildings should not obscure the view from each viewpoint,the results of which are weighted and superimposed,and the values are extracted to each building unit as a refined building height control guideline.This study takes the Zhoukoudian area as a case study,applies the refined building height control criterion to the Zhoukoudian Site,and relies on this refined criterion to assess the visual integrity of the Zhoukoudian area,so as to realize the scientific planning and monitoring of the Zhoukoudian area.The refined building height control method can be applied to building height planning and visual landscape protection in large heritage areas.

Progress of semitransparent emerging photovoltaics for building integrated applications

With the rapid development of emerging photovoltaics technology in recent years,the application of building-integrated photovoltaics(BIPVs)has attracted the research interest of photovoltaic communities.To meet the practical application requirements of BIPVs,in addition to the evaluation indicator of power conversion efficiency(PCE),other key performance indicators such as heat-insulating ability,average visible light transmittance(AVT),color properties,and integrability are equally important.The traditional Si-based photovoltaic technology is typically limited by its opaque properties for application scenarios where transparency is required.The emerging PV technologies,such as organic and perovskite photovoltaics are promising candidates for BIPV applications,owing to their advantages such as high PCE,high AVT,and tunable properties.At present,the PCE of semitransparent perovskite solar cells(ST-PSCs)has attained 14%with AVT of 22–25%;for semitransparent organic solar cells(ST-OSCs),the PCE reached 13%with AVT of almost 40%.In this review article,we summarize recent advances in material selection,optical engineering,and device architecture design for high-performance semitransparent emerging PV devices,and discuss the application of optical modeling,as well as the challenges of commercializing these semitransparent solar cells for building-integrated applications.

A novel control strategy for reproducing the floor motions of high-rise buildings by earthquake-simulating shake tables

To enable the experimental assessment of the seismic performance of full-scale nonstructural elements with multiple engineering parameters(EDPs),a three-layer testbed named Nonstructural Element Simulator on Shake Table(NEST)has been developed.The testbed consists of three consecutive floors of steel structure.The bottom two floors provide a space to accommodate a full-scale room.To fully explore the flexibility of NEST,we propose a novel control strategy to generate the required shake table input time histories for the testbed to track the target floor motions of the buildings of interest with high accuracy.The control strategy contains two parts:an inverse dynamic compensation via simulation of feedback control systems(IDCS)algorithm and an offline iteration procedure based on a refined nonlinear numerical model of the testbed.The key aspects of the control strategy were introduced in this paper.Experimental tests were conducted to simulate the seismic responses of a full-scale office room on the 21^(st)floor of a 42-story high-rise building.The test results show that the proposed control strategy can reproduce the target floor motions of the building of interest with less than 20%errors within the specified frequency range.

Parameters Optimization and Performance Evaluation of the Tuned Inerter Damper for the Seismic Protection of Adjacent Building Structures

In order to improve the seismic performance of adjacent buildings,two types of tuned inerter damper(TID)damping systems for adjacent buildings are proposed,which are composed of springs,inerter devices and dampers in serial or in parallel.The dynamic equations of TID adjacent building damping systems were derived,and the H2 norm criterion was used to optimize and adjust them,so that the system had the optimum damping performance under white noise random excitation.Taking TID frequency ratio and damping ratio as optimization parameters,the optimum analytical solutions of the displacement frequency response of the undamped structure under white noise excitation were obtained.The results showed that compared with the classic TMD,TID could obtain a better damping effect in the adjacent buildings.Comparing the TIDs composed of serial or parallel,it was found that the parallel TIDs had more significant advantages in controlling the peak displacement frequency response,while the H2 norm of the displacement frequency response of the damping system under the coupling of serial TID was smaller.Taking the adjacent building composed of two ten-story frame structures as an example,the displacement and energy collection time history analysis of the adjacent building coupled with the optimum design parameter TIDs were carried out.It was found that TID had a better damping effect in the full-time range compared with the classic TMD.This paper also studied the potential power of TID in adjacent buildings,which can be converted into available power resources during earthquakes.