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.

Design and Simulative Evaluation of Architectural Physical Environment with Ecotect

Using the software of Ecotect, the simulation of lighting and thermal environment of a real architecture is presented to show the merits and shortcomings by using computer software for simulation of architectural physical environmental design and estimation. Issues on creating the digital model, parameter setting, process planning and realization are discussed.

The Importance of Physical Environment for Guest at Restaurants in Bali

The physical environment of a restaurant today is prioritized as one of the attractions of a restaurant for its customers. Customer satisfaction is the goal of all businesses including restaurants. Customer satisfaction is a dynamic condition associated with fulfilling customer expectations of the service experience that has been provided. In the field of tourism especially providers of products and services such as restaurants, satisfied customers can cause customers to come back to the restaurant. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors and variables that can satisfy customers at restaurants in Bali. The study sites are located on 10 locations at 22 new restaurants in Bali. The method of this research is quantitative method with confirmatory factor analysis with 105 respondents. The observed factors consist of six factors that are： （1） facility aesthetics factor; （2） ambience factor; （3） lighting factor; （4） layout factor; （5） table setting factors; and （6） service staff factor. The results of this research show that the role of the physical environment in customer satisfaction at restaurants in Bali as a whole is in good condition. The most determining factor of customer satisfaction is the atmosphere factor followed by the facility aesthetics factor. The variable that most determines customer satisfaction is comfortable room temperature followed by clean furniture. Strategic implementation for the restaurant based on the results of this study is that the manager can improve factors and variables that have been good and improve factors and variables that have not been good.

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.

Archaeological sites distribution and its physical environmental settings between ca 260-2.2 ka BP in Guizhou, Southwest China

This study presents an analysis of the spatial-temporal distribution of 230 ar- chaeological sites in Guizhou Province, Southwest China for three selected time periods from the Paleolithic Age to the Shang-Zhou Dynasties. The relationship between archaeological sites distribution and environmental changes is also discussed based on paleo-environmental proxies of 6480 and δ3C recorded in stalagmites from Southwest China. The results show that： in the Paleolithic Age （260-10 ka BP）, archaeological sites were concentrated in the central, northwestern and southwestern parts of Guizhou, where the high-altitudinal karst landforms with many natural caves suitable for human habitation are developed. In the Neo- lithic Age （10-3.6 ka BP）, most of human settlements were concentrated in the central, northwestern and southwestern parts, while, a fewer sites were found on river terraces in the southern and eastern parts, and the intermontane basins in the central and western Guizhou. During the Shang-Zhou Dynasties （3.6-2.2 ka BP）, the sites were mainly distributed in the intermontane basins and on river terraces, which were suitable for primitive aerial farming. The analysis of paleo-environmental proxies of 6180 and δ3C since 260 ka BP suggested that climate fluctuations had little imPact on human settlements in this study area. The distinct physical environment, especially the spatial patterns of karst landforms and arable land played an important role in the archaeological sites distribution of Guizhou.

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.

Classroom Environment in a Language Class

The paper discusses the classroom environment and its influence on language in the classroom. Classroom environment consists of three aspects： physical environment, psychological environment and social environment. Whatever approach is adopted in the classroom, it affects ELT in the classroom directly or indirectly.

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.

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.

A Field Assessment on Natural Ventilation and Thermal Comfort of Historical District--A Case of the Wugoushui Settlement in Taiwan

Due to the urban and town development, it is common to see historical buildings and new buildings intermingled with one and another inside historical regions in Taiwan. With the increase of new buildings, natural ventilation becomes harder, which leads to the impact on the preservation of historical building and the reduction of thermal comfort for residents. Besides, problems of new buildings＇ construction and design affect the developments of cities and towns in historical district, which has existed for hundreds of years. The Wugoushui Settlement is located in Pingtung County, the southernmost part of Taiwan, and its hot season of a year is pretty long and belongs to warm and humid tropical climate. In 2008, the Pingtung County Government officially registered and announced Wugoushui as traditional settlement and meanwhile, provided the maintenance and preservation for buildings in this region on government subsidies. This paper is based on one-year-long field experiments of Wugoushui Settlement. Residents in Wugoushui Settlement continue constructing new buildings near by the traditional buildings. With the fact that constructions of new buildings result in huge impact on the circumstances of natural ventilation and thermal comfort, which have been for hundreds of years, the simple weather station is set up to collect the data of local microclimate. In addition, four representative traditional architectures were selected to be measured their indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction and thermal radiation both in winter （December to February） and in summer （May to September）. The measurement time of each building is one week and every data record is kept every minute. Besides, residents were asked to fill out the comfort survey. Based on these data, the distributions of indoor and outdoor thermal environment as well as the thermal comfort of living space under the condition of the natural ventilation are assessed. Finally, focused on the indoor living space of historical districts in southern Taiwan, there are two main suggestions given in the essay： first, a provisional comfort zone in summer is planned and proposed; second, the preliminary suggestions for the design and norms of new buildings in historical district are provided.

Soil Uncertainties on Performance of Geotechnical Works

Performance-Based Design （PBD） is a more rational approach, particularly in seismic environments. In this approach it is relevant the performance required to structures and to geotechnical works, as well as the geotechnical constitutive models used to predict the performance. The parameters of the constitutive models are related in turn to soil properties. So soil properties are a key point for Performance-Based Design. Questions arising are： （i） which are the more relevant soil properties to solve a specific PBD geotechnical problem？ （ii） which are the more relevant model parameters and how they can be evaluated and/or correlated to soil properties？ （iii） which is the role of the soil parameters uncertainty in Performance-Based Design？ An answer to these questions is given in this paper, outlining the potential offered by the new advanced in-situ and laboratory tests and discussing the performance required by some geotechnical works.

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.

Interest-Driven Model for Human Dynamics

Empirical observations indicate that the interevent time distribution of human actions exhibits heavy-tailed features. The queuing model based on task priorities is to some extent successful in explaining the origin of such heavy tails, however, it cannot explain all the temporal statistics of human behavior especially for the daily entertainments. We propose an interest-driven model, which can reproduce the power-law distribution of interevent time. The exponent can be analytically obtained and is in good accordance with the simulations. This model well explains the observed relationship between activities and power-law exponents, as reported recently for web-based behavior and the instant message communications.

Evolutionary Prisoner＇s Dilemma Game Based on Division of Work

We propose a new two-type-player prisoner＇s dilemma game based on the division of work on a square lattice, in which a fraction of the population μ are assigned type A and the rest B. In a one-shot two-player game, we let both of their original payoffs be scaled by a same multiplicative factor α 〉 1, if two neighboring players are of different types; however we leave the payoffs unchanged if they are of the same type. Then we show that combined with the two-type setup, the square lattice can assist to induce different social ranks according to players＇ abilities to collect payoffs. Simulation results show that the density of cooperation is significantly promoted for a wide range of the temptation to defection parameters and that there are optimal values for both α and μ leading to the maximal cooperation level. We reach these results by analyzing the distribution of the players in the social ranks and we also show some typical snapshots of the system.

Is the Near-Earth Current Sheet Prior to Reconnection Unstable to Tearing Mode？

The tearing mode instability plays a key role in the triggering process of reconnection. The triggering collisionless tearing mode instability has been theoretically and numerically analyzed by many researchers. However, due to the difficulty in obtaining the observational wave number, it is still unknown whether the tearing mode instability can be excited in an actual plasma sheet prior to reconnection onset. Using the data from four Cluster satellites prior to a magnetospheric reconnection event on 13 September 2002, we utilized the wave telescope technique to obtain the wave number which corresponds to the peak of power spectral density. The wavelength is about 18RE and is consistent with previous theoretic and numerical results. After substituting the wave vector and other necessary parameters of the observed current sheet into the triggering condition of tearing mode instability, we find that the near-Earth current sheet prior to reconnection is unstable to tearing mode.

ULF Waves Associated with Solar Wind Deceleration in the Earth＇s Foreshock

Characteristics of ULF waves associated with the solar wind deceleration in the Earth＇s foreshock on 6-7 April 2003 is studied using the wave telescope technique. In the satellite frame, the ULF waves are the left-handed polarized and quasi anti-parallel propagating mode, with a power peak at about 18.63mHz. The wave vector in the GSE coordinates is estimated to be k = （-4.29, 2.28, 1.21）×10^-4 km^-1, In the solar wind frame, the frequency of waves becomes - 9.39 mHz after the Doppler shift correction. The propagation direction of the waves is thus reversed and correspondingly the polarization of the waves becomes right-handed. The above-mentioned characteristics of the ULF waves in the solar wind frame indicate that the ULF waves associated with the solar wind deceleration are the Alfven-whistler waves, which have been frequently reported in both the observations and computer simulations.

Information Feedback Strategies in a Signal Controlled Network with Overlapped Routes

We investigate the effects of four different information feedback strategies on the dynamics of traffic, travelers＇ route choice and the resultant system performance in a signal controlled network with overlapped routes. Simulation results given by the cellular automaton model show that the system purpose-based mean velocity feedback strategy and the congestion coefficient feedback strategy have more advantages in improving network utilization efficiency and reducing travelers＇ travel times. The travel time feedback strategy and the individual purposed-based mean velocity feedback strategy behave slightly better to ensure user equity.