1 The authors gratefully acknowledge the comments of Ricardo Hausmann, Carmen Pagés and Miguel Székely , and the valuable assistance of Mauricio Olivera in furnishing the labor statistics.

Heatwaves (HWs) are one of the “natural” hazards with the greatest impact worldwide in terms of mortality and economic losses, and their effects may be exacerbated in large urban areas. For these reasons, more detailed analyses of urban HW trends represent a priority that cannot be neglected. In this study, HW trends were investigated during the warmest period of the year (May–September) by usi...

Project-oriented problem-based learning (POPBL) is one instructional methodology that has been widely applied in many other Teaching and Learning (T&L) activities. POPBL incorporates the development of students’ personal skills and also promotes creativity in any given T&L environment. In this work, a POPBL that would be implemented in Introduction to Programming course taught at Universiti...

When designing interior lighting effects, it is desirable to compare a variety of lighting designs involving different lighting devices and directions of light. It is, however, time-consuming to generate images with many different lighting parameters, taking interreflection into account, because all luminances must be calculated and recalculated. This makes it difficult to design lighting effec...

The inherent control flexibility implied by solid-state lighting – united with the rich details offered by sensor networks – prompts us to rethink lighting control. In this research, we propose several techniques for measuring work surface illuminance and ambient light using a sensor network. The primary goal of this research is to measure work surface illuminance without distraction to the use...

Fire barrier fabrics are expected to play an increasingly important role in complying with existing and proposed soft furnishing flammability regulations in the US. The number of commercial fire blocking technologies is large in order to accommodate the vast requirements of the consumers, manufacturers, and regulatory agencies. Generally, highloft, nonwoven fiber battings are used in residentia...