Introduction Performance-based building codes have been under development in various countries for the last two decades. The United States has been one of the last major countries to start such an effort, but such development is well underway here, with the notable landmark being the issuance of the first draft of the IBC (International Building Code) performance-track code in 1998 [1]. Simply ...

the strategies to reduce the consumption of non-renewable energies in buildings are becoming increasingly important. in the meantime, nature-inspired approaches have emerged as a new strategy to achieve thermal comfort in the interiors. however, the use of these approaches in architecture and buildings requires a proper understanding regarding the features of ecosystems. although acquiring this...

3. Fibres and fabrics. Materials and their properties; the importance of textiles in daily life from bandages to car tyres; the principles behind textiles, dress and fashion (Nuffield Home Economics, 1983a,b,c). 4. People and homes. Homes as shelters and ways of meeting individual and family needs; the scientific principles underlying the effective and economic management of the home and its eq...

BACKGROUND Patient safety culture concerns leader and staff interaction, attitudes, routines, awareness and practices that impinge on the risk of patient-adverse events. Due to their complex multiple diseases, nursing home patients are at particularly high risk of adverse events. Studies have found an association between patient safety culture and the risk of adverse events. This study aimed to...

BACKGROUND The increasing number of elderly people in nursing homes with failing competence to give consent represents a great challenge to healthcare staff's protection of patient autonomy in the issues of life-prolonging treatment, hydration, nutrition and hospitalisation. The lack of national guidelines and internal routines can threaten the protection of patient autonomy. OBJECTIVES To pl...

Nowadays, as a result of increased terrorist and bomb attacks throughout the globe in the vicinity of strategic buildings, designing these structures against impact loads, particularly the blast-related ones, has been taken into more consideration. The current procedure for designing the structure against an explosion is a design against the local failure of the current elements in the first st...