Over the past several years many issues have come to light that have highlighted the need for improved ventilation in multi unit residential buildings (MURB's). High-rise buildings, for example, are all too often connected with poor indoor air quality. When looking at this issue from the perspective of urbanism and the trend to increasing the density of our urban centres, there is a dramatic ne...

ABSTRA CT: Suburban sprawl has often been identified as low-density and dispersed development hat requires greater automobile vehicle miles to be traveled for daily activities thereby resulting in problematic environmental and social impacts. This paper attempts to empirically test one of the spatial characteristics of sprawl by measuring the actual road distance of residential housing units to...

In the context of an ageing population, understanding the transmission of infectious diseases such as scabies through well-connected sub-units of the population, such as residential care homes, is particularly important for the design of efficient interventions to mitigate against the effects of those diseases. Here, we present a modelling methodology based on the efficient solution of a large-...

In the Far East, many small units of residential buildings over 200 m tall are fitted with open kitchens. Fire safety provisions of these kitchens are determined by performance-based design (PBD). In most PBD projects, only the spread of smoke from the kitchen fire to the outside was studied. However, a fire load survey in Hong Kong indicated that large quantities of combustibles are stored in ...

The introduction of distributed energy resources (DER) is leading to significant changes in the way in which power systems are planned, operated and maintained. DER includes many different types of technology, ranging from producers of electricity such as microgeneration units to consumers of electricity such as heat pumps and electric vehicles. High penetrations of these new technologies are i...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is environmental impact assessment of the industrial estate development planning. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2010 in Isfahan province, Iran. GIS and matrix methods were applied. Data analysis was done to identify the current situation of the region, zoning vulnerable areas, and scoping the region. Quantitative evaluation was done b...

Specifications of accessibility indices range from simple minimum travel-time indices, to measures of cumulative opportunities within specified distance or time thresholds, to maximum utility measures. This paper presents models relating a variety of general accessibility indices for the Dallas-Fort Worth region of Texas to property valuations for single-family dwelling units and commercial uni...

There is an urgent need to evaluate the environmental impacts of both traditional and more recent innovations in sustainable building materials. This study conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) single three-storey (aboveground) terrace Ireland composed three timber-framed residential workplace units. The supply raw materials, their transport manufacturing site, processes for materials used ac...

BACKGROUND Evidence from studies conducted in Western countries indicates that a significant proportion of hospital beds are occupied by patients who experience a delayed hospital discharge (DHD). However, evidence about this topic is lacking in Italy, and little is known on the patients' and organisational characteristics that influence DHDs. Therefore, we carried out a survey in all the hospi...