In March 2011, the UK Government mandated a 20 percent saving each year on publicly funded construction projects. That equates to £18 billion a year at total UK spend levels. So how can construction get smart and rise to the challenge?

Simultaneous chemical and sensory analysis based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometryolfactometry (GC-MS-O) of air samples from livestock operations is a very useful approach for quantification of target odorous gases and also for ranking of odorous compounds. This information can help link specific gases to odor, that can assist in solving farm odor problems and in evaluating of odor mitiga...

Contour Crafting is an emerging technology that uses robotics to construct free form building structures by repeatedly laying down layers of material such as concrete. The Contour Crafting technology scales up automated additive fabrication from building small industrial parts to constructing buildings. Tool path planning and optimization for Contour Crafting benefit the technology by increasin...

This study supplemented the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS) by making comprehensive measurements, over a full calendar year, of odor emissions from five swine and four dairy rooms/buildings (subset of the total number of buildings monitored for the NAEMS project). The measurements made in this project included both standard human sensory measurements using dynamic forced-choice ...

The updated version for the Manual of Civil Structures (MOC), a model seismic code in Mexico, was published in 2008. MOC also is incorporating guidelines for the seismic design of base-isolated structures this year 2012, being the first Mexican code to include such recommendations. This paper summarizes the most relevant aspects of these guidelines, their relations to other guidelines worldwide...

This study was an add-on project to the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS) and focused on comprehensive measurement of odor emissions. Odor emissions from two animal species (dairy and swine) from four sites with nine barns/rooms (two dairy barns in Wisconsin, two dairy barns and two swine rooms in Indiana, and three swine barns in Iowa) during four cycles (13-week periods) were me...

| A new model for the prediction of the field strength, the delay spread and the fast fading for mobile communication networks inside buildings is presented in this paper. In the first part of the paper, the equipment for the measurements is described. Some measurement results are shown to illustrate the performance of the measurement equipment. Based on the measurements a new parameter for the...

Advanced control and operation of HVAC systems in buildings is one of the most promising energy efficient technologies. However, there is still significant energy saving potential in these systems. Energy savings can come from correcting deficiencies through building commissioning. This paper focuses on deficiencies in the controls of a variable air volume (VAV) air handling unit (AHU) system. ...

S ensor networks offer economically viable solutions for a variety of applications. For example, current implementations monitor factory instrumentation, pollution levels, freeway traffic, and the structural integrity of buildings. Other applications include climate sensing and control in office buildings and home environmental sensing systems for temperature, light, moisture, and motion. Senso...