We investigate the existence of the principal-agent (PA) problem in non-government, non-mall commercial buildings in the U.S. in 2003. The analysis concentrates on space heating and cooling energy consumed by centrally installed equipment in order to verify whether a market failure caused by the PA problem might have prevented the installation of energy-efficient devices in nonowner-occupied bu...

We introduce a construction turning some Coxeter and Davis realizations of buildings into systolic complexes. Consequently groups acting geometrically on buildings of triangle types distinct from (2, 4, 4), (2, 4, 5), (2, 5, 5), and various rank 4 types are systolic.

The emergence of intelligent buildings is founded on the rapid development of microcomputer and internet technology as well as the advance of information and communication technology. With the help of these technologies, office affairs have shifted from the traditional pattern of labor intense and large volume to the flexible, diverse, efficient, user-friendly, and highly reliable operations. M...

The more technology advances, the more there seems to be a basic human yearning to return to nature. This is reflected in a growing number of designers, architects, and artists who are turning to nature’s example to model uses of new technology. San Francisco architect Charles Lee does just that. Lee is a designer, artist, and researcher with the group Bios Design Collective, a group that works...

The goal of our study was to develop an automatic change detection method based on laser scanner, aerial image and map data to be used in updating of building maps. The method was tested in a study area of 2.2 km near Helsinki. Buildings were first detected by segmenting a digital surface model (DSM) derived from laser scanner data and classifying the segments as buildings, trees and ground sur...

We present laboratory experiments of five different multi-unit auction mechanisms. Two units of a homogeneous object were auctioned off among two bidders with flat demand for two units. We test whether expected demand reduction occurs in open and sealed–bid uniform–price auctions. Revenue equivalence is tested for these auctions as well as for the Ausubel, the Vickrey and the discriminatory sea...

Patentee(s): Yissum Research Development Company of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem of Hi Tech Park Edmond Safra Campus Givat-Ram PO Box 39135 Jerusalem 91390 Israel Inventor(s): Rav-Acha, Alexander Pritch, Yael Peleg, Shmuel Gutman, Avital Title: Method and system for video indexing and video synopsis Term: Twenty years from 9 December 2007 Date Accepted: 21 October 2011 Date Sealed: 23 Feb...

The construction of a sealed, CO2 gas discharge laser was undertaken as an independent study project. Glass laser tube design as well as clear acrylic housing makes this an excellent demonstrational tool. Sealed operation was characterized in mode, power, warm-up and stability over the period of weeks. Novel design approaches are used for expediency and cost savings and an anomalus turn-on beha...

Advanced stack-ventilated buildings have the potential to consume much less energy for space conditioning than typical mechanically ventilated or air-conditioned buildings. This paper describes how environmental design considerations in general, and ventilation considerations in particular, shape the architecture of advanced naturally ventilated (ANV) buildings. The attributes of simple and adv...

Tits buildings ∆Q(G) of linear algebraic groups G defined over the field of rational numbers Q have played an important role in understanding partial compactifications of symmetric spaces and compactifications of locally symmetric spaces, cohomological properties of arithmetic subgroups and S-arithmetic subgroups of G(Q). Curve complexes C(Sg,n) of surfaces Sg,n were introduced to parametrize b...