There is growing concern in Western Europe that higher insulation and air tightness of residential buildings leads to increased overheating risk. This paper discusses temperature monitoring from identical houses in the Southwest of the UK that were built to low energy standards (Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5). The temperature data were analysed using both established static overheating cri...

Recent climate change projections estimate that the average summertime temperature in the southern part of Great Britain may increase by up to 5.4°C by the end of the century. The general consensus is that projected increases in temperature will render British dwellings vulnerable to summer overheating and by the middle of this century it may become difficult to maintain a comfortable indoor en...

Heatwaves have well described impacts on human health and wellbeing. Heatwaves also have impacts on hospitals; patients, visitors, equipment, medication and information technology systems have all been affected or compromised during episodes of extreme heat. High indoor temperatures are also of concern for the comfort, efficiency, and occupational health of staff. The Heatwave Plan for England ...

The mechanisms of disintegration of submicrometer particles irradiated by short laser pulses are studied by a molecular dynamics simulation technique. Simulations at different laser fluences are performed for particles with homogeneous composition and particles with transparent inclusions. Spatially nonuniform deposition of laser energy is found to play a major role in defining the character an...

mediciNe & HealtH/RHode iSlaNd partICleS Can be engIneered to nanometer-size (nm) which are only 1/1,000 the width of a single human hair. Nanoparticles made of gold display strong optical absorption. A special type of gold nanoparticle called hollow gold nanoparticle has a core-shell nanostructure with unique characteristics, including small particle size (~40 nm in diameter), which is an idea...

The dynamics of damage and ablation of individual particles of ;100 nm in size due to short-pulse laser irradiation is studied using a breathing sphere model and molecular dynamics simulations. The fluence thresholds for damage and ablation of irradiated particles have a strong pulse duration dependence. For 15 ps laser pulses, the laser induced pressure buildup and the focusing of the pressure...

Various melting-related phenomena (like surface melting, size dependence of melting temperature, melting of few nm-size particles and overheating at a very fast heating rate) are of great fundamental and applied interest, although the corresponding theory is still lacking. Here we develop an advanced phase-field theory of melting coupled to mechanics, which resolves numerous existing contradict...

We report a late-time “fireworks-like” particle emission from laser-produced graphite plasma during its evolution. Plasmas were produced using graphite targets excited with 1064 nm Nd: yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser in vacuum. The time evolution of graphite plasma was investigated using fast gated imaging and visible emission spectroscopy. The emission dynamics of plasma is rapidly changin...

Indeed, a nominal appreciation may help reduce reserve inflows and allow for a more autonomous monetary policy in the case of overheating. A plausible strategy would be a small one-step revaluation, which would bring the renminbi to parity with the Hong Kong dollar. However, such an adjustment may provoke additional speculative capital inflows and is not even necessary to bring about the real a...

AIMS This article explores the laser-induced explosion of absorbing nanoparticles in selective nanophotothermolysis of cancer. METHODS This is realized through fast overheating of a strongly absorbing target during the time of a short laser pulse when the influence of heat diffusion is minimal. RESULTS On the basis of simple energy balance, it is found that the threshold laser fluence for t...