With the increased integration of renewable energy sources the interaction between energy producers and consumers has become a bi-directional exchange. Therefore, the electrical grid must be adapted into a smart grid which effectively regulates this two-way interaction. With the aid of simulation, stakeholders can obtain information on how to properly develop and control the smart grid. In this...

The State of Florida has a radon standard for new construction. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of two slab types (monolithic and slab-in-stem wall) in retarding radon entry in new houses built in accordance with the proposed standard over high radon potential soils. Fourteen houses were monitored during their construction on sites whose soil gas radon concentrations were...

The aim of this paper was to study the influence of microbial biofilms on the high copper levels measured in the drinking water of rural houses. Drinking water parameters and copper pipe surfaces were analysed in the copper plumbing systems of rural and urban houses. The water in rural houses had pH values of 6.2 and alkalinity values of 63mg/L as CaCO3, whereas in urban houses the pH values we...

In many countries, the population is either declining or rapidly concentrating in big cities, which causes problems in the form of vacant houses in many local communities. It is often challenging to keep track of the locations and the conditions of vacant houses, and for example in Japan, costly manual field studies are employed to map the occupancy situation. In this paper, we propose a techni...

OBJECTIVE This paper describes how powerful detectors of adverse events manifested in multivariate series of biosurveillance data can be learned using only a few labeled instances of such events. BACKGROUND The context of the work presented here is rapid detection of statistically significant emerging patterns of adverse events in data related to food-and agriculturesafety collected by the U.S....

BACKGROUND Obesity, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition have been linked to many chronic diseases. Research indicates that interventions in community-based settings such as houses of worship can build on attendees' trust to address health issues and help them make behavioral changes. COMMUNITY CONTEXT New Brunswick, New Jersey, has low rates of physical activity and a high prevalence of o...

Abstract Transforming sketches into digital 3D models has been an enduring practice in the design process since first turn architecture. However, modeling is time-consuming, and software usually a cumbersome interface. Aiming to bridge gap between sketch model, we propose framework that can hand-drawn 2D mesh. The user draw on canvas through web-based interface, corresponding model will automat...

This paper explores the question of how house prices in five different counties are affected by housing characteristics (both internally, such as number of bathrooms, bedrooms, etc. and externally, such as public schools’ scores or the walkability score of the neighborhood). Using data from sold houses listed on Zillow, Trulia and Redfin, three prominent housing websites, this paper utilizes bo...