bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Elevated CO2 concentrations contribute to a closer relationship between vegetation growth and water availability in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes
Authors: Song Yang , Guo Yahui , Li Shijie , Li Wangyipu , Jin Xiuliang
Published: July 2024

The Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, with large human populations and terrestrial carbon sinks, have a high demand for and dependence on water resources. Despite the growing interest in vegetation responses to drought under climate change in this region, our understanding of changes in the relationship between vegetation growth and water availability (referred to as Rvw) remains limited. Here, we aim to explore the Rvw and its drivers in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes between 1982 and 2015. We used the satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the fine-resolution Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) as proxies for vegetation growth and water availability, respectively. The trend analysis results showed that changes in NDVI and PDSI were asynchronous over the past three decades. Moreover, we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of the correlation coefficient between NDVI and PDSI. The results indicated that the Rvw was getting closer in more areas over the period, but there were differences across ecosystems. Specifically, most croplands and grasslands were primarily constrained by water deficit, which was getting stronger; however, most forests were primarily constrained by water surplus, which was getting weaker. Furthermore, our random forest regression models indicated that the dominant driver of changes in the NDVI-PDSI correlation was atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in more than 45% of grid cells. In addition, the partial correlation analysis results demonstrated that elevated CO2 concentrations not only boosted vegetation growth through the fertilizer effect but also indirectly enhanced water availability by improving water use efficiency. Overall, this study highlights the important role of atmospheric CO2 in mediating the Rvw under climate change, implying a potential link between vegetation greening and drought risk.
Developing a Design Paradigm for Regenerative Buildings that Give Back More than They Take
Authors: Hansen Dr. H T R , Jensen Dr. F V , Jensen Dr. K L , Fur I M H
Published: July 2024

This paper presents a regenerative design philosophy and a design paradigm for the built environment including 12 indicators of regenerative building design developed by Søren Jensen Consulting Engineering. The regenerative design paradigm was developed to address the challenge of designing liveable and healthy built environments whilst reestablishing planetary health. The design paradigm is based on a literature study of different discourses and methodologies relating to regenerative thinking, presentations from and interviews with researchers and specialists as well as case-studies of reference projects. The design paradigm aims to give back more than it takes of planetary resources whilst providing a living environment that promotes a healthy and happy life within and between buildings. Inspired by the Future Fit [6] methodology the design paradigm identifies break-even and positive pursuit goals for planetary and people health in the built environment.
Circular economy in the built environment: A systematic literature review on the role of digital technologies across regional contexts
Authors: Aral D , Kayaçetin N C , Durmuş Arsan Z
Published: July 2024

The built environment has a significant role in ecosystems and resource depletion. Therefore, its transition from linear into the circular economy (CE) is critical yet still progressing. While research on CE in the built environment (BE) is growing, an in-depth understanding of facilitators as digital technologies (DT) is required to accelerate its implementation. Investigating these digitalization efforts, considering the regional variations of developed and developing economies, needs to be deepened. This study aims to demonstrate state-of-the-art CE research, providing insight into how digital technology preferences evolved through regional context as a facilitator in the built environment. For this purpose, 80 articles were assessed by (i) descriptive and (ii) thematic analysis through a systematic literature review (SLR). The descriptive analysis highlights the trends in the literature on CE-enabling DT in the built environment. The thematic analysis indicates the prominent DT to facilitate the transition with a link to the regional context and related variations. The results identify integrated DT in CE studies and their relevance to the economic levels of several countries, and they show research gaps to guide future research. This study contributes to an emerging field of research at the nexus of the built environment, the circular economy, and digital technology by mapping regional research tendencies.
Circular economy processes in the Nordic municipal building sector – a comparison of practices and policies
Authors: Kummen T M , Bohne R A , Lohne J , Rasmussen F N
Published: July 2024

The initiation of circular economy (CE) within the built environment is imperative to address the impact of climate change and to fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the public sector is a key factor in this. The ambition of this paper is to investigate monitoring approaches to circular initiatives in the municipal sector of the Nordic countries, and their potential for improvement. The study was conducted in two stages, the first stage being a preliminary mapping of the reuse practices in selected Norwegian municipalities, where interviews (N=8) and site visits were conducted. These piloting interviews gave the basis for an extension of the mapping, including other Nordic municipalities and the research design. In the second stage, semi-structured in-depth interviews of key actors (N=20) in Nordic municipalities were carried out, along with renewed site visits and unstructured interviews (N=10). While several municipalities have implemented CE systems, there are significant discrepancies in the approach. It varies between using public procurements as a key measure to simulate the stakeholders in the built environment to initiate internal systems. The differences are less variable within the countries, likely due to frequent communication and easy availability. Recommendations and ways forward for the municipalities are provided. Municipalities should establish standardization of reuse mapping. The paper emphasizes the importance of setting requirements to facilitate a circular value chain. By implementing chosen measures and monitoring systems it will improve the understanding of circular economy, enable process tracking and unlock the potential of CE initiatives in municipalities.
Beyond Green: Integrating Economic and Social Aspects to Environmental Life Cycle Assessments in Canadian Housing
Authors: Keena N , Rondinel-Oviedo D R , Pomasonco-Alvis M , Bouffard A
Published: July 2024

Ensuring sustainability in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is essential in the 21st century. This requires addressing the three pillars of sustainability - environment, economy, and society. However, existing evaluation methods, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), primarily focuses on environmental impacts, inadvertently downplaying the significance of economic and social aspects. This study aims to comprehensively assess the environmental performance of residential buildings in Canada while integrating economic and social aspects. Firstly, following the LCA methodology, an environmental analysis was made of a representative model (RM) of Canadian housing to emphasize the circular economy strategies possible within Canada’s AEC industry. The study investigates two scenarios: the CE scenario, in which selective deconstruction strategies are applied to the RM, and the Linear Landfill scenario, in which conventional landfill practices are applied. A life cycle impact assessment is conducted to understand the environmental impacts of the two scenarios, comparing namely carbon footprint, water usage, and fossil resource use. Subsequently, an economic evaluation and cost-benefit analysis, encompassing a Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA), are performed for each scenario. In the CE scenario, secondary materials from reusable or recycled components are incorporated; in the Linear Landfill scenario, only virgin materials are used. To address the social aspect of sustainability, both scenarios are assessed based on the affordability of the RM in three Canadian cities: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. The findings highlight essential trade-offs between the three sustainability pillars, indicating positive results in the CE scenario. In the environmental analysis, the CE scenario saves 63% of CO2, 53% of water use, and 48% of fossil resource use when compared to the Linear Landfill scenario. In the economic analysis, the CE scenario is 1.6% higher than the Linear Landfill scenario when two life cycles are considered. Finally, in the social analysis, the average affordability index points out the CE scenario offers 5.23% more affordable housing. This research underscores the significance of a sustainability comprehensive evaluation aspects to provide an initial holistic understanding of the interconnected sustainability pillars, and its findings may have implications by encouraging the use of reused and recycled materials, promoting green financing approaches as better mortgage rates or financial support for sustainable buildings.
Evaluating Architectural Performance: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis-Based Assessment Tool
Authors: Ghom Pashmeena , George Abraham
Published: July 2024

This research presents a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)-based framework for the comprehensive assessment of architectural design projects within undergraduate education, underpinned by an extensive review of historical architectural trends, current standards, and 21 B. Arch curricula and pedagogical practices. Developed through a two-phase approach that began with a foundational review and culminated in a survey of 264 architectural experts, this research has led to the creation of a performance-based architecture assessment tool (PAAT) that encompasses seven key criteria: spatial construct, functional and environmental efficiency, appropriate technology, socio-cultural integration, legal framework, and economic feasibility. These criteria are meticulously defined by 43 specific sub-criteria, offering a rigorous framework for the evaluation of student projects, particularly in the final year of B. Arch programs. provide a uniform framework for evaluating architectural projects, particularly in the final year of B. Arch programs. While it offers comprehensive insights for advanced projects, its adaptability for use in earlier stages of academic training is somewhat limited due to assessment of legal and economic aspects. This tool not only helps students improve their architectural designs, but also assists educators in assessing the cognitive aspects of design thinking. As a result, it greatly contributes to the development of architectural education, aligning with both historical perspectives and current societal needs.
Sustainable, futureproof homes – principles and recommendations from Germany
Authors: Dorff F , Lützkendorf T , König H , Schlitzberger S , Maas A , Vukadinovic M , Höttges K , Lange G
Published: July 2024

In Germany, the introduction of legal binding requirements to limit greenhouse gas emissions in the life cycle of buildings is being discussed. In addition to the political discussion process, the necessary foundations and requirements are currently being developed This applies to both the calculation rules for the life cycle assessment, including the definition of the building and life cycle model and the system boundaries, and the completion of the life cycle assessment data for construction products. Germany is already following the rules of the future standard EN 15978 and has integrated them into the requirements of a new quality certificate for sustainable buildings. The life cycle related greenhouse gas emissions determined in the process also provide the basis for the approval of financial support under the newly introduced funding program for climate-friendly new buildings. In Germany, sustainability assessment systems and funding programs are traditionally used to test proposals for future legal requirements. In a research project funded by the Ministry of Construction, newly constructed residential buildings of different sizes and construction methods are being analyzed. It is being investigated whether the description of the buildings is suitable as a basis for balancing, whether the calculation and assessment rules are clear and easy to handle and whether the required limit values and benchmarks can be achieved in practice. Initial results are presented in this contribution. They provide an insight into the status of the discussion and the preparations for the introduction of statutory requirements in Germany.
Decarbonization possibilities for affordable wood-framed houses in the south of the US. Comparison of conventional, circular, and regenerative options
Authors: Novais Passarelli Rafael
Published: July 2024

The transition to more circular practices in the construction sector offers an alternative path to the predominant linear, high-polluting, and wasteful processes. To better understand the full impact of building materials and buildings over their lifespan and beyond, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have been a field of interest and a growing body of knowledge over the past three decades. Moreover, recent studies stress the critical relevance of the end-of-life (EoL) scenario, particularly for wood-based construction, highlighting its potential for further decarbonization through circular strategies such as design for adaptability, disassembly, and reuse. However, there is a significant knowledge gap in the LCA literature related to environmental impact mitigation strategies specific to affordable housing options, despite the pressing and undeniable need for these typologies. This study contributes to filling this gap by performing a detailed whole-building LCA of an affordable single-family house prototype built in the south of the USA using a standard light wood frame construction method. Besides the standard as-built scenario, this study developed five hypothetical scenarios that evaluated the influence of different EoL options (recycling or energy recovery), increased circular strategies (reuse), and substitution of non-renewable materials with regenerative materials for insulation (wood fiber) and finishing (clay plaster), aiming to identify further possibilities and limitations for decarbonization of such typology and construction method. The results of this study consistently pointed out that priorities should be to (1) guarantee proper end-of-life of metals and wood-based materials. (2) To replace non-renewable materials with regenerative wood or earth-based ones. (3) To improve material reuse and construction waste diversion rates. The results of this study support the development and implementation of policies and regulations for affordable housing, aiming toward increased environmental justice and a more equitable and sustainable built environment for all.
Evaluating the potential of green roofs in the context of decarbonization of the built environment
Authors: Liu Y L , He B J
Published: July 2024

The current urban climate disasters are frequent, decarbonization to mitigate urban climate has become an urgent task, and the carbon emission of China’s building operation stage is expected to peak in 2040, with carbon emission peaking at about 2.701 billion tCO2, which is seriously lagging behind China’s carbon peak target in 2030. Green roofs, as the “fifth façade” of buildings, account for about 20%-25% of the urban surface, and in the case of ground-level decarbonization strategies being limited, green roofs become a solution to reduce carbon emissions. In this paper, we review the existing literature, summarize the calculation methods for green roofs, outline the general process of these calculation methods, and analyze the carbon reduction pathways and the carbon reduction performance of representative plants planted on green roofs, and conclude that the implementation of green roofs has a significant contribution to the later stages of carbon peaking.
Strawbale buildings as carbon sinks: influence of the design and construction process on carbon emissions
Authors: Mazelli R , Bocco Guarneri A
Published: July 2024

Strawbale buildings have drawn attention as a prime example of carbon storage using bio-based materials in construction. However, the question on how to efficiently use the potential of this material in the design and construction processes to achieve carbon negative buildings remains open. The reflections proposed in this paper arise from the comparative analysis of two case studies: Bombasei, a residential settlement located in the outskirts of Zurich, and Biotal, an organic farm shop in southern Germany. While both buildings are designed by Swiss architect Werner Schmidt and use the same materials, they present profoundly different design and construction processes. Bombasei is composed of three timber-framed strawbale buildings of four storeys each, meticulously designed and efficiently built, partly through prefabrication. Biotal is a single storey hybrid strawbale construction, mainly self-built by the staff: the design differs significantly from the as-built situation. We performed a systematic investigation based on verified sources to draw bills of quantities and 3D models representing as-built situations. The comparative Life Cycle Assessment, following EN15978 through Ecoinvent 3.9 database and SimaPro software, is limited to A1-A3 phases, to avoid assumptions and uncertainties. Carbon emissions were evaluated through IPCC2021, and biogenic CO2 assessment followed EN 16449. The results show that the material production for both constructions has an overall low impact, with the main contributors being energy-intensive products. Biotal tends to perform better, and is a negative carbon building, mainly due to the choice of less-processed materials compared to Bombasei, which is a near net-zero construction. However, the use of large quantities of bio-based materials allows for the storage of significant amounts of biogenic CO2 in both case studies. In conclusion, strawbale buildings have a regenerative potential for the built environment, suitable for both self-built and scaled-up constructions and adaptable to specific use scenarios.
Reuse potential of building services in building relocation
Authors: Pichlmeier F , Lindner S
Published: July 2024

While the energy consumption for building operation for new buildings in Germany is limited by law, there is currently no regulation for the embodied energy and the amount of primary raw material used in construction. However, the embodied energy and the amount of primary raw material of energy efficient buildings are increasing due to higher insulation standards and advanced building services. Nevertheless, the embodied energy of buildings and the use of recycled materials are rarely considered in the planning process. In the research project “Rural Mining” the relocation of two single-family homes and one two-family home in prefabricated timber construction was monitored. After serving as exhibition houses for ten to twenty years, the three buildings were transferred to new sites. Besides the reuse potential of prefabricated timber elements, the reuse potential of the building services was investigated. In this paper the focus lies on building services. The type, the amount and the material of the building services were recorded. The dismantling of the building services was documented and a Life Cycle Assessment was conducted. The paper will give an overview of the relocation process. The single steps and the reuse rates for the examined buildings will be shown. The aims are to define strategies to increase the reuse potential of building services and to draw conclusions for resource efficiency in future new buildings or renovations.
Soil carbon sequestration in building life cycle assessment: Offsetting measure or site impact
Authors: Roberts M , Thibaudeau P
Published: July 2024

The environmental impacts of the built environment typically focus on the materials and operations within the building envelope. Little, if any, consideration is given to impacts that occur outside the building. This can be an appropriate simplification for urban settings where the building dominants the site. However, it would ignore impacts and benefits associated with site activities in more rural settings. The present study investigates soil carbon sequestration (SCS) principles to determine whether SCS can be considered an offsetting measure for buildings or should be considered within the site impacts for a project. Soil organic carbon (SOC) levels change overtime in response to external factors and interventions, however this response time is within the reference study period commonly used for building-scale life cycle assessments (LCAs). Therefore, it would be plausible to monitor changes in SOC throughout the lifespan for a project. Currently, there are some emerging methods but no consensus standards on accounting for SCS in building LCAs and current methodologies for quantifying SCS need further development to align with carbon offset principles. However, since soil is an intrinsic part of the landscape, it would be appropriate to incorporate SCS within the use phase impacts for a site. Expanding the system boundary to account for SCS should include accounting for the environmental impacts associated with landscaping, maintenance, and land management practices. Guidelines for calculating SCS and landscaping environmental impacts need to be developed to better reflect the complete environmental impact of the built environment.
A review of building life cycle assessment software tools: Challenges and future directions
Authors: Dharmarathna Dilshi , Bunster Victor , Graham Peter
Published: July 2024

Buildings contribute close to 40% of the global annual energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, all emissions need to halve by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive, holistic, and systemic approach to quantify the environmental impacts of a building. Built environment professionals rely on building LCA software tools (BLCA STs) to simplify the modelling needed to inform decision-making. However, BLCA STs are not widely used by the building industry. This has been attributed to a lack of data, time constraints, compatibility issues and the complexity of conducting LCA studies. In parallel, the variety of stakeholders involved, tools available, and intended use during the building’s life cycle means that the requirements expected from BLCA STs can vary substantially. In a first step towards mainstreaming the use of these tools, this study reviews the scope of existing BLCA STs in terms of their attributes and relevance to the building life cycle workflow. This review identifies hindrances in data availability, consistency, transparency, and global coverage during BLCA STs integration. Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Machine Learning (ML) integration, design optimization features and links to certifications can further streamline the BLCA process. While this review is based on the academic perspectives of BLCA STs, there is a significant gap and need for an in–depth understanding of these tools from the perspective of the stakeholders within the building value chain and how they utilize them.
A review of classified regional ventilation strategies based on urban morphology
Authors: Gao Z , He B J
Published: July 2024

Currently, urban high temperature phenomenon occurs frequently all over the world, which not only brings serious ecological environment problems, but also brings certain risks to people’s life safety. Therefore, a large number of scholars have studied urban ventilation, and most of the articles have qualitatively analysed the influencing factors of urban ventilation performance. From the perspective of urban morphology, urban spatial heterogeneity has developed rapidly, but the important role of urban spatial homogeneity still cannot be ignored. In this paper, we first review the past local-scale ventilation studies, and then select three important urban form indicators related to urban ventilation to qualitatively classify the urban form characteristics and summarize the respective ventilation characteristics. The classification system of this paper includes “building coverage + non-building coverage + frontage area density”, which can provide researchers, designers and planners with the ventilation performance of different urban environments, and thus further assist decision makers in formulating urban ventilation planning regulations and rational urban design.
Assessing overheating and undercooling risks in existing public secondary schools in Mediterranean climate
Authors: Calama-González CM , Escandón R , Llanos-Jiménez J , Suárez R
Published: July 2024

During the last years, there has been a significant increase in temperatures, as well as in the intensity and duration of heatwaves due to climate change, which noticeably affects summer, but also winter conditions. Thus, assessing overheating and undercooling risks in the existing stock is of the utmost importance, especially in highly occupied educational buildings with natural ventilation systems. These risks do not only affect students’ thermal comfort but their health and academic performance. Besides, COVID-19 has highlighted the energy vulnerability of schools and the complexity to adopt adequate strategies to enhance indoor environmental quality. To assess overheating and undercooling risks in educational buildings in southern Spain, a parameterized and validated building simulation model has been constructed from a representative school using monitored data. Through sensitivity analysis techniques, the most critical variables on adaptive thermal comfort in summer and winter have been determined. The study highlights the difficulty of guaranteeing a balance between indoor air quality and thermal comfort, since not only infiltration and ventilation rate have a key impact on thermal comfort, but also and more importantly ventilation schedules. These conclusions are vital to propose retrofit strategies to mitigate climate change while tackling undercooling, using parameterized building-archetype models, which allow to simulate other representative case studies in the area.
Treating domestic wastewater using tea leaf residues
Authors: Lee T C , Wei Y H , Xie X Y
Published: July 2024

Tea is nonalcoholic drink and widespread in the world. After drinking, tea leaf residues are discarded as waste. However, the waste is a kind of biosorption material with a net-like structure, and exhibits well adsorption performance for heavy metal and dye removal. Untreated domestic wastewater, containing ionic cleanser, is discharged into the environment and causing river and soil pollution. Therefore, tea leaf residues might have a potential to remove pollutants from domestic wastewater. In this study, we used methylene blue (MB), an ionic dye, as an indicator to test dye adsorption by tea leaf residues. The dry tea residue samples were crushed to pass through a 65-mesh sieve for obtaining the desired particle sizes. Aqueous phase MB concentration was analysed using a UV-visible spectrophotometer at 664 nm. Concentration of MB used for the experiments of was controlled at 300 mg/L. Results showed (1) Green tea residues have better adsorption capacity than black tea residues, and adsorption reaches an equilibrium state when the contact time is at 60 min. (2) Green tea residues have better removal efficiency than black tea residues. (3) Regeneration experiments indicated the powder of tea leaf residue have high efficiently after 4 cycles using NaOH as a desorbing agent. In conclusion, powder of tea leaf residue can adsorption aqueous phase MB in a batch mode. This finding could be applied to treat domestic wastewater, and decrease river and soil pollution. In addition, the tea residue powder can reuse after NaOH treatment.
On the development of a standardised method for climate vulnerability and risk assessment (CVRA) for buildings and properties
Authors: Binz S , Brombacher M , Propach V
Published: July 2024

The IPCC AR6 underlines that climate risks need to be embedded into the architectural design and retrofitting of housing. The Federal Government of Germany acknowledges that buildings are at risk from climate change impacts and intends to lead the way by making federally owned buildings more climate-adapted. The parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany passed the Climate Adaptation Act in November 2023 (effective July 1, 2024). The procedure of Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (CVRA) for buildings remains unregulated on a global, European, or national level. Simultaneously, regulations, such as the EU-taxonomy, but also certification systems and national quality seals require CVRAs for buildings. Up to date, an abundance of methodologies is in development. Yet, calculation bases are often non-transparent. Therefore, there is a strong need to provide building planners and policy makers with a user-friendly methodology for buildings to assess the vulnerability and risk against climate impacts on an early stage. As part of the revision of Germany’s federal system for planning and assessing sustainable buildings (BNB) this paper presents a draft for a standardised CVRA to assess the criterion of climate change adaptation. On this basis, the presented approach will be further developed so that it can also be used separately and outside of building certification. The iterative development of the CVRA approach is based on a comparative analysis of existing methodologies within and outside of building certification. Part of the development process was scientific feedback by external experts and pilot applications to assess reproducibility. The present paper outlines core elements of a CVRA for buildings and suggests a practical, process-oriented approach, based on current scientific standards, databases and climate projections. The proposal defines temporal and spatial system boundaries, qualitative and quantitative indicators, and benchmarks suitable for a final assessment in the certification process as well as for the planning phase.
The Cost of Mitigating Climate Change by Building with Renewable Materials
Authors: Schneider-Marin P , Arendt R
Published: July 2024

While the reduction of operational greenhouse gas emissions is prioritized for the existing building stock, embodied emissions dominate the environmental impact of newly constructed buildings that fulfil zero emission standards. One option to reduce embodied emissions is the use of biogenic materials in construction. However, this usually requires an increase in investment costs. This contribution explores the costs of avoided and temporarily saved greenhouse gas emissions in buildings if non-renewable materials are substituted with biogenic materials. To investigate this question, we use life cycle assessment and life cycle costing, aligning the economic and ecological perspectives. We consider material options of different building parts, exterior walls, and slabs. We use the construction element with the lowest cost as a baseline and determine emission savings of different material choices and related costs. This reveals how changing material choices, e.g., from a concrete core to a wooden core, can cause high prevention costs of more than ten times the current values for emissions certificates, if a short time horizon is considered. In a life-cycle perspective, prevention costs can be even higher, depending on the carbon accounting method used. However, replacing cheaper, short lasting, higher-emitting materials with more expensive, long-lasting materials, with lower emissions, is a win-win option if the whole life cycle is considered. We conclude that construction based on reinforced concrete and other non-renewable materials bears a great risk of carbon lock-in if carbon taxes and emissions trading remain the main legislation to prevent greenhouse gas emissions. The study shows that there are currently only very limited economic incentives to avoid and temporarily store embodied greenhouse gas emissions by using biogenic materials instead of non-renewable materials in buildings, and that new policies need to be developed to unlock this potential.
Remanufacturing insulated glazing: five levers through value network mapping of two pioneering projects
Authors: Geboes Esther , Van Vooren Ruben , Galle Waldo , Temmerman Niels De
Published: July 2024

In façade retrofit projects, several challenges are hindering the reuse of insulated glazing. As a result, 1.5 million tons of insulated glass units (IGUs) are being downcycled or landfilled in Europe each year. Yet, niche practices in which IGUs are remanufactured prove that recurring challenges can be tackled. Therefore, this research identifies levers to overcome challenges from two pioneering projects: the swimming pool in Stuttgart-Feuerbach (Germany) and elderly home Betsy Perk (The Netherlands). Through interviews, a detailed analysis of the IGU remanufacturing process is conducted, mapping material flows, steps of the remanufacturing process, the value network (showing roles involved and their main interactions in materials, money, and intangible flows), and specific answers to pre-specified recurring challenges. These potential levers include assigning a reuse coordinator, building a complementary network with early involvement, conducting a feasibility study, specifying reuse ambitions in the tendering documents and/or quotations, and organising the logistics pragmatically. Instead of being one-on-one solutions, the identified levers could tackle several challenges at once. Altogether the results of this study provide a better understanding of reuse practices of façade components. In further research, multiple projects will be compared allowing practitioners to overcome the recurring challenges and to increase reuse in the construction sector.
Vernacular identity conservation: architectural ethnography fieldwork on Cham housing in Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Authors: Nguyen Tran Y K , Huynh V K
Published: July 2024

With the technology advances recently, cities are transforming at an unprecedented speed. Meanwhile, the focus is given unequally to preserving culture worldwide, which makes ethnicity conservation a challenge for authorities of lower-income countries. In this context, the approach to vernacular architecture has shifted towards learning and applying environmentally friendly principles for sustainable design. Vietnam is already a rare example of its 54 ethnicities and architectural heritage that survived through generations of colonization and is a growing interest in city development. However, in remote areas, the conservation of local identity from vernacular knowledge is lacking due to unequal attention given to ethnic people. Such a case exists in the Cham Muslim village at the Northwest borders of the Mekong Delta region, which is the motivation for this study. In this research, the authors have conducted extensive on-site fieldwork of approximately two thousand rural houses of the ethnic Cham for two months. Through fieldwork collection of everyday life, the research employs the vigorous practice of architectural ethnography and a critical approach to environmental consciousness. Developed from previous work on the spatial formation and transformation of Cham village housing typology, this paper examines the process of architectural ethnography fieldwork employed to define the evolution of Cham Muslim villages and housing. These characteristics contribute to their identity, their community, and their adaptation to cohabitation with other ethnic in the Mekong Delta. The results show how the spatial layout and architectural elements of Cham traditional housing are made conscious of their day-to-day activities, lifestyle and living environment. Furthermore, the vernacular knowledge of living with nature contributes to preserving its cultural and architectural heritage and protects the community identity from homogenization and eradication. The outcome of such a tenuous practice can be a valuable archive to discuss the future development of cities in Vietnam, which are currently under threat of fast and destructive urbanization.
On the orbit-induced spin density of tightly focused optical vortex beams: ellipticity and helicity
Authors: Forbes Kayn A
Published: July 2024

It has recently been established that a linearly-polarized optical vortex possesses spin angular momentum density in the direction of propagation (longitudinal spin) under tight-focusing. The helicity of light has long been associated with longitudinal spin angular momentum. Here we show that the longitudinal spin density of linearly-polarized vortices is anomalous because it has no associated helicity. It was also recently determined that the polarization-independent helicity of tightly-focused optical vortices is associated with their transverse spin momentum density. The key finding of this work is the fact that, in general, longitudinal spin can not necessarily be associated with helicity, and transverse spin is in general not associated with a zero helicity, and such extraordinary behaviour manifests most clearly for optical vortices under non-paraxial conditions.
EA-DINO: Improved method for unmanned aerial vehicle detection in airspace based on DINO
Authors: Cai Hao , Zhang JinHong , Xu JianLong
Published: July 2024

In recent years, the increase in drone traffic and the potential for unauthorized surveillance has underscored the urgent need for technological advances in drone detection. Despite the rapid advancements in deep learning that have significantly improved object detection tasks, air-to-air unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) detection continues to pose significant challenges. Challenges such as complex backgrounds, small size of UAVs in captured images, and variations in flight poses and angles pose significant difficulties for traditional deep learning approaches, mainly because of the inherent limitations of conventional convolutional neural network architectures in discriminating fine details against dynamically changing backdrops. To address these challenges, this study introduces EA-DINO, a new deep learning network based on enhanced aggregation (EA) and DINO. The network incorporates a series of improvements over DINO. First, the backbone is replaced with a Swin transformer, and agent attention is integrated. Second, an EA feature pyramid network is added to the network architecture. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that, in the context of air-to-air UAV detection complexities, the EA-DINO model achieves an mAP
50 of 96.6% on the Det-Fly dataset, representing an improvement of 8.3% over the baseline DINO model. This improvement is noteworthy compared with other mainstream models, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed model in addressing the challenges of air-to-air UAV detection.
Experimental investigation on enhancement in pure axial deformation of soft pneumatic actuator (SPA) with cap ring reinforcement
Authors: Mehta Vishal , Chauhan Mihir , Sanghvi Harshal A , Engeberg Erik D , Hashemi Javad , Pandya Abhijit
Published: July 2024

Bio-inspired soft-robots are nowadays found their place in many applications due to its flexibility, compliance and adaptivity to unstructured environment. The main intricate part of such bio-inspired soft robots are soft pneumatic actuators (SPA) which replicate or mimic the limbs and muscles. The soft actuators are pneumatically actuated and provide bending motion in most cases. However, many engineering and medical applications need axially expanding soft pneumatic actuators to deal with delicate objects. Various studies have put forward designs for SPA with axial deformation, but the majority of them have limited axial deformation, constraining motion and less overall efficacy which limit the scope of utilization. The common practice to enhance the axial deformation of SPA is by incorporating directionally customized reinforcement using fibres or by other means like yarns, fabrics, etc These types of reinforcements are generally embedded to SPA during fabrication and may not have capability for any correction or modification later on hence lack the customization. This paper presents a novel method of radial reinforcement for the enhancement of axial deformation of SPAs with provision of customization. The present study aims to enhance and/or customize the axial deformation of SPA by incorporating external and detachable reinforcement in the form of annulus shaped cap ring. The investigation encompasses the design and attachment of four distinct cap ring geometries to SPA at different locations. Experimental results affirm that cap ring reinforcement bolster the radial stiffness, curbing lateral deformation while permitting axial deformation of soft pneumatic actuators. Out of 64 distinct configurations, the one with full reinforcement, featuring four cap rings of maximum size, yields a remarkable 169% increase in pure axial deformation compared to unreinforced cases. It is also observed that by varying the number and placement locations of cap rings the pure axial deformation can be customized. This novel insight not only propels soft pneumatic actuation technology but also heralds prospects for highly agile and versatile robotic systems which can be used in medical, prosthetics, pharmaceutical and other industries.
Emergence of chemotactic strategies with multi-agent reinforcement learning
Authors: Tovey Samuel , Lohrmann Christoph , Holm Christian
Published: July 2024

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a flexible and efficient method for programming micro-robots in complex environments. Here we investigate whether RL can provide insights into biological systems when trained to perform chemotaxis. Namely, whether we can learn about how intelligent agents process given information in order to swim towards a target. We run simulations covering a range of agent shapes, sizes, and swim speeds to determine if the physical constraints on biological swimmers, namely Brownian motion, lead to regions where reinforcement learners’ training fails. We find that the RL agents can perform chemotaxis as soon as it is physically possible and, in some cases, even before the active swimming overpowers the stochastic environment. We study the efficiency of the emergent policy and identify convergence in agent size and swim speeds. Finally, we study the strategy adopted by the RL algorithm to explain how the agents perform their tasks. To this end, we identify three emerging dominant strategies and several rare approaches taken. These strategies, whilst producing almost identical trajectories in simulation, are distinct and give insight into the possible mechanisms behind which biological agents explore their environment and respond to changing conditions.
Efficient Bayesian inference using physics-informed invertible neural networks for inverse problems
Authors: Guan Xiaofei , Wang Xintong , Wu Hao , Yang Zihao , Yu Peng
Published: July 2024

This paper presents an innovative approach to tackle Bayesian inverse problems using physics-informed invertible neural networks (PI-INN). Serving as a neural operator model, PI-INN employs an invertible neural network (INN) to elucidate the relationship between the parameter field and the solution function in latent variable spaces. Specifically, the INN decomposes the latent variable of the parameter field into two distinct components: the expansion coefficients that represent the solution to the forward problem, and the noise that captures the inherent uncertainty associated with the inverse problem. Through precise estimation of the forward mapping and preservation of statistical independence between expansion coefficients and latent noise, PI-INN offers an accurate and efficient generative model for resolving Bayesian inverse problems, even in the absence of labeled data. For a given solution function, PI-INN can provide tractable and accurate estimates of the posterior distribution of the underlying parameter field. Moreover, capitalizing on the INN’s characteristics, we propose a novel independent loss function to effectively ensure the independence of the INN’s decomposition results. The efficacy and precision of the proposed PI-INN are demonstrated through a series of numerical experiments.
State-level structural racism and adolescent mental health in the United States
Authors: Adkins-Jackson Paris B , Joseph Victoria A , Ford Tiffany N , Avila-Rieger Justina F , Gobaud Ariana N , Keyes Katherine M
Published: July 2024

We explored state-level indicators of structural racism on internalizing symptoms of depressive affect among US adolescents. We merged 16 indicators of state-level structural racism with 2015-19 Monitoring the Future surveys (n = 41 258) examining associations with loneliness, self-esteem, self-derogation, and depressive symptoms using regression analyses. Students racialized as Black in states with bans on food stamp eligibility and temporary assistance for drug felony conviction had 1.37 times the odds of high depressive symptoms (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.89) compared to students in states without bans. In contrast, students racialized as White living in states with more severe disenfranchisement of people convicted of felonies had lower odds of high self-derogation (odds ratio [OR], 0.89; 95% CI, 0.78-1.02) and high depressive symptoms (OR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.70-0.99) compared to states with less severe disenfranchisement. These findings demonstrate the need to address the legacy of structural racism at the state level to reduce mental distress for US youth.

This article is part of a Special Collection on Mental Health.
Exposure to structural racism–related state laws is associated with worse cardiovascular health among US adults, BRFSS 2011 and 2013
Authors: Needham Belinda L , Dokshina Darya , Ali Talha , Allgood Kristi L , Douglas Megan , Dulin Akilah , Fleischer Nancy L , Johnson Amber E , Ro Annie , Agénor Madina
Published: July 2024

The objective of this study was to determine whether exposure to structural racism–related state laws is associated with cardiovascular health among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of US adults. Data were from the Database of Structural Racism–Related State Laws and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The sample included 958 019 BRFSS 2011 and 2013 respondents aged 18 years or older from all 50 US states. The exposure was a summary index of 22 state laws related to the criminal legal system, economics and labor, education, health care, housing, immigration, and political participation. The outcome was the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 (LS7), a summary index of 7 cardiovascular health indicators. Linear regression models included fixed effects for year and state to control for time trends and unmeasured, time-invariant, state-level contextual factors. In the full sample, a 1 SD increase in the structural racism state legal index was associated with a 0.06-unit decrease in the LS7 (b = −0.06; 95% CI, −0.09 to 0.02; P = .001), controlling for individual- and state-level covariates. Contrary to expectations, stratified models revealed no statistically significant differences by race and ethnicity in the association between the structural racism state legal index and the LS7.