全新可持续加州科学院建筑设计

项目地点:美国加州项目类型:建筑(教育)开工日期:2005年9月该项目综合考虑了可持续性和建筑方面的因素,并将其纳入大型公共建筑之中。该项目获2005年豪瑞可持续建筑大奖赛北美地区银奖     

Design-construct projects : getting value for money

The author describes the value analysis techniques applied in Scandinavian countries to promote new building methods, improve design and contracting procedures and provide better value for the client's money.

The topic forms part of the programme of CIB working group W55 on building economics, on which the author serves. He is head of the economics section of the Danish Building Research Institute.     

Alcohol, psychoactive drugs and fatal road traffic accidents in Norway: a case-control study

A case–control study was conducted on 204 drivers fatally injured in road traffic accidents in south-eastern Norway during the period 2003–2008. Cases from single vehicle accidents (N = 68) were assessed separately. As controls, 10 540 drivers selected in a roadside survey in the same geographical area during 2005–2006 were used. Blood samples were collected from the cases and oral fluid (saliva) samples from the controls. Samples were analysed for alcohol, amphetamines, cannabis, cocaine, opioid analgesics, hypnotics, sedatives and a muscle relaxant; altogether 22 psychoactive substances. Equivalent cutoff concentrations for blood and oral fluid were used. The risk for fatal injury in a road traffic accident was estimated using logistic regression adjusting for gender, age, season of the year, and time of the week. The odds for involvement in fatal road traffic accidents for different substances or combination of substances were in increasing order: single drug < multiple drugs < alcohol only < alcohol + drugs. For single substance use: medicinal drug or THC < amphetamine/methamphetamine < alcohol. For most substances, higher ORs were found when studying drivers involved in single vehicle accidents than for those involved in multiple vehicle accidents, but confidence intervals were wider.     

A Novel Nanoprobe for Multimodal Imaging Is Effectively Incorporated into Human Melanoma Metastatic Cell Lines

To facilitate efficient drug delivery to tumor tissue, several nanomaterials have been designed, with combined diagnostic and therapeutic properties. In this work, we carried out fundamental in vitro and in vivo experiments to assess the labeling efficacy of our novel theranostic nanoprobe, consisting of glycogen conjugated with a red fluorescent probe and gadolinium. Microscopy and resazurin viability assays were used to study cell labeling and cell viability in human metastatic melanoma cell lines. Fluorescence lifetime correlation spectroscopy (FLCS) was done to investigate nanoprobe stability. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed to study T₁ relaxivity in vitro, and contrast enhancement in a subcutaneous in vivo tumor model. Efficient cell labeling was demonstrated, while cell viability, cell migration, and cell growth was not affected. FLCS showed that the nanoprobe did not degrade in blood plasma. MRI demonstrated that down to 750 cells/μL of labeled cells in agar phantoms could be detected. In vivo MRI showed that contrast enhancement in tumors was comparable between Omniscan contrast agent and the nanoprobe. In conclusion, we demonstrate for the first time that a non-toxic glycogen-based nanoprobe may effectively visualize tumor cells and tissue, and, in future experiments, we will investigate its therapeutic potential by conjugating therapeutic compounds to the nanoprobe.     

Exposure and effects assessment of persistent organohalogen contaminants in arctic wildlife and fish

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) encompass an array of anthropogenic organic and elemental substances and their degradation and metabolic byproducts that have been found in the tissues of exposed animals, especially POPs categorized as organohalogen contaminants (OHCs). OHCs have been of concern in the circumpolar arctic for decades. For example, as a consequence of bioaccumulation and in some cases biomagnification of legacy (e.g., chlorinated PCBs, DDTs and CHLs) and emerging (e.g., brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and in particular polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) including perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA) found in Arctic biota and humans. Of high concern are the potential biological effects of these contaminants in exposed Arctic wildlife and fish. As concluded in the last review in 2004 for the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) on the effects of POPs in Arctic wildlife, prior to 1997, biological effects data were minimal and insufficient at any level of biological organization. The present review summarizes recent studies on biological effects in relation to OHC exposure, and attempts to assess known tissue/body compartment concentration data in the context of possible threshold levels of effects to evaluate the risks. This review concentrates mainly on post-2002, new OHC effects data in Arctic wildlife and fish, and is largely based on recently available effects data for populations of several top trophic level species, including seabirds (e.g., glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus)), polar bears (Ursus maritimus), polar (Arctic) fox (Vulpes lagopus), and Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus), as well as semi-captive studies on sled dogs (Canis familiaris). Regardless, there remains a dearth of data on true contaminant exposure, cause-effect relationships with respect to these contaminant exposures in Arctic wildlife and fish. Indications of exposure effects are largely based on correlations between biomarker endpoints (e.g., biochemical processes related to the immune and endocrine system, pathological changes in tissues and reproduction and development) and tissue residue levels of OHCs (e.g., PCBs, DDTs, CHLs, PBDEs and in a few cases perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluorinated sulfonates (PFSAs)). Some exceptions include semi-field studies on comparative contaminant effects of control and exposed cohorts of captive Greenland sled dogs, and performance studies mimicking environmentally relevant PCB concentrations in Arctic charr. Recent tissue concentrations in several arctic marine mammal species and populations exceed a general threshold level of concern of 1 part-per-million (ppm), but a clear evidence of a POP/OHC-related stress in these populations remains to be confirmed. There remains minimal evidence that OHCs are having widespread effects on the health of Arctic organisms, with the possible exception of East Greenland and Svalbard polar bears and Svalbard glaucous gulls. However, the true (if any real) effects of POPs in Arctic wildlife have to be put into the context of other environmental, ecological and physiological stressors (both anthropogenic and natural) that render an overall complex picture. For instance, seasonal changes in food intake and corresponding cycles of fattening and emaciation seen in Arctic animals can modify contaminant tissue distribution and toxicokinetics (contaminant deposition, metabolism and depuration). Also, other factors, including impact of climate change (seasonal ice and temperature changes, and connection to food web changes, nutrition, etc. in exposed biota), disease, species invasion and the connection to disease resistance will impact toxicant exposure. Overall, further research and better understanding of POP/OHC impact on animal performance in Arctic biota are recommended. Regardless, it could be argued that Arctic wildlife and fish at the highest potential risk of POP/OHC exposure and mediated effects are East Greenland, Svalbard and (West and South) Hudson Bay polar bears, Alaskan and Northern Norway killer whales, several species of gulls and other seabirds from the Svalbard area, Northern Norway, East Greenland, the Kara Sea and/or the Canadian central high Arctic, East Greenland ringed seal and a few populations of Arctic charr and Greenland shark.     

A story about distributions of dimensions and locations of boulders

The topic concerns the density of occurrence of boulders and the joint distribution of the primary boulder dimensions in the till deposits of the Great Belt region in Denmark. The investigation was made in 1987–1988 on the initiative of A/S Storebæltsforbindelsen in order to prepare the tendering for making a bored tunnel through the till deposit. Geographical universality was discovered through the statistical analysis of observations of boulder coordinates and dimension measures from widespread cliff beach locations. One conclusion is that the joint size distribution up to some degree of modeling approximation has a surprisingly simple structure. In particular, the maximal dimension has an exponential distribution while the ratios between maximal and intermediate dimension and between the intermediate dimension and the smallest dimension are independent and identically distributed according to a beta-distribution. Moreover, these ratios are independent of the maximal dimension.The random point field structure of the boulder coordinates as isolated points or as clusters of points makes Poisson fields reasonable modeling candidates for the fields of both single points and cluster points. The cluster size distributions are well modeled by a Markov chain type of model. Different details of the data and their statistical analysis support several modeling conjectures concerning the glacial history of boulder deposition.In a companion paper, it is described how the results of this beach boulder investigation are used for interpretation of the results from seismic scanning of the till deposits along the planned tunnel line, and for prediction of the density of boulders of maximal dimension above any specified length.     

On the fire resistance of structural steel elements derived from standard fire tests or by calculation

Due to high costs, a fire resistance test of a load-bearing structural element is usually limited to one test specimen — in a few countries, to two test specimens. Accordingly, there are no possibilities of evaluating the test results statistically.For a single test specimen, the actual quality of the structural material represents a random sample from a wide variety. This applies also to the initial imperfections of the structural elements. In consequence of this, a standard fire resistance test is generally carried out on a test specimen with a load-bearing capacity which is greater — most often significantly greater — than the load-bearing capacity related to the characteristic values of the mechanical material strength and of the imperfections of the structural member. In current practice, no corrections of the test results with respect to this are made.In a conventional analytical design, a determination of the load-bearing capacity of a structure at room temperature conditions is based on the characteristics values of the strength and imperfections. Extended to a structural fire engineering design, this procedure will give an analytically determined fire resistance of a load-bearing structural element which is lower — normally essentially lower — than the corresponding value derived from a standard fire resistance test.Available methods for a simplified calculation of the temperature of fire exposed steel structures are, as a rule, based on the assumption of a uniformly distributed temperature structure at each time of fire exposure. The ECCS Recommendations for an analytical design of steel structures exposed to a standard fire follow this kind of approach. For certain types of steel structures, for example, beams with a slab on the upper flange, a considerable temperature variation arises over the cross section as well as in the longitudinal direction during a fire resistance test. A simplified, analytical method, which neglects this influence, gives a further underestimation of the fire resistance in relation to the corresponding result obtained in a standard fire resistance test.The described discrepancies between an analytical and an experimental determination of the fire resistance are further discussed and analysed in Sections 2 and 3, with particular reference to different types of steel structures. The discussion is focussed on the loading and restraint conditions, the scatter of material properties and geometrical imperfections, and the temperature variation over the structure or structural element. The discussion is summarized in Section 4 and alternative methods of correction are outlined briefly for obtaining an improved consistency between the analytical and the experimental approaches.In Section 5, one of these methods is further developed to a design basis which can be applied easily in practice. Principally, the method is characterized by a correction of the analytically determined load-bearing capacity, based on the characteristic value of the structural material properties, the characteristic value of the imperfections of the structure, and a uniformly distributed steel temperature across and along the structure. Two different sequences of the design procedure are dealt with, defined according to Figs. 10 and 11. The resultant correction factors, ? and κ, belonging to the respective sequences, are given by Figs. 8 and 12 for columns, isostatic beams, and hyperstatic beams. The straight line curves in Figs. 9 and 13 show corresponding, simplified relationships for the ? and κ factors.The derived method of correction must be characterized as an approximate approach. This is in consequence of the present state of knowledge, which does not allow a solution of high accuracy. The task to develop a correction procedure which leads to improved consistency between an analytically and an experimentally determined fire resistance, should also be seen in the context of the inadequate reproducibility of the standard fire resistance test.     

Influence of cerebral lesions on psychological test performances of older children.

50 brain-damaged children ranging in age from 10 through 14 years were matched in pairs with 50 normally functioning children on the variable of age. Each subject was administered individually a wide variety of psychological tests. The sensitivity of each test to the brain-damage factor was determined by computing the appropriate t ratio and by determining the proportion of cases in which the brain-damaged children performed less adequately than their matched controls. The brain-damaged children performed significantly less well than the control children on all the tests, with differences between the 2 groups occurring more frequently on the tests of language functions than on other testing procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Model uncertainty in structural reliability

Structural reliability analysis is based on idealized limit state models. The level of sophistication of the models is, on the one hand, kept suitably simple in order to have mathematical operability. On the other hand, the models are believed to be reasonably predictive with respect to real failures. In order that the reliability analysis can serve as a decision tool in real life decisions in structural design, it is necessary to include elements for subjective assessment of model uncertainty information in the reliability model itself. The paper discusses how this can be done in a rational and philosophically satisfying way without losing the general level of operational simplicity of the limit state models. The philosophy and the mathematical arguments of the paper support the rules of dealing with model uncertainty that are introduced on an intuitive basis in recent international safety code recommendations.     

Formation of cracks in Soederberg electrodes used in aluminum reduction plants

Shrinkage and crack formation during baking of Soederberg anode paste for aluminum furnaces is discussed, and the authors demonstrate how this shrinkage may be reduced by applying suitable raw materials and paste compositions.