Ergebnisse einer Evaluierung von Energiekonzepten für Bürogebäude und Schlussfolgerungen für die Energieeffizienz und das Raumklima

Evaluation of energy concepts for office buildings – results and conclusions for energy efficiency and indoor climate. Office buildings have been in the public spotlight and subject to intensive scientific research since the 1970s. The trend towards extensively glazed façades over the last 15 years added a degree of urgency to the need for research into energy efficiency and occupant comfort. The associated public scolding of architects and engineers and the – in some cases questionable – technical discussions revealed information deficits. The research project entitled “Evaluation of energy concepts for office buildings (EVA)” aimed to reduce this information deficit. Overall, 19 office buildings were examined.     

So near and yet so far: New insight into properties of some well-known classifier paradigms

This article provides some new insight into the properties of four well-established classifier paradigms, namely support vector machines (SVM), classifiers based on mixture density models (CMM), fuzzy classifiers (FCL), and radial basis function neural networks (RBF). It will be shown that these classifiers can be formulated in a way such that they are functionally equivalent or at least highly similar. The interpretation of a specific classifier as being an SVM, CMM, FCL, or RBF then only depends on the objective function and the optimization algorithm used to adjust the parameters. The properties of these four paradigms, however, are very different: a discriminative classifier such as an SVM is expected to have optimal generalization capabilities on new data, a generative classifier such as a CMM also aims at modeling the processes from which the observed data originate, and a comprehensible classifier such as an FCL is intended to be parameterized and understood by human domain experts. We will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these properties and show how they can be measured numerically in order to compare these classifiers. In such a way, the article aims at supporting a practitioner in assessing the properties of classifier paradigms and in selecting or combining certain paradigms for a given application problem.     

A stochastic framework for K-SVD with applications on face recognition

In recent years, the sparse representation modeling of signals has received a lot of attention due to its state-of-the-art performance in different computer vision tasks. One important factor to its success is the ability to promote representations that are well adapted to the data. This is achieved by the use of dictionary learning algorithms. The most well known of these algorithms is K-SVD. In this paper, we propose a stochastic framework for K-SVD called \(\alpha\)K-SVD. The \(\alpha\)K-SVD uses a parameter \(\alpha\) to control a compromise between exploring the space of dictionaries and improving a possible solution. The use of this heuristic search strategy was motivated by the fact that K-SVD uses a greedy search algorithm with fast convergence, possibly leading to local minimum. Our approach is evaluated on two public face recognition databases. The results show that our approach yields better results than K-SVD and LC-KSVD (a K-SVD adaptation to classification) when the sparsity level is low.     

Surgical treatment of morbus Menière (author''s transl)

CFW mice were injected with methylmercury hydroxide (1, 2, 3, 5 or 10 mg/kg as mercury) on Day 8 of gestation. Mice treated with 3, 5 or 10 mg/kg averaged 1/3 fewer pups than controls. Pups from these treated animals weighed less than controls and the weight differences persisted through weaning but were no longer significant at 56 days of age. Mice exposed to methylmercury in utero showed significant differences from controls in their behavior in a 2-way active avoidance shuttle box and in a punishment situation but not when tested in an open field, a water escape runaway or a conditioned suppression paradigm. Neither the mothers nor progeny of the mice exposed prenatally to methylmercury showed bahavioral deficits.     

Infection and pyospermia in male infertility. Is it really a problem?

Guns in the home are a factor in pediatric unintentional and intentional firearm injuries, yet the patterns of ownership and use are unclear. OBJECTIVES. To describe the prevalence of firearms in households containing children who go to pediatricians, the types of firearms owned, the purposes of such ownership, the conditions of firearm storage, and the social correlates of ownership. METHODS. Survey of parents attending 29 (urban, suburban, and rural) pediatric practices in Chicago, New Jersey, Houston, Utah, Georgia, Iowa, and South Carolina for well or sick child care during a 1-week study period. The main outcome measure was ownership of rifle/shotgun and/or handgun. RESULTS. Gun ownership was reported by 37% of 5233 respondent families: rifles (26%), handguns (17%), and powder firearm (32%). Ownership varied significantly across practices and geographical locations. Thirteen percent of 823 handguns and 1% of 1327 rifles were reported both unlocked and loaded. Recreation was the most common reason for both rifle (75%) and handgun (59%) ownership; 48% of handguns were kept for self-protection versus 21% of rifles. In logistic regression models, predictor variables for firearm ownership included rural area, single family dwelling, at least one adult male, and fewer preschool children (for handgun and rifle); mother with at least 12 years education (for handgun), and white mother (for rifle). CONCLUSIONS. The data presented suggest that US pediatricians routinely see children in families that own firearms, including a worrisome number that keep loaded and unlocked handguns. Until more detailed information becomes available, it is reasonable for pediatricians to be guided by these data, and so to counsel routinely about gun exposure.     

Immunogenicity and safety of a new inactivated hepatitis A vaccine: a clinical trial with comparison of administration route

A bicentre, controlled, randomized, open trial was carried out in order to compare the immunogenicity and the reactogenicity of PASTEUR MERIEUX Sérums et Vaccins inactivated Hepatitis A Vaccine on adults, when used with different routes of administration [intramuscular (i.m.), subcutaneous (s.c.) and needless injection using a Jet injector device]. Vaccines were given at two doses 6 months apart to 147 seronegative subjects. Anti-Hepatitis A virus (HAV) titres were performed at each visit by modified radioimmunoassay assay. After the first dose, 138 subjects except one seroconverted (s.c.). After booster dose, all subjects exhibited high levels of HAV antibodies. The higher titres were observed with Jet injector (GMT: 305 mIU ml-1 after the first dose and 3727 mIU ml-1 after the booster dose), followed by the i.m. route (210 mIU ml-1, 3152 mIU ml-1) and the s.c. route (165 mIU ml-1, 2082 mIU ml-1). No statistically significant differences were observed in the three paired comparisons (i.m. vs jet injector; jet vs s.c., im vs s. c.). This inactivated hepatitis A vaccine appeared to be highly immunogenic after one single dose and one booster 6 months later.     

Mechanism of organotin stabilization of poly(vinyl chloride). 2: Significance for PVC stabilization of structure and equilibria of alkyltin thioglycolates/chlorides

The stabilization effect of alkyltin thioglycolates was determined by the measurement of discoloration of PVC formulations. The results were interpreted considering the structure of these compounds, their equilibration with alkyltin chlorides, and their postulated association with chlorine atoms at PVC primary particle surfaces.