The present paper reports on an experimental study performed in a seminar room of the University of Luxembourg in a building of the 1970ies without a major renovation. This lecture room is typical ...for this building period and has a capacity of 60 seats. It is equipped with a mechanical ventilation system that is normally in operation on workdays for 11 hours a day in semester periods (8:00–19:00h), while windows can be opened manually. A blower‐door test revealed that the room is not airtight. During a year, the ventilation system was shut “on” and “off” in periods of some weeks and the consumed final‐energy was measured, as well as the indoor climate assessed by physical and psychological measurements. For instance, the measured CO2 concentrations are marginally better with the ventilation system „on“, which was not perceived in any way by the occupants during the investigations. It was not possible to properly identify the impact of ventilation on the consumed heat‐energy, as the room could not be thermally separated from the rest of the building. But with the system “on”, there was a clear increase in consumed primary energy due to the electric consumption of the fans. No relationship between the perceived percentage of dissatisfied and perceived climate could be observed. It is concluded that the typical normal operation modus is questionable for seminar rooms in older buildings with variable occupancy and that a simple shut down or semi‐automatic user‐controlled modus by low‐cost retrofit seems advantageous.
Energieeffizienz und Raumluftqualität von Seminarräumen im Bestand mit und ohne mechanische Belüftung. Der vorliegende Artikel berichtet über eine experimentelle Studie, die in einem Seminarraum der Universität Luxemburg in einem Gebäude der 1970er Jahre ohne größere Renovierung durchgeführt wurde. Dieser für diese Bauzeit typische Hörsaal hat eine Kapazität von 60 Plätzen. Er ist mit einer mechanischen Lüftungsanlage ausgestattet, die in den Vorlesungszeiten (8:00–19:00 Uhr) an Werktagen in der Regel 11 Stunden täglich in Betrieb ist, während Fenster manuell geöffnet werden können. Im Rahmen eines Blower‐Door‐Tests wurde festgestellt, dass der Raum nicht luftdicht ist. Während eines Jahres wurde die Lüftungsanlage in Zeiträumen von einigen Wochen ein‐ und ausgeschaltet und die verbrauchte Endenergie sowie das Raumklima durch physikalische und psychologische Messungen ermittelt. So sind beispielsweise die gemessenen CO2‐Konzentrationen bei eingeschalteter Lüftungsanlage etwas besser, was aber von den Nutzern während der Untersuchungen in keiner Weise wahrgenommen wurde. Die Auswirkungen der Lüftung auf die verbrauchte Wärmeenergie konnten nicht eindeutig identifiziert werden, da der Raum nicht thermisch vom Rest des Gebäudes getrennt werden konnte. Aber mit eingeschaltetem System kam es zu einem deutlichen Anstieg des primären Energieverbrauchs aufgrund des Strombedarfs der Ventilatoren. Es konnte kein Zusammenhang zwischen dem wahrgenommenen Prozentsatz an Unzufriedenen und dem wahrgenommenen Raumklima festgestellt werden. Es wird die Schlussfolgerung gezogen, dass der typische Normalbetrieb für Seminarräume in Bestandsgebäuden mit variabler Belegung fragwürdig ist und dass ein einfacher Shutdown oder ein halbautomatischer benutzergesteuerter Modus durch kostengünstige Nachrüstung vorteilhaft erscheint.
Neuropsychological assessments are often surprisingly inaccurate in mapping clinically-reported attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, presumably due to their low ecological ...validity. Virtual reality (VR) might offer a potential solution for this problem, given its capability to generate standardized and yet highly realistic virtual environments. As the first adaptation of existing virtual classroom scenarios to an adult population, we developed a Virtual Seminar Room (VSR) for multimodal characterization of ADHD symptoms. To test its feasibility, N = 35 healthy participants were immersed into the VSR via a head-mounted display and carried out a VR-embedded continuous performance task (CPT) under varying levels of distractions in two experimental blocks (24 min each). CPT performance, electroencephalography (EEG) measures, and head movements (actigraphy) were simultaneously recorded and analyzed offline. Although CPT performance remained constant throughout the task, head movements increased significantly from Block 1 to Block 2. In addition, EEG theta (4–7 Hz) and beta (13–30 Hz) power was higher during Block 1 than Block 2, and during distractor-present than distractor-absent phases. Moreover, P300 amplitudes were higher during Block 1 than Block 2, and P300 latencies were prolonged in distractor-absent compared with distractor-present phases. Although the paradigm awaits further improvements, this study confirms the general feasibility of the VSR and provides a first step toward a multimodal, ecologically valid, and reliable VR-based adult ADHD assessment.
A world addicted to oil was the title of my presentation on Capitol Hill on October 19, 2005. The Worldwatch Institute was host for the presentation. That was the day that the term “Peak Oil” was ...introduced to the corridors of power in Washington. There was standing room only in the seminar room packed with aides to US representatives, senators, and secretaries.
Geoffrey Vickers Ramage, Magnus; Shipp, Karen
Systems Thinkers
Book Chapter
Sir Geoffrey Vickers was a lawyer and manager, and provides an outstanding example of deep reflection after a long and varied career. He produced a series of important and thought-provoking works in ...retirement, which had a strong influence upon the developing use of systems thinking in management, decision-making and politics. He had such an impact upon the work of the Systems group at the Open University that its seminar room for many years had a large photograph of Vickers gazing down upon all discussions. Indeed, Open University students are still introduced to systems thinking with Vickers' analogy between the lobster trap which creatures enter but cannot leave and thinking traps into which people fall: “a trap is a trap only for the creatures which cannot solve the problems it sets. Man traps are dangerous only in relation to the limitations of what men can see and value and do” (Vickers 1972, p. 15).
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