Silica Aerogel-Rubber Composite: A Sustainable Alternative for Buildings’ Thermal Insulation

Silica aerogel composites with recycled tire rubber have been synthesized and evaluated for their potential use for thermal protection in buildings. The present work describes for the first time the preparation of silica-based aerogel composites containing recycled rubber tires reinforced with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) by hot pressing. The developed composite was extensively characterized regarding its physical, morphological, thermal and mechanical features, and the results showed their properties were relevant, leading to composites with different properties/performances. The obtained bulk density values were satisfactory, down to 474 kg·m⁻³, and very good thermal properties were achieved, namely, thermal conductivity as low as 55 mW·m⁻¹·K⁻¹ for composites with silica aerogel, recycled tire rubber and PVB. The most promising composites were those based on low bulk density and thermal conductivity values, and they were thermally stable, indicating their suitability for thermal insulation applications.     

Phospholipids from some common fungi associated with damp building materials

Methods for the analysis of fungal biomass in contaminated building materials have been limited to methods that use viable propagules as well as indicators of total biomass such as fungal glucan and ergosterol. Because of large differences in the survival times of spores, and limitations imposed by the use of agar media to assess fungal cells for the former approach, no quantitative information and poor qualitative information is obtained. The use of the biochemical indicators provides reliable quantitative information but no qualitative data. Analysis of phospholipids of various bacteria and, recently, of fungi common in outdoor air has provided both qualitative and quantitative data on their distributions in various substrates including in outdoor air samples. In this report, we provide new data on the signature lipids of some fungi common on moldy building materials. Using the LC/MS/MS analysis described, an estimate can be made of the fresh weight of fungal cells and the relative abundance of the common genera of fungi typically found on moldy materials.     

Discriminant Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds data related to a new location method of entrapped people in collapsed buildings of an earthquake

Discriminant Analysis is used as a part of a research, which aims at using expired air analysis for the early location of entrapped people under the ruins of collapsed buildings in an earthquake. This work focuses on the possibility of distinguishing Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the entrapment area which originate from different sources. Five categories of samples were analyzed by Thermal Desorption-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). Expired air samples from healthy humans (Category 1) and fasting people (Category 2) were analyzed for studying the VOCs attributed to entrapped people. Headspace air of urban waste disposal bins (Category 3), headspace air of bags with decaying human bodies (Category 4) and urban air samples (Category 5) were analyzed for studying the VOCs attributed to background sources. Discriminant Rotation, a specific type of Discriminant Analysis was applied on the VOCs concentration matrix of the five categories. Combinations of VOCs that best discriminated each category were determined. Cluster Analysis was used to validate the results of Discriminant Analysis. The advantages and limitations of the method are presented and discussed.     

Risk Minimizing Option Pricing for a Class of Exotic Options in a Markov-Modulated Market

We address risk minimizing option pricing in a regime switching market where the floating interest rate depends on a finite state Markov process. The growth rate and the volatility of the stock also depend on the Markov process. Using the minimal martingale measure, we show that the locally risk minimizing prices for certain exotic options satisfy a system of Black-Scholes partial differential equations with appropriate boundary conditions. We find the corresponding hedging strategies and the residual risk. We develop suitable numerical methods to compute option prices.     

Moufang sets of mixed type F4

Moufang sets were introduced by Jacques Tits in order to understand isotropic linear algebraic groups of relative rank one, but the notion is more general. We describe a new class of Moufang sets, arising from so‐called mixed groups of type ${\mathsf{F}}_4$ in characteristic 2, obtained as the fixed point set under a suitable involution.     

基于物理光学法的建筑物内高功率微波耦合场分布计算

利用物理光学法计算了高功率微波在建筑物内的耦合场分布。根据建筑物墙壁和窗户的透射率可以得到墙壁内侧的透射场,将它代入到矢量衍射公式中直接计算出在整个建筑物内的透射场;根据建筑物地面的反射率得到地板表面的反射场,将它代入到矢量衍射公式中可计算出整个建筑物内的反射场;对透射场与反射场进行矢量相加,得到叠加场。将本文方法得到的场分布情况和时域有限差分法得到的场分布进行比较,二者结果一致。物理光学法的优点在于其物理图像清晰,计算量小,计算速度快,适合应用在大型建筑物内部耦合场分布计算上。     

建筑风压场数值模拟中压力波动的平抑

在以同位网格为基础的简单流场压力计算中,通常采用动量插值方法来平抑流场中的压力波动现象;但是对于建筑风场等复杂的钝体绕流问题,由该平抑方法得到的收敛风压场仍可能存在小幅波动。为彻底解决同位网格格式下的压力波动,除采用动量插值方法外,本文提出了在压力校正方程的界面流速中添加压力梯度差值项的方法。算例分析表明,该方法计算得到的建筑风压场完全避免了压力波动现象,风压解与试验结果吻合良好。     

(2 + 1)D exotic Newton-Hooke symmetry, duality and projective phase

A particle system with a (2 + 1)D exotic Newton-Hooke symmetry is constructed by the method of nonlinear realization. It has three essentially different phases depending on the values of the two central charges. The subcritical and supercritical phases (describing 2D isotropic ordinary and exotic oscillators) are separated by the critical phase (one-mode oscillator), and are related by a duality transformation. In the flat limit, the system transforms into a free Galilean exotic particle on the noncommutative plane. The wave equations carrying projective representations of the exotic Newton-Hooke symmetry are constructed.     

Loop Groups and Twin Buildings

In these notes we describe some buildings related to complex Kac–Moody groups. First we describe the spherical building of SL_n() (i.e. the projective geometry PG(ⁿ)) and its Veronese representation. Next we recall the construction of the affine building associated to a discrete valuation on the rational function field (z). Then we describe the same building in terms of complex Laurent polynomials, and introduce the Veronese representation, which is an equivariant embedding of the building into an affine Kac–Moody algebra. Next, we introduce topological twin buildings. These buildings can be used for a proof which is a variant of the proof by Quillen and Mitchell, of Bott periodicity which uses only topological geometry. At the end we indicate very briefly that the whole process works also for affine real almost split Kac–Moody groups.Supported by a Heisenberg fellowship by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.