National Association of Home Builders

Purpose This paper provides an alternative approach to ISO 9869-1 (ISO, 2014), measuring U values of buildings, which is time-consuming and costly. Heat3D is a novel application, using thermal imaging to calculate U values. Here, we explain the early stages of the development of the method. Design/methodology/approach The performance of Heat3D was compared against ISO 9869-1 metrics under controlled conditions to minimise data “noise” from external factors. Findings The results showed that the application can accurately measure the instantaneous heat flux through a building element, with over 90% of the 200+ Heat3D survey measurements matching that of a calibrated heat flux plate to within their combined uncertainty. Practical implications Development of a rapid heat flux measurement technique, such as Heat3D, would have benefits such as quantitatively assessing new build or retrofit build quality, sizing heating systems and provide data for updated EPC, which is a forthcoming policy change. Originality/value There is an emerging literature on quantitative infrared; however, we take a novel approach in using controlled conditions and a highly characterised building to assess the method.

ABSTRACT Over the course of the last decade, data has reflected that LGBTQ+ youth are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system. In many jurisdictions, the majority of LGBTQ+ youth disproportionately represented are also youth of color. The precise mechanisms of these intersecting forms of disproportionality are underexplored; however, a flattened single narrative of family rejection is often presumed to be the driving force behind LGBTQ+ youth of color’s disproportionate representation. This assumption is, in part, informed by a biased and hyperbolic notion that communities of color are less tolerant of queer and trans children and lends itself to practical responses that may be punitive toward families and disinhibit familial engagement. Moreover, this assumption fails to acknowledge the historical role that the child welfare system has played in regulating, surveilling, and fracturing families of color and in criminalizing youth and parents of color alike. In this paper, we argue for a more nuanced understanding of the roles played by structural and institutional forms of racism, homophobia, and transphobia in understanding LGBTQ+ youth of color’s disproportionate representation.

Some residents in predominantly Black communities face significant challenges in accessing healthy food. However, urban agriculture is a growing sector that aims to increase overall food production, access to affordable and nutritious produce, and potentially improve community food security. This study aimed to provide insight into barriers and strategies that urban agriculture growers and advocates identified for accessing urban agriculture markets in their communities. We interviewed and conducted focus groups with 17 urban growers and local food advocates that work in predominantly Black communities in Chicago. Understanding the complexities of access to healthy food can be challenging; therefore, we used the concept of access - accessibility, availability, affordability, accommodation, and acceptability - to better understand these barriers. Key barriers were the lack of accessibility to traditional food retailers, high availability of processed foods, and cultural acceptability of urban-produced foods. Building urban agriculture networks to support growers, connect with consumers, and emphasize political engagement can help to diversify and grow urban agriculture.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted food security and food access in urban communities of colour. Loss of income, often associated with food insecurity, has affected Hispanic, Black, low-wage workers, single mothers and women of colour more than other groups of individuals. Mutual aid organisations have proliferated in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet a description of the contributions of these organisations in addressing food insecurity has yet to be described in the literature to date. This article aims to describe the unique role and contributions of mutual aid organisations in addressing food insecurity and food access disparities in Chicago's communities of colour during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local mutual aid organisations can function as hubs to feed urban communities while reducing food waste and building community. During the pandemic, mutual aid organisations in Chicago have distributed thousands of pounds of food to families and individuals. Mutual aid organisations provide short-term food security while engaging with community members to create a more equitable and sustainable food system. The development of robust mutual aid hubs facilitated unique opportunities for collaboration and expansion of infrastructure that may allow mutual aid organisations to address food access in their communities well into the future.

Business education needs to be decolonized. The teaching case is at the heart of contemporary business school pedagogy. However, case studies rarely reflect Indigenous business values or practices. In this paper, we argue that Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies need to be integrated into mainstream business school curricula and that this can be accomplished through a case writing methodology grounded in Indigenous research methods. We scrutinize the lack of Indigenous-focused business cases currently available, as well as describe some of the most important initiatives to date that attempt to address this gap. It is our hope that business scholars and researchers alike will have a deeper understanding of the need for inclusion and decolonization of business school curricula.

High Performance Polymer fibres for reinforcing shotcrete are a relatively new development in concrete reinforcing fibre technology. This paper traces the development of these fibres types, and presents a review of fibre properties. The testing methods developed to characterize their behavior in shotcrete are discussed. The performance of various High Performance Polymer fibre types, shapes and lengths in shotcrete are discussed relative to the testing methodology employed to describe them. Recent case studies of applications of wet-process shotcrete for ground support are presented and application and specification issues, based on the performance of these fibres, are presented.

We summarize IEEE Big Data Cup: Predicting Escalations in Customer Support – a data mining competition organized jointly by companies Information Builders and QED Software at the KnowledgePit platform, in the frame of the 2020 IEEE International Conference on Big Data. We discuss the motivation for organizing this event and highlight the factors that make it such a challenging topic. We describe the data provided to participants and formulate the competition task. We also provide an overview of competition results with a detailed analysis of a few selected solutions. Finally, we present a novel functionality of the KnowledgePit platform – an analytic module that allows organizers to investigate selected solutions using a convenient GUI and provides in-depth insights about their quality.

This paper describes a new developed wooden sliding panel wall inserted in wooden frame. In-plane shear tests for two types of these panel walls were carried out compared with the typical plywood sheathed wall. The main results are as follows. The rigidity and strength of the new developed walls are about 20% and 50% of those of contemporary bearing walls under the horizontal deformation of 0.05 rad. Although, beyond this deformation, the rigidity and strength of new developed walls gradually improve and withstand large load.