On Terms and Procedures: Fluency

The current literature review examined empirical precision teaching studies that applied frequency-based measurement and standard celeration chart (SCC) displays and analysis to interventions targeting inner behavior, defined as private events such as thoughts, feelings, and urges. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria, with targets ranging from negative and positive thoughts and self-critical statements to anger, self-esteem, and loving feelings. Across studies, results demonstrated that inner behaviors can be reliably measured and meaningfully changed. Participants in nearly all studies exhibited functional changes in level, trend, or variability, providing strong support for the effectiveness of frequency building procedures in modifying covert behaviors. The findings indicate that inner behavior is accessible to direct measurement and can be modified through well-designed instructional and self-monitoring practices. However, gaps remain in reporting, training procedures, and social validity data. The current review concludes that precision teaching methods such as measuring with frequency or rate, using frequency building (i.e., the 1-min counting procedure), and displaying data on SCCs provide a useful, underutilized framework for understanding and influencing private events.

In response to a debate concerning effectiveness of alternative data handling methods in the hands of experts, the exploratory research reported here was conducted. Experts worked individually except for the SPC expert who was assisted by another expert. Two equal interval graphing experts, two standard behavior or celeration charting experts, and one team of SPC experts were presented with four sets of data that they graphed one point at a time. Their task was to plot, analyze, and identify the location of an intervention within each data set. A total of N = 8 series were plotted and analyzed by each analyst. Average percent of interventions correctly identified by equal interval, celeration, and SPC chartists were respectively, 63%, 32%, and 25%. Rank order of mean hours spent on the exercises was from fewest to most hours, celeration chartists, equal interval chartists, and charting SPC charting team. Regardless of method used, poorer quality baseline data in data series resulted in poorer performances among chartists. Implications are discussed in terms of future research into charting behavior and practical consequences of establishing or failing to establish “good” baseline control prior to introducing interventions in the OBM tradition.

Instrumental outcome devaluation with representation-mediated conditioning

Early fetal growth: concepts and pitfalls

Assessment of environmental impacts across the life-cycle of buildings are lacking for Arctic areas, such as Greenland. Indeed, life-cycle assessments of buildings mainly focus on European or North American conditions which are very different from Arctic conditions. Hence, there is a need for assessing the life-cycle impacts pertaining to different building types to support environmentally sound decisions on the type of buildings to be constructed and used in Arctic areas such as Greenland. We conducted a life-cycle assessment on four buildings in Greenland, i.e. concrete building, CLT building, a timber frame building and a renovation of an existing concrete building. We evaluated the environmental impacts at midpoint indicator and overall damages to human health, ecosystem quality, and resources, to identify the building type with the lowest environmental impacts. Results show that renovation of existing buildings has the lowest environmental impact across all impact categories. The difference in environmental impacts among the new building types is generally small. Across all impact categories, the average difference between largest and smallest impact score for the new buildings was a factor 3.6. Still, the CLT and timber frame building appears to have the best environmental performance. The findings of this study go against current building practice in Greenland, which is dominated by construction of new concrete buildings while renovation is uncommon. Thus, a larger use of assessment methods, such as life-cycle assessment, and a reconsideration of the current building practice is recommended to support a more environmentally sustainable building practice in Greenland.

The Internet of Things (IoT) contributes to improving and automating the quality of our lives via devices and applications that progressively become more interconnected without user intervention in many areas such as smart homes, smart cities, smart transportation, and smart environment. However, IoT devices are vulnerable to cyberattacks. We cannot prevent all attacks, but they can be detected and resolved with the least damage. Moreover, they are connected for long periods of time without user intervention. Additionally, since they remain connected for long periods of time without user intervention, creative solutions must be devised to keep them safe, such as machine learning. The reach goal is to evaluate different machine learning algorithms to detect IoT network attacks quickly and effectively. The Bot-IoT dataset, which is derived from the original dataset, is used to evaluate various detection algorithms. Five different machine learning algorithms were tested on the two databases, and the results of the tests revealed high and accurate performance at all levels of the dataset.

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to document in part the study that was conducted for a research project ASHRAE RP-1650, which investigates the training requirements for sustainable high-performance building (HPB) operations and maintenance (O&M). This paper documents the intent, procedures and findings of a portion of the research project, which includes a survey of O&M practices for high performance buildings in the industry. The purpose of the survey as reported in this paper was to confirm and refine the level of understanding of KSCs for operating HPBs as perceived by O&M personnel in the industry. The details of the survey and the results are presented in this paper. The survey was sent out to facility managers in the industry who are involved with the O&M of HPB systems and equipment. 221 facility managers were surveyed in this study. Design/methodology/approach — This study utilizes a concurrent mixed-method research, which considers both qualitative and quantitative responses. Findings — The study found that while most technicians were ‘moderately well' to ‘very well' trained for the configuration and components as well as the installation, repair and replacement of different high performance equipment and systems, they lacked essential knowledge to address issues such as: controls; tracking of variables; programming and operation of modulation devices implemented in high-performance systems and equipment. This finding implied a lack of ‘Systems Thinking' approach, which the study found to be pertinent and essential for the O&M of HPB systems and equipment. Originality/value — The study is utilized to identify gaps between the training requirements for O&M of HPBs identified from the literature review of the research project and the current industry practices. The identified gaps are valuable to develop learning objectives for training programs that are aimed to train personnel responsible for the O&M of HPBs.

Power grids in the 21st century face unprecedented challenges, including the urgent need to combat pollution, mitigate climate change, manage dwindling fossil fuel reserves, integrate renewable energy sources, and meet greater energy demand due to higher living standards. These challenges create heightened uncertainty, driven by the intermittent nature of renewables and surges in energy consumption, necessitating adaptable demand response (DR) strategies. This study addresses this urgent situation based on a statistical analysis of recent scientific research papers. It evaluates the current trends and DR practices in buildings, recognizing their pivotal role in achieving energy supply–demand equilibrium. The study analysis provides insight into building types, sample sizes, DR modeling approaches, and management strategies. The paper reveals specific research gaps, particularly the need for more detailed investigations encompassing building types and leveraging larger datasets. It underscores the potential benefits of adopting a multifaceted approach by combining multiple DR management strategies to optimize demand-side management. The findings presented in this paper can provide information to and guide future studies, policymaking, and decision-making processes to assess the practical potential of demand response in buildings and ultimately contribute to more resilient and sustainable energy systems.

These days, the topic on the sustainable building has become one of the most important concerns in the academic studies, construction industries, as well as governmental agencies. Sustainability in the building sector has raised the attention towards a new concept called net-zero energy buildings (NZEBs). With regards to the development of Malaysia’s buildings sectors, the government has realised the undesirable effects of inefficient of energy usage by demonstrating their efforts in Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP) 2016-2020. Commonly, healthcare buildings are among the greatest energy consumers of any institution and the extensive use of various medical equipment, mechanical ventilation of this building has caused a high level of carbon emission. Hence, by concentrating on these issues, NZEBs become an important concept to be implemented in healthcare buildings. However, the awareness of NZEBs in Malaysia is still low and the construction industry in Malaysia still unaware of NZEBs. This paper aims to investigate the current design practices of healthcare buildings in Malaysia as well as the architect’s understanding of NZEBs through preliminary investigation among architects. Literature was reviewed and pilot studies by using semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results uncover that some green practices related to the design practices in healthcare buildings has been carried out and some of these practices are similar to the NZEBs design practices even though the term of ‘NZEBs’ is not being used. It is predicted that the paper will provide a basic knowledge for future research in NZEBs for healthcare buildings, challenges of NZEBs implementation and designing NZEBs for healthcare buildings in Malaysia.Keywords: Net zero energy buildings, Healthcare building, Current green design practices, Malaysia

Thermal mass in new build UK housing: A comparison of structural systems in a future weather scenario

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of current building practices is the impact that long-standing creations have on the environment, even as they are slotted into existing networks of functionality. LEED certificates are just the beginning of environmental responsibility in current conditions. This chapter examines both what is currently being done in building practice and what the future might hold, or demand, from designers.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine green building legislation requirements and practices in the construction project execution stage within the context of the South African construction industry. The rationale for this examination rests with the perception that the implementation of green practices (per se) has been recognised as being “behind” the legislation enacted to control the design and construction of green buildings. Design/methodology/approach – The research process consisted of a literature review to identify existing green building legislation and practices applicable to the project execution phase. This was supported by a sequential mixed-method research approach, which involved a survey of contracting companies based in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Purposive sampling was used to undertake focused interviews with management staff and site operatives. Findings – Research findings established a number of issues, not least: a gap between green building practices and legislation requirements; a high degree of unawareness of green building legislation/practices by construction company stakeholders; selective implementation of health and safety legislative requirements; that management staff had a more “positive” attitude to green building practices than site-based staff who tended to be less motivated and open to such practices. Research limitations/implications – Results from this study are considered generalisable with the sample frame only. Research inference and projections should therefore only be made within this set, and not to the wider population of South African contractors (as this study was limited to the Western Cape Province). Practical implications – Implications from this research are applicable to construction company stakeholders within the population set. Practical considerations include the need to acknowledge a formal commitment to developing a sustainable built environment – especially cognisant of the gap between practices on site and green building legislation requirements. Moreover, this lack of awareness in respect of green building practices and legislation requirements impinges upon several wider areas, not least: construction company stakeholders’ positioning, health and safety practices; managerial and operational staff perceptions, and stakeholders’ willingness and motivation to proactively address these gaps. Social implications – Government bodies and allied professionals in charge of construction industry development are encouraged to consider the implementation of green building legislation requirements on construction sites. This reflection should encourage engagement through formative legislative provision and transparent awareness campaigns. Originality/value – This work is original insofar as it directly addresses the alignment of legislation to current practices within the context of the South African construction industry. However, similar exercises have been undertaken on green building legislation in other countries such as USA, UK and Australia.

Prior research showed that interleaved practice (studying multiple skills at once) is more effective than blocked practice (studying only one skill at a time). This study aims to replicate the benefits of interleaved practice on the proceduralization of second language (L2) syntax and further examines the role of working memory (WM) in different practice schedules. Sixty English learners studied five types of relative-clause constructions under either blocked- or interleaved-practice conditions. The blocked-practice group engaged in systematic form-focused speaking practice with exemplars blocked by syntactic category, while the interleaved-practice group received mixed exemplars from the different categories. The proceduralization of grammatical knowledge was measured by analysing the accuracy and speed indices from a picture description test, which was administered immediately and one week after the training session. Learners’ WM capacity was measured using a listening-span task. Results showed that interleaved practice led to more accurate performance on both immediate and delayed posttests than blocked practice. The advantage of interleaved practice was less pronounced for the speed dimension of performance. Furthermore, interleaved practice facilitated skill development regardless of learners’ WM capacity, whereas in the blocked-practice condition, learners with higher WM capacity benefited more than those with lower WM capacity in speeding up of relative clause use, which presumably reflects the proceduralization–automatization stage.

Four significant developments have occurred that amplify opportunity for certified organic growers to grow highbush blueberry ( Vaccinium corymbosum ) successfully. First, there is the 2002 U.S. Department of Agriculture national organic standard that defines organic production practices and crop labels that creates clarity and evens competition. Second, we have the continued increase of smallfruit and vegetable sales related to nutritional and human health reasons and the related market perception valuing organic produce more highly. Third, new tools are becoming available to organic growers that reduce the risk from pest problems such as the recent Organic Materials Review Institute listing of spinosad registered as a wettable powder (Entrust) and a fruit fly bait (GF-120 NF Naturalyte). Finally, the Rutgers Blueberry Working group has made considerable progress in refining integrated pest management practices and in developing new tools for organic production systems. This “work-in-progress” is investigating alternative approaches to some current agricultural practices in soil building, fertility, cultural approaches, and pest management. The authors' 7-year program has demonstrated organic methods in managing new sources of mulch, two key insect pests, two common diseases, and several weed species in establishing a commercial organic production system for highbush blueberries. As a programmatic result, organic acreage in New Jersey has increased from 0 to more than 150 acres, and more than 40 organic growers have adopted parts of this holistic production system in North America.

Impact of buildings in Iraq and other countries on the environment is obvious; this problem began to take scientific and humanitarian dimensions in order to reduce and eliminate this problem. This impact can be seen through the energy, water and raw materials consumed for the establishment, operation and maintenance of these buildings, as well as the emissions of hazardous gases and generations of solid wastes.
 This work was conducted to assess the current maintenance managerial practice for the governmental buildings to stand on the main obstacle and extrapolation of measures by means of interviews with experts to determine the effective factors and closed questionnaire to state the features and the need for new building maintenance management system which may assist for modeling new building maintenance management system which may help to reduce the deterioration levels of governmental buildings and the emission of hazardous gases and solid waste with cost efficient approach.