Search Results (2,145)

In response to persistent global challenges in the affordable housing sector—including low building quality, affordability, and sustainability—this research identifies building adaptability or design for adaptability (DfA) as a potential strategy. An Excel-based assessment tool using a weighted-sum methodology is developed to support both the design and evaluation of adaptable buildings by quantifying their adaptive capacity across new constructions, refurbishments, and existing buildings. The tool is refined and validated through expert elicitation, including 14 survey responses and 8 semi-structured interviews. The expert feedback contributed to improving the tool and also indicates a high degree of acceptance among scholars. Subsequently, three case studies of well-known adaptable residential buildings are analysed to assess the tool’s applicability and the consistency of its results. The case-study results further reveal that buildings commonly perceived as adaptable do not necessarily exhibit adaptability in a comprehensive, multi-dimensional manner. The case-study analysis also revealed substantial variation across adaptability types (e.g., from 0.19 to 0.67 for Adjustability), demonstrating the value of a multi-dimensional assessment. It also revealed how adaptability priorities vary following localized context analysis (e.g., the required threshold for Movability decreased from 0.50 to 0.10). The tool might support academics, designers, and technical professionals—during both early design and detailed design phases—in evaluating how design decisions influence a building’s capacity to accommodate change over its lifecycle. In addition, it provides guidance for policymakers and project owners in defining future-proof project requirements. Areas of future research include expanding the sample size of buildings to produce statistical data, tailoring the tool for different building typologies, statistically validating qualitative default values, and verifying design actions derived from academic literature and case studies. Full article

Tokenization is the first design choice in a language model and one of the most frequently overlooked for morphologically rich languages, as it directly shapes sequence length and how related word forms are segmented into reusable sub word units. Using Russian as a case study, we train sub word tokenizers from scratch on a small, morphology-dense corpus and quantify two effects. First, a coverage penalty: a hypothetical English-centric byte-level tokenizer that has never learned Cyrillic falls back to raw UTF-8 bytes and spends 8.6× more tokens on the same Russian text than a Russian-trained Byte-Pair Encoding (BPE) tokenizer. Second, a compression morphology trade-off as vocabulary grows, BPE fertility falls toward one token per word, but it does so by memorizing complete inflected word forms rather than by isolating morphemes, so a nine-form paradigm of «дoм» (house) is stored as nine unrelated tokens with zero root sharing. A Unigram tokenizer at a comparable budget instead factors words into a shared root plus a shortening, representing the same paradigm with fewer unique token types at the price of slightly higher fertility. We release the corpus, training scripts, and an in-browser reimplementation of the trained BPE model that reproduces the reference tokenizer exactly. The numbers are illustrative, but the mechanisms are real and match findings in the recent Russian NLP literature. Full article

Although many studies examine housing conditions during COVID-19 lockdowns, fewer explore how housing attributes and their spatial distribution relate to disease risk. This study applies an Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) framework to connect housing and COVID-19 data in Malaga, Spain. A relative risk surface was generated using spatial point pattern methods to identify high-risk areas. COVID-19 cases were then linked to residential buildings through geoprocessing, allowing characterization of housing features at the building level. Local Moran’s I analysis identified clusters with higher Excess Risk (ER), revealing five clearly defined high-risk areas across the city. However, some building clusters with high concentrations of cases differed from these zones. These clusters were analyzed according to building typology, and Spearman’s correlation suggested associations between case rates and several construction variables. Yet Quasi-Poisson regression results indicated that no individual construction variable had a significant effect on case rates. Housing type, however, showed a notable association: multi-family buildings presented an incidence rate ratio of 84% (95% CI: 80–88%) compared with single-family dwellings, indicating a 16% lower incidence in the former. In summary, results show that there are specific areas in the city which were prone to higher rates of cases, which also show particular housing type distributions, with single-family homes displaying a higher risk, despite being the less frequent type of dwelling. Full article

Despite extensive research on the risks faced by young people in out-of-home care, population-level evidence on how mental disorders develop and diverge through childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood remains limited. This study addresses this gap by modelling developmental trajectories across internalising, externalising, and psychotic domains. This retrospective population-based study examined developmental trajectories of internalising, externalising, and psychotic disorders among 414,746 young people born in Western Australia between 1993 and 2008. Using linked administrative data, group-based trajectory modelling was applied to compare young people with out-of-home care (OHC) experience, those with child protection (CP) contact but no OHC experience, and those with no CP contact. Two distinct trajectory groups were identified across all mental disorder types, based on participants with at least one recorded mental health episode. Most young people followed low stable mental disorder trajectories, while a smaller subgroup (fewer than 10% or slightly above 10% for psychotic disorders) showed elevated, increasing trajectories over time, with more pronounced escalation among those with OHC exposure, reflecting concentrated and complex developmental risk. These higher-risk trajectories reflected developmental variation in timing and severity, including earlier escalation of internalising and externalising disorders and later emergence of psychotic disorders. Factors associated with higher-risk trajectories included socio-demographic disadvantage, placement characteristics, and substance misuse. These findings indicate that mental health risk among young people with child protection involvement is not uniform but concentrated within particular model-derived developmental trajectory groups. Population-level linked data can enhance understanding of developmental mental health risk and support timelier, targeted, and integrated child protection, mental health, housing, and substance misuse responses. Full article

Background: The diagnosis of infectious diseases currently relies predominantly on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. However, the range of pathogens that can be detected simultaneously using these methods is limited, and their effective use depends on an a priori etiological hypothesis. Multiplex PCR-based targeted next-generation sequencing (mp-tNGS) is considered a promising complementary approach for expanded viral testing. This study aimed to develop an in-house mp-tNGS method, perform an initial evaluation of its analytical sensitivity, and explore its performance using clinical respiratory specimens. Methods: The method comprised a panel targeting 28 viruses and bioinformatics pipelines for mp-tNGS data processing. Analytical sensitivity was evaluated using positive control samples (PCSs) containing encapsulated RNA or DNA. Performance with clinical specimens was explored using 910 nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab specimens, which were divided into three groups based on the results of prior PCR testing. Results: Of the 28 viral targets, 23 underwent experimental analytical evaluation, whereas five were assessed in silico only. For 19 of the 23 PCSs tested, the estimated limit of detection (LoD) ranged from 6.3 × 10² to 9.4 × 10³ copies/mL. In the group of 216 PCR-positive specimens, PCR and mp-tNGS results were fully concordant in 139 cases; in 28 specimens, mp-tNGS additionally detected other viruses. Among 394 PCR-negative specimens, mp-tNGS detected viruses in 81. In the group of 300 hospital-derived specimens, mp-tNGS detected at least one viral target in 131 specimens, including additional viral detections and coinfections not identified during the initial testing. A substantial proportion of the additional findings involved Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV), warranting cautious clinical interpretation. Conclusions: The developed mp-tNGS approach demonstrated the potential to simultaneously detect a broad range of known viruses, provide viral typing, and identify coinfections. The method may be used as an adjunctive tool to broaden the laboratory diagnosis of respiratory infections; however, further optimization, validation, and standardization of criteria for result interpretation are required. Full article

Around the time of the Opium War, the Colonial Veranda Style was introduced into China through the colonial networks of the British Empire. It was rapidly replicated and disseminated, becoming a standard architectural type in the treaty ports and missionary campuses of modern China. Soochow University, one of the earliest missionary universities established in China, was no exception, and its detached missionary residences were strongly influenced by this architectural tradition. Taking the Nance House at Soochow University as a case study and comparing it with three other detached residences for foreign missionaries on the same campus, this study finds that, while retaining the colonial prototype, the building displays marked local adaptation in its spatial organisation, material and constructional choices, and architectural expression. After considering several possible explanations, the article argues that the residence most likely represents a spontaneous path of local adaptation jointly shaped by decisions made by its occupant and the situated building knowledge of local craftsmen. Through a restrained integration at the levels of material and construction, the building provides empirical evidence of Sino-Western synthesis in residential architecture predating the emergence of the Chinese Revival style in the 1920s and possesses both artistic and scientific value. The study of the Nance House helps clarify one trajectory through which modern missionary staff housing evolved from direct transplantation towards local integration, together with the mechanisms of architectural translation involved, and provides a basis for understanding its heritage significance and informing its conservation. Full article

Rural household photovoltaic (PV) systems can reduce electricity costs and generate feed-in revenue, but their actual feasibility is constrained by rooftop area, upfront investment, discounted payback period, and household affordability. This study develops an integrated life-cycle economic and energy equity assessment framework for rooftop PV capacity configuration in rural residential buildings, using the 09BN-1 Type A residence from the Beijing New Rural Housing Design Atlas as a standardized case dwelling. The framework combines rooftop area estimation, PVWatts-based electricity generation simulation, life-cycle cash-flow assessment, capacity–subsidy optimization, and Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis. Results show that the effective PV-installable area is approximately 72.0 m², corresponding to a maximum rooftop capacity of 13.7 kW and a first-year AC electricity generation of 20,278 kWh. However, under baseline investment cost and discounted cash-flow assumptions, the 13.7 kW maximum-capacity scheme fails to achieve discounted payback under both the no-subsidy and 400 CNY/kW fixed-subsidy scenarios, with NPVs of −31,540.11 CNY and −26,040.11 CNY, respectively. Under household net-investment and subsidy-ratio constraints, the optimized 7.65 kW scheme achieves a positive NPV of 17,412.62 CNY, a discounted payback period of 13 years, and an Energy Equity Coefficient of 0.5944. Monte Carlo results indicate that 98.71% of samples maintain a positive NPV within the defined parameter distributions, whereas the conservative scenario yields a negative NPV. These findings show that rural rooftop PV capacity configuration should not be based solely on technical rooftop potential, but should also incorporate household affordability, payback acceptability, and benefit stability. Full article

This study investigates the correlations between the parameters of the Hysteresis-Attrition-Friction model (HAF), hysteresis (h), attrition (a), and friction coefficient (ν), under different surface conditions and contact pressures. The HAF model, a sigmoidal model developed in-house, provides a novel approach for characterizing tribological behaviour through its three key parameters (h, a, ν). The analysis employed a bootstrapping method to generate numerous parameter samples, allowing for the estimation of joint distributions and the identification of correlations between parameter pairs. The model here is applied to data from experiments conducted using both smooth and rough surface configurations at three distinct contact pressures: 1.2 GPa, 1.6 GPa, and 1.9 GPa. The results revealed a positive correlation between hysteresis and attrition across both surface types, indicating that higher energy dissipation through hysteresis is associated with increased friction. Conversely, negative correlations were found between hysteresis and friction coefficient, and between attrition and friction, suggesting a trade-off between energy dissipation and friction. The bivariate kernel density plots further highlighted these patterns, helping to visualize the complex relationships within the model. The results emphasize the importance of considering surface conditions and pressure when applying the HAF model to predict performance in tribological systems. Full article

Conventional antenna designs generally have fixed configurations and are difficult to assemble rapidly and flexibly. To address this limitation, this paper proposes a magnetic antenna building block that enables the rapid assembly of functional antennas. Based on this building block design, a kind of reconfigurable frequency scanning leaky wave antenna is implemented. The antenna module consists of the RF structure, dielectric housing, and embedded magnets. Magnets align and attach adjacent modules, while RF signals are transmitted through non-contact capacitive coupling interfaces and radiated by the RF structures on individual modules. The Port module, low-radiation module L, and high-radiation module H are designed. A variable number of cascaded modules can be rapidly cascaded through magnetic attachment to form different antenna arrays. The H module incorporates a pair of symmetric circular patches connected in parallel and exhibits stronger radiation characteristics than the L module, which does not include this parallel structure. Simulation and measurement results showed that the antenna arrays achieved effective port impedance matching in the C-band for cascades of the same type of modules and several mixed cascades of different types of modules. Far-field measurements also showed that arrays with different module combinations produced distinct far-field radiation patterns and allowed adjustment of the main beam gain and direction over 6.30–6.90 GHz. The main beam direction varied over a range of approximately 30°, and continuously covered the region around normal direction. The beamwidth varied with module types and the number of cascaded modules. The 3 dB beamwidth decreased from 48° to 21°, and the highest peak gain reached 6.98 dBi. The proposed magnetic antenna building block supports module cascading, combinations of different module types, and frequency scanning, providing a low-cost and flexible implementation of reconfigurable antenna arrays for communication and sensing applications. Full article

Safe transfusion depends on rapid, accurate ABO typing, yet reference methods require centrifuges and instrumentation unavailable at the point of need. Here, a paper-based ABO-RhD typing device built on a covalent, optically silent surface chemistry is reported. Aminosilane (APTES) and epoxysilane (GPTMS) functionalisation of Whatman cellulose was compared by water contact angle, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) across two paper grades, three silane concentrations (5, 10 and 20% v/v) and three reaction times (1–6 h). APTES produced a strongly hydrophobic layer that impeded aqueous wicking, and its glutaraldehyde activation generated a red-brick chromophore incompatible with a red-channel readout. GPTMS coupled antibodies in a single mild step, without a crosslinker or visible chromophore, while preserving wicking. GPTMS (10% v/v, 3 h, Whatman No. 4) with a six-cycle 100 µL saline wash was selected; antibodies were immobilised in a four-zone layout (anti-A, anti-B, anti-D and control) within a 3D-printed two-compartment housing that traps agglutinated cells while free cells wash through. On 80 EDTA clinical blood samples (20 each of groups A, B, AB and O) the device classified every sample correctly (accuracy 100%; 95% confidence interval 95.4–100%), with visual and instrumented reads in full agreement. All samples were RhD-positive, so the anti-D channel is validated here for the positive call. Full article

Background: Legionnaires’ disease (LD) is most often described as caused by a single Legionella pneumophila (Lp) serogroup (SG), typically SG1. However, mixed infections involving multiple SGs or even different Legionella species can occur within a single host. Such cases remain underrecognized and pose challenges for diagnosis, clinical management, and outbreak investigation. Case presentation: A 61-year-old woman developed acute fever, malaise, and productive cough after visiting a wellness spa in France, with radiological findings consistent with a lower respiratory tract infection. The urinary antigen test (UAT) for Lp was negative, but respiratory multiplex PCR was weakly positive. Subsequent testing at the Belgian National Reference Centre (NRC) for Legionella revealed an unexpected discordance between an in-house SG1-specific PCR and culture-based findings. Further analysis identified co-infection with two distinct Lp strains, SG1 (sequence type, ST146) and SG10 (ST1267), using a combination of direct sequence-based typing (SBT) and culture with serogrouping of multiple colonies. The patient improved rapidly after treatment with oral levofloxacin. Conclusions: Mixed Lp SG infections are likely underrecognized in routine practice, as neither UAT, commercial molecular assays, nor characterization of a single cultured isolate may adequately capture within-host strain diversity. Comprehensive diagnostic approaches combining culture with analysis of multiple colonies and molecular tests are essential for accurate case detection and source attribution. Referral to NRCs is recommended when advanced typing methods are unavailable. This first reported Belgian case illustrates the potential implications for patient management and epidemiological investigations, underscoring the need for broader diagnostic strategies. Full article

The recovery and reuse of construction materials following disasters has emerged as an important strategy for reducing construction waste, improving resource efficiency, and enhancing the resilience of post-disaster housing reconstruction. However, existing studies remain fragmented across different disaster contexts and material categories, limiting a comprehensive understanding of the engineering, environmental, and institutional factors influencing material recovery decisions. This systematic literature review synthesises current evidence on the recovery and reuse of construction materials in post-disaster housing reconstruction. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic search of the Scopus and EBSCO databases identified 303 records published between 2015 and 2026, of which 69 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria. Of these, 20 studies directly examined post-disaster contexts, while the remaining 49 addressed broader construction material recovery and reuse and were included as transferable engineering evidence relevant to post-disaster reconstruction. The review synthesised evidence from both disaster-specific studies and broader research on construction material reuse to provide a comprehensive understanding of material recovery practices applicable to post-disaster housing reconstruction. The review demonstrates that both structural and non-structural construction materials have varying potential for recovery and reuse following disasters. The findings further indicate that reuse suitability is governed not only by material type but also by the interactions among disaster characteristics, residual material condition, structural integrity, contamination, durability, regulatory compliance, and intended reuse applications. Recovery pathways were found to depend on condition-based engineering assessment, while successful implementation is further influenced by economic feasibility, institutional capacity, stakeholder coordination, and recovery infrastructure. This review advances existing knowledge by synthesising disaster characteristics, engineering assessment requirements, recovery pathways, and implementation considerations into an evidence-derived condition-based perspective for construction material recovery. The proposed conceptual framework provides an evidence-informed reference for engineers, emergency management agencies, policymakers, local authorities, and construction practitioners seeking to integrate reusable construction materials into resilient and resource-efficient post-disaster housing reconstruction. Full article

A parasitological survey was conducted during May 2026 on captive Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) housed at three zoological facilities on Zanzibar Island, Tanzania: the Prison Island Giant Tortoise Sanctuary (Changuu Island), Zanzibar Park, and Zanzibar Nungwi Zoo. This study investigated the occurrence of gastrointestinal parasite stages in faecal samples from captive Aldabra giant tortoises and compared the proportion of positive samples among the three zoological facilities. A total of 84 fresh faecal samples were examined using Fülleborn’s flotation and sedimentation techniques. Because individual tortoises could not always be reliably identified during sampling, repeated sampling of the same animal cannot be excluded. Therefore, the reported values represent sample-level proportions rather than individual-level prevalence. Oxyurid-type nematode eggs were detected only in samples collected from tortoises housed at Zanzibar Nungwi Zoo, whereas no gastrointestinal helminth eggs or larvae were detected using the applied coprological methods in samples from the Prison Island Giant Tortoise Sanctuary and Zanzibar Park. The overall proportion of positive faecal samples was 13.1% (11/84; 95% CI: 6.7–22.2%), while 42.3% (11/26; 95% CI: 23.4–63.1%) of samples from Zanzibar Nungwi Zoo were positive. Differences in the proportion of positive faecal samples were observed among the three zoological facilities. These findings provide baseline data on gastrointestinal parasites in captive Aldabra giant tortoises on Zanzibar Island and support future parasite surveillance, health monitoring, and management in zoological collections. Full article

Disamenity and amenity facilities pull property values in opposite directions, yet prior studies have treated disamenities as a homogeneous category and have been constrained by data scattered across agencies and by mismatched spatial scales. This study integrates multi-source spatial data, comprising 3426 sub-districts (eup-myeon-dong) nationwide, a 500 m population grid of 376,668 cells, and the actual point locations of individual facilities, into a single spatial framework and applies a multi-method design that combines a spatial Durbin model (SDM), explainable machine learning (XGBoost–SHAP), an environmental-justice analysis, and a micro-siting analysis. Four findings emerge. First, not all disamenities are associated with lower prices: only pollution-emitting facilities with a clear emission signature, namely, sewage treatment plants and incinerators, capitalize robustly as cross-sectional associations, into both housing prices and officially assessed land values, with the effect extending into neighboring sub-districts rather than staying purely local. The other disamenities show no robust total effect on either price; their estimates are small or unstable across specifications. Second, capitalization of pollution-emitting facilities is pronounced in the urban sample and disappears in the rural one, and the coefficient structure differs overall between urban and rural areas (global Chow test, p < 10⁻²¹). Third, micro-siting analysis shows that where a facility is placed (siting) and what it leaves behind in prices (capitalization) are distinct layers, and that capitalization tracks the population a facility keeps nearby rather than its nuisance type: pollution-emitting facilities retain enough nearby housing for their burden to register, whereas funerary facilities sited far from people do not. Fourth, the environmental inequity of pollution exposure runs along income rather than age and concentrates in cities rather than in rural areas: the exposure rate among residents of low-income urban sub-districts (49%) is 2.5 times that of the urban population as a whole (19%), while the greater Seoul metropolitan area remains comparatively insulated. These layered findings were possible only once the dispersed spatial data had been integrated and standardized, and the study demonstrates that fusing and efficiently managing spatial data is a precondition for evidence-based land-use and environmental policy. Full article

Radon-222, a decay product of the uranium-238 series, is the principal source of natural ionizing-radiation exposure in most indoor environments and an established cause of lung cancer. In New Mexico, uranium-bearing geology, a legacy of uranium mining and milling, and arid, variably constructed housing create elevated but poorly characterized geogenic radon potential. This evidence-informed narrative review examines radon protection in New Mexico by synthesizing the radiological basis of the hazard (uranium-series sources, radium-226 emanation, and soil–gas transport into buildings) with measurement, monitoring, and mapping evidence relevant to under-resourced regions. We emphasize that representative, high-resolution indoor radon measurements for the state are still lacking. We show that the central challenge is not only geologic potential but the uneven distribution of measurement, testing, and mitigation capacity across housing type, tenure, geography, and jurisdiction, including Tribal lands governed by consent-based data agreements. We evaluate monitoring and outreach interventions by evidence strength and outline a phased, standards-based program (statewide measurement and data systems, high-resolution mapping, school and rental testing, workforce development, and mitigation support) to convert radiological knowledge into measurable, equitable exposure reduction. New Mexico serves as a well-documented representative example; the synthesis is intended to inform other rural, Tribal, and under-resourced jurisdictions. Full article