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People's subjective response to any thermal environment is commonly investigated by using rating scales describing the degree of thermal sensation, comfort, and acceptability. Subsequent analyses of results collected in this way rely on the assumption that specific distances between verbal anchors placed on the scale exist and that relationships between verbal anchors from different dimensions that are assessed (e.g. thermal sensation and comfort) do not change. Another inherent assumption is that such scales are independent of the context in which they are used (climate zone, season, etc.). Despite their use worldwide, there is indication that contextual differences influence the way the scales are perceived and therefore question the reliability of the scales’ interpretation. To address this issue, a large international collaborative questionnaire study was conducted in 26 countries, using 21 different languages, which led to a dataset of 8225 questionnaires. Results, analysed by means of robust statistical techniques, revealed that only a subset of the responses are in accordance with the mentioned assumptions. Significant differences appeared between groups of participants in their perception of the scales, both in relation to distances of the anchors and relationships between scales. It was also found that respondents’ interpretations of scales changed with contextual factors, such as climate, season, and language. These findings highlight the need to carefully consider context-dependent factors in interpreting and reporting results from thermal comfort studies or post-occupancy evaluations, as well as to revisit the use of rating scales and the analysis methods used in thermal comfort studies to improve their reliability.My individual contribution: Runa T. Hellwig: Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Writing - Original Draft \ my contribution like all authors Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing, ResourcesInvestigation, Writing - Review & Editing, ResourcesRuna T. Hellwig: Conceptualization,Methodology, Visualization, Writing - Original DraftRuna T. Hellwig: Conceptualization,Methodology, Visualization, Writing - Original DraftRuna T. Hellwig: Conceptualization,Methodology, Visualization, Writing - Original DraftAuthor statementAll authors: Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing, Resources Marcel Schweiker: Conceptualization,Methodology, Visualization, Formal analysis, Writing - Original Draft Rucha Amin: Conceptualization,Methodology Susanne Becker: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - Original Draft Joon-Ho Choi:Conceptualization, Methodology Chungyoon Chun: Conceptualization, Methodology Lyrian Daniel:Writing - Original Draft Renata De Vecchi: Writing - Original Draft Stephanie Gauthier:Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - Original Draft Runa T. Hellwig: Conceptualization,Methodology, Visualization, Writing - Original Draft Gesche M Huebner: Conceptualization,Methodology, Writing - Original Draft Jungsoo Kim: Conceptualization, Methodology Jakub Kolarik:Writing - Original Draft M.C. Jeffrey Lee: Conceptualization, Methodology Karin Schakib-Ekbatan:Conceptualization, Methodology Despoina Teli: Conceptualization, Methodology Conrad Voelker:Writing - Original Draft

Thermal discomfort is one of the main triggers for occupants’ interactions with components of the built environment such as adjustments of thermostats and/or opening windows and strongly related to the energy use in buildings. Understanding causes for thermal (dis-)comfort is crucial for design and operation of any type of building. The assessment of human thermal perception through rating scales, for example in post-occupancy studies, has been applied for several decades; however, long-existing assumptions related to these rating scales had been questioned by several researchers. The aim of this study was to gain deeper knowledge on contextual influences on the interpretation of thermal perception scales and their verbal anchors by survey participants. A questionnaire was designed and consequently applied in 21 language versions. These surveys were conducted in 57 cities in 30 countries resulting in a dataset containing responses from 8225 participants. The database offers potential for further analysis in the areas of building design and operation, psycho-physical relationships between human perception and the built environment, and linguistic analyses., Measurement(s)Natural Language • Demographics • humidity • response to temperature stimulus • temperature of air • geographic location • room temperature ambient airTechnology Type(s)Survey • sensorSample Characteristic - OrganismHomo sapiensSample Characteristic - EnvironmentbuildingSample Characteristic - LocationOman • Kingdom of Spain • Ecuador • Chile • Malaysia • Iraq • Poland • Nigeria • Iran • Italy • United States of America • Germany • Brazil • Jordan • Kingdom of the Netherlands • Greece • Sweden • Kingdom of Denmark • India • Sri Lanka • Uganda • South Korea • Republic of China • United Arab Emirates • Australia • French Republic • United Kingdom • Japan • Indonesia • China Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.9805289

Global monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change can be aided by the effective use of indicators. Tree-cavity excavators, the majority of which are woodpeckers (Picidae), are known to be useful indicators of the health or naturalness of forest ecosystems and the diversity of forest birds. They are indicators of the latter due to shared associations with particular forest elements and because of their role in facilitating the occurrence of other species through the provision of nesting cavities. Here, we investigated whether these positive correlations between excavators and other forest birds are also found at broad geographical scales. We used global distribution maps to extract richness estimates of tree-cavity nesting and forest-associated birds, which we grouped by zoogeographic regions. We then created generalized least-squares models to assess the relationships between these groups of birds. We show that richness of tree-cavity excavating birds correlates positively with that of secondary cavity nesters and other forest birds (generalists and specialists) at global scales, but with variation across zoogeographic regions. As many excavators are relatively easy to detect, play keystone roles at local scales and are effective management targets, we propose that excavators are useful for biodiversity monitoring across multiple spatial scales and geographical regions, especially in the tropics.

El tartago por sus caracteristicas agroecologicas se adapta a la agricultura familiar. Para evaluar la factibilidad de la asociacion de tartago con cultivos anuales se instalo un experimento con diseno en bloques completos al azar, con siete tratamientos y tres repeticiones, en el Distrito de Escobar, Departamento de Paraguari, entre agosto de 2007 y julio de 2009. Los tratamientos fueron T1: monocultivo de maiz; T2: monocultivo de poroto; T3: monocultivo de algodon; T4: monocultivo de tartago; T5: tartago asociado a maiz; T6: tartago asociado a poroto; T7: tartago asociado a algodon. Fueron analizadas altura del cacho primario, altura de plantas de tartago en el primer ano y rendimiento en granos de tartago, maiz, poroto y algodon en rama, en monocultivo y asociados y la eficiencia de las asociaciones mediante el Indice Equivalente de la Tierra (IET) en los dos anos. La mayor altura de insercion del cacho primario y altura final de plantas se obtuvieron en la asociacion del tartago con maiz (149,0 cm), y de tartago con algodon (215,0 cm), respectivamente, evaluadas en el primer ano de experimentacion. El rendimiento de tartago en el mismo ano en monocultivo y en asociacion presento escasa variacion, entre 963 y 1059 kg ha-1. En el segundo ano, se obtuvo menor produccion en la asociacion de tartago con maiz (898 kg ha-1) y con algodon (890 kg ha-1) que en monocultivo (1056 kg ha-1). El IET obtenido en los dos anos indica que asociando el cultivo de tartago con algodon, maiz o poroto se logra un uso mas eficiente del suelo.

The aim of this research was to implement a geographical information system with multi-criteria decision making methods, to select the most feasible location for installing wind power plants in continental Ecuador. In addition, a standardization process was performed, which consists of establishing an overall performance index to evaluate the results. Finally, the Pearson correlation coefficient is used to analyze mutual correspondence between multi-criteria decision making methods. In this research, different selection criteria which include meteorological parameters (wind speed, air density), relief (slope), location (distances to substations, road network, urban areas, transmission lines, charging ports) and environmental parameters (vegetation coverage), have been considered. The results of this research revealed that the site with the highest overall performance index is the Andean region of Ecuador, with an area of more than 617.5 km 2 . The outcome of the overall performance index indicates that the four selected multi-criteria decision making methods provided similar results, where the value was equal to or greater than 75% of the maximum punctuation of an ideal location. In this context, the methods analyzed converge to similar solutions and indicate that the multi-criteria decision making method is a powerful tool for selecting ideal locations for wind farms.

Aim Globally, many bird species nest in tree cavities that are either excavated or formed through decay or damage processes. We assembled an overview of all tree-cavity nesters (excavators and non-excavators) in the world, analysed their geographic distribution and listed the conservation status of all species. Location This is a global analysis of species from every continent except for Antarctica where the lack of trees precludes the occurrence of this group. Methods We reviewed the online version of the Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive, http://www.hbw.com/, and primary literature for species known to nest in tree cavities, with tree cavities defined as holes that a bird can enter such that it is not visible from the outside. We classified species by nester type (excavator or non-excavator, and obligate or facultative where possible), conservation threat status and zoogeographic region, and tested for statistical differences in species distributions across realms using chi-square tests. Results At least 1878 species (18.1% of all bird species in the world) nest in tree cavities, of which we considered 355 to be primary excavators, 126 facultative excavators and 1357 non-excavators (we were unable to classify nesting type for 40 species). At least 338 species use cavities created by woodpeckers (Picidae), excluding reuse by woodpeckers themselves. About 13% (249 species) of tree-cavity nesters experience major threats (i.e., status of vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered). The highest richness of tree-cavity nesters is found in the Neotropical (678 species) and Oriental (453) regions, and the highest proportion of threatened species in Australasia (17%). Main conclusion Maintenance of a continual supply of cavities, a process in which woodpeckers and the processes of decay play critical roles, is a global conservation priority as tree cavities provide important nesting sites for many bird species.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of three different solar cooling system configurations developed for a case study building in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Guayaquil is a city located at the Ecuadorian coast with an average annual temperature of 25°C. The city’s need for air conditioning throughout the year and the relatively intense solar radiation provide a great opportunity for implementation of solar cooling systems. The first cooling system includes a 175 kWc single-effect absorption chiller powered by evacuated tubes solar thermal collectors. This system was compared with two 140 kWc compression chiller systems (air-cooled (AC) and water-cooled (WC)) powered by grid-connected photovoltaics. Both constant flow rate (CFR) and variable flow rate (VFR) of chilled water were analyzed. The three systems have to satisfy a cooling demand of the top floor in one governmental building (app. 1296 m2) which was selected as case study. Additionally, two 140 kWc conventional compression chiller systems (AC and WC) were included in the comparison as reference systems. Cooling demand of the building was simulated in EnergyPlus and coupled with the appropriate system configurations developed in TRNSYS. The weather file (TMY) was developed based on real meteorological data collected in the last decade. The present analysis was extended with the prediction scenarios for the years 2020, 2050 and 2080 using climate change adapted weather files.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

Indices explaining health phenomena are important tools for identifying and investigating health inequalities and to support policy making. Some of these indices are expressed at area-level, and the investigation of the areal influences of these indices on individual health outcomes have scale and geographical contextual implications that need to be assessed. In this study we calculated two area-level indices: one deprivation index and one index of healthcare accessibility. Using multilevel modelling, we calculated the area-level influences of these indices on an individual-level index of healthcare satisfaction considering three kinds of areas or contexts: a context of deprivation, a context of healthcare accessibility and a context combining the two characteristics of healthcare accessibility and deprivation. We evaluated two kinds of geographical problems using the statistical results of these area-level influences: the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) and the uncertain geographic context problem (UGCoP). Regarding the MAUP we evaluated the scale effects at two scales: census blocks and census tracts. Regarding the UGCoP we evaluated the differences in areal influences between the three kinds of contexts for both scales. The case study area was the city of Quito, Ecuador. The results of the performed analyses showed no severe MAUP and UGCoP, and revealed important evidence of the area-level influence of deprivation and healthcare accessibility on healthcare satisfaction. Springer