Determining the effect of external shading strategies on energy and daylight of fully glazed office buildings in Toronto

With regard to overheating and heat lost potential, transparent parts of the building envelope have a significant impact on building energy consumption. The project investigates the impact of fully glazed façades on energy intensity and daylight quality of office buildings in Toronto. Also it explores the potential of various external shading strategies in minimizing energy consumption and enhancing daylight quality. Different types of external shadings including overhangs, vertical fins and diagrid screen were investigated in terms of heating, cooling and lighting energy use and daylight performance. The diagrid screen, in comparison to conventional shading strategies, demonstrates significantly better impact on cooling load reduction and improving daylight quality in interior spaces. This study helped to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each shading system and provides guidelines for architects in the process of designing façades of glazed office buildings to widen the options for aesthetically pleasing, high performance façades.

Determining the effect of external shading strategies on energy and daylight of fully glazed office buildings in Toronto

With regard to overheating and heat lost potential, transparent parts of the building envelope have a significant impact on building energy consumption. The project investigates the impact of fully glazed façades on energy intensity and daylight quality of office buildings in Toronto. Also it explores the potential of various external shading strategies in minimizing energy consumption and enhancing daylight quality. Different types of external shadings including overhangs, vertical fins and diagrid screen were investigated in terms of heating, cooling and lighting energy use and daylight performance. The diagrid screen, in comparison to conventional shading strategies, demonstrates significantly better impact on cooling load reduction and improving daylight quality in interior spaces. This study helped to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each shading system and provides guidelines for architects in the process of designing façades of glazed office buildings to widen the options for aesthetically pleasing, high performance façades.

The Arrangement of Endosperm Cells and Development of Starch Granules Are Associated With the Occurrence of Grain Chalkiness in Japonica Varieties

The endosperm chalkiness in grains is one of the most important traits in rice grain qualities, and grain chalkiness directly determines grain quality and market price. Therefore, the endosperm chalkiness reduction is an important goal of breeding scientist in rice. However, little is known about the relationship of the formation of rice endosperm chalkiness and the morphological structure and development in fragrant japonica and conventional japonica varieties. In this study, we have mainly investigated the chalkiness characters such as degree of endosperm chalkiness (DEC), chalkiness rate (CR) and chalkiness area (CA) in 12 fragrant japonica varieties and 9 conventional japonica varieties. Furthermore, the endosperm structure and starch granules of rice grains were also observed with scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicated that the 21 varieties including the different fragrant japonica and conventional japonica varieties has a linear relationship between the DEC and the CR (P < 0.05). Among the fragrant japonica and conventional japonica varieties, the biggest difference is the CR, follow by CA and DEC. In addition, there is a certain correlation between the arrangement of endosperm cells, the distribution of starch granules and the occurrence of chalkiness characters in the different fragrant japonica and conventional japonica varieties. For the same fragrant japonica or conventional japonica variety, there is no significant difference between the starch granules from the transparent parts of chalkiness and non-chalky, while the starch granules of grains between chalky and non-chalky has obvious difference. Our results would provide important references for high quality rice breeding.