Svetlana Pushkar

LEED-NCV3 SILVER AND GOLD CERTIFIED PROJECTS IN THE US: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Abstract The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system has been widely used in the US. However, until now, there has been no clear understanding of the strategies that should be used to make the transition from Silver to Gold certified projects. The aim of this study was to determine the trends in certified projects for both Silver and Gold LEED for New Construction and Major Renovations (LEED-NCv3) in 2016. Three performances, including (i) certification, (ii) category/subcategory/sub-subcategory certification, and (iii) cross-certification, were evaluated for both Silver and Gold LEED-NCv3 certified projects. For an ordinal measurement scale, a two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test was used. For a ratio measurement scale, an unpaired two-tailed t-test was used. If eight or more Silver and Gold certified projects occurred in the same state, then the state was selected for statistical analysis. As a result, ten states were selected. The following was revealed: (i) low certification perfo...

A Single-Unit Design Structure and Gender Differences in the Swimming World Championships

Abstract Four 50 meter male/female finals - the freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, and backstroke - swum during individual events at the Swimming World Championships (SWCs) can be defined in four clusters. The aim of the present study was to use a single-unit design structure, in which the swimmer was defined at only one scale, to evaluate gender differences in start reaction times among elite swimmers in 50 m events. The top six male and female swimmers in the finals of four swimming stroke final events in six SWCs were analyzed. An unpaired t-test was used. The p-values were evaluated using Neo-Fisherian significance assessments (Hurlbert and Lombardi, 2012). For the freestyle, gender differences in the start reaction times were positively identified for five of the six SWCs. For the backstroke, gender differences in the start reaction times could be dismissed for five of the six SWCs. For both the butterfly and breaststroke, gender differences in the start reaction times yielded inconsistent statistical differences. Pooling all swimmers together (df = 286) showed that an overall gender difference in the start reaction times could be positively identified: p = 0.00004. The contrast between the gender differences in start reaction times between the freestyle and backstroke may be associated with different types of gender adaptations to swimming performances. When the natural groupings of swimming stroke final events were ignored, sacrificial pseudoreplication occurred, which may lead to erroneous statistical differences

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENTS OF WHITE FLAT AND RED OR WHITE PITCHED ROOFS FOR RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN ISRAEL

ABSTRACT Historically, white flat roofs have been used in Israel due to the intense solar radiation and long, hot, rainless summers. However, red pitched roofs have also been frequently used for aesthetic reasons. It has been recently observed that red pitched roofs have been recolored white by homeowners. The goal of this study was to compare the life cycle assessments (LCAs) of white flat roofs versus red or white pitched roofs through their production (P), operational energy (OE), and maintenance to disposal (MtoD) stages. EnergyPlus software was used to evaluate the OE stage. The ReCiPe method was used to evaluate the environmental damages in all the stages. A two-stage nested ANOVA was used to determine the significant differences between the ReCiPe result of a white flat roof and the ReCiPe result of a red/white pitched roof. It was found that (i) selection of the best roof technology (flat or pitched) requires consideration of the LCA, including the P, OE, and MtoD stages; (ii) the white (flat and ...