Comparative methods to assess renovation impact on indoor hygrothermal quality in a historical art gallery

This paper presents a set of methods for renovation impact assessment of indoor hygrothermal conditions in a culturally significant historical building, functioning as an art gallery. A new parameter, Renovation Impact Index (RII), was developed and used for the assessment. The RII is defined as the performance gradient of indoor hygrothermal conditions over two annual periods, the year before and the year after the renovations. The performances of the two most critical parameters to artwork conservation – temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) – were assessed with respect to conservation specifications. RII was defined over two windows: tight set points specified in the BS 5454 : 2000 Conservation Standard and a relaxed strategy for energy saving potential. ‘Global’ Performance Index was obtained as a combined effect of T and RH. A seasonal analysis was undertaken for detailed study of renovation impact on individual seasons. Results identified the positive effects of the renovation solutions, with the indoor environment then being less influenced by outdoor weather changes. In addition to energy savings of 27%, the positive RII estimate showed quantitative improvement in hygrothermal performance. The proposed methods can be extended to other renovation projects in similar buildings to assist building managers to target future improvements.

On the Smallest Non-Trivial Tight Sets in Hermitian Polar Spaces

We show that an $x$-tight set of the Hermitian polar spaces $\mathrm{H}(4,q^2)$ and $\mathrm{H}(6,q^2)$ respectively, is the union of $x$ disjoint generators of the polar space provided that $x$ is small compared to $q$. For $\mathrm{H}(4,q^2)$ we need the bound $x<q+1$ and we can show that this bound is sharp.

Tight sets in finite classical polar spaces

We show that every i-tight set in the Hermitian variety H(2r + 1, q) is a union of pairwise disjoint (2r + 1)-dimensional Baer subgeometries $\text{PG}(2r+1,\,\sqrt{q})$ and generators of H(2r + 1, q), if q ≥ 81 is an odd square and i < (q2/3 − 1)/2. We also show that an i-tight set in the symplectic polar space W(2r + 1, q) is a union of pairwise disjoint generators of W(2r + 1, q), pairs of disjoint r-spaces {Δ, Δ⊥}, and (2r + 1)-dimensional Baer subgeometries. For W(2r + 1, q) with r even, pairs of disjoint r-spaces {Δ, Δ⊥} cannot occur. The (2r + 1)-dimensional Baer subgeometries in the i-tight set of W(2r + 1, q) are invariant under the symplectic polarity ⊥ of W(2r + 1, q) or they arise in pairs of disjoint Baer subgeometries corresponding to each other under ⊥. This improves previous results where $i \lt q^{5/8} / \sqrt{2} +1$ was assumed. Generalizing known techniques and using recent results on blocking sets and minihypers, we present an alternative proof of this result and consequently improve the upper bound on i to (q2/3 − 1)/2. We also apply our results on tight sets to improve a known result on maximal partial spreads in W(2r + 1, q).

SEBI's Regulation of the Indian Securities Market: A Critical Review of the Major Developments

Since the empowerment of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) through an Act of Parliament in 1992, SEBI has come up with a number of initiatives aimed at regulating and developing the Indian securities market and improving its safety and efficiency. These initiatives have made an impact on nearly every aspect of the market. Some of those initiatives have transformed the market fundamentally. Particularly noteworthy is the growth in the following: Market capitalization Number of listed firms Trading volumes and turnover both in the spot and futures markets. There is a growing network of financial intermediaries that operate in a highly competitive environment while being governed by a tight set of norms. India has one of the most sophisticated new equity issuance markets. Disclosure requirements and the accounting policies followed by listed companies for producing financial information are comparable to the best regimes in the world. The Indian securities market is among the safest and the most efficient trading destinations internationally. The Indian corporate governance code is compared to the Sarbanes Oxley Act of the USA. India has one of the fastest growing and well-developed asset management businesses in the world, with state-owned as well as private sector players. That said, the Indian market is often hostage to some scam or the other from time to time. Effective enforcement of compliance is cited as one of the reasons for these unsavoury episodes. The role that SEBI's initiatives have played in bringing about this transformation of the market has not been researched comprehensively so far. Literature that has analysed the efficiency and the design of the Indian securities market has examined the role of certain specific regulatory provisions on the functioning of the securities market. So also the various annual reports of SEBI discuss the regulatory and other institutional developments that took place during the year under review. However, no attempt seems to have been made to take stock of all the various initiatives of SEBI so far and assess its impact on the activity in the securities market. This paper identifies some of the major interventions of SEBI relating to each of these aspects of the market and critically examines the economic consequences of the same. Such a stock-taking will enable a well-rounded and objective review of SEBI's performance. It is also likely to suggest interesting areas for further research.

Analysis of Acoustic Emission Signals in Machining

Acoustic emission (AE) signals are emerging as promising means for monitoring machining processes, but understanding their generation is presently a topic of active research; hence techniques to analyze them are not completely developed. In this paper, we present a novel methodology based on chaos theory, wavelets and neural networks, for analyzing AE signals. Our methodology involves a thorough signal characterization, followed by signal representation using wavelet packets, and state estimation using multilayer neural networks. Our methodology has yielded a compact signal representation, facilitating the extraction of a tight set of features for flank wear estimation.

Extension of a Tight Set Function with Values in a Locally Convex Space

The purpose of the paper is to extend a tight set function on a lattice with values in a locally convex space of special type to a measure on the cr-ring generated by . This result generalizes the extension theorem of Thomas [12, p. 151], which in turn contains the extension theorems of Pauc [9, p. 710], Fox [4, p. 525] and J. J. Uhl, Jr. [14, Corollary 2].