Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (July 14, 2006) Includes bibliographical references.

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate how environmental preference for the built environment, either in-situ or based on visual representations (e.g. visualisations of final architectural design), may be affected by three distinct variables. One of them is emotion, operationalised as the mood people are in at the time of the evaluation and the way people feel with regards to the environment. A second variable considers the participants' attention and how they may be influenced by task instructions. The third variable, intrinsically related to the second one, is how environmental preference may be influenced depending on the perspective taken at the time of the evaluation. The main research questions in this thesis are: a) How does emotion influence environmental preference? b) What is the impact of perspective-taking on environmental preference? c) What are the benefits of using emotional reactions to the environment as predictors of preference? These main research questions are addressed using both quantitative and qualitative methods, mainly quantitative, underpinned by a pragmatic approach. The unit of analysis in this thesis is the person who evaluates or judges an environment or a representation of it. Five studies are presented in this thesis. Study 1 (n=10) reports the results from interviews with practising architects in the city of Aberdeen. These results show that when designing architects take two distinct perspectives: a prescriptive inferential perspective and a self, referential perspective. These interviews are used to set the context within which this thesis operates: the presentation of design to people with no expertise in architecture and built environment disciplines. The remaining four studies directly address this thesis' main research questions. In Study 2 (n=133), Study 3 (n=146) and Study 5 (n=64) the effects of perspective-taking on different dependent variables are experimentally tested. The dependent variables are: perceived restorativeness (Study 2), environmental preference as measured via informational variables (Study 3), and the emotional reactions people have to representations of the environment (Study 5). Results of these studies show that perspective-taking carries an interpersonal perception bias whereby taking a perspective other than the self results in different environmental evaluation outcomes, but that this process can also be affected by formal training. The influences of emotion on environmental preference are directly explored in Studies 4 (n=32) and 5 (n=64). The results show that mood can have an influence on environmental preference by influencing the emotional reactions people have to the environment, but that these influences vary over time. Overall the thesis shows that perspective-taking and emotion have a range of influences on environmental preference in a built environment context, that these are important at the point at which architecture and built environment professionals design environments, and that timing of environmental evaluations in longitudinal assessments can make the difference between positive and less positive evaluations. This thesis' results are discussed in light of existing knowledge and some recommendations are made for future research and practitioners in architecture and built environment disciplines.

The topic of my master thesis is analysis of farm biogas station in Drahobudice. It is machinery, which processes agriculture crops and garbage from animal produce. From these substrates is produced biogas and burning of this biogas arises electric and thermal energy. This system of production from renewable resources is in accordance with demands of European union on reducing emissions from burning fossil fuels. This thesis contains overview of legislation relevant to given issue, describes development of this project, technical solution and process of operation. A part of this work also covers analysis of economic efficiency this investment and considers effects on environment. The main objective of my thesis is to identify, analyze and evaluate economical and environmental aspects of biogas station in Drahobudice.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-202).

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:53:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RafaelaMRP.pdf: 1153352 bytes, checksum: e2b6b2805582038d2fbbbcf7fc97714e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-19 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / This research refers to the production of green buildings, defined, mainly, based on the use of sources of alternative energies, smaller emission of pollutant, use of recyclable materials, systems of recycling of the waters, maximization of the natural illumination, preservation of green areas or native, and appropriate quality of the internal air. From the conception of those buildings, it appears the needs of evaluating them, creating the methodologies for the evaluation of environmental performance of buildings. In that way, this work can be divided in two moments: the first one when it identifies the methodologies for the evaluation of environmental performance for buildings existents in the literature, defining their categories, criteria and sub-criteria to be appropriate to the reality of the Brazilian Northeast; and the second one when starting from the analysis of the systems of existent evaluation. It defines a methodological base and it generates a new evaluation system, denominated MEDACNE (Methodology of Evaluation of Environmental Acting for Construction in the Northeast). In that moment, the process of framing of the section of the building site is verified under the maintainable optics, stimulated mainly by the pressures of the society - conferences, protocols and agreements. Finally, the proposed methodology was applied in a case study, a residential building, called Maria Jos? Gurgel , located in Natal-RN, Brazil, for its validation. This methodological proposition should increase the patterns environmental places for the production of new buildings, and it will be a reference guide for architects, engineers and planners to develop their constructions considering the criteria of the sustainability. This study made use of bibliographical research in books and specialized magazines and the analysis of the data was realized in an interpretative way / Esta pesquisa refere-se ? produ??o de edif?cios ecologicamente corretos, definidos, principalmente, a partir da utiliza??o de fontes de energias alternativas, menor emiss?o de poluentes, uso de materiais recicl?veis, sistemas de reciclagem das ?guas, maximiza??o da ilumina??o natural, preserva??o de ?reas verdes ou nativas, e adequada qualidade do ar interno. A partir da concep??o desses empreendimentos, surge a necessidade de avali?-los, dando origem ?s metodologias de avalia??o de desempenho ambiental em edif?cios. Dessa forma, este trabalho pode ser dividido em dois momentos: o primeiro quando identifica as metodologias de avalia??o de desempenho ambiental em edif?cios existentes na literatura, definindo as categorias, crit?rios e sub-crit?rios a serem adequados ? realidade do Nordeste brasileiro; e o segundo quando a partir da an?lise dos sistemas de avalia??o existentes, define uma base metodol?gica e gera um novo sistema de avalia??o, denominado de MEDACNE (Metodologia de Avalia??o de Desempenho Ambiental para Constru??o no Nordeste). Neste momento, ? verificado o processo de enquadramento do setor da constru??o civil nos padr?es de sustentabilidade, estimulado principalmente pelas press?es da sociedade confer?ncias, protocolos e acordos. Por fim, a metodologia proposta foi aplicada em um estudo de caso, um edif?cio residencial denominado Maria Jos? Gurgel, dentro de uma empresa de Constru??o Civil, localizada em Natal-RN, para valida??o do sistema. Esta proposi??o metodol?gica dever? aumentar os padr?es ambientais locais para a produ??o de novos empreendimentos, e ser? um guia de refer?ncia para arquitetos, engenheiros e projetistas desenvolverem suas edifica??es considerando os crit?rios da sustentabilidade. Este estudo fez uso de pesquisa bibliogr?fica em livros e revistas especializadas e a an?lise dos dados foi realizada de forma interpretativa