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How baseball stadiums with a roof can affect player performance
Dr. Denise A. Valenti Sports & FitnessFatigue and sleep deficits can impact the quality of performance for professional athletes. Common reasons for a disrupted playing schedule are weather-related game delays. Those players that get additional sleep five days in a row have been shown to have better performance. Just one added hour a night over the five days improves visual functioning and cognitive processing. Therefore, seven Major League Baseball stadiums have a physical factor that may be giving the players a competitive edge over the course of the season.
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Campaigners return to put supermarkets under their frosty glare
Andrew Gaved Waste Management & EnvironmentalThe Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has been, depending on your viewpoint, the conscience of the European retail refrigeration industry or a thorn in its side for the better part of a decade now. The EIA makes no pretense of the fact that it doesn’t think that HFCs represent environmentally responsible refrigeration, and that HFOs aren’t really much better. In the EIA’s world, natural refrigerants are the cooling agents that every supermarket should strive for.
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The deadline for converting to Tier 4 engines is around the corner
Clayton Costello Construction & Building MaterialsThe end of 2017 is fast approaching, bringing with it the deadline for converting to Tier 4 engines for diesel engine users. When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the Tier 4 regulations in late 2004, the goal was to cut down on pollutants harmful to the environment. The EPA particularly targeted byproducts known to create smog.
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Negotiating commercial leases: Meet the landlord
Dale Willerton and Jeff Grandfield RetailFor many commercial tenants, negotiating a good lease or lease renewal against an experienced agent or landlord can be a challenge. While an entrepreneur focuses on marketing and managing, savvy real estate agents and brokers are specialized salespeople. Their job is to sell tenants on leasing their location at the highest possible rental rate.
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Sky’s the limit: Just who controls drones?
Ryan Clark Transportation Technology & AutomotiveOn May 25, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Drone Federalism Act of 2017. The bill would, if passed, protect states' rights to control the movement of drones over state airspace at certain heights. This is just one of many recent rounds in the war for control of the skies being waged between governments and drone users.
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Hostile architecture and America’s homeless
Lucy Wallwork Civil & GovernmentA spate of mayors across the globe have spent the night sleeping rough in solidarity with their rising number of homeless constituents. Simultaneously, the built environment we occupy has been transforming to become more and more hostile to these very people.
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Why climate change is personal for interior designers
Susan Mulholland Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesLast week, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris agreement on climate change. We are now in the company of only two other major countries — Nicaragua and Syria — that are not a part of the agreement. This may be a political move by our president, but for many of us who have been working in the built environment, it's personal.
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As F-Gas gathers pace, something must be done
Andrew Gaved Waste Management & EnvironmentalPresident Donald Trump today announced his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate change agreement — thus aligning the U.S. for probably the only time ever with Syria and Nicaragua as the only major nations opposed to the 195-nation international commitment to cutting greenhouse gases.
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Negotiating commercial leases: Location, location, location
Dale Willerton and Jeff Grandfield RetailFor many commercial tenants, negotiating a good lease or lease renewal against an experienced agent or landlord can be a challenge. While an entrepreneur focuses on marketing and managing, savvy real estate agents and brokers are specialized salespeople. Their job is to sell tenants on leasing their location at the highest possible rental rate.
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Co-building the city: The draw of participative planning
Lucy Wallwork Civil & GovernmentThe dominant role once occupied by the city planner is under threat. A new paradigm of participative planning is challenging the "business as usual" top-down process for shaping our urban spaces. Participative planning — whereby members of the community work with designers, architects and planners to decide on the future of cities — is fast becoming the norm.
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