With the advent of high speed internet, smart-phones, Wi-Fi, Cloud computing, and IOT, our desire for creating and consuming data has been growing exponentially. It has resulted in great demand for storing and processing of this data with increase in number and scale of data center facilities around the globe. Data centers have started consuming much higher amount of power and highperformance IT equipment have presented a bigger challenge for cooling systems. Large technology companies have realized the need for making their data centers more energy efficient and, in turn, modern mechanical systems have been designed to work more efficiently. This research study endeavors to analyze these mechanical systems and present the way they affect Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratios of data centers. Data from numerous data center projects carried out by a leading general contractor in last 5-years was obtained and correlation analysis was carried out to assess how modern mechanical systems help in reducing their PUE ratios.

The findings suggest that perceived phonatory effort may not be a sensitive measure of vocal function differences following a voicing task in ecologically valid office spaces despite significant acoustic findings. Future research should address longer exposure to environmental differences combined with a longer voicing task within ecologically valid work spaces as well as the recruitment of participants who have particular vulnerability to environmental perturbations.

Urbanization causes alteration of the thermal regime (surface, air, and water) of the environment. Heated stormwater runoff flows into lakes, streams, bays, and estuaries, which potentially increases the base temperature of the surface water. The amount of heat transferred, and the degree of thermal pollution is of great importance to the ecological integrity of receiving waters. This research reports on a controlled laboratory scale test to assess low impact development (LID) stormwater control measure impacts on the thermal characteristics of stormwater runoff. We hypothesize that LID stormwater control measures (SCMs) such as pervious surfaces and rain gardens/bioretention can be used to mitigate the ground level thermal loads from stormwater runoff. Laboratory methods in this study captured and infiltrated simulated stormwater runoff from four infrared heated substrate microcosms (pervious concrete, impervious concrete, permeable concrete pavers, and turf grass), and routed the stormwater through rain garden microcosms. A data logging system with thermistors located on, within, and at exits of the microcosms, recorded resulting stormwater temperature flux. Researchers compared steady state temperatures of the laboratory to previously collected field data and achieved between 30% to 60% higher steady state surface temperatures with indoor than outdoor test sites. This research helps establish baseline data to study heat removal effectiveness of pervious materials when used alone or in combination as a treatment train with other stormwater control measures such as rain gardens/bioretention.

Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems offer a unique set of advantages and disadvantages to a designer, contractor, and building owner. With the procurement requirements for the Government, additional challenges are introduced by these systems, and the systems are currently not permitted for US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) projects due to requirements in mandatory design criteria. This research was performed to discover the major advantages and disadvantages of these systems, and to understand why they are not allowed on USACE projects. While performing interviews concerning these types of systems, two interesting case studies that demonstrate some of the disadvantages for these systems were discovered and will be detailed in this paper. Ultimately, it was discovered that VRF systems do not meet the public law requirement to provide open protocol control systems for U.S. Military projects. While the reasoning for this research had a particular focus on U.S. Military construction, much of the information presented will also be valuable to private entities considering these systems as well.

This paper presents the results of a recent survey taken by construction management (CM) students at four U.S. Construction Management programs and the construction industry companies that recruit them. Respondents were asked to rate factors that affect the students’ employment decision. Survey results indicate that although industry has a grasp on the top-5 factors of importance there remains some misalignment of other factors of importance. Results indicate the five most important factors when considering employment with a company are: upward job movement, salary, company reputation, company culture, and company ethics. Comparisons between the two surveys are discussed.