Occupation Of States Research Articles

Quantum Chemical Study of the Pressure-dependent Phosphorescence of [Cr(ddpd)2 ]3+ in the Solid State.

The chromium(III) complex [Cr(ddpd)2 ][BF4 ]3 shows two spin-flip emission bands in the near-infrared spectral region. These bands shift bathochromically by -14.1 and -7.7 cm-1 kbar-1 under hydrostatic pressure (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 11069). The present study elucidates the structural changes of the chromium(III) cations under pressure using density functional theory with periodic boundary conditions and the resulting effects on the excited state energies using high-level CASSCF-NEVPT2 calculations. The differences of the bands in pressure sensitivity are traced back to a different orbital occupation of the intraconfigurational excited states.

Targeted estimation of state occupation probabilities for the non‐Markov illness‐death model

AbstractWe use semi‐parametric efficiency theory to derive a class of estimators for the state occupation probabilities of the continuous‐time irreversible illness‐death model. We consider both the setting with and without additional baseline information available, where we impose no specific functional form on the intensity functions of the model. We show that any estimator in the class is asymptotically linear under suitable assumptions about the estimators of the intensity functions. In particular, the assumptions are weak enough to allow the use of data‐adaptive methods, which is important for making the identifying assumption of coarsening at random plausible in realistic settings. We suggest a flexible method for estimating the transition intensity functions of the illness‐death model based on penalized Poisson regression. We apply this method to estimate the nuisance parameters of an illness‐death model in a simulation study and a real‐world application.

Window: Spatializing Occupation

In this short intervention, I ask, What is at stake, politically and conceptually, in understanding militarism not as stable and unfolding similarly across geographies, but as deeply contingent on historical and contextual specificities? How might we then unpack the question of home becoming a catalyst of militarism? What constitutes home under saturated state control and occupation where militarism is neither subtle nor benign but enforced through violence? Emplacing the vignette of a window that came up during my ethnographic fieldwork in Srinagar, Kashmir, I reflect on the conditions of gendered vulnerability, fear, violence, and everyday negotiations of survival that become urgent concerns for people surviving a colonial occupation. This essay is a part of the Roundtable called “The Housewife’s Secret Arsenal” (henceforth HSA); a collection of eight object-oriented engagements focusing on particular material instantiations of domesticated war. The title of this roundtable is deliberately tongue-in-cheek reminding readers of the many ways that militarisms can be invisible to their users yet persistent in the form of mundane household items that aid in the labor of homemaking. Juxtaposing the deliberately stereotyped “housewife” with the theater of war raises questions about the quiet migration of these objects and technologies from battlefield to kitchen, or bathroom, or garden. Gathered together as an “arsenal,” their uncanny proximity to one another becomes a key critical tool in asking how war comes to find itself at home in our lives.

The Arabs in the German media: Reality & representation “DW”TV &” Der Spiegel” magazine as a case study

Objectives: The study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the visions of the Arab presence in two popular German media outlets during two different time periods (2013 and 2020), as well as the changes that have occurred in the seven years between them. It aims to analyze the political media landscape, examining the use of words, direct connotations, and connotations stored in text, speech, or image.
 Methodology: This research is part of an analytical descriptive research, which aims to describe the specific characteristics of a phenomenon as it is, without the use of statistical procedures.
 Results: As a result of social mobility in Arab nations including Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya, the study's findings suggested that "Arab revolutions" in 2011 slightly altered German public attitude about Arabs; however, this effect swiftly vanished. The study revealed the symbiotic relationship between politics and the media in Germany, as well as the primary causes of the persistence of historical hostility and rivalry between Islam and Christianity and the existence of the Zionist occupation state in the Middle East, as well as the negative perception of Arabs in German public opinion.
 Conclusion: The study emphasized the covert relationship between media moguls and political decision-makers, which frequently manifests itself in symbolic form through discourse based on a theory that produces knowledge, in form and meaning, to serve political authority, undermine opposing authorities, persuade the public with new perceptions, eliminate other perceptions, and clash with hostile cultures, thereby leaving no room for public criticism.

Interaction at a distance: Xenon migration in Mb

The transport of ligands, such as NO or O2, through internal cavities is essential for the function of globular proteins, including hemoglobin, myoglobin (Mb), neuroglobin, truncated hemoglobins, or cytoglobin. For Mb, several internal cavities (Xe1 through Xe4) were observed experimentally and they were linked to ligand storage. The present work determines barriers for xenon diffusion and relative stabilization energies for the ligand in the initial and final pocket, linking a transition depending on the occupancy state of the remaining pockets from both biased and unbiased molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that the energetics of a particular ligand migration pathway may depend on the direction in which the transition is followed and the occupancy state of the other cavities. Furthermore, the barrier height for a particular transition can depend in a non-additive fashion on the occupancy of either cavity A or B or simultaneous population of both cavities, A and B. Multiple repeats for the Xe1 → Xe2 transition reveal that the activation barrier is a distribution of barrier heights rather than one single value, which is confirmed by a distribution of transition times for the same transition from unbiased simulations. Dynamic cross correlation maps demonstrate that correlated motions occur between adjacent residues or through space, residue Phe138 is found to be a gate for the Xe1 → Xe2 transition, and the volumes of the internal cavities vary along the diffusion pathway, indicating that there is dynamic communication between the ligand and the protein. These findings suggest that Mb is an allosteric protein.

Manipulating the Dynamic Self-Reconstruction of CoP Electrocatalyst Driven by Charge Transport and Ion Leaching.

Surface reconstruction of electrocatalysts is very important to clarify the structure-component-activity relationship. In this work, in situ Raman and ex situ technologies are used to capture the surface structure evolution of F-Fe-CoP during the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The results reveal that the leaching of F accelerates the dynamic reconstruction response of CoP to rapidly convert into active (oxy)hydroxide species. The further introduction of Fe can accelerate the charge transfer rate and alleviate the structural stacking caused by insufficient kinetics. The introduction of F and Fe increases the electron occupation states of cobalt sites and promotes the adsorption of OH- ions on the CoP catalyst, which significantly improves the OER performance. F-Fe-CoP exhibits excellent OER performance with an overpotential of 259mV at 20mA cm-2 . This finding enriches the OER mechanism associated with the surface reconstruction of CoP and provides a reference for the rational design of efficient electrocatalysts.

The Role of Spain in Lithuanian Communication During the First World War

The research reveals the contacts between the authorized representatives of the Lithuanian Society, the members of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne), the members and the head of the Lithuanian Information Bureau (in Lausanne), the members of the committee Lituania and the heads and servants of Spanish legations abroad, Prince Alfonso of the Bourbon dynasty of Spain and the representatives of the Spanish society in Barcelona. It also covers information about Spain, Spanish legations abroad, their functions in forwarding letters and transferring money to the territory under German occupation inhabited by Lithuanians (Ober Ost), the division of the committee Lituania in Barcelona, and the articles of the Lithuanian Society in the periodicals published by the Lithuanian Information Bureau in Lithuanian and foreign languages and the Lithuanian party press. The research covers the chronological period from 25 August 1915 to 11 November 1918, i.e. from the establishment of the Refugee Registration and Information Bureau (in Petrograd) to the formation of the Provisional Government of Lithuania. The research is based on published (press, published documents) und unpublished sources (from the Political Archive of the German Foreign Office, the Manuscripts Department of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, the documents of the Manuscripts Department of Vilnius University Library). The research employed the methods of qualitative analysis and synthesis (the new material of the sources was supplemented with the information circulating in historiography), the comparative method (the facts found in Lithuanian manuscript collections, German archives and the press are compared), the descriptive method and the inductive method. To process the primary sources in Lithuanian, German and Russian languages, the logical-analytical method was applied (the notional content and information analysis was conducted). The research consists of three parts. In the first part of the research, the author investigates the role played by Spanish legations abroad in sending letters and money to the Lithuanian territory under German occupation and back (1916–1918) and states that the analysis of the press and published memoirs of the period in question leads to the conclusion that Spanish legations abroad played a crucial role in sending inquiries about family and friends as well as money into the Lithuanian territory under German occupation (Ober Ost) and back (1916–1917). It was the safest way to send and receive information and money. An alternative to the Spanish legation in sending money to the largest cities of Lithuania occupied by Germany, namely Vilnius and Kaunas, originated at the end of 1917 and in 1918 when Stockholms Enskilda Banken opened its branches in Vilnius, Kaunas, Suwalki, and Białystok. In the second part of the study, the author reveals the attempt of Juozas Gabrys to elect Spanish Prince Alfonso as King of Lithuania and concludes that after investigating the minutes of the sessions of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) of 1918 and the documents of 1918 kept in the Political Archive of the German Foreign Office, it turned out that the head of the Lithuanian Information Bureau, Juozas Gabrys, and the members of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) maintained a close contact with Spanish Prince Alfonso residing in Switzerland (Zürich) and shared Lithuanian realities with him. It should be noted that even after Wilhelm of Urach was elected as King of Lithuania Mindaugas II, Gabrys did not lose hope to change the situation to the benefit of Spanish Prince Alfonso by also involving the representatives of the German Foreign Ministry and other persons interested in this matter or inspired by him. The third part of the study reveals the circumstances of establishing the Spanish division of the Committee Lituania and its activity fields. After systemising the episodes of the information, which appeared in Lithuanian periodicals, it became clear that the establishment of the division of the committee Lituania in Spain in 1917 was driven by several factors: first, the Lithuanian Day declared by the pope (7 May 1917) in the Catholic churches of the world on which collections were organized in favour of the Lithuanian war victims and, second, the attempt to inform the Spanish society about Lithuanians and Lithuania if Spanish Prince Alfonso should by any chance be elected as King of Lithuania. Public relations were the major focus of the Barcelona division of the committee Lituania: to spread as favourable information about Lithuanians and Lithuania as possible.

Activating Octahedral Center in Co-Doped NiFe2 O4 via Bridging Amorphous MoSx for Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation: A Case for eg Orbital Regulation in Spinel Oxide.

Moderate eg filling for octahedral metal cations (MOh ) is strongly correlated with the electrocatalytic water oxidation performance in the oxides system. Here, the eg fillings of NiOh and FeOh in NiFe2 O4 -based spinel are controllably regulated by introducing an external radical of catalytically inactive MoSx as an electron acceptor via a novel ultrasonic anchored pyrolysis strategy. The electron occupied in eg orbit of MOh emigrates with the amount of MoS hanging on the apical of octahedral sites, and results in a salutary transition from high to medium eg occupancy state, as confirmed by the X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In addition, benefiting from the abundant unsaturated S atoms in amorphous MoSx , the MOh at the surface furthest activates and consequently shows a superior water oxidation performance. Density functional theory also reveals that the eg fillings of Ni and Fe decrease to 1.4 and 1.2 after MoSx modification, which can effectively reduce the free energy of the OOH* intermediates in the oxygen evolution reaction process. This work opens an avenue for further releasing the electrocatalytic activity of octahedral sites through bridging external phases with rational electron-capturing/donating capability.

Rapid learning of predictive maps with STDP and theta phase precession.

The predictive map hypothesis is a promising candidate principle for hippocampal function. A favoured formalisation of this hypothesis, called the successor representation, proposes that each place cell encodes the expected state occupancy of its target location in the near future. This predictive framework is supported by behavioural as well as electrophysiological evidence and has desirable consequences for both the generalisability and efficiency of reinforcement learning algorithms. However, it is unclear how the successor representation might be learnt in the brain. Error-driven temporal difference learning, commonly used to learn successor representations in artificial agents, is not known to be implemented in hippocampal networks. Instead, we demonstrate that spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP), a form of Hebbian learning, acting on temporally compressed trajectories known as 'theta sweeps', is sufficient to rapidly learn a close approximation to the successor representation. The model is biologically plausible - it uses spiking neurons modulated by theta-band oscillations, diffuse and overlapping place cell-like state representations, and experimentally matched parameters. We show how this model maps onto known aspects of hippocampal circuitry and explains substantial variance in the temporal difference successor matrix, consequently giving rise to place cells that demonstrate experimentally observed successor representation-related phenomena including backwards expansion on a 1D track and elongation near walls in 2D. Finally, our model provides insight into the observed topographical ordering of place field sizes along the dorsal-ventral axis by showing this is necessary to prevent the detrimental mixing of larger place fields, which encode longer timescale successor representations, with more fine-grained predictions of spatial location.

Occupancy states forecasting with a hidden Markov model for incomplete data, exploiting daily periodicity

To automatize HVAC energy savings in buildings, it is useful to forecast the occupants’ behaviour. This article deals with such a forecasting problem by exploiting the daily periodicity of the input variables and the ability of the proposed model to learn from missing data. We propose a case study of occupancy behaviour, for which only a history of indirect information is available: CO2 and decibel levels. The unobserved classes are modeled by a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) which emits sensors’ data and periodic variables. The fact that Baum-Welch’s algorithm for HMMs is an instance of the EM algorithm allows the model to learn from incomplete data. In this case, the missing data are the class labels at every instant (past and future) and the sensors’ data in the future, but the time periodic variables are known at every instant: this enables the model to classify both the past instants (history) and the future instants (forecasting). Our method is tested on simulated data sets with 5%, 15%, 25% and 50% missing data that provide respectively an average classification accuracy of 93%, 89%, 85% and 80%. Then, experiments on one-day and one-week forecasting scenarios achieved an average accuracy of 82% and 81%. The proposed method is also applied on a real-life data set which seems to provide promising results.

Mink on the brink: comparing survey methods for detecting a critically endangered carnivore, the European mink Mustela lutreola

Monitoring rare and elusive species is critical in guiding appropriate conservation management measures. Mammalian carnivores are challenging to monitor directly, due to their generally nocturnal and solitary lifestyle, and relatively large home ranges. The European mink Mustela lutreola is a critically endangered, small, semi-aquatic carnivore and is one of the most threatened mammal species in Europe. In northern Spain, the European mink population is monitored regionally using different methods and approaches, making assessment of national population status difficult. There is an urgent need to 1) assess the efficacy of survey methods and 2) identify a standard monitoring methodology that can be deployed rapidly and inexpensively over large areas of the mink’s range. We deployed four methods—camera trapping, hair tubes, live trapping, and environmental DNA (eDNA) from water samples—to compare the probability of detecting European mink when present at 25 sampling sites within five 10 × 10 km2, and the economic cost and time required for each method. All four methods successfully detected European mink but the probability of detection varied by method. Camera trapping and hair tubes had the highest probability of detection; however, eDNA and live trapping detected mink in one 10 × 10 km2 where the latter two methods did not. For future European mink monitoring programs, we recommend a combination of at least two methods and suggest that camera traps or hair tubes are combined with live trapping or eDNA (depending on the scale and aims of the study), to gather critical information on distribution, occupancy and conservation status.

Design of molecular M[sbnd]N[sbnd]C dual-atom catalysts for nitrogen reduction starting from surface state analysis

Under electrocatalytic conditions, the state of a catalyst surface (e.g., adsorbate coverage) can be very different from a pristine form due to the existing conversion equilibrium between water and H- and O-containing adsorbates. Dismissing the analysis of the catalyst surface state under operating conditionsmay lead to misleading guidelines for experiments. Given that confirming the actual active site of the catalyst under operating conditions is indispensable to providing practical guidance for experiments, herein, we analyzed the relations between the Gibbs free energy and the potential of a new type of molecular metal-nitrogen-carbon (MNC) dual-atom catalysts (DACs) with a unique 5 N-coordination environment, by spin-polarized density functional theory (DFT) and surface Pourbaix diagram calculations. Analyzing the derived surface Pourbaix diagrams, we screened out three catalysts, N3-Ni-Ni-N2, N3-Co-Ni-N2, and N3-Ni-Co-N2, to further study the activity of nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). The results display that N3-Co-Ni-N2 is a promising NRR catalyst with a relatively low ΔG of 0.49 eV and slow kinetics of the competing hydrogen evolution. This work proposes a new strategy to guide DAC experiments more precisely: the analysis of the surface occupancy state of the catalysts under electrochemical conditions should be performed before activity analysis.

A Systematic Review of Sensing Technology in Human-Building Interaction Research

Human-building interaction is an emerging field of study that investigates the interactions and reciprocal impacts of humans and building systems. In this discipline, sensing technology is critical for data collection. The application of sensing technology is divided into six categories based on the research topics: (1) occupancy status, (2) occupant physiological indicators, (3) building components, (4) building environment, (5) building consumption, and (6) fusion of multi-sensing system. By evaluating 127 relevant research articles, this study attempts to provide a systematic review of the implementation of sensing technologies in each HBI research topic. Four significant sensing technologies were investigated for the occupancy status study: camera-based sensing, infrared-based sensing, radial frequency signal-based sensing, and ultrasonic sensor. Methodologies for biosensing brain activity, muscle and skin function, and cardiac function were examined as occupant physiological indicator measurements. The magnetic reed and vibration sensors were discussed for sensing changes in building components. The air property sensor, sound sensor, and illuminance sensor were introduced to monitor the building environment. The smart meter and smart plug were examined for sensing building consumption, and the application of multi-sensor fusion was also included in this article. Furthermore, this systematic study discussed three aspects of contemporary sensing technology deployment: data concealment, sensor cost tradeoffs, and privacy concerns.

Flexible transition timing in discrete-time multistate life tables using Markov chains with rewards

Discrete-time multistate life tables are attractive because they are easier to understand and apply in comparison with their continuous-time counterparts. While such models are based on a discrete time grid, it is often useful to calculate derived magnitudes (e.g. state occupation times), under assumptions which posit that transitions take place at other times, such as mid-period. Unfortunately, currently available models allow very few choices about transition timing. We propose the use of Markov chains with rewards as a general way of incorporating information on the timing of transitions into the model. We illustrate the usefulness of rewards-based multistate life tables by estimating working life expectancies using different retirement transition timings. We also demonstrate that for the single-state case, the rewards approach matches traditional life-table methods exactly. Finally, we provide code to replicate all results from the paper plus R and Stata packages for general use of the method proposed.

Seismic fragility functions for RC As-built and eccentric steel brace frames

Quasi-static cyclic loading tests were performed on single-story reduced-scale reinforced concrete as-built (un-retrofitted) and eccentrically steel braced (retrofitted) frames. The frames damage mechanism, force–displacement hysteretic response and capacity backbone envelopes were studied and a damage scale was developed. A simplified numerical modeling technique was proposed in the finite element-based package SeismoStruct and the model was evaluated, calibrated and validated with the test data. The proposed modeling technique was employed further to perform incremental dynamic time history analysis on two-story as-built and eccentric steel braced frames. Fragility functions for the frames in terms of immediate occupancy, life safety and collapse prevention were developed using a probabilistic-based methodology. The as-built frame was more fragile in terms of immediate occupancy, life safety and collapse prevention damage states as opposed to the retrofitted frame.

Physical origins of optical anisotropy in quantum-confined semiconductors: The roles of valence band mixing, transition broadening, and state filling

We investigate experimentally and theoretically the impact of valence band mixing and spectrum of confined states on the polarization of light emitted from or absorbed by GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor quantum dots and quantum wires with tailored heterostructure potential. In particular, such nanostructures with parabolic-profile confinement potentials, realized by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy inside pyramidal pits, served as model systems for the study. Different degrees of linear polarization (DOLP) of emitted light, depending on the confinement potential profile, the specific excitonic transition, and the level of excitation, are observed. A theoretical model shows that, besides the impact of valence band mixing, the overlap of conduction and valence band wavefunctions as well as state occupation probability and broadening of transitions determine the DOLP. The conclusions are useful for the design of quantum light emitters with controlled polarization properties.

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Nefecon versus Best Supportive Care for People with Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy (IgAN) in the United States.

To estimate the cost-effectiveness of Nefecon in addition to the best supportive care (BSC) vs BSC in a hypothetical cohort of commercially insured adult patients with primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) from a United States (US) societal perspective. A lifetime horizon, semi-Markov model was developed that consisted of nine health states: chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 4, end-stage renal disease (ESRD) with dialysis, ESRD without dialysis, post-kidney transplant, and death. Health state occupancy was estimated from individual patient-level data from the Phase 3 randomized controlled trial NefIgArd Part A (NCT03643965). Additional scenarios evaluated the impact of varying the time horizon, discounting, costs included, rounds of treatment, and the method used to calculate transition probabilities. In the deterministic base case analysis over a lifetime horizon, Nefecon plus BSC (hereafter Nefecon) had an incremental cost of $3,810 vs BSC. Nefecon resulted in a mean survival gain of 0.247 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), 0.195 life years (LYs), and 0.244 equal value life years (evLYs) vs BSC alone - this resulted in incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) of $15,428 per QALY, $19,502 per LY, and $15,611 per evLY gained. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses estimated that with willingness to pay thresholds of $100,000, $150,000, and $250,000 per QALY gained, Nefecon would be cost-effective over BSC in 66.70%, 75.02%, and 86.82% of cases, respectively. In the scenario analysis, Nefecon remained cost-effective with 4 rounds of treatment. Nefecon was associated with LY and QALY gains vs BSC, with an incremental cost of $3,810. Based on these values, with a willingness to pay threshold of $100,000 per QALY gained, Nefecon was found to be a cost-effective treatment for US adults with primary IgAN.

Energy Performance of Occupant Behaviors on Windows: A Green Building Based Study

In this paper, the window-opening behavior in a three-star green building with an operation mark in Ningbo was investigated. Four single offices facing south were selected, and the measurement lasted 20–40 days in the cooling season. An analysis of the relationship between window use and environmental factors was assessed by monitoring the occupancy state, the window action and window state, the time, and the temperature and humidity. A statistical analysis method was conducted to reveal the similarities and differences in window use among different occupants. The main findings were as follows: The window adjustment behaviors of different people vary significantly. In terms of adjustment time, there are two modes of behaviors. In addition, the occupancy state had a great impact on window action. Moreover, some people prefer to open the windows in the morning and close the windows at departure time, However, some of them prefer to open the windows at departure time and close the windows at the arrival time. Some irrational window opening behaviors were found in this research. Through correlation analysis, it was shown that the longer time the occupants were in the office, the higher window-opening duration and window-opening frequency would be. If the window was closed at arrival time, the total opening duration of window was significantly reduced. Also, window opening duration and closing duration are proportional to each other. With the help of principal component analysis (PCA) of the 12 features that affected window adjustment, the correlation between the window opening behaviors and the features could be clearly illustrated. A stochastic model of window-opening behavior based on logistics regression and uncertainty analysis was used in this paper. The cooling energy consumption of the stochastic model is 99.9% higher than the energy consumption generated by a fixed number of air changes, and the average energy consumption exceeds the fixed value by more than 21%. The findings of this study have certain guiding significance for promoting energy conservation by occupants’ behaviors in green buildings in this region.

Ab Initio Study of the Raman Spectra of Amorphous Oxides: Insights into the Boson Peak Nature in Glassy TeO2

Herein, a computational technique that combines density functional theory and the finite difference method is presented to enable the calculation of the Raman spectra of large models of oxide glasses. The calculated Raman spectra of amorphous are found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental data. A strong peak in the low‐frequency range of the Raman spectra is observed and attributed to the Boson peak. According to atomic‐scale analysis, this peak is assigned to collective vibrations of nanoclusters that are formed by the structural units of the glass. Two general factors that influence the Boson peak intensity are established. The first factor concerns the intensity of the low‐frequency peak in vibrational density of states. The second factor is related to the low‐frequency vibrational state occupancy at fixed temperature, which obeys the Bose–Einstein statistic. It is found that even a small shift toward high frequencies leads to a significant decay of the vibrational state occupancy. This correlates quite well when the Raman spectra of glass are compared to the spectra of fused silica. The technique can be readily applied to the large set of amorphous systems.

Evaluating building egress safety for the elderly under different urgent-level circumstances in high-density cities: Based on ABEM-enabled simulation

In high-density cities, people usually live in mid-rise or high-rise residential buildings where indoor environments are quite complicated. Safety risks exist not only within homes, but also on the way to egress from residential buildings. As the aging issue becomes severer, it is essential to provide safe egress plans particularly for the elderly who are more fragile to risks and obstacles. Kinds of emergencies might occur in reality, some are hard to predict and extremely dangerous, while some can be warned in advance and would not cause damages immediately. However, previous research seldom considered the different urgent levels of circumstances during the egress process of the elderly. Consequently, this study contributes to proposing an agent-based egress model (ABEM)-based evaluation of building egress safety for the elderly under different urgent-level circumstances by introducing absolute and relative indicators. Absolute indicators evaluate building egress safety for the elderly, relative indicators reveal whether buildings hinder safe egress of the elderly compared with ordinary residents, and indicator weights are decided by AHP method to compute building egress safety index (BESI) as the evaluation results. Case study shows BESI scores of 8.696, 8.941 and 6.290 under three circumstances. BESI scores are valuable references for old home buyers to make decisions. Furthermore, this evaluation approach offers an effective tool to help designers to improve design schemes for safer egress, to assist property managers in updating egress plans and facilities based on new occupancy status in the operation stage, eventually to facilitate the development of healthy residential buildings.