Development and Validation of a Heat Risk Mitigation Tool for Burn Survivors.

Purpose: Burn survivors have an increased risk for heat related illnesses, and a heightened perceptual strain during exercise (thereby impeding physical activity), both due to impaired body temperature regulation. We developed and validated a freely deployed online model that burn survivors can use to estimate their heat risk during physical activity.

Methods: Model inputs included environmental conditions, physical activity intensity and duration, body size, clothing, and burn injury size.

Personal comfort models based on a 6-month experiment using environmental parameters and data from wearables.

Personal thermal comfort models are a paradigm shift in predicting how building occupants perceive their thermal environment. Previous work has critical limitations related to the length of the data collected and the diversity of spaces. This paper outlines a longitudinal field study comprising 20 participants who answered Right-Here-Right-Now surveys using a smartwatch for 180 days.

Publisher Correction: The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The Scales Project, a cross-national dataset on the interpretation of thermal perception scales.

Thermal discomfort is one of the main triggers for occupants' interactions with components of the built environment such as adjustments of thermostats and/or opening windows and strongly related to the energy use in buildings. Understanding causes for thermal (dis-)comfort is crucial for design and operation of any type of building. The assessment of human thermal perception through rating scales, for example in post-occupancy studies, has been applied for several decades; however, long-existing assumptions related to these rating scales had been questioned by several researchers.

Indoor Air Temperature and Agitation of Nursing Home Residents With Dementia.

This study aimed to determine the specific correlation between indoor air temperature and agitation of nursing home residents with dementia. Agitated behaviors of 21 residents, living in 1 nursing home, were assessed for a 10-month period using the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI). The CMAI Total Frequency scores were found to increase significantly when indoor average temperatures deviated from 22.