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Heating effects of air flows past a two-dimensional circular cylinder at low Reynolds numbers and low Mach numbers are investigated by numerical simulation. The cylinder wall is heated partially rather than heated on the whole surface as with previous researches. The heating effects are completely different for various heating locations on the cylinder surface. Heating either windward or leeward side stabilizes the flow and reduces or completely suppresses vortex shedding from the cylinder at supercritical Reynolds numbers, which is consistent with previous results of heating on the whole surface of the cylinder. However, as the lateral sides of the cylinder (perpendicular to the stream-wise direction) are heated, an adverse effect is found for the first time in that the flow is destabilized and vortex shedding can be excited at subcritical Reynolds numbers. As the lateral sides of the cylinder are cooled, the flow is stabilized.