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Most injury prediction algorithms used for determining injury severity in Advanced Automatic Collision Notification Systems (AACN) do not include the effect of emergency transport time, that is, the time taken to transport an injured person from a road crash to an emergency trauma centre. Therefore, in this study, we developed an injury prediction algorithm that incorporates the influence of emergency transport time as a risk factor. The base model of the injury prediction algorithm was constructed by applying logistic regression analysis to the South Australian Traffic Accident Reporting System (TARS) data. The TARS data, which are statistical data on traffic accidents, do not contain time-related data. Therefore, we quantified the effect of transport time on the fatality and serious injury rate as odds ratios using the Serious Injury Database (SID) derived from a trauma centre. Finally, the odds ratios were converted into regression coefficients and mixed with the base model to construct an injury prediction algorithm that takes into account the transport time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adding occupants to an enclosed space often leads to perceptible changes in the sound field and, therefore, speech intelligibility; however, this issue has not yet been examined in automotive cabins. This study investigated the effect of occupants in an automotive cabin on SI. Binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) were measured in an automotive cabin with an artificial mouth and dummy head under different speaker–listener position configurations and occupancy modes. Based on the measured BRIRs, the speech transmission index (STI) was determined, and subjective speech–reception thresholds (SRTs) in Mandarin Chinese were assessed. The results indicate that speech intelligibility mostly decreased slightly after adding additional occupants. In most cases, the occupants did not significantly affect speech intelligibility, with STI variations of no more than the just-noticeable difference and SRT variation within 1 dB. When the listener was in the back-right seat, the effect of the occupants on speech intelligibility could not be ignored, with STI variations of up to 0.07 and an SRT variation of 2 dB under different occupancy modes. In addition, the influence of front-row passengers on the speech intelligibility of rear-row listeners was extremely small, and vice versa. Furthermore, altering the distribution of occupants had an effect comparable to changing the number of occupants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tactical vehicles operating in conflict regions have a risk of threats both within and outside combat zones. Enhancing protection against external threats is important, necessitating compliance with standards of ballistic resistance. These standards classify and test the bullet-resistant capabilities of military vehicles, construction materials, and personal protective gear. Occupant protection seats have been fabricated with impact and vibration absorption systems of pantograph with spring structure to reduce the impact on occupants. The experimental results demonstrate that the designed occupant protection seats effectively absorb the impact caused by an underbody explosion. Data obtained from accelerometers installed throughout the test facility indicate a significant reduction in impact velocity as it is absorbed by the pantograph with spring structure. This reduction assumes an 80 % decrease in impact transferred to anthropomorphic test devices occupants. These results imply that the designed occupant protection seats safely protect occupants within tactical vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an emulator developed to assess the operational characteristics of variable refrigerant flow (VRF) for the second World Championship in Cybernetic Building Optimization (WCCBO). The emulator utilizes BACnet communication and provides a realistic simulation for evaluating energy conservation and comfort in buildings with VRF systems. Herein, we discuss the building specifications for calculation, operation of the emulator, calculation method for the vertical temperature distribution, dissatisfactory rate calculation, and consideration of championship rules. Notably, a thermal preference model was developed for predicting the thermal sensation of occupants and adjusting the dissatisfaction rate based on their ability to control the indoor environment. In addition, we developed a method for calculating the total scores during the WCCBO and devised a suitable network structure for score registration. The results of this study highlight the importance of personal control and impact of drafts on thermal comfort. This paper presents a meta-level methodology to determine the best operation for each specific VRF system for a future world championship, whose planning is underway and will be conducted to accumulate information on optimal operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• HR analysis and non-intrusive instrumentation has potential for monitoring driver's status and detecting sleepiness. • Validation and fatigue estimation methods still lacking, contributing to methods insufficiency in providing alarm systems. • Great promise is shown, but still far from being reliably implemented. Fatigue is a complex state resulting in decreased alertness, often accompanied by drowsiness. Driving fatigue has significantly contributed to traffic accidents globally, highlighting the need for effective monitoring techniques. Various technologies exist to enhance driver safety and minimize accident risks, such as fatigue detection systems that alert drivers as drowsiness sets in. In particular, measuring heart rate (HR) patterns may offer valuable insights into the occupant's physiological condition and level of alertness and may allow them to understand their fatigue levels. This review aims to establish the current state of the art of monitoring strategies for vehicle occupants, specifically focusing on fatigue assessed by HR and heart rate variability (HRV). We performed a systematic literature search in the databases of Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed, using the terms vehicle, driver, physiologic monitoring, fatigue, sleep, electrocardiogram, heart rate, and heart rate variability. We examined articles published between the 1st of January 2018 and the 31st of January 2023. A total of 294 papers were identified from which 71 articles were included in this study. Among the included papers, 57 utilized electrocardiogram (ECG) as the acquired signal for HR measures, with most ECG readings obtained through contact sensors (n = 41), followed by non-intrusive wearable sensors (n = 11). The majority of the works rely on subjective self-reported fatigue ratings (n = 27) and video-based observer ratings (n = 11). Regarding validation, 16 papers do not report validation of any kind. From the included papers, only 13 comprise a fatigue and drowsiness estimation system, 9 with reported validation. Some report acceptable performances, but reduced sample size limits conclusions. This review highlights the potential of HR analysis and non-intrusive instrumentation for continuously monitoring driver's status and detecting sleepiness. One major issue is the lack of sufficient validation and estimation methods for fatigue, contributing to insufficient methods in providing proactive alarm systems. This area shows great promise but is still far from being reliably implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adding occupants to an enclosed space often leads to perceptible changes in the sound field and, therefore, speech intelligibility; however, this issue has not yet been examined in automotive cabins. This study investigated the effect of occupants in an automotive cabin on SI. Binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) were measured in an automotive cabin with an artificial mouth and dummy head under different speaker–listener position configurations and occupancy modes. Based on the measured BRIRs, the speech transmission index (STI) was determined, and subjective speech–reception thresholds (SRTs) in Mandarin Chinese were assessed. The results indicate that speech intelligibility mostly decreased slightly after adding additional occupants. In most cases, the occupants did not significantly affect speech intelligibility, with STI variations of no more than the just-noticeable difference and SRT variation within 1 dB. When the listener was in the back-right seat, the effect of the occupants on speech intelligibility could not be ignored, with STI variations of up to 0.07 and an SRT variation of 2 dB under different occupancy modes. In addition, the influence of front-row passengers on the speech intelligibility of rear-row listeners was extremely small, and vice versa. Furthermore, altering the distribution of occupants had an effect comparable to changing the number of occupants.

Building performance indicators are widely used to guide building design and track and benchmark operational performance. Traditional building performance indicators mostly focus on the energy efficiency perspective. As occupants are the primary building service recipients in residential and most commercial buildings, their comfort and wellbeing are crucial. This study first identified significant attributes of occupant-centric key performance indicators (KPIs) and analyzed the diverse factors that should be considered in formulating an occupant-centric KPI. Then a suite of occupant-centric KPIs were synthesized from the review and enhancement of existing occupant-related performance metrics. The proposed occupant KPIs represent the occupant lens on three integrative aspects of building performance: resource use (including energy and water), indoor environmental quality, and human–building interactions. A simulation-based case study was conducted to demonstrate how occupant-centric KPIs can be used to quantify the impacts of building operation changes from the occupants’ point of view. Highlights: Occupant-centric metrics are currently ad hoc and limited, yet crucial to inform building design and operations. Literature was reviewed to reveal the state-of-the-art and gaps of occupant-centric metrics. A suite of occupant-centric key performance indicators (KPIs) covering five groups of building services were synthesized. Proposed occupant KPIs represent three aspects of performance: resource use and demand, occupant comfort and health, and human–building interactions. A case study using whole building simulation was conducted to demonstrate the use of occupant-centric KPIs in evaluating building operations during a power outage.

The control that have the greatest influence on comfortable in the office occupants are the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system operation and the thermal environment. However, comfortable HVAC operation is difficult in the office space characterized by a recommended standard thermal environment or a centralized HVAC system. To consider the occupant's thermal comfort to the greatest possible extent, must establish a method to quantify the variables related to the occupant’s thermal comfort. This study aims to group occupants in Thermal sensation vote (TSV) clusters and perform sensitivity analysis (SA) on the relationship between thermal environmental factors in an office building and each cluster’s TSV to establish the typology of the control indicators for each cluster. A total of 10 field experiments were conducted in the same office. This field study was carried out 2022. The indoor thermal environmental parameters, the subjective evaluation of the thermal comfort of the resident and the operation pattern of the heating system were monitored at the same time. A total of 4,200 datasets related to indoor thermal environmental parameters and a total of 1,680 datasets related to occupants’ thermal comfort were collected and analyzed. The results of this study show that people have different levels of adaptability and sensitivity to a given thermal environment. This study founded distinguishable similarities in their thermal sensation traits and grouped similar TSV values into five clusters that responded differently to the same thermal environment. Each cluster showed different TSV and Thermal comfort vote (TCV) patterns, which allowed us to classify the groups that had sensitive responses to the thermal environment and those that did not. This study was determined different control indicators and guidelines for the divided groups according to thermal sensitivity.

Since the introduction of the occupant behavior Drivers-Needs-Actions-Systems (DNAS) framework in 2013, researchers have used the framework or further developed it based on their case studies, which include efforts to collect new data on occupant behaviors. The effort is often costly for the relatively few new data points added. Problems emerge when the already collected data do not meet the modelers' interoperability requirements. Previous studies addressed this issue by developing more sophisticated ontologies that enable integration with other datasets and synthetic data methodologies that would meet unique research applications. This paper presents an extension of the DNAS framework for the representation of synthetic occupant data to support various applications and use cases across the building life cycle. An agent-based modeling application is one of our motivations that requires more elaborate characteristics of an occupant-agent or a group-of-agent. The extension, built upon a review of the literature, introduces new elements to the framework that fall into five categories, including socio-economic, geographical location, activities, subjective values, and individual and collective adaptive actions. On-going research includes identifying occupant datasets and developing data fusion methods to generate synthetic occupants, as well as to demonstrate its applications in agent-based modeling coupled with building performance simulation.

Copyright of Journal of Near Architecture is the property of Journal of Near East Architecture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To achieve the desirable energy conservation targets, it is important to use forecasting tools to predict the energy consumption based on several expected parameters. This study aims at developing an Ensemble Learning (ENL)-framework for predicting residential electricity consumption. Fifty parameters classified into categories of environmental, context and building, and occupant related factors in addition to time related and some extra inputs were considered for model development. A Random Forest (RF) algorithm was trained and tested for each one of the main input groups. Then, based on feature importance analysis, a combination of the most important parameters from these separated models was used to build a general model with 34 inputs. The results show that RF models based on building (RFC&B)or occupant parameters (RFOcc) are superior to the model based on environmental ones (RFEnv). Furthermore, RF model with a combination of environmental, building, and occupant-related inputs (RFCombined) has the best prediction performance with 0.99, 0.91, 101.80, 282.53, 159.53, and 456.31 values for RTrain2, RTest2, MAETrain, MAETest, RMSETrain, and RMSETest, respectively. Even with reducing inputs of the combined model to nine parameters, the model still shows an acceptable performance with R2values of 0.98 and 0.89 for train and test sets. Moreover, comparison of feature selection results for RFCombinedwith the performance of separated models reveals that although RFC&Band RFOccare superior to RFEnv, the importance of environmental parameters cannot be denied which indicates the strong role of providing thermal comfort in building energy consumption.

Copyright of International Journal of Engineering Research & Development (IJERAD) is the property of International Journal of Engineering Research & Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The influence of succession on organisational sustainability has been widely acknowledged globally, but studies focusing specifically on farms remain relatively limited. This article examines the factors influencing succession in the newly occupied farms under the fast track land reform programme in Zimbabwe and their implications for the sustainability of the land reform programme. The study followed a qualitative multi-case research design. Data were collected using a combination of unstructured interviews, informal discussions, lived experience narrations and direct observations. Notwithstanding other structural and institutional constraints, the absence of succession arrangements and the politics of survival have been found to be the major threats to sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial objects present objects with lot of people inside in almost any time moment. The crowds and jams in these objects are very often. Although these objects have a lot of evacuation routes and exits, much of people and stuff in limited space can cause serious problem in evacuation sense, with presence of fear and panic. These and similar objects have clearly noted evacuation routes in the case of emergency, but experience proved that with the surprise effect almost no one pay attention on noted messages and warnings on object's walls, but try to leave the object as soon as possible, very often not paying attention on injured, wounded or unconscious occupants. So, the best way for evacuation is prediction. Optimal prediction can be realized by analyse of as much as possible potential evacuation scenarios. For precise, fast, safe and cheap analyse of evacuation scenarios, routes and calculation of evacuation times, evacuation software is used. One of the best evacuation software is Pathfinder. This paper was written to show the potential evacuation scenarios and calculation of evacuation times in Pathfinder for DIS commercial object in Niš.

The study of the thermal inertia of buildings is a subject of major interest. The thermal insulation and the nature of the wall sensitively modify the inertia of the building and are the solutions to improve the energy efficiency of the envelope. The roof is well exposed to solar radiation in summer and contributes to significant losses in winter due to convective exchanges. To lead to a thermal comfort, a thermal insulation is necessary. In this context, we carry out a numerical study of the thermal behavior of a building with two zones in variable meteorological conditions for a Tunisian climate (region of Sousse) based on the thermoelectric analogy and using the nodal method as a numerical method. The object of this work is to study the effect of the thermal inertia of the roof equipped with a multi-alveolar structure on the thermal behavior of the air inside the room and on its energy consumption. Taking into account the energy input of occupant, a complete model was established to increase the accuracy of the calculations. The results show that the multi-alveolar structure placed on the outside of the roof reduces energy consumption during the winter period when the alveolar structure is placed in the conductive direction and during the summer period when the alveolar structure is placed in the insulate direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building performance indicators are widely used to guide building design and track and benchmark operational performance. Traditional building performance indicators mostly focus on the energy efficiency perspective. As occupants are the primary building service recipients in residential and most commercial buildings, their comfort and wellbeing are crucial. This study first identified significant attributes of occupant-centric key performance indicators (KPIs) and analyzed the diverse factors that should be considered in formulating an occupant-centric KPI. Then a suite of occupant-centric KPIs were synthesized from the review and enhancement of existing occupantrelated performance metrics. The proposed occupant KPIs represent the occupant lens on three integrative aspects of building performance: resource use (including energy and water), indoor environmental quality, and human--building interactions. A simulation-based case study was conducted to demonstrate how occupant-centric KPIs can be used to quantify the impacts of building operation changes from the occupants' point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to develop a mathematical model for the study of the kinematic parameters of an occupant and vehicle during a side impact crash. The proposed model has three bodies (the vehicle, the occupant torso and head) that are interconnected to each other by joints, springs and dampers. Also, the head-to-window contact force is taken into account in order to obtain accurate results for the occupant kinematic injury assessment. The model was designed using a CAD-CAE software, with a flexibility determined by a total of 63 input parameters and 10 selected output parameters. The model has shown positive results with a high degree of similarity to a crash test, overlapping with a margin of error within under 5 % for an impact simulation time of 300 ms. After validation, a number of parameters could be obtained from the model such as the linear and angular displacement of the torso, head and vehicle that can be used to study the side collision kinematics and dynamics. During the simulation, a displacement of 2 m for the vehicle was registered while a force of 3500 N was reached for the head-to-window contact, for a vehicle-to-vehicle initial collision velocity of 11.6 m/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational facilities serve as community hubs and consequently hotspots for exposure to pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, it is of critical importance to understand processes shaping the indoor microbiomes in educational facilities to protect public health by reducing potential exposure risks of students and the broader community. In this study, the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes were characterized in two multifunctional university buildings with contrasting levels of human occupancy, of which one was recently constructed with minimal human occupancy while the other had been in full operation for six years. Higher levels of human occupancy in the older building were shown to result in greater microbial abundance in the indoor environment and greater proportion of the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes contributed from human-associated microbiota, particularly the skin microbiota. It was further revealed that human-associated microbiota had greater influence on the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes in areas of high occupancy than areas of low occupancy. Consistent with minimal impact from human occupancy in a new construction, the indoor microbiomes in the new building exhibited significantly lower influence from human-associated microbiota than in the older building, with microbial taxa originating from soil and plants representing the dominant constituents of the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes. In contrast, microbial taxa in the older building with extensive human occupancy were represented by constituents of the human microbiota, likely from occupants. These findings provide insights into processes shaping the indoor microbiomes which will aid the development of effective strategies to control microbial exposure risks of occupants in educational facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Built environments, occupants, and microbiomes constitute a system of ecosystems with extensive interactions that impact one another. Understanding the interactions between these systems is essential to develop strategies for effective management of the built environment and its inhabitants to enhance public health and well-being. Numerous studies have been conducted to characterize the microbiomes of the built environment. This review summarizes current progress in understanding the interactions between attributes of built environments and occupant behaviors that shape the structure and dynamics of indoor microbial communities. In addition, this review also discusses the challenges and future research needs in the field of microbiomes of the built environment that necessitate research beyond the basic characterization of microbiomes in order to gain an understanding of the causal mechanisms between the built environment, occupants, and microbiomes, which will provide a knowledge base for the development of transformative intervention strategies toward healthy built environments. The pressing need to control the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in indoor environments highlights the urgency and significance of understanding the complex interactions between the built environment, occupants, and microbiomes, which is the focus of this review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 1/3 of people's time is spent in bedrooms. Regulating the health implications arising from the bedroom bacterial community demands an in-depth understanding of both the bacterial composition and the influential factors. This study employed high-throughput 16 S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize the bacterial community in 23 residential bedrooms across five climate zones in China. Our findings reveal that the bacterial richness and diversity were highest in the Hot-Summer-Cold-Winter (HSCW) zone, possibly due to its lowest indoor temperature during the heating season. Employing an advanced source tracing algorithm, we identified ventilation rate as the dominant factor affecting outdoor bacterial presence, with each additional air change per hour (ACH) increasing the outdoor bacterial abundance by 13.7 %. The integumentary system was the largest contributor to the occupant-associated bacteria, particularly in the residences located in the Severe Cold and Cold zones. Our study provides valuable insights into the diverse bacterial communities in residential bedrooms across various climate zones in China, elucidating the key factors and sources that contribute to shaping these complex microbial ecosystems. [Display omitted] • Bacterial richness and diversity are highest in the Hot Summer and Cold Winter zone. • Contributions from outdoor bacteria were larger in the warmer zones in heating season. • Ventilation was the leading factor enhancing outdoor presence. • Integumentary system was the largest contributor to the occupant-associated bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined trends in occupant dynamics during side impact testing in vehicle models over the past decade. "Moderate-to-high" speed side impacts (delta-V ≥15 km/h) were analyzed. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) side impact crash data was examined (N = 126). The test procedure involved a moving deformable barrier (MDB) impacting the sides of stationary vehicles at 50.0 km/h. Instrumented 5th-percentile female SID IIs dummies were positioned in the driver and left rear passenger seats. Occupant head, neck, shoulder, torso, spine, and pelvis/femur responses (times histories, peaks, and time-to-peak values) were evaluated and compared to injury assessment reference values (IARVs). The effects of delta-V, vehicle model year, vehicle body type, and occupant seating position on dynamic responses were examined. The vehicle lateral delta-Vs ranged from 15.9 to 34.5 km/h. The MY2018-2020 demonstrated lower peak dynamics than MY2010-2013, for the driver head acceleration (53.7 ± 11.3g vs 46.4 ± 11.6g), shoulder lateral forces (1.7 ± 0.7 kN vs 1.5 ± 0.2 kN), average rib deflection (29.8 ± 8.3 mm vs 28.4 ± 6.2 mm), spine accelerations at T4 (51.4 ± 23.4g vs 39.6 ± 5.9g) and T12 (56.3 ± 18.5g vs 45.2 ± 9.6g), iliac forces (1.9 ± 1.0 kN vs 1.2 ± 0.9 kN), and acetabular forces (1.9 ± 0.8 kN vs 1.3 ± 0.5 kN). The driver indicated statistically higher dynamic responses than the left rear passenger. Higher wheelbase vehicles generally showed lower occupant loading than the smaller vehicles. In conclusion, a reduction in occupant loading and risks for injury was observed in vehicle models over the past decade. This provides further insight into injury mechanisms, occupant dynamics simulations, and seat/restraint design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on an experimental case study of personalized lighting controls built on top of an infrastructure designed to enable rapid development of applications in commercial buildings. Our personalized lighting controls (PLC) use an existing standard commercial building lighting automation system and require no new hardware to deploy. PLC presents occupants with a "shared virtual light switch" accessible online and easily viewable on smart phones by scanning a QR code. It embodies three important design principles: individual empowerment with localized human-centered resolution, token effort for energy consumption and return to a low-power state when inactive. After deploying our lighting controls on two new floors of a large research building on campus, we show a sustainable reduction in lighting energy of 50% to 70% on both floors over 12 weeks, continuing to this day. These savings are found to come from a combination of reducing brightness and keeping lights on less often, especially during evenings and weekends.

Housing is rated as one of the most commonly consuming energy field in terms of energy end-use with 41%. Regarding the transformations dealt by dwellers for functional and social uses. The aim of this paper is: Firstly, to highlight the non-controlled transformation process made by the occupant in Algeria; Secondly, to explore the impact of the energy load of such spatial transformations. The question is approached in two tracks, (i) Through Ecotect software’s simulations (ii) and measurements through a collection of energy end-use data. Basically, the energy demand is bound to dwelling’s spatial and socioeconomic criteria. Three cases studied showed consequently 2 positive and 1 negative energy load, in which two explanations may be given: Insulation quality that occupant is lacking facilities to improve may be stated as a physical explanation, as well as for the socio economic one, the density per dwelling plays a major role, but it is the income which explains within the two approaches more than 87% of the energy end use.

According to the case law, when the eviction of a person is ordered, as a result of a finding of lack of title - meaning the absence of any real or personal right over the property that he or she uses or occupies - the mention of the evicted person's domicile in the identity card cannot be deleted per judicationem. This situation, in the case of a person evicted in bad faith, led us to ask whether there are remedies available to the evictor and what they might be. To this end, we have outlined the general aspects of the eviction measure, commented on the judicial procedure, outlined the characteristics of domicile - as an identifying attribute of the natural person - and the method of establishing voluntary domicile. Then, with reference to the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, I set out the situations in which the eviction measure may affect the right to respect for one's home, a right protected by Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Selcuk Law Review / Selçuk Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of Selcuk Law Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents a review on thermal comfort research that is informed by changes in occupant behavior, lifestyle, and income leading to rebound or pre‐bound effect. It explores the current state of research in thermal comfort domain through a systematic review to identify the gaps and opportunities specifically focusing on energy‐intensive developing countries. This review argues that adaptive thermal comfort is a continuously evolving domain owing to dynamic modifications in occupant behavior occurring from changes in the cost of energy services and preference of comfort (rebound/pre‐bound effect). A conceptual framework linking thermal comfort, rebound/pre‐bound effect, and occupant behavior is forwarded through the introduction of an exogenous factor related to occupant well‐being. The results ascertain that there is a need of localized thermal comfort model with an occupant‐centric approach that can help in enhancing comfort and reducing energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) responses from occupants living in very small residential units that are unique to Hong Kong. Through the changes in environmental parameters, including thermal, indoor air quality, visual and aural, the study demonstrates that the overall IEQ acceptance in these units is different from the one in general residential building environments. Results show that occupants of these units are more sensitive to warmth and operative temperature change as compared to occupants of general residential buildings. A small variation of thermal acceptance suggests that the small unit occupants have already developed certain degree of tolerance to hot conditions. The adaptation to the reality of a hot environment is also reflected in the overall IEQ acceptance. It is believed that very small space residents have developed tolerance and adaptation to an unchangeable reality, changing environmental conditions does not necessarily alter their acceptance of individual IEQ aspects and overall IEQ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The RF regressor and classifier are developed using occupant-related inputs. • The time of year is the most significant parameter, with an importance of 49.44%. • After feature importance analysis, the ten least effective factors are removed. • The RF regressor shows remarkable performance even with 16 inputs. Occupant-related variables constitute one of the most significant groups of factors influencing residential building energy consumption. However, prediction methods often oversimplify these parameters, leading to substantial discrepancies between predicted and actual consumption. To address this issue, the present study aims to develop a machine learning framework for predicting electricity consumption in residential buildings based on occupant-related factors. The study incorporates twenty-six inputs, including occupant characteristics such as demographics, occupancy, behavior, and behavioral efficiency, two time-related factors, and three extra parameters related to equipment (refrigerator age, hot water source, and type of electricity meter) for training and testing the Random Forest (RF) algorithm in both regression and classification forms. The results indicate that the trained RF regressor exhibits well performance (R2 Train = 0.989, R2 Test = 0.916, MAE Train = 0.81, MAE Test = 2.21, RMSE Train = 1.27, and RMSE Test = 3.45). Furthermore, feature importance analysis reveals that the most significant parameter is the time of year, representing weather conditions, followed by the number of occupants, neighborhood, indoor set-point range, mean age of occupants, window opening, and cooling system mode. Even after removing the least impactful factors, the model maintains strong performance with the 16 most important variables (R2 Train = 0.986, R2 Test = 0.910, MAE Train = 0.83, MAE Test = 2.25, RMSE Train = 1.31, and RMSE Test = 3.49). Additionally, the RF classifier is designed for problems with 2, 4, 6, and 8 classes based on energy consumption ranges. The results of this model demonstrate that the 2-class model achieves the highest performance (Accuracy Test = 0.963, MAE Test = 0.04, and RMSE Test = 0.19). However, it lacks detailed categorization of homes based on electricity consumption. On the other hand, the 4-class and 6-class models strike a good balance between prediction performance and the level of detail. In conclusion, the proposed method can accurately predict residential electricity consumption and can serve as a valuable reference for researchers and utility managers when formulating energy reduction policies and comparing the effectiveness of different strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an antropological review on Dayak tradition of Huma Betang, a traditional house for Dayak community in Central Kalimantan. Huma betang or betang has a length of 30-150 meters, 10-30 meters wide and 3-5 meter high. The building uses high quality iron wood, can stand up to hundreds of years as well as anti-termite. It used to be inhabited by 100-150 people, inhabited by one big family and headed by a Pambakas Lewu. Studies on people's living in Betang Damang Tumbang Anoi Gunung Mas found several cultural values of Betang Dayak community: (1) hapsari, (2) handep, (3) belom bahadat, and (4) hapakat kula. Hapahari is defined as a brotherhood and togetherness in life betang. Handep is mutual help, pandohop (aid), mutual mandohop (help). Belom bahadat (live civilized and ethical) is a rule or etiquette that govern life together, that appreciate the prevailing custom in the territories of indigenous communities concerned. Hapakat kula (mutually agree) is a hallmark of life of the inhabitants betang. Occupants of betang held deliberations in any activities of common interest of tradition betang inhabitants since centuries ago.

The purpose of this paper is to design a mechanism mounted on the occupant’s seat to control the recline of the backseat in the case of rear-end collisions to reduce the effects of whiplash upon the occupant’s neck and head using a virtual model of an occupant and seat. The design of the system is modeled in SolidWorks and simulated in this software by using the Adams physics model included in SolidWorks. The system will function similarly to a real sled; it is composed of a car’s seat, a multibody occupant and a surface along which the seat may slide. This system will be validated by comparing two real sled tests and a seat normally functioning. Once validated, the mechanism is enabled to make simulations which are conducted to analyze the differences in kinematics of the occupant’s neck and the various key parameters such as head accelerations, contact forces and T1 vertebrae acceleration. The multibody occupant is composed of multiple bodies inter-connected with joints and it will simulate a real occupant. As for the evaluation of injury potential for the neck, the neck injury criteria (NIC) are calculated for the comparisons of the two situations: when the backseat has normal rigidity and when the recline mechanism is activated. It was observed that, by using this recline mechanism, the key parameters were reduced. This paper presents the new developed mechanism with the obtained parameter reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employees’ satisfaction based on their physical environment is an important factor that can improve employees’ performance, job satisfaction, and organizational productivity in office buildings. Occupants’ environmental satisfaction are related to 10 different characteristics, including thermal comfort, air quality, lighting, acoustic quality, office layout, workspace furnishing, cleanliness and maintenance, safety and security, connection with the outdoors, and location and planning of workflow. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the environmental characteristics that influence the occupants’ satisfaction. The aforementioned characteristics were comprehensively evaluated in 10 different municipal office buildings in Shiraz City, Iran, in 2013. Evaluating the results of questionnaire in this field, the study showed the occupants’ levels of satisfaction with physical environmental characteristics, while highlighting the relationship between physical environmental components and occupants' satisfaction. In addition, connection with the outdoors, acoustic quality, location, planning of workflow, safety, and thermal comfort are the factors that impose over half of the influence on occupants’ satisfaction.

Global effects caused by the detonation of an IED near a military vehicle induce subsequent severe acceleration effects on the vehicle occupants. Two concepts to minimize these global effects were developed, with the help of a combined method based on a scaled experimental technology and numerical simulations. The first concept consists in the optimization of the vehicle shape to reduce the momentum transfer and thus the occupant loading. Three scaled V-shaped vehicles with different ground clearances were built and compared to a reference vehicle equipped with a flat floor. The second concept, called dynamic impulse compensation (DIC), is based on a momentum compensation technique. The principal possibility of this concept was demonstrated on a scaled vehicle. In addition, the numerical simulations have been performed with generic full size vehicles including dummy models, proving the capability of the DIC technology to reduce the occupant loading.