Bioengineering, Thermal Physiology and Comfort

Thermal Comfort and Productivity

This paper discusses the link between thermal comfort and productivity of office workers and presents some limited conclusions from a European field study of office buildings. The importance of productivity measurement and current methodologies of measurement are discussed and shortcomings highlighted. The paper concludes with an introduction to a new technology developed in Japan that may prov...

Confocal Microscopy in Cell Physiology and Bioengineering

The fluorescent dyes or cellular autofluorescence can be used in studies of cell structure and in physiological measurements. The confocal microscope collects the information from a welldefined optical section; thus, out of focus fluorescence is eliminated, which results in an increase in contrast, clarity and detection of optical objects. Moreover, stacks of optical sections taken at successiv...

Thermal comfort assessment in comfort-prone workplaces.

This paper's main issue is a strong advocacy in favour of an a priori classification of thermal environments that can be really functional to comfort assessment: Class 1, environments where comfort conditions can be established (comfort-prone environments), and Class 2, environments where this is not practically feasible. The former, which are also identified here as 'thermally unconstrained' e...

Thermal comfort: research and practice.

Thermal comfort--the state of mind, which expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment--is an important aspect of the building design process as modern man spends most of the day indoors. This paper reviews the developments in indoor thermal comfort research and practice since the second half of the 1990s, and groups these developments around two main themes; (i) thermal comfort models a...

Adaptive Thermal Comfort and Ventilation