OBJECTIVE To determine whether varying the seat belt load limiter (SBL) according to crash and occupant characteristics could have real-world injury reduction benefits in frontal impacts and, if so, to quantify those benefits. METHODS Real-world UK accident data were used to identify the target population of vehicle occupants and frontal crash scenarios where improved chest protection could b...

A detailed examination was undertaken of hospitalized car occupants who sustained a lower limb injury in a frontal crash. The assessment included an analysis of the type, severity and causes of these injuries and mechanisms involved in lower limb fractures. The findings showed that fractures and dislocations occurred in 88% of lower limb injury cases, that more than half were from crashes < 48 ...

Air Chek, Inc. is performing survey of over 16,000 households that have tested for radon gas. Rather than attempt to conduct a complete epidemiologic study, the intention is to demonstrate a method of locating lung cancer victims within neighborhoods based on the likelihood that the majority of the structures will have radon measurement levels within a similar range. A preliminary survey was ma...

A new model for estimating the effects of high thermal radiation heat fluxes on occupants has been developed. This model allows the user to specify the type of clothing worn by typical occupants (e.g., street clothing or protective clothing), percentage of body covered by clothing, and occupant characteristics (e.g., age). Numerical models of heat transfer in fabrics and skin are used to estima...

Effective evacuation is critical for safety of occupants. The exiting evacuation systems lack flexibility and don’t consider the distribution of occupants. It is possible to direct occupants to danger areas or cause congestion in certain areas. In this paper, a decentralized evacuation system is proposed to compute the safest path in real time. The system is composed of fire detection sensors, ...

The authors articulate a model specifying links between (a) individuals and the physical environments they occupy and (b) the environments and observers’ impressions of the occupants. Two studies examined the basic phenomena underlying this model: Interobserver consensus, observer accuracy, cue utilization, and cue validity. Observer ratings based purely on offices or bedrooms were compared wit...

INTRODUCTION Seat-belts are one of the most successful occupant protection countermeasures available to reduce the likelihood of death and non-fatal injury in the event of a crash. In Australia, the prevalence of seat-belt use by adult vehicle occupants is estimated to exceed 90%. Yet despite the effectiveness of seat belts and the comparatively high wearing rate in Australia, it is estimated t...

This paper describes research into occupant use of two cafe/seating areas in an atrium building. In particular it deals with two issues: firstly the distribution of temperatures at different points and different floor levels in the atrium over a year; and secondly the acceptance of thermal discomfort by occupants within those spaces. The study of temperature reveals some interesting variations ...

BACKGROUND Pathogenic and allergenic bacteria and fungi within the indoors can bring detrimental health effects on the occupants. We previously studied the bacterial communities found in households located throughout Hong Kong as well as the skin surfaces of the occupants. As a complementary study, here, we investigated the fungal communities (mycobiome) in the same residences and occupants and...