The purpose of this research was to illustrate the broad usefulness of simple video-game-based virtual environments (VEs) for psychological research on real-world behavior. To this end, this research explored several high-level social phenomena in a simple, inexpensive computer-game environment: the reduced likelihood of helping under time pressure and the bystander effect, which is reduced hel...

Conventional wisdom holds that spaciousness and envelopment are caused by lateral sound energy in rooms, and that it is the early arriving lateral energy which is most responsible. However small rooms often have many early lateral reflections, but by common definition small rooms are not spacious. This paper (briefly) describes a series of experiments into the perception of spaciousness and env...

background: radon, thoron and their progenies are the most important contributions to human exposure from natural sources. radon exists in soil gas, building materials, indoor atmosphere etc. among all the natural sources of radiation dose to human beings, inhalation of radon contributes a lot. the work presented here emphasizes the long term measurements of radon, thoron and their progeny conc...

A new air exchange rate (AER) monitoring method using continuous CO2 sensors was developed and validated through both laboratory experiments and field studies. Controlled laboratory simulation tests were conducted in a 1-m3 environmental chamber at different AERs (0.1-10.0 hr(-1)). AERs were determined using the decay method based on box model assumptions. Field tests were conducted in classroo...

OBJECTIVE This report surveys and evaluates the scientific research on evidence-based healthcare design and extracts its implications for designing better and safer hospitals. BACKGROUND It builds on a literature review conducted by researchers in 2004. METHODS Research teams conducted a new and more exhaustive search for rigorous empirical studies that link the design of hospital physical ...

In environments with ultra-low humidity, workers may have excessive body water loss due to evaporation through the skin, which can lead to dehydration. Before the development of clinical symptoms and signs, concentrated urine may be applied as an early indicator of dehydration. We used urine specific gravity (USG) as a biomarker to evaluate the hydration status of workers working in such an env...

The Apgar score has played a crucial role in the delivery room assessment of newborn babies since 1953, 2 but this system has its limitations and is prone to interobserver variation. 4 Moreover, scoring definitions in textbooks vary slightly and no specific guidelines are available for scoring intubated babies. We studied variations between observers and focussed on the scoring of respiratory e...

Background Most states in the U.S. permit hotels to allow smoking in some guest rooms, and only five (Indiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin) require that all hotel and motel rooms be 100% smoke-free (State and local 100% smokefree hotel and motel guest room laws enacted as of July 3, 2017). Little is known, however, about how hotels' smoking policies have been implemented. Thi...

INTRODUCTION In order to assess the relationship between the concentrations of airborne fungi and particles, particle counting was combined with fungal air sampling in several rooms of a hospital. METHODS Concentrations of ≥0.5μm particles (P05) and ≥1μm particles (P1) were measured using a particle counter; fungal air sampling was performed with volumetric air samplers, which impacted air on...

BACKGROUND The built environment significantly affects the healthcare experiences of patients and staff. Healthcare administrators and building designers face the opportunity and challenge of improving healthcare experience and satisfaction through better environmental design. OBJECTIVE The purpose of the study was to evaluate how a novel environmental intervention for imaging rooms, which in...