The free-living protozoan Acanthamoeba is an opportunistic pathogen that is ubiquitous in our environment. However, its role in affecting indoor air quality and ill-health of indoor occupants is relatively unknown. The present study investigated the presence of Acanthamoeba from the ventilation system and its correlation with other indoor air quality parameters, used in the industry code of pra...

In the past few decades, tall buildings of 30 to over 100 storeys are becoming more common in modern cities around the world, especially in Asia and the Middle East, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Extensive research has focused on the technical aspects of erecting tall buildings, yet few recent studies have been conducted to examine occupants’ experiences and resp...

Longitudinal barriers, such as guardrails, are designed to prevent a vehicle that leaves the roadway from impacting a more dangerous object while minimizing risk of injury to the vehicle occupants. Current full-scale test procedures for these devices do not consider the effect of occupant restraints such as seat belts and airbags. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which r...

Building occupancy simulation and estimation simulates the dynamics of occupants and estimates the real time spatial distribution of occupants in a building. It can benefit various applications like conserving energy, smart assist, building construction, crowd management, and emergency evacuation. Building occupancy simulation and estimation needs a simulation model and a data assimilation algo...

Occupants exposed to far-side crashes are those seated on the side of the vehicle opposite the struck side. This study uses the NASS/CDS 1988-98 to determine distributions of AIS 3+ injuries among occupants exposed to far-side crashes and the sources of the injuries. The William Lehman Injury Research Center (WLIRC) data from 1994-98 is used to assess injury mechanisms among seriously injured c...

Container-shaped molecules provide structured environments that impart geometric bounds on the motions and conformations of smaller molecular occupants. Moreover, they provide "solvation" that is constrained in time and space. When inwardly directed functional groups are present, they can interact chemically with the occupants. Additionally, the potential for reactivity and catalysis is greatly...

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...

Our goal is to develop ‘smart indoor environments’ that are monitored unobtrusively by biometric capture devices, such as video cameras, microphones, etc. Such environments will keep track of their occupants and be capable of answering queries about the occupants’ whereabouts. In order to develop a unified model that is applicable across diverse biometric modalities, we propose an abstract stat...

Spinal injuries pose a considerable risk to life and quality of life. In spite of improvements in active and passive safety of motor vehicles, car accidents are regarded as a major cause for vertebral fractures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current incidence of vertebral fractures among front-seat occupants in motor vehicle accidents, and to identify specific risk factors for s...

While various ambient computing and intelligence techniques have been used to assist human beings in different aspects of their daily lives and work, this paper investigates potential ambient intelligence support in mission-critical scenarios such as firefighting. The paper reviews state-of-the-art ubiquitous techniques and tools assisting firefighting. Based upon these great research results, ...