BACKGROUND The aim of the performed study was to investigate personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting. METHODS The study consisted of two samples, a winter sample (154 students: 44.2% males and 55.8% females, aged 19-30 years) and a spring sample (147 students: 52.4% males and 47.6% females, aged 19-30 ...

Twenty-four commercial loads of beef calves (BW 300 ± 52 kg, mean ± SD) were evaluated for associations among transportation factors, in-transit microclimate, and calf welfare. Transport factors evaluated included vehicle speed, space allowance, compartment within trailer, and transit duration. Calves were transported for 7 h 44 min ± 4 h 15 min, with space allowances ranging from 0.56 to 1.17 ...

The Antarctic Dry Valleys (ADV) are generally classified as a hyper-arid, cold-polar desert. The region has long been considered an important terrestrial analog for Mars because of its generally cold and dry climate and because it contains a suite of landforms at macro-, meso-, and microscales that closely resemble those occurring on the martian surface. The extreme hyperaridity of both Mars an...

Since the inception of sensor networks, in-network processing has been touted as the enabling technology for long-lived deployments. Radio communication is the overriding consumer of energy in such networks. Therefore, data reduction before transmission, either by compression or feature extraction, will directly and significantly increase network lifetime. In many cases, it is premature to begi...

Three commercially available microclimate cooling systems were evaluated for their ability to reduce heat stress in men exercising in a hot environment while wearing high insulative, low permeability clothing. Five male volunteers performed three 180-min experiments (three repeats of 10 min rest, 50 min walking at 440 watts) in an environment of 38 degrees C dry bulb (Tdb), 12 degrees C dew poi...

Mosquito behaviours including the degree to which they bite Background inside houses or outside is a crucial determinant of human exposure to malaria. Whilst seasonality in mosquito vector abundance is well documented, much less is known about the impact of climate on mosquito behaviour. We investigated how variations in household microclimate affect outdoor-biting by malaria vectors, and . Ano...

APRIL 2005 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | T he U.S. Historical Climate Network (USHCN; Karl et al. 1990) consists of a subset of stations from the National Weather Service (NWS) cooperative (COOP) station network. The USHCN stations are used in the construction of homogeneous climate data reference series and in the detection and monitoring of long-term climatic trends. Stations are selected...

Despite the importance of forest edges in ecology, only one study has previously been carried out in New Zealand on the modification of climate across forest edges. We measured light exposure, wind speed, air and soil temperature, and vapour pressure deficit (VPD) perpendicular to a north-south aligned, mature, edge of native broadleaf rainforest adjoining grazed pasture. At a point 80 m into t...

In order to plan for global changing climate experiments are being conducted in many countries, but few have monitored the effects of the climate change treatments (warming, elevated CO2) on the experimental plot microclimate. During three years of an eight year study with year-round feedback-controlled infra-red heater warming (1.5/3.0°C day/night) and growing season free-air CO2 enrichment (6...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Hard-seeded (physical) dormancy is common among plants, yet mechanisms for dormancy release are poorly understood, especially in the tropics. The following questions are asked: (a) whether dormancy release in seed banks of the tropical shrub Parkinsonia aculeata (Caesalpiniaceae) is determined by wet heat (incubation under wet, warm to hot, conditions); and (b) whether its e...