Background: The adoption of air conditioning (AC) is growing rapidly in developing countries across the world which puts a high burden on electricity distribution systems. This development is mostly driven by income growth and building design, but also due to increasing outdoor temperatures and to provide indoor thermal comfort. Current indoor thermal comfort standards are based on western clot...

Post mortem changes are important in estimating post mortem interval (PMI). This project's aim was to study the effect of burial and type of clothing on rate of decomposition, which can contribute to estimating PMI for victims. 12 rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) carcasses were separated into 3 groups: no clothing, light clothing and heavy clothing. Control subjects were placed on the ground sur...

Cost-effective nanotechnology-based waterrepellent treatments for clothing fabrics are now commercially available. The effectiveness of these durable water repellent (DWR) fabric treatments were evaluated for application to military uniforms. The addition of a non-wicking finish to clothing fabric negatively impacts comfort in hot and humid environments. Clothing comfort may be improved by refi...

The transfer of heat radiation through clothing (Bröde et al., 2005; Clark & Cena, 1978; Lotens & Pieters, 1995) and the effects of moisture in different clothing layers (Bröde et al., 2008a; Havenith et al., 2008; Richards et al., 2008) have been studied separately. Also models predicting the heat gain from radiation (den Hartog et al., 2007; Lotens & Pieters, 1995) or the heat loss with wet c...

Burn injury is a ubiquitous threat in the military environment. The risks during combat are well recognised, but the handling of fuel, oil, munitions and other hot or flammable materials during peacetime deployment and training also imposes an inherent risk of accidental burn injury. Over the last hundred years, the burn threat in combat has ranged from nuclear weapons to small shoulderlaunched...

Burn injury is a ubiquitous threat in the military environment. The risks during combat are well recognised, but the handling of fuel, oil, munitions and other hot or flammable materials during peacetime deployment and training also imposes an inherent risk of accidental burn injury. Over the last hundred years, the burn threat in combat has ranged from nuclear weapons to small shoulderlaunched...

In sexual assault cases, particularly those involving internal child sex trafficking (ICST), victims often hide their semen-stained clothing. This can result in a lag time of several months before the items are laundered and subsequently seized during a criminal investigation. Although it has been demonstrated previously that DNA can be recovered from clothing washed immediately after semen dep...

The thermal insulation of clothing is one of the most important parameters used in the thermal comfort model adopted by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) [BS EN ISO 7730, 2005. Ergonomics of the thermal environment. Analytical determination and interpretation of thermal comfort using calculation of the PMV and PPD indices and local thermal comfort criteria. International Standardis...