More and more, zoos are integrating behavioral enrichment programs into their management routines. Given the newness of such programs on an official level, however, there are an increasing number of enrichment decisions based on assumption. Enrichment is typically not provided on exhibit, especially for exhibits considered to be more naturalistic, because it is assumed to affect visitors’ exper...

A large proportion of particulate air pollution exposure in urban areas occurs due to the penetration of outdoor pollution into the residential indoor environment. Theoretical considerations suggest that quantifying health effects due to changes to indoor particulate concentrations derived from outdoor sources requires the adjustment of exposure-response coefficients based on epidemiological st...

Realistic rendering techniques of outdoor Augmented Reality (AR) has been an attractive topic since the last two decades considering the sizeable amount of publications in computer graphics. Realistic virtual objects in outdoor rendering AR systems require sophisticated effects such as: shadows, daylight and interactions between sky colours and virtual as well as real objects. A few realistic r...

Outdoor spaces play important roles in daily lives, and the use of these spaces is determined largely by outdoor thermal comfort. Few studies have been conducted on outdoor thermal comfort in northern China. Using microclimatic monitoring and subject interviews at a park in Tianjin, China, this investigation studied outdoor thermal comfort under different climate conditions. Although outdoor th...

The scope of this work was to characterize PM mass and number concentration at typical residential microenvironments in the centre of Athens and to examine the relative contribution of the indoor and outdoor sources. Three residential flats located in densely populated residential areas were studied, during a warm and cold period of 2002. PM10, PM2 and black carbon (BC) mass concentrations, as ...

In order to manage the outdoor thermal environment with regard to human health and the environmental impact of waste heat, quantitative evaluations are indispensable. It is necessary to use a thermal environment evaluation index. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between the psychological thermal responses of the human body and winter outdoor thermal environment variables...

OBJECTIVES Currently, the incidence of scrub typhus has increased in urban areas. In this study, we described the epidemiological characteristics of scrub typhus cases reported in the urban areas of Korea in 2009. METHODS We analysed the case investigation reports of scrub typhus cases that were collected in Korea in 2009. Specially, the different risk factors such as fieldwork and outdoor ac...

The decline in vitamin D status among older people is probably due to decreased synthesis of vitamin D by sun-exposed skin and/or decreased outdoor activity. The authors examined the association between outdoor leisure physical activity and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-1994) (n = 15,148 aged >/=20 years). The mean 25-hydroxyvitami...

The restorative potential of green outdoor environments for children in preschool settings was investigated by measuring the attention of children playing in settings with different environmental features. Eleven preschools with outdoor environments typical for the Stockholm area were assessed using the outdoor play environment categories (OPEC) and the fraction of visible sky from play structu...

The last 15 years have seen electric wheelchairs evolve from slow, indoor-only devices to vehicles that are also useful for outdoor trips of several miles . But while wheelchairs with good outdoor performance are now commercially available, the evolution of the indoor/outdoor wheelchair is by no means complete . There remain important issues of safety, reliability, durability and performance wh...