The diploma thesis is focused on ventilation and simulation of heating in small transport aircraft EV-55 cabin. First part explains an impact of thermal environment on human health and describes restrictions and recommendations forced on inner aircraft environment. In the first part are also clarified conditions of comfortable environment and thermal comfort evaluation for passengers via PMV and PPD index. The second part contains results from simulation of aircraft cabin environment. Inlet ventilation airflow and cabin heating is simulated via simulation mean Theseus-FE 3.0. The simulation results are evaluated for thermal comfort degree and optimal cabin insulation with optimal temperature and volume flow rate of inlet air is specified.

Diploma thesis is oriented at suspension of commercial vehicle and tractor cab. It describes current state-of-art suspension systems, methods of measuring and evaluating ride comfort. Developed multibody model of tractor is used to compare different suspension concepts and a sensitivity analysis of parameters related to ride comfort is made.

abstract: Moderate physical activity, such as walking and biking, positively affects physical and mental health. Outdoor thermal comfort is an important prerequisite for incentivizing an active lifestyle. Thus, extreme heat poses significant challenges for people who are outdoors by choice or necessity. The type and qualities of built infrastructure determine the intensity and duration of individual exposure to heat. As cities globally are shifting priorities towards non-motorized and public transit travel, more residents are expected to experience the city on their feet. Thus, physical conditions as well as psychological perception of the environment that affect thermal comfort will become paramount. Phoenix, Arizona, is used as a case study to examine the effectiveness of current public transit and street infrastructure to reduce heat exposure and affect the thermal comfort of walkers and public transit users. The City of Phoenix has committed to public transit improvements in the Transportation 2050 plan and has recently adopted a Complete Streets Policy. Proposed changes include mobility improvements and creating a safe and comfortable environment for non-motorized road participants. To understand what kind of improvements would benefit thermal comfort the most, it is necessary to understand heat exposure at finer spatial scales, explore whether current bus shelter designs are adequate in mitigating heat-health effects, and comprehensively assess the impact of design on physical, psychological and behavioral aspects of thermal comfort. A study conducted at bus stops in one Phoenix neighborhood examined grey and green infrastructure types preferred for cooling and found relationships between perception of pleasantness and thermal sensation votes. Walking interviews conducted in another neighborhood event examined the applicability of a framework for walking behavior under the stress of heat, and how differences between the streets affected perceptions of the walkers. The interviews revealed that many of the structural themes from the framework of walking behavior were applicable, however, participants assessed the majority of the elements in their walk from a heat mitigation perspective. Finally, guiding questions for walkability in hot and arid climates were developed based on the literature review and results from the empirical studies. This dissertation contributes to filling the gap between walkability and outdoor thermal comfort, and presents methodology and findings that can be useful to address walkability and outdoor thermal comfort in the world’s hot cities as well as those in temperate climates that may face similar climate challenges in the future as the planet warms. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2019

Public rail transport interiors must be adaptable and cater to a wide target market to address the diverse needs of the South African public. Local rail transport competes directly with air travel for market share. Currently, local rail transport fails on both accounts. The failure to invest in and update rail infrastructure has resulted in a desperate need to play catch up with decades of international railway evolution – a need especially visible in the interiors of local long-haul trains. The design and aesthetic identity of transport interiors are generic, dated and fail to address the functional and aesthetic needs of contemporary South African travellers. As a result, these interiors fail to establish an identity synonymous with our unique demographic makeup. The current state of local long-haul passenger rail interiors was investigated through the use of a heuristic inquiry. An Electro Star Multiple Unit train structure was then selected in which an interior insertion is made. Hamba-Kahle addresses the physical and psychological discomfort in the train interior, the absence of social spaces, the disregard for wayfinding and the lack of contextual identity. The design challenges the insular train interior layout and divides the interior into different spatial zones. A Budget Sitter car, Premium Sitter car, Budget Sleeper and Universal Car provides seating variation for passengers and in turn integrates a wide target market. Break-away spaces are also incorporated. The programme and the spaces it creates assist the interior in mediating between private and public spaces. It facilitates chance encounters and supports retractable privacy. The interior reinforces adaptability in the use of spaces while adhering to universal design principles. The scenery from the surrounding landscapes is used in the design to enrich the interior spaces and improve the embodied experience of the user. In establishing a contemporary South African identity, a sense of place is created with which passengers can identify and feel physically, psychologically and socially comfortable in. / Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Architecture / MInt(Prof) / Unrestricted

Orientador: João Roberto Gomes de Faria / Resumo: O modo como são projetados e ocupados os espaços de trabalho interferem tanto em como as pessoas se sentem como em seu desempenho. Oferecer um ambiente interno confortável é necessário para que seus ocupantes alcancem um melhor desempenho. Assim, um dos principais fatores para que um ambiente possua qualidade interna é que este seja termicamente confortável. Neste sentido, as escolhas arquitetônicas têm a capacidade de proporcionar experiências, sejam elas físicas, funcionais ou psicológicas, capazes de influenciar na percepção térmica de seus ocupantes. Por sua vez, os usuários de salas individuais têm papel fundamental no ajuste dos sistemas que visam estabelecer condições de conforto térmico de suas salas. Sendo assim, o objetivo do trabalho foi verificar, através de uma análise exploratória, como o uso de estratégias bioclimáticas para a obtenção do conforto ambiental por usuários de escritórios individuais é capaz de influenciar a sensação térmica. Para isto, um estudo de caso foi realizado com os docentes e suas salas de escritórios individuais dos quatro prédios de departamento da Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes e Comunicação (FAAC) da Unesp, Campus de Bauru: Design; Arquitetura, Urbanismo e Paisagismo; Ciências Humanas; Artes e Representação Gráfica. Foi adotado na pesquisa um método misto com avaliações quantitativas e qualitativas através, respectivamente, de simulação computacional e aplicação de questionários. Os resultados mostraram que usuários de escritórios in... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The way workspaces are designed and occupied interfere with how people feel and in their performance. Providing a comfortable indoor environment is necessary for their occupants to achieve better performance. Thus, one of the main factors for the quality of an environment is that it is thermally comfortable. In this sense, architectural choices have the ability to provide experiences, whether physical, functional or psychological, capable of influencing the thermal perception of their occupants. In turn, users of individual rooms play a fundamental role in adjusting the systems that aim to establish thermal comfort conditions of their rooms. Thus, the objective of the study was to verify, through an exploratory analysis, how the use of bioclimatic strategies to obtain environmental comfort by individual office users is able to influence the thermal sensation. For this, a case study was conducted with the teachers and their individual office rooms of the four department buildings at School of Architecture, Arts and Communication of São Paulo State University (UNESP), campus Bauru: Design; Architecture, Urbanism and Landscaping; Humanities; and Arts and Graphic Representation. The research adopted a mixed method with quantitative and qualitative evaluations through, respectively, computer simulation and questionnaires application. The results showed that users of individual offices can have their perception and thermal comfort influenced by non-thermal variables and that the ps... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

<p>Research shows the significance that communication patterns, beliefs, and behaviors hold within a multitude of relationship types. Unfortunately, the same research also shows that effective or positive communication is still not occurring as often as we think. Communicative interaction breaks down, fails, or is utilized negatively more often when emotionally charged topics are at the forefront of the conversation, most often due to reported personal discomfort. This negative interaction, and the subsequent breakdown in communication, can foster a snowball effect – decreasing relationship and sexual satisfaction. This study was aimed to discover how perceived comfort levels contributes to the lack of communication of certain topics and how it is affecting relationship and sexual satisfaction. The type of communicative process that occurs will affect the sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction. Through an online survey, participants anonymously responded to statements related to these concepts in order to test relationships. Overall, it was found that respondents’ participation in self-monitoring, as well as what method of communication they use, strongly influenced their comfort disclosing on different topics. Their comfort did not have significant influence on their then communication process. It was also found that communication processes influence couple’s relationship and sexual satisfaction. These results urge marriage and family therapists to update their clinical toolboxes and add self-monitoring to their conceptualization when working with couples. </p>

Exposure to thermal stress can negatively impact an animals' overall welfare, resulting in decreased body condition, lower reproductive success, and in severe cases, mortality. The swine industry has prioritized efficient production and as a result has gained rapid improvements in lean growth and increase litter sizes. Unfortunately, modern swine are unable to cope with the negative effects of heat stress. Thus, it is crucial to understand the preferred temperature of swine to create recommendations on when to initiate mitigation strategies to combat the negative effects of thermal stress. However, several different factors contribute to an animals' thermal comfort and thermal preference will differ based on age, reproductive stage, social context, early life thermal stress, and behavior. Thus, making it exceptionally difficult to classify an animal's thermal comfort zone. These studies aim to highlight how those factors influence thermal comfort in pigs and help guide recommendation polices for housing pigs in their preferred temperatures.<br>

Over the last years, driving automation has increasingly moved into focus in human factors research. A large body of research focusses on situations in which the human driver needs to regain control. However, little research has so far been conducted on how SAE level 3+ automated driving should be designed with focus on occupant comfort. This thesis aims at identifying a comfortable driving style for automated vehicles. As a basis, it was necessary to pinpoint driving metrics, which vary between driving styles and can be manipulated in order to design a comfortable driving style. Hence, Study 1 was conducted, in which drivers (N = 24) manually drove on a highway or on urban and rural roads with certain driving styles. Results show relevant metrics (i.e., lateral and longitudinal acceleration, lateral and longitudinal jerk, quickness, and headway distance in seconds) and that these metrics vary across maneuvers and thus, a maneuver-specific analysis is recommended. As these metrics are derived from manual data, it remained unclear after Study 1, in which range the metric values should vary for comfortable automated driving. Therefore, as a second step, the main metrics were varied and the subsequent combinations implemented in an automated vehicle as well as in a dynamic simulator with two different configurations. The combinations were then subject to ratings by 72 participants. Results show that the metrics and values found in Study 1, are able to elicit a range of comfort ratings in automated driving. It was also found, that acceleration is a key variable in experiencing comfort. However, it is not the sole predictor. Additionally, as higher levels of automated driving with larger velocities are still bound to considerable constraints for on-road testing, the second study was also used to validate a dynamic driving simulator to allow comfort during automated driving to be studied. In comparison to ratings on a test track, the dynamic simulator setting with longitudinal orientation is able to show both relative and absolute validity of comfort ratings. In the third and final step, different approaches to automated maneuvers were rated by participants (N = 72) regarding the comfort they experienced. A lane change, an acceleration, and a deceleration maneuver were chosen as test maneuvers. The lateral or longitudinal acceleration was varied in each of these maneuvers. Results, again, show comfort ratings are maneuver specific. On one hand, symmetrical and early-onset lane change maneuvers and symmetrical acceleration maneuvers were preferred. However, symmetrical deceleration maneuvers and deceleration maneuvers with a slower acceleration decrease evoke the highest comfort ratings. These ratings made it possible to offer guidelines for the design of automated driving styles. Furthermore, dependence on a number of personality traits was analyzed. Results suggest the general preference for certain driving styles to be unaffected by personality. However, it seems, participants with certain personality types are less particular about their preference for certain driving styles. Summed up, comfortable automated driving is – under the investigated circumstances – characterized by maneuvers with sufficient headway distance and smooth applications of small acceleration and small jerk. These should, even so, still provide sufficient motion feedback. Surrounding traffic seems to play an important role through urgency and should be considered for on-road implementation. Differences in personality did not seem to play a crucial role.

Hållbarhetsredovisning har under de senaste åren kommit att öka vilket har resulterat i en större efterfrågan på en extern part som granskar hållbarhetsrapporten. Efterfrågan av hållbarhetsgranskningar har medfört nya områden att granska i kombination med nya utmaningar för revisionsyrket. Tidigare forskning visar att det finns utmaningar med hållbarhetsgranskningen men går inte in på hur granskningarna går till i praktiken. Syftet med studien är att skapa en djupare förståelse för hur hållbarhetsspecialister arbetar vid en granskning av hållbarhetsrapporter samt vad som ligger till grund för arbetsprocessen.     Genom att utföra kvalitativa intervjuer med sex hållbarhetsspecialister har en förståelse skapats för hur en hållbarhetsgranskning går till, vilka faktorer som är mest väsentliga samt vilka utmaningar de upplever vid en granskning av hållbarhetsrapporter. Respondenterna presenterade flera aspekter som tidigare forskning inte identifierat som väsentliga faktorer att ta hänsyn till. Vidare fick respondenterna redogöra för sin känsla av komfort till granskningen vilket applicerar komfortteorin på hållbarhetsgranskning.   Studiens slutsatser är att arbetsprocessen vid en hållbarhetsgranskning inte skiljer sig markant ifrån en finansiell revision. De faktorer som respondenterna uppgav påverkar arbetsprocessen var liknande som tidigare litteratur har behandlat och centreras kring faktorer gällande det granskade företaget. Utmaningarna som respondenterna upplever involverar till stor del aspekter som har en negativ inverkan på arbetet där de också har begränsad möjlighet att påverka det. / Sustainability reporting has increased during the latter years, which has resulted in greater demand for an external part that assures such reports. The demand for sustainability assurance has created new areas of assurance in combination with new challenges for the audit profession. Previous research shows that there are challenges with sustainability assurance but does not focus on how assurance is actually performed. The purpose of this thesis is to create a deeper understanding of how the assurance providers work with sustainability reports and what influence the process.   By conducting qualitative interviews with six sustainability experts, an understanding has been gained of how sustainability assurance is conducted, what factors are the most significant and what challenges these experts experience when assuring sustainability reports. The respondents present several aspects that previous research did not identify as factors to take into account. Furthermore, the respondents gave their account of comfort for the assurance which applies comfort theory to sustainability assurance.   The study´s conclusions are that the work processes within sustainability assurance do not differ significantly from financial audits. The factors stated by the respondents that influence the work process were similar to previous literature and are centered around factors regarding the client. The challenges that the respondents experience involve mostly aspects that have a negative impact on the work and where they have a limited opportunity to affect the situation.

Thermal comfort of the occupants is of highest importance specifically in Scandinavian countries. Especially for an educational building, both students and working staff spend most of their time indoors, therefore it is critical to guarantee a healthy and productive indoor climate environment around a whole year. Taking into account that Högskolan Dalarna plans to move into a newly renovated building in the center of Borlänge in 2022, this thesis focus on this essential topic and tries to dig out some valuable adaptive suggestions for the coming schematic design phase. In the next design phase, it aims to satisfy design requirements of Miljöbyggnad 3.0 certification at sliver level, as well as operation requirements of BREEAM InUse at very good level. Consequently, the aim of this thesis project is to have an overall thermal comfort assessment of all representative rooms in the project of the new campus building in Borlänge, Sweden. The thermal comfort assessment consists of both winter situation and summer situation. Both situations are completely under recommended study method from Miljöbyggnad 3.0 with the technical assistant of dynamic building simulation software tool IDA ICE 4.8. Several aspects have been investigated in terms of indoor thermal comfort. The first impacting element is future climate scenarios, so as to check how the future climate will affect the thermal comfort performance. Afterwards, both external and internal shading devices were individually applied to examine and quantify the benefits in terms of indoor thermal comfort. Lastly, the advanced control shading strategies were studied to further improve the thermal comfort performance based on the appropriate conventional shading method. The results showed that future climate scenario has limited impact on the thermal comfort performance when rooms are under temperature controlled via room heating and cooling units. Regarding the shading methods, the internal shading was proved to give a better overall performance. If there is the chance to implement automation shading device, the author recommends the “zone air temperature with operative temperature setpoint 21°C, in which proved to be significantly improved the thermal comfort levels that previously discovered in the vulnerable zones. Therefore, it is expected significantly to reduce the energy dependency during cooling season.