This paper reports the results of a study on the relative effects on human bodies by rail or road traffic noises. The authors carried out experiments in a laboratory and investigated the effects of familiar noises on EEG (electroencephalogram) at the moderate sound level of 60 dB Laeq. The key findings are as follows : 1. The more noise-exposure time becomes, the lower concentration level on tasks becomes. This tendency is more clearly observed under railway noises than under other noises. 2. While at rest, road traffic noises enhance the relaxation level as the exposure time becomes longer, which is clearly shown under road traffic noises compared with under railway noises or white noises. 3.The level fluctuations of road traffic noises affect the EEG fluctuations while at rest.

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The experiments were carried out for confirming how the evaluation on interior atmospheres and the choice of behavior were influenced from lighting, color and gloss of finish. Interior scale-models with varying wall color, floor color and lighting were evaluated by subjects. One of the most notable features in this research was to reduce the size of the experiments by using the design of experiment. It was clarified that lighting, hue and value of finish colors greatly influenced the evaluation of interior atmospheres. And regarding the choice of behavior, main effects of lighting and some interactions were confirmed.

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This study aims to develop a simplified calculation method of the thermal response of the floor of hydronic floor heating and cooling systems. Two-dimensional heat transfer simulation analysis were performed to clarify the effects of various factors on the step response of heat transfer rate from the pipe surface to the floor material and from the floor surface to the space. A simplified method were proposed for calculation of the transient heat transfer rate from the floor to the space. In this method, the real floor is converted to two different floors having heating plate within the floor and their one-dimensional heat transfer rate are used for calculation. The calculated values agreed well with the values obtained from two-dimensional detailed simulation.

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Clothing is one of the most important thermal environmental factors from human aspects. The relation between clothing levels and outdoor thermal environment was examined in this paper. Clothing level data were obtained through several field surveys. Outdoor thermal environmental factors were also measured at the survey sites. these data and meteorological observatory data were used in the analyses. The clothing levels have negative correlation with air temperature and solar radiation, and positive correlation with wind speed. The multi regression equation to predict clothing levels is derived from these meteorological data and a seasonal dummy variable, which is compared with a single regression equation of air temperature.

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This paper first describes a further development of exergy balance equation for human body to be able to make a calculation for cases that outdoor relative humidity to be regarded as reference for exergy calculation is different from indoor relative humidity. We made example calculations which articulate the relationship between exergy consumotion within the human body and indoor thermal environmental condition such as room air temperature, humidity and mean radiant temperature. From the exergetic view point, there is the optimal combination of room air temperature and mean radiant temperature, which gives thermally neutral condition, namely PMV^*=0, while, fom the conventional energetic viewpoint, there are many combinations of room air temperature and mean radiant temperature. The lowest exergy consumption rate for a human body with the metabolic rate at 1.0 met and the clothing of 0.9 clo emerges at the indoor environmental condition of room air temperature at 18℃ and mean radiant temperature at 25℃ for winter. This suggests that the use of radiant warm exergy is more effective than the use of convective warm exergy for a heating purpose to realize both thermal comfort and as low human-body exergy consumption rate as possible.

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Formaldehyde (HCHO) included in construction adhesives is one of the principal causes materials of sick house and sick building svndrome. However, not much has been done to suppress or eliminate HCH0. In the experiment, it was found that addition of several types of row and burned clay minerals to adhesive suppressed emissions of HCHO. The bentonite was most effective among all materials used in the experiment. A coating gypsum plaster with bentonite and effective microorganisms reduced the amount of HCHO emission synergistically. Also, changes pH level caused by addition of Ca(OH)_2 contributed in suppression of HCHO.

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Emission rates of aldehydes and VOCs from wall coverings and powder type adhesives for wall coverings were investigated by using a small chamber. First, the measurements of emission rates were carried out for 16 types of wall covering materials. It was observed that the emission of formaldehyde from one of the samples was 17μg/m^2h after one day, though that from almost all samples was less than 2μg/m^2h. The emission from wall coverings was much lower than the other building materials like floorings. Next, the measurements of emission rates were carried out for 3 types of powder type adhesives for wall covering materials. The emission for TVOC was very low with around 25μg/m^2h, but one of them for formaldehyde was high with 40μg/m^2h. It was found that all powder type adhesives were not low emission.

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This paper studies a flow capacity prediction method for drainage systems in apartment housesbased on 「HASS 218 Testing Methods of Flow Capacity for Drainage System in Apartment Houses」 of SHASE. The results are as follows : 1) Clearing the phase of varied air pressure distribution in drainage stack systems, which include special drainage fitting systems. 2) Proposing a varied air pressure distribution prediction method for drainage stack systems by using standard deviation. 3) Proposing a simple prediction method of the maximum & minimum air pressure in drainage stack systems. 4) Proposing a flow capacity of drainage systems prediction method under the condition that the maximum & minimum air pressure are within ±400Pa which is given by HASS 218.

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Actual condition of stairs in public space has not been clarified so far. Setting their objective in proposing the public space stairs that the elderly and handicapped people can use in a safer and easier manner, the author conducted surveys in the Osaka-Umeda terminal area, the largest terminal in western Japan. Therefore this paper shows the data of the actual condition and poses the structural and visual problems of the stairs.

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This paper examines, for analysis of residential energy consumption, the neural network nonlinear multi-regression (NNW-NLR) method and the liner multi-regression (LR) method that is most frequently used and demonstrates the advantage of the NNW-NLR over the LR method in terms of the significance and the capability of generalization. The correlation for the verification data is 0.77 using the NNW-NLR equation derived from the training data, while 0.22 using the LR equation. In addition, the random number method (RNM) is proposed for variables selection in building the NNW.

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