This article is a fundamental study of the favorability of the townscape. Especially, the study aimed to clarify what kind of elements are most important and what kind of psychological impressions occur when subjects take in views from high points. Personal cognitive constructs of desirability were determined using the Evaluation Grid Method (EGM). Seven kinds of bird's-eye views were used, such as a townscape in which a rice field remains, a traditional residential section with tiled rooftops, and so on. These pictures were printed in A4 size with color and without color by laser printer. The results of this research showed that various imaginations are awakened by color images. From visual clues about the degree of modernity such as an electric wire, a steel tower, a bridge or a road, subjects understood the state of the natural environment of the town, ease of living and general atmosphere. Also, it was shown that factors such as the greenness of the plants, the newness (oldness) of buildings and the layout of buildings were key elements for estimation. The lucidity of scene structure and natural abundance participate in the likability of a bird's-eye view scene. It was shown that a mixture of traditional houses and new houses, agricultural land and residential/commercial establishments create a confused impression without a feeling of unification.

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This study aims to ascertain the primary factors of the senses of physical oppression and openness and to clarify the relationship between those two senses. For that, the two senses were evaluated by inhabitants regarding the streets their homes front in the Sangenjaya, Setagawa-ku area of Tokyo. The results are as follows. First, the correlation between the two senses is -0.63 and there is general recognition that the two senses are contrary to each other. The positive correlation between the sense of physical oppression and dissatisfaction itself can be seen and the both increase or decrease together. However, the sense of openness and dissatisfaction itself do not guarantee the same correlation. Second, the sense of physical oppression is mainly influenced by forms of street and architecture and is especially dependent on the form of architecture. The influence on the sense of openness is divided evenly into three elements: the street, traffic, and architecture. Third, natural objects, scenery, and environmental elements also increase the sense of openness while electronic poles and wires along with advertising and sign boards influence the increasing sense of physical oppression. Finally, the two senses are directly influenced from the elements on the entire streetscape but the sense of physical oppression is affected relatively more from the relationships between the elements than is the sense of openness.

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The experiments on intelligibility, listening difficulty and optimum speech level by adjustment method were carried out for the aged under the condition of various noise level and reverberation. The following findings were obtained.
(1) The optimum speech levels for the aged are higher than that for the young, and the difference between them becomes smaller at higher noise level.
(2) The listening difficulty score does not achieve the minimum value at the optimum speech level in noisy conditions.
(3) The performance of intelligibility and listening difficulty shows quite unsatisfactory level at the optimum speech level in reverberant conditions.

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The relation between speech level and intelligibility is investigated with wide range of speech and masking-noise levels. The decreases of intelligibility in high speech level range are observed under the condition of speech-to-noise ratio lower than -5 dB, and the beginning points are 50 or 55 dB for the young and 65 dB for the aged. The speech intelligibility index (SII) does not correspond to the decrease of intelligibility in high speech level range but it shows good correspondence with the decrease of intelligibility of the aged in low speech level range if some corrections are made to SII.

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In our previous study (Tanimoto & Hagishima (2005), Energy and Buildings 37), a set of state transition probabilities for the Markov Chain dealing with on/ off cooling schedule in dwellings was proposed. Obtained probability of turning on an air conditioning system was defined in a form of Sigmoid-function by indoor globe temperature. Obviously, a real stochastic event of shifting from the off to on state cannot be affected by only indoor environmental parameters but also by other complex factors such as presence probability of family members, time, either weekday or holiday etc. In this paper, we report an alternative model based on the Multilayered Neural Network to predict off/ on cooling schedule. We gathered field measurement data on familial dwellings during summer 2008 by deploying handy type hygrothermal meters with self-recording functions to measure room air, globe and blow-off air temperature of an air conditioner. The assumed Multilayered Neural Network has 9 nodes in both input and hidden layers, and 1 single node in output layer implying either state shifting from off to on (1) or not (0). The information given to the input layer nodes consists of what time, whether weekday of holiday, presence probability of inhabitants and PPD (Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied). PPD derived from the theory of PMV is applied as a representative parameter for the indoor environment instead of globe temperature, since it contains various influences. The field measurement data sets were divided into two parts: teaching data and data for validation. The model trained by the teaching data was confirmed to reproduce state transition characteristic of the validation period, which seems complex and is determined by various inhabitants' manners. The model performance to reproduce is observed much excellent than the previous model derived from the Markov Chain.

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This paper (Part3) reports the effects of air quality and thermal environment on motivation and performance for students. The psychological condition of subjects can strongly influence their performance for learning. In this paper, the “motivation for learning” is defined as the desire to absorb the content of a lecture, and is evaluated by using a questionnaire as a self-assessment form on laboratory experiments and field intervention surveys. When the air quality and thermal environment changed, we confirmed that motivation for learning during the lecture also varied according to the air quality and thermal environment. In addition, a linear relationship was observed between motivation for learning during the lecture and the quiz scores. When the motivation for learning during the lecture increases by 10%, the learning performance improves by 16% in this survey.

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This study focused on the efficient use of cross-ventilation in a densely populated area. Wind tunnel experiments were conducted to understand the relation between the building coverage ratio and the wind pressure coefficient. The experiments and calculations revealed the following information: (1) the overall Cp value of a flat roof residence approaches zero when the building coverage ratio increases; (2) a negative pressure is maintained near the ridge of a leeward roof; and (3) the efficient use of the negative pressure near the ridge on the leeward roof can improve the cross-ventilation rate in a densely populated area.

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We have investigated the formation and early growth of indoor secondary aerosol particles derived from ozone/ d-limonene chemical reaction in indoor environment. The formation of new particles in indoor environment due to nucleation and the subsequent growth of these particles is an importance process that regulates the number concentrations of aerosol particles. The purpose of this paper is to develop the numerical modeling on formation of new aerosol particles in indoor environment from the view point of nucleation and the initial condensational growth caused by low-volatile gaseous precursors. Using previous reported experimental data, we derive a fundamental numerical model for cluster activation based on the formula proposed by Kulmala et al. and compare its predictions with kinetic nucleation and observed particle formation. The results of the numerical model for cluster activation showed that 10nm particles were formulated with nucleation and subsequent initial condensation from about two limonene molecules.

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The water leakage leads to deficient water supplies, roads caving in, leakage in buildings, and secondary disasters. In this study, we propose the PCA-based automatic water leakage detection method considering complex Fourier components. The water leakage sounds and pseudo sounds are collected and the Fourier components are obtained through the short-time Fourier transform (STFT). Then the principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to complex Fourier components, and feature vectors are created from PCA parameters. Based on it, the Support Vector Machine (SVM) is built. The results show that the proposed method could achieve a very high accuracy.

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This paper used the synthetic drainage which can make a BOD/N ratio high and can proliferate a filamentous organisms intentionally. The electrolysis activated sludge method was adapted to the bulking state by generating of a filamentous organisms, examination was advanced, and the effect by the kind (DC and AC) of turning on electricity was also examined. As a result, the following knowledge was acquired. 1) It was admitted that prevention of bulking was a solution with an effective electrolytic method which uses an iron electrode. 2) T-Fe/MLSS When the rate of a ratio of concentration became 4% or more, it was accepted that a T-P removal rate becomes 70% or more. 3) It was suggested to CODcr removal that either of the condensation effects by whether the current has influenced the activity of a organisms and the iron ion which carries out elution exists. 4) Compared with the AC, the amount of iron ion elution carried out elution of DC twice. 5) It was admitted that the influence which gives this method to the filamentous organisms in turning on electricity because it is adapted was great.

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Total heat exchangers are useful in reducing thermal load of heating and cooling systems with high electric power consumption because they decreases fresh air load, and consequently are the subject of much expectation - especially with regards to their energy saving effect in regions with under cold climatic conditions. In the present study, an evaluation was on the thermal comfort and energy saving effect when total heat exchangers were adopted for detached houses in a mild climate region. The results of the study suggest that the heating load can be reduced by about 10% and heat recovery may have a reverse effect in intermediate seasons, and also have a small effect on the cooling load, but the cooling load can be reduced by about 20% by utilizing natural ventilation.

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In recent years, commissioning (Cx) is attracting attention as the key process for energy saving during building operation phase. This research is particularly focused on Cx in high energy-consuming building defined by the Law concerning the Rational Use of Energy. For better efficient operation, heat source system simulation is developed and considered about the combination of heating source equipments, cooling water temperature and capacity usage ratio of free cooling. The quantity control is changed when low cooling load arises in transitional season and free cooling utilization increases for the proper setting of chilled water temperature in winter. As this improvement plan is reflected the actual building operation, it can reduce the energy consumption by 219.7 MJ/(m²·year), running cost by 2,339,000 yen/year and carbon-dioxide emissions by 8.7 kg-CO₂/(m²·year), compared to the present heat source system operation. It is shown that the necessary of Cx for global environment conservation in this research.

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With an environmental problem, a social interest in the design technique (passive technique) by "PASSIVE SYSTEM" of the natural energy use has rises. However there is not the inclusive material now because "PASSIVE SYSTEM" is a new design technique. This study's purpose is investigation of the characteristic and the selection factors of the passive techniques from a houses using passive technique in a recent architectural magazines.
First of all, the passive techniques were classified by every effect and use part from 187 examples. From there, we clarified qualitative characteristic of passive technique. Second, we indicated the selection factors that it was a scale and the main structure and ambient environment of the examples. Finally, we classified the examples into eight types by a technique combination because plural passive techniques were used in the examples. As a result, the examples were divided into two main systems. The one system was to control sunlight and ventilation by composition of room layout. The other system was to collect and save heat of sunlight by the part of architecture in winter.

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Urban heat island phenomena have been analyzed by numerous researchers using mesoscale meteorological models. Although there are many mesoscale models, MM5 is considered one of the major mesoscale models. In such analysis, a one-dimensional heat balance model is primarily used for surface boundary conditions. However, it is necessary to include the effect of the building canopy to analyze the thermal environment at pedestrian level. Therefore, MM5 is incorporated with the urban canopy model. The urban thermal environment in Kanto region is analyzed by means of the new method. The results show better agreement with observation data.

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The purpose of this study is to make clear the energy saving potential of low-impact life style through the measurement of energy consumptioin in residential buildings. The actions for low-impact life style are “to control the heat loss or heat gain by using curtains and blinds”, “to set PC at saving energy mode” and so on. The results are as follows.
(1) In one-person households, energy saving of 3.6-44.6% were achieved. Low-impact life style of air conditioning, lighting and information home appliances were effectively practiced.
(2) In family households, 50-70% of whole subjects achieved 0.9-14.1% energy saving.

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This research concerns a room temperature control experiment using a PTC floor heating system. It aims at development of control techniques for the PTC heater in the room, which is assumed to be part of a house. In this report, a control technique taking into account the heating load was developed based on the PI control technique in order to remove the room temperature offset. As a result, the offset was removed and it was shown clearly that PI control is effective as a control technique for a PTC floor heating system.

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