Japan is confronted with the problems of an aging population, and government finances are severely strained by rising expenditures on medical and nursing care. It is expected that medical and nursing care expenses reached 45 trillion yen in 2010, and such expenses are expected to double to 92 trillion yen by 2025. An effective measure for lowering such expenditures is the prevention of cardiovascular disease, a major cause of which is hypertension. Recently, the effects of the indoor thermal environment on blood pressure have attracted attention. However, these effects have not been studied in relation to personal factors, particularly individual attributes and lifestyle. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to analyze the relation between indoor temperature and blood pressure while taking into account personal factors. Field surveys on home blood pressure, indoor temperature, and personal factors were conducted in winter 2012 and 2013. Controlling for personal factors, systolic blood pressure increased by 4.3 mmHg per 10 ℃ decrease in indoor air temperature. Also, a 1 ℃ decrease in indoor air temperature increased 1.1-fold the likelihood of a value above 135 mmHg (baseline for systolic blood pressure at home). Furthermore, the effect of indoor air temperature was stronger in residents with more severe arteriosclerosis.

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This study investigated the effects of seasonal influence on thermal sensation in open spaces. The following results were obtained: (1) Results were seasonally dependent, even when standard effective temperature (SET^*) reports were identical. (2) Indoor experimental results corresponded with data collected in spring, early summer, summer and autumn in open spaces. (3) Increased temperatures during summer caused subjects to become more heat-aware and influenced loudness perception of the environment. (4) Subjects experienced increased wind sensitivity as temperatures fell during winter.

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We performed questionnaire survey of the resident awareness about the sound environment for the resident of multi-family housing. We obtained 784 valid response numbers of questionnaires votes. We analyzed the questionnaire survey from various angles. As a result, we obtained the following conclusion. (1)For the floor impact sound by heavy impact source, an evaluation method by the L-class is resident awareness to support well. (2) Resident judgment concerning of degree you hear - degree anxious - degree of noisiness - degree of problem consciousness - degree of satisfaction were shown. (3) For the expression method of the actual feeling on living, it should use the plural items in cluding "degree to hear" and "the indication rate"

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Semi-outdoor environment is defined as a grade of environmental control in thermal environmental planning, falling in between indoor and outdoor environment. Thermal adaptation of occupants, together with building and equipment, needs to be taken into account for planning such environment. Behavioral and psychological adaptation was found to be influential on thermal comfort, and context of thermal environment was found to be important to understand the adaptive process from literature review. Environmental context was categorized into social, architectural, and personal elements. A concept model of adaptive thermal comfort in semi-outdoor environment was proposed. Problems concerning application of existing thermal comfort standards were discussed. Adaptive comfort zone, not comfort temperature, needs to be investigated through field surveys considering the Japanese context such as geographical location, climate, degree of environmental control and general-purpose of the architectural space. Adaptive comfort zone needs to be presented together with the definition of environmental context.

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Wind tunnel experiments were carried on the concentration fields with rooftop exhaust under neutral and stably stratified flow. Mean velocity distribution behind the building was not affected by atmospheric stability, nevertheless turbulence intensity and contaminant distribution became quite different. Partial spread width was estimated with assuming Gaussian distribution; therefore it was found that strength of thermal stratification behind the building was attenuated locally by wake from the building.

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We conducted an outdoor experiment and numerical analysis to clarify the mitigation effects on the surface temperatures and reduction of the air-conditioning loads of buildings equipped with water-retentive building materials. In the outdoor experiment using two housing units in the daytime during summer, the cooling effects of the water-retentive building material were demonstrated by decreases in the roof surface temperature by 20℃, and in the room air temperature by 1.2-1.7℃. Next, a building heat load model was coupled with a simultaneous heat and mass transfer model to confirm whether simulation results were consistent with the observed data for surface temperature and room air temperature. We then implemented case studies using assumptions for standard buildings, and found that the use of water-retentive building material had a cooling load reduction effect of by 9.8-15.1% in the case of a factory and, 9.0-13.8% in the case of an office.

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The objective of this thesis is to develop the effective method to calculate and compare the total amount of a life cycle energy consumption and CO₂ emission during both Canada's and Japan's building construction stage. The total economic impacts for materials and services used directly and indirectly during building construction process is evaluated using Canada's and Japan's Input-Output (I/O) table to find the total amount of energy consumption and CO₂ emission. This study is useful to characterize materials and services for building construction stage using I/O table analysis and compare a life cycle energy consumption and CO₂ emission under two different countries' construction techniques.

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Ultraviolet radiation may cause the skin damage. The shade is very effective tool preventing ultraviolet radiations. However, it is necessary to know the sky distribution of ultraviolet radiation to design the shade. In the measurement of ultraviolet radiation distribution, detector scans the all over sky. Since scanning takes long time, weather may change and we cannot measure ultraviolet radiations exactly. Authors have developed electrical sweeping equipment. It has 145 static erythema ultraviolet sensors which cover circular patches distributed all around a hemisphere surface covered with quartz. Erythema ultraviolet radiance is measured simultaneously every 3 seconds with all sensors. This study examined the influence that the scanning time gave to the ultraviolet radiations measurement. It was clarified that the relation between cloudiness and ultraviolet radiance distribution was influenced by the scanning time.

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