The death by drowning is one of the serious problems among the elderly people, and it is the major cause of death in accidents at home. The highest mortality rate of death by drowning has been found in Fukuoka Prefecture among prefectural and city governments in Japan last decade. There were great differences in the mortality rates among the municipalities in Fukuoka Prefecture. The differences in the mortality rates among the municipalities were evaluated from a view point of living environmental factors and housing conditions. The 49 municipalities in Fukuoka Prefecture where the Housing and Land Survey was carried out in 2003 by Japanese government were divvied into 3 groups according to the mortality rates of death by drowning, 16 cities with high mortality rates, 17 cities with moderate and 16 cities with low ones, and analyzed the relations with living environment factors to the mortality rates using a multiple discriminant analysis. Significant factors were found in the tertiary industry ratio, the ratio of houses built after 1996, and the ratio of dwellings without the steps indoors. These results suggested that the mortality rates of death by drowning might be affected by the dwelling environment conditions.

View full abstract

With growing social awareness of the energy problem, private universities have been appointed as type I designated energy management institutes of the Rationalization in Energy Use Law. Doshisha University Kyotanabe Campus also started to promote energy efficiency in university buildings by setting the air conditioner temperature at 28℃ during the summer, which was higher than last year, and heating temperature at 20℃ during the winter to reduce energy usage, and succeeded in energy conservation. The results of a questionnaire survey on implementation of energy efficiency measures revealed that approximately 50% of the students responded that the temperature was adequate, and this number exceeded 80% when including those who responded that it was tolerable. In addition, gender differences in temperature sensitivity and seasonal differences in the class environment were suggested.

View full abstract

The objective of this paper is to clarify the characteristics of an interior space designed by Shiro Kuramata and its design method with the concept of an interior shelter. "Interior shelter" is defined as a created floor, wall or ceiling distant from the original building structure. The distances between the interior shelter and original floor, wall and ceiling in the plan and section drawings of 42 works were measured and analyzed. The investigated 42 works were classified into 13 groups by the K-J method. The characteristics of the works changed beginning in 1976. After this a free and subjective expression was represented in the center of the interior space. On the other hand peripheral surfaces were eliminated via lighting, multiple walls etc. as isolated factors. Consequently, floating image was created in Kuramata's works, especially in the second half of his carrier.

View full abstract

This study reports the findings of a survey, involving female college students, conducted to examine the effects of the colors of roads (eight achromatic colors from N1.5 to 8.5) on scenery and the relationships between the eight colors of roads, level of difficulty in identifying pedestrians walking on the road, colors (red, green, blue, white, grey, and black) of clothing, and the distance between the pedestrian and observer. Roads with a moderately bright color were related to affinity, whereas the subjects evaluated brightly colored roads in terms of safety. There was a significant relation between the color of the road and distance over which the observer was able to identify pedestrians wearing white or grey clothing. The greater the difference in the lightness of the road and clothing, or the greater the distance, the easier it was to identify a pedestrian with white clothing. Similarly, the smaller the difference in the lightness of the road and clothing, or the smaller the distance, the more difficult it was to identify a pedestrian with grey clothing. No marked relation was noted between the color of the road and distance to identify pedestrians in red, green, blue, or black. Regardless of the lightness of the road, it was easy to identify pedestrians wearing red clothing. The difference in the lightness of the road and clothing was most closely related to the ease of identifying pedestrians wearing black, blue, and green (less difficult in this order) clothing. The larger the distance, the more difficult it was to identify pedestrians wearing green or blue clothing, except when the color of the road was N8.5.

View full abstract

This study was carried out to investigate effects of room temperature and relative humidity conditions on the olfactory threshold, odor intensity and hedonics. The panels were consisted of seven young male subjects. Skatole, isovaleric acid, and β-phenylethyl alcohol were used as odorants. Olfactory threshold, odor intensity, and hedonic scale of odor were selected as measurement items. No significant difference was observed in the olfactory threshold, either among the odorants or among the room temperature and relative humidity conditions. Skatole showed the lowest mean olfactory threshold with a small standard deviation. The odorants showed a similar tendency in odor intensity and in the hedonic scale of odor. It was revealed that the panels' evaluations varied among the odorants more significantly under comfortable conditions (25℃, 50%) than under the other three conditions. Winter conditions (22℃, 20%) were revealed to have less effect on the panels' evaluations of various odorants. Isovaleric acid was revealed to be more sensitive to the effects of room temperature and relative humidity conditions than the other two odorants. β-phenylethyl alcohol and skatole were revealed to be less sensitive to the effects of room temperature and relative humidity conditions.

View full abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the physiological effects of chair cover using far infrared radiation fabric. Experiments were conducted in a climatic chamber maintained at 22°C with a relative humidity of 50 %. Nine male students were instructed to sit in a chair for 60 minutes. Polyester 65%・Cotton 35% (Weave: Broadcloth) (BLANK) and far infrared radiation fabric printed with natural nephrite on the same clothes (FIR) were used as the chair covers. We measured Electrocardiogram, skin temperatures, rectal temperature, shoulder blood flow, thermal sensations, and Jikaku-sho Shirabe. The results were as follows: (1) The shoulder blood flow increased significantly in FIR compared with in BLANK. (2) The whole body, upper back, and foot thermal sensations were higher in FIR than in BLANK. (3) The shoulder blood flow showed significant positive correlations with upper back, shoulder, and foot thermal sensations. (4) The skin temperatures and rectal temperature in both FIR and BLANK decreased significantly with time. These results suggest that constricting blood flow in the shoulders caused by sitting posture for a long time can be relieved by the use of FIR chair cover.

View full abstract