The purpose of this study is to evaluate a risk for heat stress at a site of open-air music festival and to perceive what kinds of goods visitors prepare and what kinds of behaviors visitors do in the open-air music festival for protecting against heat and cold weather. The field surveys were conducted in two different open-air music festivals held in July and October 2011. In order to calculate thermal indices, some meteorological parameters were measured at the site. Questionnaire survey were carried out for the visitors concerning preventive behaviors from heat and cold weather. In July, there was a high level of heat stress condition at the site of open-air music festival according to guidelines of heat disorder and thermal stress. It is necessary to measure the meteorological parameters at the site to reduce heat stress. Most of the visitors took sports towels, water etc., hat and fan for protecting against heat stress. No visitors suffered heat disorder in this festival. This was thought to be due to visitors’ appropriate behaviors for protecting against heat stress. In October, there was amoderate level of heat stress at the site of open-air music festival. Some visitors had no goods for protecting against heat in October.

SPA (Square-pipe array) is one of the way to converge heat or light. In this paper, we study the possibility of SPA as a local heater. We conducted a simulation and an experiment, where we use SPA of 862mm-wide, 504mm-hight, 40mm-deep. In this study, light/heat source SPA and light / heat received surface were placed at intervals of 500mm. As a result, SPA can converge heat around focal point. According to simulations, under SPA condition, we confirm vertical / horizontal light distribution around focal point. According to experiments, by using SPA, ping-pong globe temperature became 1.0 degree higher than the time when we started to heat it. On the other hand, without SPA, ping-pong globe temperature became 0.3 degree higher. According to experiments, we confirmed that SPA leads to higher globe temperature than no-SPA condition.

In this study, the surface temperature of the eye was measured by radiation thermometer and the behavior of blink was recorded by video camera for two subjects. As the results, it was shown that the surface temperature of the eyeball decreased during opening eyes, and that the decrease reached 0.5 to 1.0 ℃. In addition, it was found that the time of closing eyes during a blink became longer when the interval of blinking was assigned to 5 or 3 seconds, which was longer than her/his natural blink interval. At the same time, the temperature of upper eyelid during closing eyes was shown to be higher than that of the eyeball, and thus the heat exchange between the eyeball and the eyelid during blink accounts for this. These results can be a basis for the quantitative evaluation of evaporation and accumulation of tears and for clarifying the indoor thermal environmental condition to prevent the sensation of dryness at the eye.

We conducted a study on the changes in the indoor environment of four nursery schools utilizing solid Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) in Osaka Prefecture and the toddlers. Rooms where the interior was remodeled using wood were compared to adjacent rooms that represented the pre-remodeled state. Higher concentrations of α-pinene were noted in the remodeled rooms in three nursery schools because of the diffusion of the scent of the solid Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) wood used for the interior remodeling. A questionnaire survey conducted among guardians of the infants and childcare workers revealed that the atmospheres of the nurseries became much more welcoming. The nurseries were perceived as much more calming spaces that promoted concentration, which was indicative of the improvement in the classrooms due to the remodeling of the interior to feature wood prominently. Additionally, the questionnaire survey indicated that a greater impression was made on the users when the floor was changed using wooden materials than when the paneling below the chair railing was converted to wood. This study did not evaluate the effect of remodeled classroom parameters such as the thermal environment and indoor concentrations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrous acid, on the health of the toddlers.

In a study involving 30 female students and 33 female elderlies, we investigated the differences of subjects’ impression of hospital meals when served on trays of different colors between young and elderly group. Setting the tone of the trays to the same pale tone, we used image editing software to create 10 variations of tray colors. The elderly group perceived more sour and tasty for the meals than young adults on trays whose colors were green, blue-green, blue, and violet. Meanwhile, the younger group perceived more bitter, sweet, and salty for the same colors. We hypothesized that aging-related lens yellowing and daily diet may have effect on these differences. There were statistically significant differences of their answers among 10 colors evaluations in all 18 question items at each group. In addition, elderly group was more likely to answer “Neither” in the evaluation of colors at each question item than younger group, suggesting that aging-related taste disorder might effect in the results. The three factors: “Sense of security from and impression of the meal,” “enjoyment and comfort brought by the meal,” and “attractiveness of the meal.” were extracted by using factor analysis. We also suggested that paletoned colors of red, orange, yellow, and red-purple might enhance appetite.

This paper suggests a pattern for the window-opening area to keep the indoor thermal environment acceptable with cross ventilation in summer. Using the ratio of window-opening area to floor area and the ratio of opening area on the south and north sides as parameters, the influence on thermal environment was evaluated by the thermal and airflow network model “NETS”. A subjective experiment was conducted in a house near Nagoya that had a southerly prevailing wind in the summer of 2013. Based on the results, the value of PMV1.67 is the upper limit for using cross ventilation. The results show that the appropriate window-opening area varies with the location of the room and the void space, and that the length of the useful cross ventilation time changes for about 2 hours a day according to the ratio of opening area on the south and north sides. Window-opening area is more important when outdoor temperature decreases. The ratio of opening area on the south and north sides is more important when the ratio of window-opening area to total floor area is low. In the 60-day study, which is the period of using an air conditioner, the length of useful cross ventilation time is affected by the ratio of opening area on the south and north sides, when an appropriate ratio is useful for shortening the time of using an air conditioner.

The relationships among the six basic tastes and the colors and foods they are associated with were examined, involving 121 female university students. Colors were classified based on their hue, brightness, and saturation levels. The colors the most frequently associated with each taste were as follows. Sweetness is associated with high-brightness RED and RED PURPLE, saltiness with high-brightness BLUE and WHITE (neutral color), sourness with high-brightness and -saturation YELLOW, bitterness with low-brightness GREEN and YELLOW GREEN, savoriness with mid-brightness ORANGE and YELLOW, and pungency with high-saturation RED. The foods the most frequently associated with sweetness and sourness, for example, were peaches/strawberries and lemons, respectively, revealing an association between the colors and foods with tastes. The possibility of changes in dietary patterns influencing the relationship between tastes and colors was also suggested.