•Drivers’ comfort zone was estimated from naturalistic driving and field test data.•Drivers gave less space to pedestrians who were walking against the traffic.•Drivers gave less space to pedestrians ...when an oncoming vehicle was present.•Drivers gave less space to pedestrians who walked closer to the lane edge.•Results were similar for both naturalistic driving and field test data.
For pedestrians, the risk of dying in a traffic accident is highest on rural roads, which are often characterized by a lack of sidewalks and high traffic speed. In fact, hitting the pedestrian during an overtaking attempt is a common crash scenario. To develop active safety systems that avoid such crashes, it is necessary to understand and model driver behavior during the overtaking maneuvers, so that system interventions are acceptable because they happen outside drivers’ comfort zone. Previous modeling of driver behavior in interactions with pedestrians primarily focused on road crossing scenarios. The aim of this study was, instead, to address pedestrian-overtaking maneuvers on rural roads. We focused our analysis on how drivers adjust their behavior with respect to three safety metrics (in order of importance): 1) minimum lateral clearance when passing the pedestrian, 2) overtaking speed at that moment, and 3) the time-to-collision at the moment of steering away to start the overtaking maneuver.
The influence of three factors on the safety metrics was investigated: 1) walking direction (same as the overtaking vehicle or opposite), 2) walking position (on the edge of the vehicle lane or 0.5 m away from the edge on the paved shoulder), and 3) oncoming traffic (absent or present). Seventy-seven overtaking maneuvers in France from the naturalistic driving study UDRIVE and 297 maneuvers in Sweden from field tests were analyzed. Bayesian regression was used to model how minimum lateral clearance and overtaking speed depended on the three factors. Results showed that drivers maintained smaller minimum lateral clearance and lower overtaking speed when the pedestrian was walking in the opposite direction, on the lane edge, or when oncoming traffic was present. Minimum lateral clearance and time-to-collision were only weakly correlated with overtaking speed. The regression models predicted distributions similar to those actually observed in the data. The time-to-collision at the moment of steering away was comparable in value to the time-to-collision used by Euro NCAP for testing active safety systems in car-to-pedestrian longitudinal scenarios since 2018.
This study is the first to analyze driver behavior when overtaking pedestrians, based on field test and naturalistic driving data. Results suggest that pedestrian safety is particularly endangered in situations when the pedestrian is walking opposite to traffic, close to the lane, and when oncoming traffic is present. The Bayesian regression models from this study can be used in active safety systems to model drivers’ comfort in overtaking maneuvers.
This article examines experimentally and numerically the effectiveness of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) and a new type of hybrid sandwich insulated panel (SIP) at improving the thermal comfort of ...four case study houses built in Thailand. In Phase 1 of the experimental programme, three scaled-down house units were built with either a) traditional brick walls plastered with a cement-based mortar, b) brick walls plastered with a cement-based mortar mixed with a 15% of PCMs, or c) a new SIP panel termed UWall. The results are discussed in terms of temperature, relative humidity (RH), energy consumption and acoustic performance. It was found that the PCM plastering and UWall effectively reduced the temperatures in the unit between 1 °C and up to 5 °C compared to the counterpart unit with brick walls plastered with cement-based mortar. In Phase 2 of the tests, a 10 × 7 m full-scale house was built with one room built with brick walls plastered with the cement-based mortar-PCM mixture, and one room built with the new UWall. Temperature, RH and indoor air movement were recorded for 48 h. Results from a bioclimatic chart indicates that both temperature and RH in the rooms remained within the comfort zone at all times if air movement is considered. The three units and full-scale house were then modelled in ANSYS® software to carry out a heat transfer analysis. The modelling approach was successful at predicting the maximum temperatures in the tested case study houses (accuracy <7%). For the case study houses and climate conditions considered in this study, the mortar-PCM plastering proved a practical retrofitting solution to improve the thermal performance, RH, energy efficiency and acoustic resistance of existing brick walls. Similar solutions could be adopted to improve the thermal comfort in masonry walls of existing buildings. This article contributes towards developing more effective solutions to improve the thermal comfort in existing houses and buildings located in tropical regions, which in turn can help reduce energy consumption.
•Thermal and acoustic performance of brick walls plastered with phase change materials (PCMs) is studied.•A new wall panel that increases thermal comfort in houses and buildings is also proposed.•Three scaled-down units houses and a full-scale house were built using these types of walls.•PCM plastering and UWall reduced indoor temperatures by up to 1 °C and 5 °C, respectively.•Adopted finite element analysis predicts accurately (<7%) the thermal performance of the houses.
Abstract This study aims to describe the way out of your comfort zone in the style by Suar character in the novel Catatan Juang by Fiersa Besari which is a ...representation of real life. Focus of the study is emphasized on the character of Suar when she finally decides to get out of the comfort zone that shackles of her. To study the character Suar in the novel Catatan Juang, this study used a qualitative descriptive method with content analysis techniques. This qualitative descriptive method is used with the intention of producing a description in the form of words through observed research. The result of research can be concluded that Suar managed to get away from all the routines that she had been complaining about in order to achieve her dream of becoming a film maker. Her struggle ia not easy, but she kept trying hard and finally proved that stepping out of your comfort zone isn’t a bad thing. This is inseparable from the encouragement and influence of motivational words in a book that she accidentally found on public transportion, with title “Catatan Juang” owned by Juang Astrajingga.
•We modelled cyclist comfortable braking and steering using field experimental data.•Cyclists braked with constant deceleration and steered at constant distance.•The higher the speed, the more ...steering came after braking.•We exemplify how the models can inform active safety and infrastructure design.
This paper introduces a framework for modelling the cyclist’s comfort zone. Unlike the driver’s comfort zone, little is known about the cyclist’s. The framework draws on existing literature in cognitive science about driver behaviour to explain experimental results from cycling field trials, and the modelling of these results. We modelled braking and steering manoeuvres from field data of cyclists’ obstacle avoidance within their comfort zone. Results show that when cyclists avoided obstacles by braking, they kept a constant deceleration; as speed increased, they started to brake earlier, farther from the obstacle, maintaining an almost constant time to collision. When cyclists avoided obstacles by steering, they maintained a constant distance from the object, independent of speed. Overall, the higher the speed, the more the steering manoeuvres were temporally delayed compared to braking manoeuvres. We discuss these results and other similarities between cyclist and driver behaviour during obstacle avoidance. Implications for the design of acceptable active safety and infrastructure design are also addressed.
Elevating indoor temperature set-points can reduce cooling energy use. Short-term heat acclimation (HA), the artificially induced adaptation developed in three consecutive days, is an effective ...method to increase the occupants' acceptance to hot environments. However, the quantitative study on the effects of short-term HA on thermal comfort is lacking. To this end, simulated experiments were conducted in a climate chamber to test the difference of subjects' thermal comfort before and after short-term HA. The subjects were instructed to do intermittent treadmill exercise under hot conditions to reach a HA state. During the trials, core temperature, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), and ratings of thermal sensation (RTS) were measured. Perceptual strain index (PeSI) was used to assess the effect of short-term HA. The results showed that short-term HA could improve subjects’ adaptability to warmer environments without sacrificing thermal comfort. Furthermore, a HA zone was defined based on the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) of 10%. The upper limit of the HA zone was 2.1 °C higher than that of the summer thermal comfort zone in ASHRAE Standard 55–2017. This finding suggests that a higher temperature set-point could be considered into the control of air-conditioning systems, contributing to building energy conservation.
•Short-term HA can acclimatize occupants to a warmer indoor environment.•Perceptual strain index (PeSI) was used to assess the effect of short-term HA.•The HA zone was defined, which is broader than the summer thermal comfort zone.•The HA zone's boundary is 2.1 °C higher than that of the thermal comfort zone.•It is feasible to appropriately elevate indoor temperature set-points in summer.
Segregation along lines of race/ethnicity and class has created multi‐ethnic and rather class‐homogeneous neighbourhoods in various European cities, commonly labelled as ‘disadvantaged’. Such ...neighbourhoods are often seen as ‘lacking’ community, as local networks are crucial for belonging and mixed neighbourhoods are too diverse to provide homogeneous identifications. However, in contrast to the understandings of the sociology of community, people might still experience ‘belonging’, yet in different ways. This article argues that we have to focus on the under‐researched ‘time in‐between’ (Byrne, 1978), the absent ties that Granovetter (1973) pointed to, to understand belonging, while moving away from a conception of the anonymous city and from the urban village. This article explores how absent ties affect belonging by empirically sustaining the notion of public familiarity: both recognizing and being recognized in local spaces. Using regression models on survey data from two mixed neighbourhoods in Berlin, Germany, we analyse the importance of neighbourhood use for public familiarity as well as how it relates to residents' comfort zone: people's feeling of belonging and their sense that others would intervene on their behalf. Our findings indicate that research on neighbourhoods could benefit greatly from a careful consideration of the ‘time in‐between’.
This paper contributes to theory building efforts around the concept of knowledge connectivity and its relevance in buyer-supplier relationships in global value chains. We use the Pakistani IT ...industry as our study context. Pakistan suffered a significant adverse perception bias following terror attacks in 2008-09. We based our illustration on the experiences of 12 Pakistani offshore service providers (OSPs) who succeeded in offsetting the negative implications of the country's adverse political environment. The case firms link into two distinct value chain configurations. In each configuration, we observe a distinct course of strategic action, which we term step-up and break-out, respectively. While these observations emerged from the Pakistani context, the implications of the resulting dynamic framework for theory and practice go beyond this particular adverse country setting.
In this work, an opportunity to improve the seasonal utilizability of an indirect evaporative cooler integrated air-conditioning system is presented. The improved design recovers the waste heat from ...wet air passages by supplying them to the comfort zone of produce commodities whilst supplying the dry air to human-occupants-comfort-zone i.e. operating for dual purposes. The analysis is carried out for three different configurations of indirect evaporative cooler namely counter-arrangement, cross-arrangement, and multi-zonal (advanced) heat and mass exchanging devices. The performance of each integrated air-conditioning system is presented in terms of a ‘special’ mixing ratio, system capacity, and energy-efficiency-ratio. Results have shown that the waste heat from the wet passages can be exploited and the seasonal utilizability factors of the proposed air-conditioning system can reach up to 1.41, 1.13 and 1.34 for counter, cross, and multi-zonal indirect-evaporative coolers respectively. Afterwards, the system analysis for different climatic conditions has shown that it offers high performance in desert and semi-arid regions.
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•Dual-purpose indirect-evaporative cooler integrated air-conditioner is presented.•It can meet the comfort zone of human and produce occupants.•Three configurations of indirect-evaporative coolers are analyzed.•It increases the seasonal utilizability factor to a maximum of 1.41.•It shows the best performance for dry climatic regions.
Abstract
Thermal stress can result in productivity losses, morbidity, and mortality if proper management practices are not employed. A basic understanding of the relationship between animals and the ...thermal environment is crucial to assess the environment’s impact on livestock performance. Therefore, the study objective was to evaluate whether different early life thermal stressors (ELTS) altered the temperature preference of pigs later in life. Twelve sows and their litters were randomly exposed to 1 of 3 ELTS treatments from 7 to 9 d of age: early life heat stress (ELHS; cycling 32 to 38 °C; n = 4), early life cold stress (ELCS; 25.4±1.1 °C without heating lamp; n = 4), or early life thermoneutral (ELTN; 25.4±1.1 °C with a heating lamp; n = 4) conditions. From 10 to 20 d, (weaning) all piglets were exposed to ELTN conditions. At weaning, pigs were randomly assigned to groups of 4 of the same sex and ELTS treatment. Temperature preference, where pigs freely choose a temperature, was assessed in 21 groups (n = 7 groups per ELTS treatment) using 1 of 3 thermal gradient apparatuses (22 to 40 °C). Testing began at 26 ± 1.3 d of age to give pigs time to acclimate to solid food after weaning and 1 group per ELTS treatment were tested simultaneously in each apparatus. Pigs were given 24 h to acclimate followed by a 24-h testing period. Behavior (active and inactive), posture (upright, sternal, and lateral lying), and location were documented every 20 min using instantaneous scan samples. Preferred feeding temperature was determined by the latency to empty a feeder in each location. Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED in SAS 9.4. A cubic regression model was used to calculate the peak temperature preference of pigs based on the temperature pigs spent most of their time. The preference range was calculated using peak temperature preference ±SE for each ELTS treatment group. Early life thermal stress altered where pigs spent most of their time within the thermal gradient (P = 0.03) with ELTN pigs preferring cooler temperatures (peak preference of 23.8 °C) compared with their ELCS exposed counterparts (peak preference of 26.0 °C; P < 0.01). However, ELHS exposed pigs (peak preference of 25.6 °C) did not differ in their temperature preference compared with ELTN or ELCS exposed counterparts (P > 0.05). In summary, ELCS exposure altered pig temperature preference later in life indicating that ELTS can alter temperature preference in pigs.
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