Protection against harmful chemical materials is compulsory in many aspects of everyday life. Proper and adequate protective clothing is desirable during household chores and in industrial, agricultural, and medical work, during military operations; and in response to incidents of terrorism. Different types of materials and garment designs are used in these clothing items, and protection levels...

Background: The adoption of air conditioning (AC) is growing rapidly in developing countries across the world which puts a high burden on electricity distribution systems. This development is mostly driven by income growth and building design, but also due to increasing outdoor temperatures and to provide indoor thermal comfort. Current indoor thermal comfort standards are based on western clot...

Post mortem changes are important in estimating post mortem interval (PMI). This project's aim was to study the effect of burial and type of clothing on rate of decomposition, which can contribute to estimating PMI for victims. 12 rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) carcasses were separated into 3 groups: no clothing, light clothing and heavy clothing. Control subjects were placed on the ground sur...

The present work is dedicated to the study of occupational cold environments in food distribution industrial units. Field measurements and a subjective assessment based on an individual questionnaire were considered. The survey was carried out in 5 Portuguese companies. The field measurements include 26 workplaces, while a sample of 160 responses was considered for the subjective assessment. In...

Cost-effective nanotechnology-based waterrepellent treatments for clothing fabrics are now commercially available. The effectiveness of these durable water repellent (DWR) fabric treatments were evaluated for application to military uniforms. The addition of a non-wicking finish to clothing fabric negatively impacts comfort in hot and humid environments. Clothing comfort may be improved by refi...

The transfer of heat radiation through clothing (Bröde et al., 2005; Clark & Cena, 1978; Lotens & Pieters, 1995) and the effects of moisture in different clothing layers (Bröde et al., 2008a; Havenith et al., 2008; Richards et al., 2008) have been studied separately. Also models predicting the heat gain from radiation (den Hartog et al., 2007; Lotens & Pieters, 1995) or the heat loss with wet c...

Burn injury is a ubiquitous threat in the military environment. The risks during combat are well recognised, but the handling of fuel, oil, munitions and other hot or flammable materials during peacetime deployment and training also imposes an inherent risk of accidental burn injury. Over the last hundred years, the burn threat in combat has ranged from nuclear weapons to small shoulderlaunched...

Burn injury is a ubiquitous threat in the military environment. The risks during combat are well recognised, but the handling of fuel, oil, munitions and other hot or flammable materials during peacetime deployment and training also imposes an inherent risk of accidental burn injury. Over the last hundred years, the burn threat in combat has ranged from nuclear weapons to small shoulderlaunched...