Main effects and interactions of multiple key factors related to thermal perception.

The real indoor environment involves the comprehensive interaction of multiple factors, and human subjective responses to different factors are influenced by various aspects such as physics, physiology, and psychology. The relative significance of various factors influencing different types of human subjective thermal perception, as well as the extent of their interactions, remains somewhat unclear. This investigation, leveraging the "Chinese Thermal Comfort Dataset," analyzed the integrated impact of basic thermal perception factors-temperature, humidity, air speed, as well as clothing insulation and metabolic rate-on subjective thermal perception. The findings underscored the definitive role of air temperature as the primary determinant of thermal sensation, with the impact of other factors generally remaining below 15 % of temperature. Nonetheless, the sensitivity of thermal sensation to temperature is significantly affected by other factors, demonstrating a significant interaction between temperature and different factors in influencing temperature sensation. Additionally, it was observed that significant differences (p < 0.001) in thermal comfort levels existed even at the same thermal sensation. For instance, in the state of thermal neutrality, occupants with relatively higher clothing insulation reported higher thermal comfort level (d = 0.40, p < 0.001) during the cooling season but lower thermal comfort level (d = 0.54, P < 0.001) during the heating season. Consequently, it can be deduced that when comprehensively considering the impact of multiple factors, evaluating the environment solely based on thermal sensation or thermal neutrality may prove insufficient.

Shortcut barcoding and early pooling for scalable multiplex single-cell reduced-representation CpG methylation sequencing at single nucleotide resolution.

DNA methylation is essential for a wide variety of biological processes, yet the development of a highly efficient and robust technology remains a challenge for routine single-cell analysis. We developed a multiplex scalable single-cell reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (msRRBS) technology. It allows cell-specific barcoded DNA fragments of individual cells to be pooled before bisulfite conversion, free of enzymatic modification or physical capture of the DNA ends, and achieves read mapping rates of 62.5 ± 3.9%, covering 60.0 ± 1.4% of CpG islands and 71.6 ± 1.6% of promoters in K562 cells. Its reproducibility is shown in duplicates of bulk cells with close to perfect correlation (R = 0.97-0.99). At a low 1 Mb of clean reads, msRRBS provides highly consistent coverage of CpG islands and promoters, outperforming the conventional methods with orders of magnitude reduction in cost. Here, we use this method to characterize the distinct methylation patterns and cellular heterogeneity of six cell lines, plus leukemia and hepatocellular carcinoma models. Taking 4 h of hands-on time, msRRBS offers a unique, highly efficient approach for dissecting methylation heterogeneity in a variety of multicellular systems.

The Chinese thermal comfort dataset.

Heating and cooling in buildings accounts for over 20% of total energy consumption in China. Therefore, it is essential to understand the thermal requirements of building occupants when establishing building energy codes that would save energy while maintaining occupants' thermal comfort. This paper introduces the Chinese thermal comfort dataset, established by seven participating institutions under the leadership of Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology. The dataset comprises 41,977 sets of data collected from 49 cities across five climate zones in China over the past two decades. The raw data underwent careful quality control procedure, including systematic organization, to ensure its reliability. Each dataset contains environmental parameters, occupants' subjective responses, building information, and personal information. The dataset has been instrumental in the development of indoor thermal environment evaluation standards and energy codes in China. It can also have broader applications, such as contributing to the international thermal comfort dataset, modeling thermal comfort and adaptive behaviors, investigating regional differences in indoor thermal conditions, and examining occupants' thermal comfort responses.

Temporal and spatial heterogeneity of indoor and outdoor temperatures and their relationship with thermal sensation from a global perspective.

People spend most of their time indoors. However, indoor temperature and individual thermal exposure are generally not considered in epidemiological studies of temperature and health. Based on the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) RP-884 Database, the ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II and the Chinese Thermal Comfort Database, this study first explored the relationship between outdoor temperature, indoor temperature and thermal sensation from a global perspective. Moreover, the potential influence of spatiotemporal heterogeneity on health studies was explored. A breakpoint was found at approximately 11.5 °C in the segmented regression of indoor and outdoor temperature, and the slope of the curve was greater when outdoor temperature was above the breakpoint (n = 67,896). Based on multi-group propensity score matching (PSM) and generalizedadditivemodels (GAM), spatiotemporal heterogeneity was found in the relationship between indoor and outdoor temperatures after adjusting for building type and year. Furthermore, the relationship between indoor temperature and thermal sensation was influenced by the outdoor temperature. This study highlights the importance of considering indoor temperature or individual thermal exposure in temperature-related health studies.

Association between subjective well-being and all-cause mortality among older adults in China.

BACKGROUND: Although several studies in high-income countries have suggested a positive association between subjective well-being (SWB) and mortality, studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries, such as China, are scarce. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between SWB and all-cause mortality among the older Chinese population. METHODS: Data were from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), a population-based longitudinal cohort study in 22 of 31 provinces in mainland China. A total of 13,282 individuals aged 65 ≥ years who were recruited in 2002 and followed-up until 2018 were included. SWB was assessed with an eight-item tool covering life satisfaction, positive affect (including optimism, happiness, personal control and conscientiousness) and negative affect (including anxiety, loneliness and uselessness). Cox proportional hazards regression methods were carried out to estimate the association between SWB and total mortality, adjusting for a wide range of potential confounders. Subgroup analyses and interaction analyses were further conducted. RESULTS: During the 16.5 years of follow-up, 8459 deaths were identified. Greater SWB was independently associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 0.85, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.81-0.89) after adjustment for age, sex, marital status, education level, place of residence, smoking status, drinking, exercise, diet, BMI, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases and cancer. Of the eight individual SWB symptoms, only 2 items, feelings of uselessness (adjusted HR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.89-0.99) and happiness (adjusted HR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.86-0.95), were significantly associated with total mortality. Associations remained significant across all subgroups regardless of different characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Higher SWB overall and 2 certain symptoms (feelings of uselessness and happiness) were independently associated with all-cause mortality risk among older Chinese adults. The association was consistent across different groups, suggesting that promoting a healthier SWB may be beneficial to all older individuals irrespective of their characteristics.

Interactive effects of indoor environmental factors on work performance.

Among a variety of environmental factors, operative temperature, relative humidity and ventilation rate are generally considered to be factors that significantly affect work performance, and the interactions among these three factors were quantitatively studied in this paper. Eighteen participants were recruited to complete the neurobehavioral ability tests in different environments by central composite design, and their performance was analysed by regression fitting and multi-factor coupling analysis. By defining the interval coefficient ß, the interaction effects between the factors were calculated quantitatively. The results showed that: for the performance of perception and expression tasks, there was an antagonistic effect between operative temperature and relative humidity (ß = 0.50 ∼ 0.82), between operative temperature and ventilation rate (ß = -0.29 to -0.38), and among the three factors (ß = 0.38-0.67). There was a synergy effect between relative humidity and ventilation rate (ß = 1.71-2.28). For the performance of reasoning tasks, the interaction effect among the three factors and their combinations is antagonistic effect (ß = 0.67-0.83).Practitioner summary: We proposed a method to calculate the quantitative relation of multi-factor interactions. In recent ergonomics studies, more and more factors have been included. This method can well describe the synergistic or antagonistic effect of the changes of other factors on the target factors.

Four kinds of body temperatures and their relationships with thermal perception.

Body temperature serves as the principal factor in thermal perception determination. Current thermal comfort researches mainly focused on skin temperature, while other kinds of body temperatures were often ignored. In laboratory with strictly controlled environment, 26 subjects (13 males and 13 females) remained seated for a duration of 130 min in two thermal environments (19 °C and 35 °C), arranged in a particular order; four kinds of body temperatures (skin temperature, oral temperature, auditory canal temperature and breath temperature) and three kinds of thermal perception votes (thermal sensation, thermal comfort and thermal acceptable) were regularly collected. The analysis results showed that, skin temperature and breath temperature significantly changed with ambient temperature (p < 0.001); the difference between average value of core temperature in two conditions was small (≤0.3 °C), but a significant difference was almost observed in auditory canal temperature of males (p = 0.07). Both skin temperature and breath temperature were significantly related with three subjective votes (p < 0.001), meanwhile, the prediction accuracy of breath temperature for thermal perception was in no way inferior to skin temperature. Although oral temperature and auditory canal temperature had partial significant correlations with thermal perception, they were difficult to be carried out in practical application due to their weak explanatory powers (correlation coefficient <0.3). In summary, this research tried to establish correlation laws between body temperatures and thermal perception votes during a temperature step-change experiment, while finding the potential of utilizing breath temperature for thermal perception prediction, which is expected to be further promoted in the future.

Gender differences in thermal sensation and skin temperature sensitivity under local cooling.

Local cooling has proven to be an alternative to traditional comfort air conditioning to ensure users' thermal comfort while conserving energy. Few studies have investigated the gender differences in the applicable cooling temperatures and the applicable cooling locations and the differences in the sensitivity of skin temperature to thermal sensation under local cooling. Based on the design of orthogonal experiment, nine chamber experiments were conducted through different combinations of ambient temperature, cooling temperature, and cooling location. The subjective questionnaires and objective measurements were obtained in each experimental case. The results showed that the ambient temperature and the cooling location significantly affect the human overall thermal sensation of both genders under local cooling, while cooling temperature and cooling location significantly affect the local thermal sensation. For female, a neutral thermal sensation can be achieved by cooling the back at 24-26 °C when the ambient temperature is 31 °C. Back cooling at 22-26 °C is effective for male when the ambient temperature is 28 °C and 31 °C, and sole cooling with a higher cooling temperature is more acceptable at 34 °C. Moreover, female skin temperature is more sensitive to thermal sensation than that of males under local cooling. The upper arm skin temperature is most sensitive to thermal sensations for female, while the forearm skin temperature is most sensitive for male.

Refusal of treatment among HER2-positive breast cancer patients in China: a retrospective analysis.

Background: There is a need to update the understanding of treatment refusal among cancer patients in China, taking into account recent developments. This study investigated how public insurance coverage of the first breast cancer targeted therapy contributed to the changes in treatment refusal among HER2-positive breast cancer patients in China. And it intensively examined and discussed additional barriers affecting patient utilization of innovative anticancer medicines based on the types and reasons for treatment refusal. Methods: This retrospective study included female breast cancer patients diagnosed as HER2-positive who received treatment at a provincial oncology center in southern China between 2014 and 2020. Multivariable analysis was conducted using a binary logistic regression model. Subgroup analysis was performed with the same regression model. Results: Among the 1,322 HER2-positive breast cancer patients who received treatment at the study hospital between 2014 and 2020, 327 (24.55%) had ever refused treatment. Economic reasons were reported as the primary cause by 142 patients (43.43%). Patients diagnosed after September 2017, when the first breast cancer targeted therapy was included in the public health insurance, were less likely to refuse treatment (OR = 0.64, 95% CI:0.45 ~ 0.91, p = 0.01) compared to those diagnosed before September 2017. Patients enrolled in the resident health insurance were more likely to refuse treatment (OR = 2.43, 95% CI:1.77 ~ 3.35, p < 0.001) than those enrolled in the employee health insurance. Conclusion: This study reveals a high rate of treatment refusal among HER2-positive breast cancer patients, primarily attributed to financial factors. The disparity in public health insurance benefits resulted in a heavier economic burden for patients with less comprehensive benefits. Furthermore, the study identified challenges faced by patients seeking quality-assured cancer care in underdeveloped regions in China. By addressing economic barriers, promoting accurate health information, and improving cancer care capacity across the country can reduce the rate of treatment refusal.

Association between changes in depressive symptoms and hip fracture among middle-aged and older Chinese individuals: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Although studies have shown that depressive symptoms are associated with an increased risk of hip fracture (HF). Depressive symptoms are dynamic, and it is unclear whether HF risk persists if depressive symptoms remit. This study aims to examine the associations between changes in depressive symptoms and HF risk. METHODS: Data were from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study from 2011 to 2018. Depressive symptoms were measured using the 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiological Studied Depression scale (cutoff ≥ 10). Changes in depressive symptoms were classified into four groups by two successive surveys (stable low/no, recent-onset, recently remitted, and stable high depressive symptoms). Multivariable logistic regressions were performed to assess whether changes in depressive symptoms were associated with HF incidents reported through 2018, adjusting for age, sex, educational level, marital status and other potential confounding factors. RESULTS: In total, 8574 participants were included, 265 (3.1%) of whom had reported HF incidents in the subsequent 5-year period. Participants with recent-onset (OR = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.40-2.77) or stable high (OR = 2.15, 95% CI = 1.53-3.02) symptoms had a higher risk of HF than those with stable low/no depressive symptoms, whereas those with improved depressive symptoms (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 0.89-1.82) had no elevation in HF risk. CONCLUSION: Stable high and recent-onset depressive symptoms were associated with increased HF risk, and no elevated HF risk was observed if symptoms remitted, suggesting that strategies to reduce depressive symptoms may be beneficial for HF prevention.

Discussion on regression analysis with small determination coefficient in human-environment researches.

As the main indicator for assessing the explanatory strength of regression model, there is no denying that a bigger value of determination coefficient (R-squared, R2 ) is the consistent pursuit of researchers in human-environment field, but whether to abandon or apply the model with a small value of R2 is an ongoing argument. This paper summarizes three characteristics of human-environment researches (large number of various variables, large mathematical sample size, and polynomial regression model). Based on the mathematical mechanism of regression analysis, theoretical analysis and case study are combined to point out the misconceptions that are easy to step into and the corresponding suggested methods from three perspectives: selection of determination coefficients, consideration of independent variables, and application of regression models. An extraordinary important point is, if the regression model passes the significance test, even with a small coefficient of determination, it can still quantitatively explain the impact extent of independent variables on dependent variables, but cannot comprehensively and accurately predict the specific value of dependent variable based on existing independent variables; moreover, the larger the sample size, the closer the interpretation of dependent variables in local model to ideal model. It is expected that these cases and lessons could help researchers to better apply regression analysis in human-environment researches, and that the small value of R2 would not be an excessive restriction affecting the development of scientific research in this field.

Characteristics of PM2.5 emissions from six types of commercial cooking in Chinese cities and their health effects.

Commercial kitchens may pose significant health risks to workers because they generate large quantities of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). In our study, the concentrations and emission rates of PM2.5 in cooking environments were measured for six types of commercial kitchens that used electricity and natural gas (including traditional Chinese kitchens, western kitchens, teppanyaki kitchens, fried chicken kitchens, barbecue kitchens, and hotpot cooking area). Furthermore, a preliminary health risk assessment of the chefs was undertaken using the annual PM2.5 inhalation and PM2.5 deposition rates into the upper airways and tracheobronchial and alveolar regions of the human body. Results showed that cooking in the teppanyaki kitchen generated the highest amount of PM2.5, with a mean emission rate of 7.7 mg/min and a mean mass concentration of 850.4 ± 533.4 µg/m³ in the breathing zone. Therefore, teppanyaki kitchens pose highest PM2.5 exposure risks to chefs, with the highest rate of PM2.5 deposition in the upper airways (6.38 × 105 µg/year), followed by Chinese kitchens. The PM2.5 concentrations and emission rates of each kitchen varied greatly with the dishes cooked. The mean PM2.5 concentration was the highest during Chinese stir-frying, with the peak concentration reaching more than 20,000 µg/m3, followed by pan-frying, deep-frying, stewing, and boiling. A rise in PM2.5 concentration was also observed during the start of stir-frying and in the middle to late stages of pan-frying and grilling meat. The results obtained in our study may contribute in understanding the characteristics of PM2.5 emissions from various types of commercial kitchens and their health effects.

Effects of multiple indoor environmental factors on anaerobic exercise performance.

Indoor stadium is an important place for physical exercise and sports practice, but few studies have considered the impact of indoor environment on exercise performance. Anaerobic exercise refers to exercise with high load intensity and instantaneous intensity. Many kinds of exercise performance are closely related to anaerobic exercise. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of temperature, relative humidity and CO2 concentration on anaerobic exercise performance. Sixteen healthy participants (21.5 ± 3.5 years) performed Wingate anaerobic test in 9 cases under the orthogonal experimental design. Temperature is a significant factor affecting peak power (p < 0.05) and average power (p < 0.05). The peak power at 22 °C and 25 °C is 5.4% and 5.1% higher than that at 28 °C, and the average power at 22 °C and 25 °C is 4.2% and 4.3% higher than that at 28 °C. Besides, temperature affected overall environmental satisfaction before and after exercise (p < 0.005, p < 0.005) as well as ear temperature in sedentary state and after warm-up exercise (p < 0.005, p < 0.005). The range of 22 °C-25 °C is closer to the neutral temperature, and it is suitable for anaerobic exercise. However, we did not find that changes in relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration had an effect on anaerobic exercise performance.

Objective sleep assessments for healthy people in environmental research: A literature review.

To date, although many studies had focused on the impact of environmental factors on sleep, how to choose the proper assessment method for objective sleep quality was often ignored, especially for healthy subjects in bedroom environment. In order to provide methodological guidance for future research, this paper reviewed the assessments of objective sleep quality applied in environmental researches, compared them from the perspective of accuracy and interference, and statistically analyzed the impact of experimental type and subjects' information on method selection. The review results showed that, in contrast to polysomnography (PSG), the accuracy of actigraphy (ACT), respiratory monitoring-oxygen saturation monitoring (RM-OSM), and electrocardiograph (ECG) could reach up to 97%, 80.38%, and 79.95%, respectively. In terms of sleep staging, PSG and ECG performed the best, ACT the second, and RM-OSM the worst; as compared to single methods, mix methods were more accurate and better at sleep staging. PSG interfered with sleep a great deal, while ECG and ACT could be non-contact, and thus, the least interference with sleep was present. The type of experiment significantly influenced the choice of assessment method (p < 0.001), 85.3% of researchers chose PSG in laboratory study while 82.5% ACT in field study; moreover, PSG was often used in a relatively small number of young subjects, while ACT had a wide applicable population. In general, researchers need to pay more attention at selection of assessments in future studies, and this review can be used as a reliable reference for experimental design.

Evaluation of the feasibility of using skin temperature to predict overall thermal sensation in non-uniform thermal environments.

Skin temperature is an important physiological parameter that reflects human thermal sensation. However, it is uncertain whether it can evaluate overall thermal sensation in non-uniform thermal environments. This study aims to explore the feasibility of using skin temperature to predict overall thermal sensation in non-uniform environments. The overall thermal sensation votes and skin temperatures were obtained in a non-uniform thermal environment with local cooling on the chest in a climate chamber. The predictive power of the representative skin temperature (RST) estimated from five different methods was examined by analysing its sensitivity and the correlation between the overall thermal sensation and the RST. The RSTs estimated from the 7-point method with the measurement site of trunk assigned on the chest and the 1-point method with a measurement site at the centre of the chest had high sensitivity and coefficients of determination. They could reflect overall thermal sensation in the non-uniform environments with local cooling on the chest. The results imply that skin temperature could be used to evaluate overall thermal sensation in non-uniform environments. The overall thermal sensation in non-uniform environments can be evaluated by the RST if, when determining the RST, the measuring site exposed to local cooling is involved and given a high weight.

Prospective association between depressive symptoms and hip fracture and fall among middle-aged and older Chinese individuals.

BACKGROUND: The effect of depressive symptoms on hip fracture (HF) and falls among the Chinese population is unclear. This study aims to examine the prospective association between depressive symptoms and HF as well as fall accidents in a nationally representative Chinese population. METHODS: We used data from 10,596 participants in the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (from 2011 to 2018) who were aged ≥45 years and had no HFs at baseline. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiological Studied Depression scale (cutoff for distinguishing high versus low at ≥12). Logistic regression analyses adjusted for demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors and physical comorbidities were performed. RESULTS: For the analysis of baseline depressive symptoms and HF, 399 (3.8%) participants reported HF accidents in the following 7-year period. Individuals with elevated depressive symptoms at baseline experienced a markedly higher HF risk (odds ratio [OR] = 1.33, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.06-1.67) than those without elevated depressive symptoms, after adjusting for a wide range of potential confounders. For the analysis of baseline depressive symptoms and falls, 3974 (37.5%) experienced fall accidents during the follow-up. The presence of elevated depressive symptoms was independently associated with an increased risk of fall events (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.10-1.33). These associations were consistent across multiple characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, elevated depressive symptoms were associated with an increased risk of HF and falls, which may have considerable clinical and preventive implications.

Combined impact of lifestyle-related factors on total mortality among the elder Chinese: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The combined impact of healthy lifestyle factors on total mortality among elder Chinese is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the overall impact of lifestyle factors on total mortality in a senior Chinese population, and determine whether these associations were consistent in the presence of different characteristics, including physical comorbidities. METHODS: The Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) is a large population-based prospective cohort study in 22 of 31 provinces from mainland China. We included 15,163 adults aged ≥65 years recruited from 1998- to 2002 and followed-up until 2014. A healthy lifestyle score was calculated considering five lifestyle factors (exercise, smoking, dietary diversity, body mass index and drinking). The scores ranged from zero to five points and were classified into the following three categories: unhealthy (0-1 point), intermediate (2-3 points) and healthy (4-5 points). Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to assess the associations between the combined healthy lifestyle score and total mortality, adjusting for demographic characteristics and physical comorbidities, as appropriate. Stratification analyses and interaction analyses were further performed. RESULTS: Among the 15,163 participants, the mean age (SD) was 86.2 (11.6) years. During an average follow-up period of 12.5 (SD = 3.9) years, 9655 deaths occurred. The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of total mortality decreased as the number of healthy lifestyle factors increased. Compared to the unhealthy lifestyle group, the healthy lifestyle group had a HR and 95% CI of 0.78 and 0.72-0.83. The population attributable risk of total death among those without a healthy lifestyle was 25.2%. A healthier lifestyle pattern was associated with a lower total mortality risk among individuals with different severities of physical comorbidities, although the associations were stronger among those with fatal physical comorbidities (p-interaction < .001). CONCLUSIONS: In this large-scale study, a healthier lifestyle measured by regular exercise participation, never smoking, never drinking, good dietary diversity and normal weight, was inversely associated with total mortality, regardless of physical comorbidity status. These findings support the necessity of multiple lifestyle modifications to prevent premature death in both general elderly populations and those with physical comorbidities.

Associations between depressive symptoms and sleep duration for predicting cardiovascular disease onset: A prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The joint effects of depressive symptoms and sleep on the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to assess the combined impact of depressive symptoms and sleep duration on the incidence of CVD among middle-aged and older Chinese individuals. METHODS: Data were from the China Health and Longitudinal Study conducted in 2013, 2015, and 2018. A total of 9595 participants aged ≥ 45 years without a history of CVD in 2013 were included. Depressive symptoms were measured using the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (elevated depressive symptoms cutoff ≥ 10). Average sleep duration was self-reported. Logistic regression analyses adjusted for age, sex, marital status, education and other potential confounders were conducted. RESULTS: In total, 1072 (11.2%) participants reported CVD incidents over the 5-year period. Elevated depressive symptoms (OR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.30-1.72) and short sleep duration (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.05-1.40) were independently associated with an increased CVD risk in the fully adjusted model. Individuals with short sleep duration/low depressive symptoms (OR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.12-1.60), short sleep duration/elevated depressive symptoms (OR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.41-2.50), or long sleep duration/elevated depressive symptoms (OR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.38-3.27) were more likely to develop CVD than those with normal sleep duration/low depressive symptoms. LIMITATIONS: Depressive symptoms and sleep duration were self-reported. CONCLUSIONS: A stronger risk of CVD was found when depressive symptoms and short or long sleep durations occurred together, suggesting that an integrated approach to sleep and depressive symptoms might be a feasible strategy for the prevention of CVD.

Comparing the effects of sun and wind on outdoor thermal comfort: A case study based on longitudinal subject tests in cold climate region.

Sun and wind are important physical factors that influence outdoor thermal comfort. This study compared the impact of sun and wind on outdoor thermal sensation by analyzing 3546 samples of subject test data during a case study in a cold climate city Tianjin, China. The data was collected from subject tests conducted under air temperatures ranging from 3.8 °C to 35.2 °C (mean 20.2 °C), wind from 0 to 4.8 m/s (mean 0.6 m/s), mean radiant temperature 1.8 to 68.9 °C (mean 36.8 °C) in Tianjin, China. In this particular study, the sun was found to be a more significant factor than wind during the test. Standardized linear regression of the pooled dataset revealed that the contributions of air temperature, sun, wind, and humidity to thermal sensation were 56%, 29.4%, 8.8%, and 5.9%, respectively. When compared under different air temperature ranges, the effect of sun was more than two times greater that of wind. When the air temperature was in the range of 5-10 °C, solar exposure increased the thermal sensation by more than 2 units, but a reduction in wind speed had no observable effect on thermal sensation. When the air temperature was as high as 30-35 °C, increasing the wind by up to 2 m/s lowered the thermal sensation in the shade, but not in the sun. A summary of pedestrian level wind measured in real urban spaces in 28 previous studies indicated that urban spaces generally have low wind speeds, with the median value of mean wind speed of 0.8 m/s. The results of this study provide useful information for designs to creating comfortable urban open spaces.