Mitigating aerosol infection risk in school buildings: The role of natural ventilation, volume, occupancy and CO2 monitoring

2021 ◽  
pp. 108139
Author(s):  
Alessandro Zivelonghi ◽  
Massimo Lai
2022 ◽  
pp. 1420326X2110587
Author(s):  
Dadi Zhang ◽  
Er Ding ◽  
Philomena M. Bluyssen

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the ventilation of school buildings has attracted considerable attention from the general public and researchers. However, guidance to assess the ventilation performance in classrooms, especially during a pandemic, is still lacking. Therefore, aiming to fill this gap, this study conducted a full-scale laboratory study to monitor the CO2 concentrations at 18 locations in a classroom setting under four different ventilation regimes. Additionally, a field study was carried out in two Dutch secondary schools to monitor the CO2 concentrations in the real classrooms with different ventilation regimes. Both the laboratory and field study findings showed that CO2 concentrations varied a lot between different locations in the same room, especially under natural ventilation conditions. The outcome demonstrates the need of monitoring the CO2 concentration at more than one location in a classroom. Moreover, the monitored CO2 concentration patterns for different ventilation regimes were used to determine the most representative location for CO2 monitoring in classrooms. For naturally ventilated classrooms, the location on the wall opposite to windows and the location on the front wall (nearby the teacher) were recommended. For mechanically ventilated classrooms, one measurement location seemed enough because CO2 was well-mixed under this ventilation regime.


Heritage ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 3987-4000
Author(s):  
Fazeleh Yousefi ◽  
Francesco Nocera

Vernacular and traditional Iranian architecture has always acted rationally, harmoniously, and climate-friendly to meet the needs of the people in dealing with the environment. In addition, without harming the environment, they have achieved the best initiatives with the least facilities. For example, we can mention that the Ab-Anbars in arid and desert areas of Iran, which are used to store water in seasons with precipitation for use in the rest of the year, has been an optimal way to use natural resources and provide climate comfort. The Ab-Anbars are realized with ventilated cisterns through openings on their roof or wind-catchers to keep the water cool and provide comfortable conditions for the occupants. In order to study the essential role of natural ventilation and cooling in the Ab-Anbars, thermal analysis with CFD software was carried out to assess the effectiveness of a typical wind-catcher according to different wind directions in Yazd city. The results showed that Ab-Anbars have played an important role in reducing cooling loads and supply the necessary ventilation rate of buildings and can be used in the future for application in contemporary architecture and urban planning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Helfenberger ◽  
Catherina Schreiber

ABSTRACT The paper examines the hypothesis, that school buildings construct the future citizens of the nation-state. We specifically ask, how such national constructions play out in multilingual nation-states. With a special focus on the development of school architecture in a variety of regions including as major cases Luxembourg and Switzerland, the paper analyses school buildings as the spaces where the act of physically going to school takes place. As a dominant of the local scenery, schools were also actively involved in the presentation of spaces, displaying concepts of the nation or its sub-units. In Switzerland, it reveals the strong importance of the cantons and communities; in Luxembourg it showed the significant role of the capital as well as the local commune and demographical policies of the country: While national coherence was emphasized and also symbolically transported for instance through uniform school buildings or model school types, we found also that the school buildings were of overall importance for the profile finding of regions and communes and became powerful agents of societal planning in anchoring citizens to specific regions and shaping the core of the village. In both cases, the article demonstrates the significant contribution of school buildings to the manifold ways of unifying citizens and differentiating them according to societal needs.


Blood ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott R Goldsmith ◽  
Muhammad Bilal Abid ◽  
Jeffery J. Auletta ◽  
Asad Bashey ◽  
Amer Beitinjaneh ◽  
...  

Prior studies suggest increased CMV infection following haploidentical donor transplantation with post-transplant cyclophosphamide (HaploCy). The role of allograft source and PTCy in CMV infection and disease is unclear. We analyzed the effect of graft source and PTCy on incidence of CMV infection as well as transplant outcomes as it relates to CMV serostatus and occurrence of CMV infection by d180. We examined patients reported to CIBMTR between 2012-2017 who had received HaploCy (n = 757), Sib with PTCy (SibCy, n=403), or Sib with calcineurin inhibitor-based prophylaxis (SibCNI, n=1605) for AML/ALL/MDS. Cumulative incidences of CMV infection by d180 were 42% (99% CI, 37-46), 37% (31 - 43), and 23% (20 - 26), respectively [p<0.001]. CMV end-organ disease was statistically comparable. CMV infection risk was highest for CMV-Seropositive recipients (R+), but significantly higher in PTCy recipients regardless of donor [HaploCy (n=545): HR 50.3 (14.4 - 175.2); SibCy (n=279): HR 47.7 (13.3 - 171.4); SibCNI (n=1065): HR 24.4 (7.2 - 83.1); p<0.001]. D+/R- patients also had increased risk for CMV infection. Among seropositive recipients or those developing CMV infection, HaploCy had worse OS and NRM. Relapse was unaffected by CMV infection or serostatus. PTCy was associated with lower chronic GVHD overall, but CMV infection in PTCy recipients was associated with higher cGVHD (p=0.006). PTCy, regardless of donor, is associated with higher incidence of CMV infection, augmenting the risk of seropositivity. Additionally CMV infection may negate the cGVHD protection of PTCy. This study supports aggressive prevention strategies in all patients receiving PTCy.


Author(s):  
Marek Telejko ◽  
Ewa Zender-Swiercz

Most primary school buildings in Poland rely on natural ventilation. This fact is attributed to the age of these buildings constructed more than dozen or even several tens of years ago. Few of them were fitted with a mechanical ventilation system allowing for the adjustment of microclimate parameters. The national requirements for gravity ventilation provide general guidelines, specifying strict description only for the airtightness of windows and doors and the minimum airflow to be supplied to the rooms. The minimum airflow supplied is independent of the number of occupants and purpose of the room. Low indoor air quality (IAQ) can impact occupants’ health and lead to poor productivity or low academic performance. Therefore the provision of good IAQ in classrooms and laboratories is very important. This paper presents the results of the investigation devoted to the quality of indoor air in classrooms of selected Polish primary school. Six primary school in a town with a population of 200 000 inhabitants were involved in the investigations. The participating school buildings were built between 1976 and 1994 and had gravity ventilation systems. The variability of basic IAQ parameters, i.e., temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide level, was analysed and the assessment of the classrooms in terms of microbiological purity was performed. The outcomes confirmed the low quality of the indoor air in these buildings. The maximum value of CO2 concentration amounted to more than 4000 ppm. Certain modifications aimed at improving IAQ were proposed during the investigations. Two solutions were implemented. The results of this study indicate that the proposed solution offers the potential to improve IAQ within classrooms.


Sexual Health ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Chelimo ◽  
Trecia A. Wouldes ◽  
Linda D. Cameron

Two-hundred undergraduate students completed an anonymous questionnaire after viewing a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine television commercial. Eight-four percent of participants would accept a free HPV vaccine, whereas 47% were unconcerned about future personal HPV infection risk. Males were less likely to accept a free HPV vaccine and to be concerned about future personal HPV infection risk. Perceived HPV vaccine effectiveness was significantly greater among participants who had previously heard of the vaccine and who knew that HPV is sexually transmitted. More education on the role of sexual behavioural characteristics of both males and females in HPV transmission is necessary to promote awareness and concern of personal HPV infection risk and acceptance of HPV vaccination.


2020 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 18007
Author(s):  
Francisca Cavaleiro Barbosa ◽  
Vasco Peixoto de Freitas ◽  
Manuela Almeida

Portuguese school buildings are generally characterized by an in-service thermal discomfort, due to the poor envelope thermal properties and the lack of resources for paying energy consumption. Most Portuguese schools are free-running buildings with a natural ventilation strategy. Hundreds of high and basic schools have not been refurbished and still have problems or anomalies and inadequate in-service conditions and need to be rehabilitated in the near future. There will be, therefore, an opportunity to apply the acquired knowledge of comfort, habits, energy consumption and costs that have been studied since the last refurbishments (2008). This work studies the Portuguese Brandão schools model (from the ’70s), including about 100 non-refurbished basic schools. A prototype classroom was prepared in a Brandão school, in Porto. The in situ experimental campaign consisted of temperature, relative humidity, CO2 concentration and energy consumption measurements. The main tasks of this work are: (1) the validation of an advanced hygrothermal model with experimental measurements before and after the prototype refurbishment; (2) development of a sensitivity study in order to choose the best refurbishment and heating strategies for these buildings, regarding their typology, the local climate features and the actual capacity to support the operating costs; (3) assessment of the roof insulation thickness in Brandão schools; (4) quantification of discomfort indicators.


Author(s):  
James Hopkins

Abstract This paper addresses a gap in our understanding of medical history - the architecture of medical schools - and demonstrates the ways in which architectural form can be used to better understand medical epistemology and pedagogy. It examines an instructive case study - the late-nineteenth-century medical school buildings in Manchester - and examines the concepts that were drawn together and expressed in the buildings. Through its exploration, the paper argues first, that medical schools and spaces for medical education should be given greater consideration as a significant category in the history of medical buildings. Second, that buildings such as its case study are an important source of evidence and means to understand the role of medicine in society and the ideas with which its contemporary practitioners and educators were concerned. Third, the paper argues that, to make best use of buildings as sources, we should view them as agents which have assembled divergent ideas and incorporated them into the built form. In this way, such buildings have woven into them an inventory of ideas which can be untangled using designs and physical evidence.


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