scholarly journals Investigating the relationship between indoor environment and workplace productivity in naturally and mechanically ventilated office environments

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-304
Author(s):  
Rajat Gupta ◽  
Alastair Howard ◽  
Sahar Zahiri

This paper uses a case study-based approach to empirically investigate the relationship between indoor environment and workplace productivity in two contrasting office environments: one naturally ventilated, the other mechanically ventilated. Environmental parameters were continuously monitored over 19 months. Transverse and longitudinal surveys recorded occupants’ perception of their working environment and self-reported productivity, while performance tasks (numerical and proofreading) measured cognitive capability as proxy for measured productivity. Indoor temperatures and CO2 concentrations were found to be higher and more variable in the naturally ventilated office. However, the correlation between occupant perception of their indoor environment and perceived productivity was stronger in the mechanically ventilated office. Occupants of the naturally ventilated office were found to be more tolerant of their environment than their counterparts in the mechanically ventilated office. Task performance was affected by indoor environmental conditions such as indoor temperature and CO2 concentration. Interestingly in the naturally ventilated office, the median scores were up to 12% higher for tests conducted at CO2 concentrations <1400 ppm, compared to those conducted above 1400 ppm, whereas in the mechanically ventilated office, this threshold was only 1000 ppm. The study showed that higher concentrations of CO2 were associated with lower task scores and longer task durations, reinforcing the need for good levels of ventilation in workspaces. It was found that occupants in NV workspaces were able to adapt to a broader range of environmental conditions. Therefore, controlling the indoor environment within narrow ranges (expending significant amounts of energy in the process) may not always be necessary to improve comfort and productivity. On the other hand, controlling indoor environment within a narrow range – as is common in MV workspaces – may be counterproductive, creating occupants who are less tolerant of small changes in their environmental conditions. The study also demonstrates occupant surveys can provide useful feedback on perceived comfort and productivity at relatively low cost. Insights from such surveys can be used to improve indoor environment in workspaces.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 276-291
Author(s):  
Chatarina Natalia Putri

There are many factors that can lead to internship satisfaction. Working environment is one of the factors that will result to such outcome. However, many organizations discarded the fact of its importance. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a significant relationship between working environment and internship satisfaction level as well as to determine whether the dimensions of working environment significantly affect internship satisfaction. The said dimensions are, learning opportunities, supervisory support, career development opportunities, co-workers support, organization satisfaction, working hours and esteem needs. A total of 111 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and were processed by SPSS program to obtain the result of this study. The results reveal that learning opportunities, career development opportunities, organization satisfaction and esteem needs are factors that contribute to internship satisfaction level. In the other hand, supervisory support, co-workers support and working hours are factors that lead to internship dissatisfaction. The result also shows that organization satisfaction is the strongest factor that affects internship satisfaction while co-workers support is the weakest.


Author(s):  
Chara Papoutsi ◽  
Athanasios Drigas ◽  
Charalabos Skianis

<strong><span lang="EN-US">The contribution of emotional intelligence in a working environment has been studied in a good extent in the literature. The findings from empirical studies signify the importance of emotional intelligence</span><span lang="EN">in ensuring the good functioning of an organization</span><span lang="EN-US">. This paper aims at investigating the effect of emotional intelligence on workplaces by gathering the findings that show the positive correlations between EI, attitudes and working variables. More specifically, it presents the link between emotional intelligence and six variables, very significant for a better and more effective working environment. Furthermore, it can be a kind of help for managers and researchers to better realize the relationship between EI and the other factors, its effectiveness so to incorporate training programs in courses and in companies based on EI and empathy. </span></strong>


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Tiele ◽  
Siavash Esfahani ◽  
James Covington

This article describes the design and development of a low-cost, portable monitoring system for indoor environment quality (IEQ). IEQ is a holistic concept that encompasses elements of indoor air quality (IAQ), indoor lighting quality (ILQ), acoustic comfort, and thermal comfort (temperature and relative humidity). The unit is intended for the monitoring of temperature, humidity, PM2.5, PM10, total VOCs (×3), CO2, CO, illuminance, and sound levels. Experiments were conducted in various environments, including a typical indoor working environment and outdoor pollution, to evaluate the unit’s potential to monitor IEQ parameters. The developed system was successfully able to monitor parameter variations, based on specific events. A custom IEQ index was devised to rate the parameter readings with a simple scoring system to calculate an overall IEQ percentage. The advantages of the proposed system, with respect to commercial units, is associated with better customisation and flexibility to implement a variety of low-cost sensors. Moreover, low-cost sensor modules reduce the overall cost to provide a comprehensive, portable, and real-time monitoring solution. This development facilities researchers and interested enthusiasts to become engaged and proactive in participating in the study, management, and improvement of IEQ.


Author(s):  
Luis Arturo Soriano-Avendaño ◽  
José Luis Rodríguez-Cruz ◽  
Rogelio Manuel Higuera-González ◽  
Jesús Noé Rivera-Olvera

In recent years, the implementation of solar energy facilities has grown, as it is considered an environmentally friendly way to produce electricity. Solar energy can be exploited under different configurations or connection schemes. The most useful connection schemes are the string connection, the power optimizers and the microinverters. Microinverters have a wide advantage compared to the other schemes due to their ability to take advantage of solar energy under different environmental conditions, such as partial shading, temperature and irradiation. The implementation of microinverters has been slowed down because of its high cost and reduced lifetime. In general, the design of microinverters commonly includes elements such as transistors, electrolytic capacitors, sensors and a microcontroller. Electrolytic capacitors are commonly used as decoupling stages, even though they present a lower lifetime due to high frequencies of operation and current rises. In this paper, a new microinverter topology is presented, it uses a low-cost array of multilayer capacitors to filter high frequencies and get a low-cost topology.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Bertaux ◽  
Sebastián Sosa Carrillo ◽  
Achille Fraisse ◽  
Chetan Aditya ◽  
Mariela Furstenheim ◽  
...  

AbstractNew small-scale, low-cost bioreactor designs provide researchers with exquisite control of environmental parameters of microbial cultures over long durations, allowing them to perform sophisticated, high-quality experiments that are particularly useful in systems biology, synthetic biology and bioengineering. However, existing setups are limited in their automated measurement capabilities, primarily because sensitive and specific measurements require bulky, expensive, stand-alone instruments (for example, most single-cell resolved measurements require a cytometer or a microscope). We present here ReacSight, a generic and flexible strategy to enhance multi-bioreactor platforms for automated measurements and reactive experiment control. We use ReacSight to assemble a platform for single-cell resolved characterization and reactive optogenetic control of parallel yeast continuous cultures. We demonstrate its usefulness by achieving parallel real-time control of gene expression with light in different bioreactors and by exploring the relationship between fitness, nutrient scarcity and cellular stress density using highly-controlled and informative competition assays.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
UPALI S. AMARASINGHE ◽  
DANIEL PAULY

Fish generally mature at a smaller fraction of their maximum sizes than birds and mammals. The farmed tilapia (Family Cichlidae) can tolerate adverse conditions that result in stunting and which also cause the fish to spawn at small size. Such spawning at small size (or ‘early spawning’) is usually perceived as a unique feature of tilapia. The mechanism that explains how stressful environmental conditions tend to reduce the maximum size that fish can reach is very general and should apply to all fish. However, not all fish species are equally hardy, and most fish do not survive in the stunted or dwarf form under stressful environmental conditions. Tilapia, and other cichlids, on the other hand, can handle stressful conditions, if by remaining stunted. The present study shows that tilapia and other cichlids do not spawn ‘earlier’ than other teleosts. Rather, they are exceptionally tolerant of stressful environmental conditions, but with elevated metabolism. By reducing their growth and the maximum size they can reach ‘stunting’, they also reduce the sizes at which their maturity is initiated (‘early spawning’). This corroborates the gill-oxygen limitation theory (GOLT), which identifies spawning as an event rather than a determinant of fish growth.


Crisis ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 246-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gretchen E. Ely ◽  
William R. Nugent ◽  
Julie Cerel ◽  
Mholi Vimbba

Background: The relationship between suicidal thinking and adolescent dating violence has not been previously explored in a sample of adolescent abortion patients. Aims: This paper highlights a study where the relationship between dating violence and severity of suicidal thinking was examined in a sample of 120 young women ages 14–21 seeking to terminate an unintended pregnancy. Methods: The Multidimensional Adolescent Assessment Scale and the Conflict in Adolescent Relationships Scale was used to gather information about psychosocial problems and dating violence so that the relationship between the two problems could be examined, while controlling for the other psychosocial problems. Results: The results suggest that dating violence was related to severity of suicidal thinking, and that the magnitude of this relationship was moderated by the severity of problems with aggression. Conclusions: Specifically, as the severity of participant’s general problems with aggression increased, the magnitude of the relationship between dating violence and severity of suicidal thinking increased. Limitations of the study and implications for practice are discussed.


Author(s):  
Melanie K. T. Takarangi ◽  
Deryn Strange

When people are told that their negative memories are worse than other people’s, do they later remember those events differently? We asked participants to recall a recent negative memory then, 24 h later, we gave some participants feedback about the emotional impact of their event – stating it was more or less negative compared to other people’s experiences. One week later, participants recalled the event again. We predicted that if feedback affected how participants remembered their negative experiences, their ratings of the memory’s characteristics should change over time. That is, when participants are told that their negative event is extremely negative, their memories should be more vivid, recollected strongly, and remembered from a personal perspective, compared to participants in the other conditions. Our results provide support for this hypothesis. We suggest that external feedback might be a potential mechanism in the relationship between negative memories and psychological well-being.


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