A NEUROPHYSIOLOGY-BASED MODEL TO ESTIMATE VISIBILITY IN ACTUAL LIGHTING ENVIRONMENT

Visibility is one of the fundamental factors for explaining the lighting environment, and various quantitative indexes for these have been made in such a manner that directly finds the formulae that best match the numerous subjective evaluations. Recently neurophysiology-based models have been paid attention as the complementary or alternative methods to these conventional indexes. In this paper we will introduce the normalization and gain control models, which are generally accepted theories in the visual information processing, to estimate the visibility, and verify the validity of this algorithm by comparing with the subjective evaluation in the experimental room. The result showed that the algorithm in this research could estimate the visibility of the simple objects in the experimental space with a pseudo window with great accuracy, however, it is desirable and necessary to publicly discuss various algorithms and clarify their reliability based on the verification results under various situations.

SHINE_color: controlling low-level properties of colorful images

Pupil dilation responses can be used to investigate an array of cognitive abilities across the lifespan. Whereas it is a versatile measure of high-level abilities, pupil dilation can be greatly affected by low-level properties of stimuli and experimental setting such as luminance of visual stimuli and experimental room. One powerful way to control low-level properties of experimental stimuli is to use the SHINE toolbox for MATLAB (Willenbockel et al., 2010). This toolbox contains a set of functions that allows users to precisely specify luminance and contrast, histogram, and Fourier amplitude spectra of visual stimuli. These parametric manipulations minimize potential low-level confounds when investigating higher-level processes (e.g., cognitive effort, recognition). However, SHINE only works with greyscale images. Whereas this serves well to many research purposes, other research goals might benefit from colorful images. Here, we describe the SHINE_color, an adaptation of SHINE that allow users to perform all operations from SHINE toolbox to colorful images.

TEMPAT PENGEMBANGAN GRIT

One of the problems in human life is individualism. This is because humans spend too much time at work and at home, so they rarely do social activities, along with the existence of social media that causes people to socialize with each other. This particular problem will be discussed in "Open Architecture as Third Place" project, which discusses how to create a third place as a place for people to socialize with each other and also as a public information space. The issue raised in this project is about "Grit" where people can learn how to grow grits within themselves to achieve the goals they want to achieve in the future. The project location is on Jalan Tanjung Duren Utara. This site is quite strategic for this third place project because it is close to First Place and Second Place where this project can become a permeability. This third place project is wished for people to be able to grow grits in themselves so that they can achieve their goals in their lives and can achieve their life goals that they have set. The method used in research is Field Survey, Literature Study, and Precedent Study. The results obtained are the design of the building as a "Grit Improvement Space". The main program in this project is the Experimental Room, Workshop, and Exhibition along with the supporting programs namely Co-Working Space, Library, and Late Night Street Food. Keywords: grit; human; permeability; social AbstrakPermasalahan dalam kehidupan manusia salah satunya individualisme. Hal ini disebabkan karena manusia terlalu banyak menghabiskan waktunya di tempat kerja dan di rumah, maka orang akan jarang sekali melakukan kegiatan sosial. Dengan adanya media sosial juga menyebabkan manusia bersosialisasi satu sama lain. Permasalahan utama yang akan dibahas di proyek ini adalah "Open Architecture sebagai Third Place" yang membahas bagaimana cara menciptakan tempat ketiga sebagai tempat untuk manusia saling bersosialisasi satu sama lain dan juga sebagai tempat publik informasi. Isu yang diangkat dalam proyek ini adalah mengenai "Grit" dimana orang dapat belajar cara menumbuhkan grit di dalam dirinya untuk mencapai goals yang mereka ingin capai di masa depan. Lokasi proyek berada di Jalan Tanjung Duren Utara. Tapak ini cukup strategis untuk proyek third place ini karena berdekatan dengan First Place dan Second Place sehingga proyek ini dapat menjadi rembesan (permeabilitas). Di proyek third place ini diharapkan orang bisa menumbuhkan grit dalam dirinya sehingga mereka bisa mencapai targetnya dalam hidup mereka dan dapat mencapai tujuan hidupnya yang telah mereka tentukan. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian adalah Survey Lapangan, Studi Literatur, dan Studi Preseden. Hasil penelitian yang didapatkan adalah perancangan bangunan sebagai "Tempat Pengembangan Grit". Program utama dalam proyek ini adalah Experimental Room, Workshop, dan Pameran. Lalu juga ada program pendukung yaitu Co - Working Space, Library, dan Late Night Street Food.

Study on the purification effect of a pediatric isolation bed on the air in general hospital wards

Background: Patients with acute infectious respiratory illness may emit bio-aerosols containing pathogens capable of infecting susceptible hosts, including other patients and healthcare workers. This study aimed to evaluate the purification effect of a pediatric isolation bed on aerosols and microorganisms in the air in experiment rooms and verify the purification efficiency in general wards. Methods: Experiments were carried out in two settings: one with isolation bed and the other with regular bed. Using a dust particle counter to discriminate particles sizes in the air and using Anderson’s six levels to discriminate S. albicans, the purification rate in the two rooms was evaluated. The concentration of cigarette particles(size 0.3–0.5 μm,0.5-1.0μm ) and S. albicans in the air was significantly decreased in the experimental room, indicating that the air was purified. Then detection the aerosol in the room to vilidaty the purification rate.Finally detection of aerosol and sedimentation bacteria in the air of general wards. Results: Isolation beds in demonstration ward have a purifying effect on both aerosols and sedimentation bacteria. Conclusions:Isolation bed can therefore be used in hospitals to reduce the risk of nosocomial infection and protect the health of doctors, patients, and visiting relatives.

Can Virtual Observers Affect Our Behavior? Social Facilitation in Virtual Environments: A Mini-Review

The social facilitation effect describes the change in the performance of the task under the influence of the presence of observers. The effect itself consists of two components: social facilitation in simple tasks and social inhibition in complex tasks. In the context of the dynamic development of new technologies, the question of the possible influence on human behavior by virtual characters gains importance. We attempted to critically describe and summarize current research on social facilitation in order to answer the question of whether it occurs in virtual environments. We found 13 relevant studies, 3 of which demonstrated social facilitation, 4 social inhibition and 1 demonstrated the whole effect. The conclusions drawn from the analysis are ambiguous. Firstly, we identified that 12 out of 13 analyzed studies failed to show the whole effect. Secondly, we encountered several shortcomings of the summarized research that further complicated its interpretation. The shortcomings: presence of the researcher, unclear usage of “agent” and “avatar”, evaluation of activation, no pilot tests of observers and no description of how their characteristics are generated, among others, are discussed. Furthermore, we investigated the effect sizes and their variability. The average effect size for social facilitation was g = 0.18, CI [-0.28; 0.64] and for social inhibition g = -0.18, CI [-0.40; 0.04]. In social facilitation, a substantial level of heterogeneity was detected. Finally, we conclude that it is still too early to provide a definite answer to the question of whether social facilitation exists in Virtual Environments. We recommend limiting evaluation activation to the lowest possible level, conducting pilot tests prior to the experiment, avoiding the presence of the researcher in the experimental room and a clear distinction of “agent” and “avatar”, as measures to achieve a better quality in future research.

Experimental investigation of thermoelectric cooling system with heat recovery

Thermoelectric modules are implements used as power generators and cooling devices. In case of TE module application for space cooling, it is highly recommended to reuse energy generated on the hot side of the module for example for domestic water heating. In this paper, an example of a small scale thermoelectric cooling system with heat recovery was presented. In the tested system, the performance of TE module was supported by two heat exchangers. On the cold side of the TE module the forced convection was provided by the implementation of aluminium heat sink integrated with fan. On the hot side a water heat exchanger was built in order to reuse waste energy to heat water in the water tank. Different values of current were applied to the TE module to observe the differences in the module performance. The correlation between the air temperature inside the experimental room and the water temperature in the tank were determined for all conducted series. In general, the best cooling effects were achieved when the water temperature in the tank was not higher than 26.4°C. The maximum reduction of temperature inside the experimental room was noted for the amperage 7 A and it was 11.7°C.