Occupational Therapy Evaluation for Stroke Adults in the United States

Of the 700,000 people in the United States who experience a new or recurrent stroke each year,more than 500,000 survive(American Stroke Association,2007)[1]. Occupational therapy practitioners are critical rehabilitation professionals for stroke survivors.

Research on Optimal Design of Campus Space Based on POE Concept: A Case Study of Anhui Xinhua College

Through the analysis of the overall landscape,revetments and roads and plant landscape,10 evaluation factors were determined.The comprehensive evaluation model for the campus space of Anhui Xinhua University was constructed by analytic hierarchy process(AHP).The results showed that revetment safety,road convenience,plant disease resistance and campus activity space were important factors affecting the spatial form planning of campus.Through the comparative analysis of the collected data,optimization suggestions were put forward to provide a basis for the establishment of“people-oriented”campus open space system.

Post-occupancy Evaluation for Ceremonial and Public Buildings： A Case Study of Amman City Hall, Jordan

POE （post-occupancy evaluation） of buildings is one of the most important mechanisms which ensures that ceremonial and public building performance including its facilities is sustained. POE studies concerned with efficiency of building performance after using and implementing with the end-user. It provides feedback on the current status of the building and proposes solutions to existing problems in addition to guidelines and design criteria for the best solutions in the future. Despite precedent research which have been undertaken in the context of building performance, aspects of evaluating building performance have not been specified and used widely in Jordan. At the commencement of this research, the concept of POE is still new in Jordan, and the local building practitioners are still unfamiliar with this approach for the evaluation of a building performance in Amman. Accordingly, there is a need to undertake this kind of research in Jordan to identify the main guidelines of POE to be applied effectively in ceremonial and public buildings. This study therefore applies POE of indoor environment of the public buildings by exploring the guidelines that can constitute a successful and effective framework for the public buildings in Amman. This was achieved using the learnt lessons from Amman City Hall building which was used as a case study and reflecting them on these where needed. Analytical and descriptive approach basis was applied, adopting a mixed method approach （qualitative and quantitative method） by using observation tool and a questionnaire survey with occupants. Context-derived data and statistics analyzed together were used to explore the guidelines of POE to be applied effectively in public buildings. A field visit and observation tool was adopted for gathering information leading to the findings and recommendations. A questionnaire was also used to extrapolate core findings of this research. This research provides a significant contribution of POE result towards improving indoor environment to ceremonial and public buildings in Jordan.

Evaluation （POE） of Yildiz Technical University （YTU） School of Foreign Languages （SFL）

This paper deals with the post-occupancy performance evaluation of the SFL （School of Foreign Languages） that was designed by the authors and is located within the YTU （Yildiz Technical University） Davutpaa campus in Istanbul. After the completion and occupation of the building, project review came into question and a POE was performed. Post-occupancy performance evaluation tries to answer the questions of space provision for social interaction： ＂How is this building working？＂ ＂Is it intended？＂ ＂How can it be improved？＂ and ＂How can future buildings be improved？＂ Answers to these vital questions are searched under four main sections. In the first section, the study discusses the physical location and functional properties of the building, in the second, the design decisions of the building are discussed in the context of and design principles, in the third, the method of performance evaluation is explained, and in the final section, the results are analyzed and discussed. These results will lead to a path to improve the quality of the building.

AN EVALUATION OF INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND OCCUPANT WELL-BEING IN MANITOBA SCHOOL BUILDINGS

This exploratory research aims to evaluate indoor environmental quality in the classrooms of three school buildings in Southern Manitoba,Canada,and to evaluate the well-being of these schools’teachers as it pertains to their perception of their classrooms’indoor environment.The schools include a middle-aged,conventional school;a new,non-green school;and a new,green school certified using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.The methodology involved using a mobile instrument cart to conduct snapshot measurements of thermal comfort,indoor air quality,lighting and acoustics in classrooms and an occupant survey to evaluate teachers’long-term satisfaction with their classrooms’indoor environmental quality.The results showed that the new,green and new,non-green schools’classrooms performed better than the conventional,middle-aged school’s classrooms with respect to some aspects of thermal comfort and indoor air quality only.Teachers in the new,green school and in the new,non-green school were more satisfied than teachers in the conventional,middle-aged school with their classrooms’overall indoor environmental quality,lighting quality and indoor air quality.Surprisingly,the new,green and new-non green school classrooms’performance were very comparable with the new,green school’s classrooms performing statistically significantly better with respect to relative humidity.Similarly,none of the differences in teachers’satisfaction ratings between the new,green and new,non-green school were statistically significant.

Evaluation of occupational noise pollution and attitudes of exposed workers in two metal industries

The purpose of the present study was to determined noise levels and to show the annoyance reaction, hearing loss, hearing impairment by the workers due to the occupational noise exposure according to Iran development of Environment （IDE） and also awareness about effects of noise and use of hearing protective devices （HPD） in the two manufacturing electronic equipment （metal） industries. The present study was carried out among industrial workers and included a sample of lao workers, site 1 （n = 52） and site 2 （n = 78） from two metal industries located in south eastern Iran province of Kerman. In order to attend the objectives of the current study, noise levels evaluation was determined throughout all different work stations in both industries. The results of the study revealed that noise levels in 75% of the stations are higher than limits used for assessment of noise for community response. The result of the study indicated that noise levels in the workplace are （66%） very high, （28%） high and only 6% low. Workers having higher education are much aware of the health impact due to occupational noise. Chi-square analysis indicated that the difference in educational background and not wearing HPD was significant and also a significant relationship was also observed between the impact of occupational noise on the health and education status. This research has clearly demonstrated that the workers in both the metal industries included in this study are at high risk of developing noise induced hearing loss and other associated ailments due to excessive occupational exposure to noise. There is a need to develop and apply a well-defined, comprehensive and enforceable training programs and noise regulation. The study revealed that the workers having higher education （9-12 grades） are much aware of the health impact due to occupational noise exposure. There is a need to establish a hearing conservation programs in both industries, the components of such program include noise assessment, use of hearing protection devices, audiometric and increasing awareness among the workers about the adverse effects of noise.

PERFORMANCE OF SUSTAINABLE BUIL DINGS IN COLDER CLIMATES

Building performance evaluations(BPEs)were carried out for nine Canadian green buildings using a standardised assessment framework.The aim was to explore and measure the discrepancies between the operational performance of the buildings and their predicted performance,as well as to identify lessons for their owners,design teams and the construction industry.The objective of this paper is not to report individual buildings in detail(we refer the reader to the individual building reports)but to report on some general lessons that came from doing this study.Overall these buildings performed well compared to benchmarks.However,the findings suggest that occupancy is not well understood and often incorrectly predicted during design,and that this affects various aspects of performance,including energy and water use.Also energy and water use modelling is often undertaken principally for building code/green rating compliance purposes and does not necessarily represent an accurate prediction of likely operational use.Combined with variations in occupancy this can lead to considerable discrepancies in performance from the modelled values.This may be understood by experts but is often misleading to building owners and others.Water use is often not well predicted and also not carefully managed in buildings and there is a lack of understanding of what constitutes good water performance.Overall,it is important to recognise that each building has its own individual“story”that provides necessary context for effective management and improvement of the building during its ongoing life.It is proposed that a BPE process allows that context to be better understood,and enables more effective decision making about building management,improvements,occupant satisfaction,energy use,etc.

nZEB:bridging the gap between design forecast and actual performance data

The nZEB objectives have raised the standard of building performance and changed the way in which buildings are designed and used.Although energy dynamic simulation tools are potentially the most suitable way for accurately evaluating and forecasting the thermal performance,they need several data inputs and user’s knowledge that can affect the reliability of the results.It is precisely these two aspects that proved to be particularly critical,since the reliability of the ICT calculation tools has been widely proven in recent time.However,in order to foster credibility in sustainable architecture,bridging the gap between predicted and measured performance is pivotal to boost the building market towards energy efficiency and provide reliable data to inhabitant,investors and policy maker.The present research aims to identify and quantify the main factors that affect the energy performance gap through a detailed energy analysis carried out on a case study,which can be considered one of the first nearly zero energy residential complex built in Italy.Based on the analysis,the study identifies the main causes of the deviation between the calculated and measured data and demonstrates how it is possible to achieve very reliable models and,therefore,real buildings.Although the procedure traces a classic model calibration scheme,actually it consists of a verification of possible downstream errors mainly due to human factors,such as the provision of incorrect technical data or inappropriate operation.Some observations on the technical,management and regulatory gaps that may generate these errors are reported at the end of the study,together with practical suggestions that can provide effective solutions.