An improved experimental method for local clothing ventilation measurement

A clothing local ventilation measuring device based on the Lotens-Havenith steady state tracer gas method was developed and an improved experimental method for understanding local ventilation mechanisms was proposed. The local ventilation system can measure the arm, chest and back ventilation rates at the same time. Local ventilation mechanisms of an impermeable garment at two activities (static, walking) and two wind speeds (no wind, 1.2m/s) were studied, with a focus on determining the pathways of ventilation through the different garment openings. The results showed that local ventilation rates of chest, back and arm varied considerably over locations and conditions. As expected, ventilation rates were highest for all locations at walking with wind conditions. Ventilation mechanism changed at different walking and wind conditions. The main air exchange pathway for all locations was through the garment bottom. Wind had a greater impact on clothing local ventilation than walking. Relevance to industry: Clothing ventilation impacts worker's thermal comfort and safety directly both in the cold and heat. The new clothing local ventilation measuring device developed in this paper can measure both clothing local and whole ventilation. It can also help us to separate the different pathways for heat loss through clothing.© 2013 Elsevier B.V

Local ventilation and wear response of working jackets with different fabric permeability

Purpose – An experimental study was conducted to investigate the local ventilation (the right arm, the chest and the back) and wear response of three types of working jackets in different conditions. The relationship between the local ventilation and its related wear response was also explored. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – A clothing local ventilation measuring system was developed based on the steady state method to measure the local ventilation of the right arm, the chest and the back. Separate wear trials were conducted to determine the local skin temperature, local microclimate temperature and humidity, clothing local surface temperature, heart rate (HR), eardrum temperature and subjective perceptions. Findings – The results indicated that the back part of the jacket had the highest ventilation, followed by the chest and the arm. Fabric permeability affected the local ventilation of the arm and the chest more than on the back. Clothing local surface temperature was significantly related to garment regions but not to fabric permeability. Back ventilation and back surface temperature, arm or chest ventilation and local microclimate humidity of the arm or chest, HR and back ventilation, local ventilation of the arm or the chest and its related thermal sensation, had significant linear relationships. Originality/value – The research will help to understand the relationship between the air exchange of the microclimate and the wear response, and thus gives some suggestions on garment design or selection, especially for the working garments

A new experimental study of influence of fabric permeability, clothing sizes, openings and wind on regional ventilation rates

In this study, a local ventilation rates (VR) measuring system based on stead-state method was developed. This system can measure the local VR of the right arm, the left arm, the chest and the back locations of the upper body garment simultaneously. The whole clothing VR can also be computed. To study the influence of fabric permeability, clothing sizes, hem opening, and wind on local VR of the right arm, the chest and the back of the working garments, 9 jackets with different sizes and fabric permeability (permeable, semi-permeable and impermeable) were made. The results showed that the local VR for each garment location were significantly different. The chest had the largest local VR. Clothing ventilation rates were not liner with garment sizes. Closing garment bottom decreased more air exchange for chest and back comparatively. Wind increased both local and whole VR significantly. But the impacts were different according to different locations. © 2013 The Korean Fiber Society and Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Effects of wind and clothing apertures on local clothing ventilation rates and thermal insulation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of wind (0, 1.1 m/s) and clothing apertures (not closed, closed hem, closed hem and neck) and the combined effects of them on local clothing ventilation rates and localized thermal insulation. Nine working jackets with identical design but different garment sizes and fabric permeability were made. The results showed that wind and clothing apertures had distinct effects both on the local ventilation rates and the local thermal insulation. The local ventilation rates of the right arm were largest at 1.1 m/s wind speed with the clothing hem closed. Chest and back ventilation rates were higher at wind than at no wind. Closing the garment hem affected the local thermal insulation of the impermeable garments mostly. In addition to wind and garment apertures, garment sizes and fabric permeability also impacted the local ventilation rates and the thermal insulation

Local and whole ventilation of rainwear with different aperture designs

Copyright © 2017 Editorial Board of Journal of Donghua University, Shanghai, China.Aperture design is very important in the design process of rainwear, as garment aperture is one of the main pathways for air exchange between clothing microclimate and the environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of aperture design on whole and local ventilations of rainwear. Ventilation was measured by a tester developed based on the steady-state method. A rainwear suit with top and bottom was chosen as the basic ensemble. Apertures were added at the arm, chest, back and knee separately. Local ventilation of the arm, chest, back and whole ventilation of the top and bottom in different walking and wind conditions were measured. Local and whole ventilations at five aperture conditions for the top and four for the bottom were studied. The results indicated that local ventilation value of the chest was the biggest and the arm was the smallest. Whole ventilation of the suit was the biggest when walking at 5.6 km/h, with all the designed apertures opened. Local ventilation value was bigger when opening arm aperture than that of opening chest or back aperture. The bottom ventilation was the highest when both front and back apertures were opened

Local and whole ventilation of rainwear with different aperture designs

Copyright © 2017 Editorial Board of Journal of Donghua University, Shanghai, China.Aperture design is very important in the design process of rainwear, as garment aperture is one of the main pathways for air exchange between clothing microclimate and the environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of aperture design on whole and local ventilations of rainwear. Ventilation was measured by a tester developed based on the steady-state method. A rainwear suit with top and bottom was chosen as the basic ensemble. Apertures were added at the arm, chest, back and knee separately. Local ventilation of the arm, chest, back and whole ventilation of the top and bottom in different walking and wind conditions were measured. Local and whole ventilations at five aperture conditions for the top and four for the bottom were studied. The results indicated that local ventilation value of the chest was the biggest and the arm was the smallest. Whole ventilation of the suit was the biggest when walking at 5.6 km/h, with all the designed apertures opened. Local ventilation value was bigger when opening arm aperture than that of opening chest or back aperture. The bottom ventilation was the highest when both front and back apertures were opened

Summary data for individual β9-strand mutants.

<p>(A) Scatter plot of the V_0.5 values for the 3 s isochronal activation (open symbols) and 3 s isochronal deactivation (closed symbols) for WT (black), AAA (grey), F860A (red), N861A (magenta), L862A (blue), F860L (orange), F860Y (green) and F860R (cyan). (B) Scatter plot of the V_0.5 values for the steady-state inactivation (open symbols) for WT, AAA, F860A, N861A, L862A, F860L, F860Y and F860R (same colour scheme as in panel A). In all panels, the mean and SEM are indicated by horizontal bars and asterisks indicate values that are statistically significantly different to WT (<i>P</i><0.05, ANOVA). The dashed horizontal lines indicate mean values for WT. The values for all mutants are summarized in Table S1 in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0077032#pone.0077032.s001" target="_blank">File S1</a>.</p

Topology of Kv11.1 channels and sequence analysis of cNBH domains.

<p>(A) Topology of Kv11.1 channel showing the intracellular N-terminal PAS domain (blue), transmembrane voltage sensing domain (green), pore domain (yellow) and intracellular C-terminal C-linker and cNBH domains (orange). Inset shows the homology model of the cNBH domain of Kv11.1 generated based on the mEAG crystal structure <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0077032#pone.0077032-MarquesCarvalho1" target="_blank">[13]</a>. (B) Sequence alignment of mHCN2, zELK, mEAG and human Kv11.1 extracted from a Clustalw alignment of the entire family of KCNHx/HCNx/CNGx ion channels. Sequences shown correspond to the dotted box region shown in panel A. Sequence similarity to the Kv11.1 are marked by white text/red box (identical) and black text/yellow box (similar). Non-conserved sequences are in grey. Clear rods and arrows represent the consensus α-helices and β-strands while filled rods and arrows indicate the differences with orange, green and blue representing mHCN2, zELK and mEAG, respectively. The hydrogen bond between asparagine (arrow) and tyrosine (asterisk) in zELK is not observed in the others.</p

Inactivation phenotype of AAA mutant.

<p>(A) Current traces correspond to dotted box in the voltage protocol used to measure the recovery of inactivation for (i) WT and (ii) AAA mutant. Current traces recorded at −80 mV are highlighted to show the faster recovery of inactivation for AAA mutant. (B) Current traces correspond to dotted box in the voltage protocol used to measure the onset of inactivation for (i) WT and (ii) AAA mutant. Current traces recorded at 0 mV are highlighted to show the slower onset of inactivation for the AAA mutant. (C) Summary of rates of recovery and onset of inactivation plotted against voltages between −130 and +50 mV. The data points for −80 and 0 mV are indicated by the arrows. The mid-point of steady-state inactivation for the AAA mutant (grey) is right-shifted by ∼33 mV from WT (black). (D) V_0.5 of steady-state inactivation for WT (−51.7±1.9 mV, n = 7; filled black circle) and AAA mutant (−18.7±2.7 mV, n = 4; filled gray circle) (*indicates p<0.05 versus WT, ANOVA). Data are presented as mean ± SEM.</p

Trafficking assay of LQT2 mutants located within β9-strand.

<p>(A) Typical western blot of WT, N861I and N861H mutant channels. WT shows two bands at ∼155 kDa and ∼135 kDa. The ∼155 kDa band disappears following digestion of surface proteins with proteinase K. The N861H mutant shows only a single ∼135 kDa band. N861I contains both ∼155 kDa and ∼135 kDa bands. Arrow indicates degradation band after proteinase K digestion. (B) Normalized expression levels of N861H and N861I relative to WT for the fully glycosylated (∼155 kDa band) and core-glycosylated (∼135 kDa band) proteins. (C) The partially trafficking defective N861I can be rescued by incubation with cisparide whereas N861H was not rescued by cisapride. (D) Co-imunpreciptation of HA-tagged mutant subunits with Flag-tagged WT subunits. (E) Top panel: Summary of 3 s isochronal activation V_0.5 (open symbols) and 3 s isochronal deactivation V_0.5 (closed symbols) for WT (black), N861H (magenta) and N861I (blue). Asterisks indicate <i>P</i><0.05 (ANOVA) compared to WT. Bottom panel: Summary of the V_0.5 of steady-state inactivation for WT, N861H and N861I (same colours as in top panel). Mean data for all mutants are summarized in Table S1 in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0077032#pone.0077032.s001" target="_blank">File S1</a>.</p