Thermo-physiological comfort modelling of fabrics and garments

Thermo-physiological comfort is a complex feeling affected by clothing, environment and physical activity of a human body. It is very important to understand the influence of the different variables, such as air temperature and humidity, fabric properties and heat and moisture produced from the human body, and their relationships in order to design new textile materials that can satisfy the always more strictly requirements of technical textile in terms of comfort behaviour. While environmental conditions and metabolic heat and moisture production are independent variables that should be analyzed but that cannot be modified because they depends from the physical activity and from the environment where it should be done, garments behaviour can be modified, using different materials, construction parameters, etc..., in order to give the optimal comfort behaviour. In the last decades, always more attention has been paid in the development of comfortable clothing for both technical and common use; for this reason the interaction of garments with both the human body and the environment has been the subject of many studies. This research work aims to analyze the comfort properties that can be measured for fabrics evaluation and to develop, using modelling techniques, a prediction method of comfort behaviour; four fabric properties, namely air permeability, thermal properties, liquid and vapour transport through the fabric has been analyzed. A fabric is a heterogeneous 3D ordered structure made of fibres, yarns and trapped air and for this reason in order to be able to predict its comfort properties it is necessary to predict its geometrical structure using only its basic design parameters; this is the first stage for the development of any prediction method because comfort properties highly depends from fabric structure. In this work, starting from the basic design parameters of yarns and fabrics and using the geometrical fabric model developed by Hearle, all the fabrics geometrical parameters have been defined; later, using TexGen, an open source software developed at the University of Nottingham in 1998, the fabric geometries have been created. The second stage of this research work has been focused on the simulation of the fabrics comfort properties, for different fabrics structures and composition, and their comparison with experimental values. Air permeability, that represent the resistance to the air that flows through the fabric, is one of the most important parameters that influence comfort properties, because it influences both the vapour and moisture transport and thermal properties. Simulations that have been done show that it is possible to predict, with a good approximation, air permeability behaviour of different fabrics. Thermal properties, namely thermal resistance, have been investigated using a simplified geometry of textile fabrics in order to better compare the 3D virtual model with the experimental tests; in this case there is a quite good approximation of the simulated values due to this simplified geometry. For thermal properties modelling not only the comparison with experimental tests has been done but also some simulations that better represents a real case, in which fabric is not pressed between the measuring heads but where its distance from the skin can vary from contact to some millimetres. Also vapour adsorption process have been investigated in order to analyze the behaviour of different fibres and for different temperature and relative humidity conditions. When the human body is under low physical activities the air layer between skin and fabric can reach temperature in the range of 30°C to 40°C and relative humidity in the range of 60% to 90%; in these cases the prediction of the adsorption mechanism, that is an exothemic process, has to be taken into account especially for natural fibres that have high values of differential heat of sorption. Finally a case-study, represented by a 3D model of a back protector, is presented; using the experimental data measured in the climatic chamber at the Advanced Technology Textile Laboratory in Biella, some thermal simulations has been carried out. The research aims to develop a simulation method that starting from the basically constructive parameters of fibres, yarns and fabrics used to create any 3D fabric geometries leads to a fully predictive simulation method that allow to reduce the costs for the development of new high performance fabrics

Effects of family background on crime participation and criminal earnings: an empirical analysis of siblings

This study exploits the sibling structure of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data to measure the degree to which family background explains the variance in the propensity to engage in criminal activities and in the intensity and success of crime participation as measured by the level of criminal earnings. A multiple-equation model whose reduced form disturbances are connected by a common unobservable variable having a variance-components structure is developed and estimated. Estimation results indicate a high level of association (net of observable measures of family background) between the unobserved factors affecting siblings' propensity to engage in criminal activities in a family, with estimated intra-family correlations ranging from 0.44 to 0.55. Sharing a common family background explains around 25% of the variance of the unconditional criminal income. The results suggest that ignoring family background effects leads to a significant upward bias in the effects of race and education on the propensity to engage in income-generating crime.Este estudo usa dados do National Longitudinal Survey of Youth para medir a extensão pela qual interações sociais de família explicam a variância na probabilidade de participação em crime e na intensidade e sucesso em atividades criminais. A estimação é baseada em um mo-delo de equações múltiplas cujas perturbações são interligadas por uma variável inobservável comum. A virtude do método proposto é usar dados referentes a irmãos - que compartilham as mesmas características maternas e paternas em relação a fatores de família que possivelmente influenciam a sua própria decisão de engajar em atividades ilegais - para estimar o efeito do background familiar na decisão de participar em crime. Os resultados empíricos indicam um alto nível de correlação entre fatores inobserváveis medindo efeitos de família e a propensão de irmãos em participar de atividades criminosas (0.44 a 0.55). Efeitos de família explicam 25% da variância em renda criminal. Finalmente, os resultados sugerem que estimativas que ignoram o background familiar induzem vieses significantes no efeito de variáveis, tais como raça e educação na propensão de jovens a participar de crimes patrimoniais

Parental Marital Disruption, Family Type, and Transfers to Disabled Elderly Parents

This paper examines the family variables that affect intergenerational living arrangements and adult children's time and cash transfers to their unpartnered disabled elderly parents. The family variables we examine include parental marital status, parental marital history, whether the index child is a step child or a biological child of the parent, and whether the index child's siblings are step children or biological children of the parent. Using data from the Health and Retirement Studies - Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (HRS-AHEAD) surveys, we estimate the joint probabilities that an adult child provides time and/or cash transfers to a parent and analyze a five-level categorical variable capturing parent–child living arrangements. Parameter estimates suggest significant detrimental effects of parental divorce and step relationship on time transfers and on the probability of coresidence with the index child. The composition of the index child's sibling network also affects transfers and living arrangement choices of adult children. Our findings suggest that demographic changes are weakening the traditional role of the family as a support network. Because more recent cohorts of elderly persons have experienced substantially higher rates of divorce, remarriage, and step parenthood than the cohort considered in this study, our findings raise concerns about the future availability of family care.long-term care, intergenerational transfers, aging, family

Efficiency in Family Bargaining: Living Arrangements and Caregiving Decisions of Adult Children and Disabled Elderly Parents

In this paper, we use a two-stage bargaining model to analyze the living arrangement of a disabled elderly parent and the assistance provided to the parent by her adult children. The first stage determines the living arrangement: the parent can live in a nursing home, live alone in the community, or live with any child who has invited coresidence. The second stage determines the assistance provided by each child in the family. Working by backward induction, we first calculate the level of assistance that each child would provide to the parent in each possible living arrangement. Using these calculations, we then analyze the living arrangement that would emerge from the first stage game. A key assumption of our model is that family members cannot or will not make binding agreements at the first stage regarding transfers at the second stage. Because coresidence is likely to reduce the bargaining power of the coresident child relative to her siblings, coresidence may fail to emerge as the equilibrium living arrangement even when it is Pareto efficient. That is, the outcome of the two-stage game need not be Pareto efficient.

Efficiency in Family Bargaining: Living Arrangements and Caregiving Decisions of Adult Children and Disabled Elderly Parents

In this paper, we use a two-stage bargaining model to analyze the living arrangement of a disabled elderly parent and the assistance provided to the parent by her adult children. The first stage determines the living arrangement: the parent can live in a nursing home, live alone in the community, or live with any child who has invited coresidence. The second stage determines the assistance provided by each child in the family. Working by backward induction, we first calculate the level of assistance that each child would provide to the parent in each possible living arrangement. Using these calculations, we then analyze the living arrangement that would emerge from the first stage game. A key assumption of our model is that family members cannot or will not make binding agreements at the first stage regarding transfers at the second stage. Because coresidence is likely to reduce the bargaining power of the coresident child relative to her siblings, coresidence may fail to emerge as the equilibrium living arrangement even when it is Pareto efficient. That is, the outcome of the two-stage game need not be Pareto efficient.

Reduction Of Trace Quantities Of Chromium (vi) By Strong Acids

The chemical behavior of Cr(VI) at low concentrations (10-4 to 10-7 mol L-1) in several strong acids was studied using high specific activity 51Cr(VI) as a tracer. The speciation of the products from these systems was carried out by ion exchange chromatography with stepwise elution. The results show that trace quantities of Cr(VI), monitored by means of radiochromium (51Cr), are reduced in the presence of mineral acids such as perchloric, hydrochloric, hydrofluoric, sulfuric, nitric and trifluoromethanesulfonic acids, even in the absence of conventional reducing agents, producing different measureable Cr(III) species, depending on the acid anion. Detailed studies of the reduction of low concentrations of Cr(VI) with nitric acid have shown that the relative rate of reduction increases as the concentration of the acid increases or as the concentration of the Cr(VI) decreases.1515865Weeks, M.E., Leicester, H.M., (1968) Discovery of the Elements, 7th Ed., , American Chemical Society: EastonFeigl, F., (1943) J. Chem. Educ., 20, p. 240Westheimer, F.H., (1949) Chem. Rev., 45, p. 419Wiberg, K.B., (1965) Oxidation in Organic Chemistry, Part A, , Academic: New YorkCainelli, G., Cardillo, G., (1984) Chromium Oxidations in Organic Chemistry, , Springer-Verlag: BerlinDas, A.K., (2001) Oxid. Commun., 24, p. 321Beattie, J.K., Haight Jr., G.P., (1972) Prog. Inorg. Chem., 17, p. 93Fendorf, S., Wienlinga, B.W., Hansel, C.M., (2000) Int. Geol. Rev., 42, p. 691Smith, G.F., (1934) Ind. Eng. Chem. Anal. Edition, 6, p. 229Bobtelsky, M., Glasner, A., (1948) J. Chem. Soc., p. 1376Ho, W.-H., (1979) Proc. Natl. Sci. Counc. 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Development of tools and methods for the surveillance and monitoring of Culicid species of sanitary importance

Nel corso degli ultimi anni le problematiche legate al ruolo vettore delle zanzare stanno emergendo sia per quanto riguarda l’uomo che gli animali allevati e selvatici. Diversi arbovirus come West Nile, Chikungunya, Usutu e Dengue, possono facilmente spostarsi a livello planetario ed essere introdotti anche nei nostri territori dove possono dare avvio a episodi epidemici. Le tecniche di monitoraggio e sorveglianza dei Culicidi possono essere convenientemente utilizzate per il rilevamento precoce dell’attività virale sul territorio e per la stima del rischio di epidemie al fine dell’adozione delle opportune azioni di Sanità Pubblica. Io scopo della ricerca del dottorato è inserito nel contesto dei temi di sviluppo del Piano regionale sorveglianza delle malattie trasmesse da vettori in Emilia Romagna. La ricerca condotta è inquadrata prevalentemente sotto l’aspetto entomologico applicativo di utilizzo di dispositivi (trappole) che possano catturare efficacemente possibili insetti vettori. In particolare questa ricerca è stata mirata allo studio comparativo in campo di diversi tipi di trappole per la cattura di adulti di zanzara, cercando di interpretare i dati per capire un potenziale valore di efficacia/efficienza nel rilevamento della circolazione virale e come supporto alla pianificazione della rete di sorveglianza dal punto di vista operativo mediante dispositivi adeguati alle finalità d’indagine. Si è cercato di trovare un dispositivo idoneo, approfondendone gli aspetti operativi/funzionali, ai fini di cattura del vettore principale del West Nile Virus, cioè la zanzara comune, da affiancare all’unica tipologia di trappola usata in precedenza. Le prove saranno svolte sia in campo che presso il laboratorio di Entomologia Medica Veterinaria del Centro Agricoltura Ambiente “G. Nicoli” di Crevalcore, in collaborazione con il Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agroambientali della Facoltà di Agraria dell’Università di Bologna.In recent years the issues related to the role of vector mosquitoes are emerging both for humans and animals reared and wild. Several arboviruses such as West Nile, Chikungunya, Dengue and Usutu, can easily move to global level and also be introduced in our territories where they can initiate outbreaks. The techniques for monitoring and surveillance of Culicidae can be conveniently used for the early detection of viral activity in the area and to estimate the risk of epidemics in order for ensuring appropriate actions of Public Health. Aim of the PhD research is included into the context of the issues of development of the Regional Plan surveillance of vector-borne diseases in Emilia-Romagna. The research is focused mainly into the aspect of entomological application using devices (traps) that can effectively capture potential insect vectors. In particular, this research was aimed at the comparative study in field of different kinds of traps to catch adult mosquito, trying to interpret the data to understand the potential value of effectiveness / efficiency in the detection of viral circulation as support for the planning of surveillance network from the operational point of view by means of suitable devices to the purposes of investigation. We tried to find a suitable device, deepening the operational / functional, for the purpose of capturing the main vectors of the West Nile Virus, to be joined to the only type of trap used previously. The tests will be carried out in the field and at the Laboratory of Medical and Entomology Veterinary of CAA "G. Nicoli " in collaboration with the Department of Agro-Environmental Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Bologna