Domestic Window Design and Interior Daylight in Jeddah: Designing for Saudi Women

Architecture in Jeddah city in the western region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has gradually undergone a significant shift in style, a consequence of the implementation of contemporary Western architecture after the oil boom in the country in 1970. Contemporary buildings with letterbox windows have become popular in the area, replacing the traditional appearance of local buildings characterised by the Roshan (a type of window used in vernacular Jeddah architecture), and many of the characteristics of contemporary architecture do not seem to fit the local context. As a consequence, the needs of modern Muslim women have been disregarded in favour of a new aesthetic, in the course of implementing recent changes in technology and architecture. Research on the current trajectory which architecture has recently taken in the country is needed to explore these consequences. In particular, this study focuses on window design, considering openings as pivotal element between daylight control and cultural religious and personal aspects of today’s Saudi women. The aim of this study is to examine daylight and window design to better accommodate women’s needs in flats in Jeddah built from 1970 to 2016. The window is analysed in this study as a pivotal element of the transition between vernacular and contemporary architecture in Jeddah, with implications for the interior quality of space in blocks of flats, including wellbeing and daylight conditions and functional and symbolic values. The first part of my data collection is dedicated to survey photography and floor plan drawings for blocks of flats in Jeddah. Then, primary data are generated through interviews with women to understand their perceptions in relation to window design and daylight in their living room spaces. The third dataset is based on daylight calculation, which involved computer modelling applied to interviewees’ flats in Jeddah. These phases have unearthed a clear discrepancy between the design principles employed by the decision makers, and the wishes of the female population, who actually use the residential spaces for the majority of time. Whilst the former consider the amount of daylight which is sufficient, the latter perceive their homes to be dark and unhealthy. The fourth part of this study comprises interviews with architecture professionals (professors of architecture, municipality officer and architects) to determine where this discrepancy originates, and to what extent a reconsideration of design tenets or guidelines can help to resolve the issue. The study concludes with an examination of the reasons behind the current issues of inadequate daylight and privacy for Saudi women. It revealed daylight was less than 100 lux in most participants’ flats. The levels ranged between 50 lux and 70 lux, which does not meet the target for the Saudi climate. This has a negative effect on women’s wellbeing and satisfaction. It also reveals that women’s needs in home design are not a major consideration for architects. Also, it shows that the absence of detailed building regulations regarding window design and daylight levels is the major reason for this issue. The results show that there is a significant difference between the answers from women and the answers from professionals in terms of the small gap between buildings and daylight levels (P=0.005). Also, the results show that there is a statistical difference between women’s and professionals’ responses about whether daylight levels or measurements are considered when designing living room windows (P=0.019). In conclusion, this study proposes a set of guidelines to policy makers that building regulations should be updated to consider the findings of this study in order to provide better new regulations that consider women’s needs in the design of flat windows

CONSIDERATIONS ON WOMEN’S NEEDS FOR DAYLIGHT IN CONTEMPORARY RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE

Humans share common needs and rights; however, there are special needs which vary according to gender. Women in Saudi Arabia spend long periods of time at home and are responsible for domestic duties. This creates particular needs for women which for men are easily fulfilled in the outside world, such as exposure to daylight. Furthermore, privacy has been studied as a major concern for Muslims and Arabs in their homes, and a number of studies have discussed window design and privacy culture in the vernacular architecture of different Muslim countries. Yet little attention is given to the point of how privacy effects daylight level in contemporary homes, where glass windows are the major source daylight and ventilation. This contributes to figuring out factors affecting daylight level according to each case variation. Therefore, this study aims to find out if women mandatory right of daylight is sufficiently considered inside homes by studying daylight level during daytime in Jeddah city. This research studies daylight lux level in twelve modern flats in Jeddah. Diva for Rhinoceros is the tool to figure out the accurate daylight in different daytime of different seasons. Finding reported that the amount of daylight that enter all examined living rooms are less than the required level. The paper concludes that there is major lack of daylight in most examined flats due to different factors such as glass type, exterior obstruction, and window size

A nutrigenetics approach to study the impact of genetic and dietary factors on blood lipids

Abnormal lipid concentrations have been shown to be risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which is influenced by a complex interaction between lifestyle (such as diet) and genetic factors. Given that lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) are key regulatory proteins in lipid metabolism, the main aims of this thesis were to examine the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the LPL and APOE genes with lipid-related outcomes and to investigate the interaction of the SNPs with dietary factors on lipids. A total of six studies with different study designs were used. These studies included a postprandial study (n=261), a case-control study (CURES, Asian India, n=1,845), three cross-sectional studies [PRECISE study (UK, n=468; Denmark, n=192) and CaPS study (UK, n=1,238)], a 16- week intervention study DIVAS (n=120) and a crossover trial (n=18). For the LPL gene, the SNP rs328 showed a consistent association with HDL-C concentrations in the postprandial (P=0.015) and CURES studies (P=0.0004). In addition, in the CURES, there was an interaction between LPL SNP rs1121923 and fat intake (energy %) on HDL-C concentrations (P=0.003). For the APOE gene, significant associations were detected between the APOE haplotype (E2, E3, and E4) and APOE SNP rs445925 and total cholesterol (P=4x10-4 and P=0.003, respectively) in the PRECISE study. These associations were further replicated in the CaPS cohort. In the DIVAS study, the TT homozygotes of the APOE SNP rs1064725 showed a significant reduction in total cholesterol after the MUFA diet compared to the SFA (P=0.001). In the crossover trial, we examined the association vitamin D-related SNPs with lipids in 18 men with sup-optimal vitamin D status and found that the TT homozygotes of the SNP rs12785878 (T/G) at nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide synthetase 1 gene had higher HDL-C levels compared to G allele carriers (P=0.0003). In conclusion, our findings suggest a role of dietary factors in modifying the genetic effect of LPL and APOE SNPs on lipid levels. Given the smaller sample size of some of the cohorts studied, replication of the findings is warranted

Impact of lipoprotein lipase gene polymorphism, S447X, on postprandial triacylglycerol and glucose response to sequential meal ingestion

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is a key rate-limiting enzyme for the hydrolysis of triacylglycerol (TAG) in chylomicrons and very low-density lipoprotein. Given that postprandial assessment of lipoprotein metabolism may provide a more physiological perspective of disturbances in lipoprotein homeostasis compared to assessment in the fasting state, we have investigated the influence of two commonly studied LPL polymorphisms (rs320, HindIII; rs328, S447X) on postprandial lipaemia, in 261 participants using a standard sequential meal challenge. S447 homozygotes had lower fasting HDL-C (p = 0.015) and a trend for higher fasting TAG (p = 0.057) concentrations relative to the 447X allele carriers. In the postprandial state, there was an association of the S447X polymorphism with postprandial TAG and glucose, where S447 homozygotes had 12% higher TAG area under the curve (AUC) (p = 0.037), 8.4% higher glucose-AUC (p = 0.006) and 22% higher glucose-incremental area under the curve (IAUC) (p = 0.042). A significant gene–gender interaction was observed for fasting TAG (p = 0.004), TAG-AUC (Pinteraction = 0.004) and TAG-IAUC (Pinteraction = 0.016), where associations were only evident in men. In conclusion, our study provides novel findings of an effect of LPL S447X polymorphism on the postprandial glucose and gender-specific impact of the polymorphism on fasting and postprandial TAG concentrations in response to sequential meal challenge in healthy participant

Malnutrition is associated with increased disease risk in older people in the Makkah region of Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study

IntroductionThere is little research on the nutritional status of older people in Saudi Arabia. This study investigated the factors associated with the nutritional status of older people in the Makkah region, Saudi Arabia. We hypothesized that older people who are at risk of malnutrition are at higher risk of different diseases.Materials and methodsThis cross-sectional study surveyed 271 people aged ≥60 years from October 2021 to January 2022. We collected data on demographics, body mass index, the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form, Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index, Mini Nutritional Assessment, Eating Attitudes Test, and Household Dietary Diversity score.ResultsAmong the 271 participants, 13.3% were malnourished and 53.9% were at risk of malnutrition. The oral health (P < 0.001), depression (P < 0.001), and eating disorder (P < 0.002) scores were significantly associated with malnutrition. Congestive heart failure, asthma, peripheral vascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and hypertension were more prevalent among malnourished participants—this supports our original hypothesis. The HDD score showed no significant differences between men and women.ConclusionMalnutrition was associated with overweight or obesity, poor oral health, and depression. Older people in the Makkah region, Saudi Arabia, had a high risk of malnutrition

Interaction between TCF7L2 polymorphism and dietary fat intake on high density lipoprotein cholesterol

Recent evidence suggests that lifestyle factors influence the association between the Melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) and Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 (TCF7L2) gene variants and cardio-metabolic traits in several populations; however, the available research is limited among the Asian Indian population. Hence, the present study examined whether the association between the MC4R single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs17782313) and two SNPs of the TCF7L2 gene (rs12255372 and rs7903146) and cardio-metabolic traits is modified by dietary factors and physical activity. This cross sectional study included a random sample of normal glucose tolerant (NGT) (n = 821) and participants with type 2 diabetes (T2D) (n = 861) recruited from the urban part of the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES). A validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used for dietary assessment and self-reported physical activity measures were collected. The threshold for significance was set at P = 0.00023 based on Bonferroni correction for multiple testing [(0.05/210 (3 SNPs x 14 outcomes x 5 lifestyle factors)]. After Bonferroni correction, there was a significant interaction between the TCF7L2 rs12255372 SNP and fat intake (g/day) (Pinteraction = 0.0001) on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), where the 'T' allele carriers in the lowest tertile of total fat intake had higher HDL-C (P = 0.008) and those in the highest tertile (P = 0.017) had lower HDL-C compared to the GG homozygotes. In a secondary analysis of SNPs with the subtypes of fat, there was also a significant interaction between the SNP rs12255372 and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA, g/day) (Pinteraction<0.0001) on HDL-C, where the minor allele carriers had higher HDL-C in the lowest PUFA tertile (P = 0.024) and those in the highest PUFA tertile had lower HDL-C (P = 0.028) than GG homozygotes. In addition, a significant interaction was also seen between TCF7L2 SNP rs12255372 and fibre intake (g/day) on HDL-C (Pinteraction<0.0001). None of the other interactions between the SNPs and lifestyle factors were statistically significant after correction for multiple testing. Our findings indicate that the association between TCF7L2 SNP rs12255372 and HDL-C may be modified by dietary fat intake in this Asian Indian population

Gene–nutrient interactions on metabolic diseases: findings from the GeNuIne Collaboration

This article describes how the British Nutrition Foundation Drummond Pump Priming award was used to initiate a large scale collaborative project called the Gene-Nutrient Interactions (GeNuIne) Collaboration, the main objective of which is to investigate the effect of gene-nutrient interactions (nutrigenetics) on metabolic disease outcomes using population based studies from various ethnic groups. The article also provides a summary of gene–diet interaction studies, performed in developing countries as part of this collaborative project, and gives an overview of how nutrigenetic findings can be translated into personalised and public health initiatives for the prevention of metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes

High fat diet modifies the association of lipoprotein lipase gene polymorphism with high density lipoprotein cholesterol in an Asian Indian population

Background Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in lipoprotein lipase gene (LPL) have been shown to influence metabolism related to lipid phenotypes. Dietary factors have been shown to modify the association between LPL SNPs and lipids; however, to date, there are no studies in South Asians. Hence, we tested for the association of four common LPL SNPs with plasma lipids and examined the interactions between the SNPs and dietary factors on lipids in 1,845 Asian Indians. Methods The analysis was performed in 788 Type 2 diabetes cases and 1,057 controls randomly chosen from the cross-sectional Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiological Study. Serum triacylglycerol (TAG), serum total cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were measured using a Hitachi-912 autoanalyzer (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany). Dietary intake was assessed using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. The SNPs (rs1121923, rs328, rs4922115 and rs285) were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction enzyme digestion and 20% of samples were sequenced to validate the genotypes obtained. Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows version 22.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL) was used for statistical analysis. Results After correction for multiple testing and adjusting for potential confounders, SNPs rs328 and rs285 showed association with HDL-C (P = 0.0004) and serum TAG (P = 1×10−5), respectively. The interaction between SNP rs1121923 and fat intake (energy %) on HDL-C (P = 0.003) was also significant, where, among those who consumed a high fat diet (28.4 ± 2.5%), the T allele carriers (TT + XT) had significantly higher HDL-C concentrations (P = 0.0002) and 30% reduced risk of low HDL-C levels compared to the CC homozygotes. None of the interactions on other lipid traits were statistically significant. Conclusion Our findings suggest that individuals carrying T allele of the SNP rs1121923 have increased HDL-C levels when consuming a high fat diet compared to CC homozygotes. Our finding warrants confirmation in prospective studies and randomized controlled trials

Association of apolipoprotein E gene polymorphisms with blood lipids and their interaction with dietary factors

Several candidate genes have been identified in relation to lipid metabolism, and among these, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene polymorphisms are major sources of genetically determined variation in lipid concentrations. This study investigated the association of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at LPL, seven tagging SNPs at the APOE gene, and a common APOE haplotype (two SNPs) with blood lipids, and examined the interaction of these SNPs with dietary factors. METHODS: The population studied for this investigation included 660 individuals from the Prevention of Cancer by Intervention with Selenium (PRECISE) study who supplied baseline data. The findings of the PRECISE study were further replicated using 1238 individuals from the Caerphilly Prospective cohort (CaPS). Dietary intake was assessed using a validated food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in PRECISE and a validated semi-quantitative FFQ in the CaPS. Interaction analyses were performed by including the interaction term in the linear regression model adjusted for age, body mass index, sex and country. RESULTS: There was no association between dietary factors and blood lipids after Bonferroni correction and adjustment for confounding factors in either cohort. In the PRECISE study, after correction for multiple testing, there was a statistically significant association of the APOE haplotype (rs7412 and rs429358; E2, E3, and E4) and APOE tagSNP rs445925 with total cholesterol (P = 4 × 10- 4 and P = 0.003, respectively). Carriers of the E2 allele had lower total cholesterol concentration (5.54 ± 0.97 mmol/L) than those with the E3 (5.98 ± 1.05 mmol/L) (P = 0.001) and E4 (6.09 ± 1.06 mmol/L) (P = 2 × 10- 4) alleles. The association of APOE haplotype (E2, E3, and E4) and APOE SNP rs445925 with total cholesterol (P = 2 × 10- 6 and P = 3 × 10- 4, respectively) was further replicated in the CaPS. Additionally, significant association was found between APOE haplotype and APOE SNP rs445925 with low density lipoprotein cholesterol in CaPS (P = 4 × 10- 4 and P = 0.001, respectively). After Bonferroni correction, none of the cohorts showed a statistically significant SNP-diet interaction on lipid outcomes. CONCLUSION: In summary, our findings from the two cohorts confirm that genetic variations at the APOE locus influence plasma total cholesterol concentrations, however, the gene-diet interactions on lipids require further investigation in larger cohorts

Apolipoprotein E gene polymorphism modifies fasting total cholesterol concentrations in response to replacement of dietary saturated with monounsaturated fatty acids in adults at moderate cardiovascular disease risk

Consumption of ≤10% total energy from fat as saturated fatty acids (SFA) is recommended for cardiovascular disease risk reduction in the UK; however there is no clear guidance on the optimum replacement nutrient. Lipid-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been shown to modify the lipid responses to dietary fat interventions. Hence, we performed a retrospective analysis in 120 participants from the Dietary Intervention and VAScular function (DIVAS) study to investigate whether lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) SNPs modify the fasting lipid response to replacement of SFA with monounsaturated (MUFA) or n-6 polyunsaturated (PUFA) fatty acids. The DIVAS study was a randomized, single-blinded, parallel dietary intervention study performed in adults with a moderate cardiovascular risk who received one of three isoenergetic diets rich in SFA, MUFA or n-6 PUFA for 16 weeks. After the 16-week intervention, a significant diet-gene interaction was observed for changes in fasting total cholesterol (P = 0.001). For the APOE SNP rs1064725, only TT homozygotes showed a significant reduction in total cholesterol after the MUFA diet (n = 33; -0.71 ± 1.88 mmol/l) compared to the SFA (n = 38; 0.34 ± 0.55 mmol/l) or n-6 PUFA diets (n = 37; -0.08 ± 0.73 mmol/l) (P = 0.004). None of the interactions were statistically significant for the other SNPs. In summary, our findings have demonstrated a greater sensitivity of the APOE SNP rs1064725 to dietary fat composition, with a total cholesterol lowering effect observed following substitution of SFA with MUFA but not n-6 PUFA. Further large intervention studies incorporating prospective genotyping are required to confirm or refute our findings. The trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01478958