Classifying motor coordination impairment in Para swimmers with brain injury

© 2018 Sports Medicine Australia Objectives: The International Paralympic Committee has mandated that International Sport Federations develop sport-specific classification systems that are evidence-based. This study examined the predictive and convergent validity of instrumented tapping tasks to classify motor coordination impairments in Para swimming. Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: Thirty non-disabled participants and twenty-one Para swimmers with brain injury completed several instrumented tapping tasks as an assessment of upper and lower limb motor coordination. Para swimmers also completed a maximal freestyle swim to obtain a performance measure. The predictive and convergent validity of instrumented tapping tasks was examined by establishing differences in test measures between participants with and without brain injury and defining the strength of association between test measures and maximal freestyle swim speed in Para swimmers, respectively. Results: Random forest successfully classified 96% of participants with and without brain injury using test measures derived from instrumented tapping tasks. Most test measures had moderate to high correlations (r = 0.54 to 0.72; p < 0.01) with maximal freestyle swim speed and collectively explained up to 72% of the variance in maximal freestyle swim performance in Para swimmers with brain injury. Conclusions: The results of this study evidence the predictive and convergent validity of instrumented tapping tasks to classify motor coordination impairments in Para swimmers with brain injury. These tests can be included in revised Para swimming classification to improve the objectivity and transparency in determining athlete eligibility and sport class for these Para athletes

Impact of indoor environmental quality on occupant well-being and comfort : a review of the literature

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and its effect on occupant well-being and comfort is an important area of study. This paper presents a state of the art study through extensive review of the literature, by establishing links between IEQs and occupant well-being and comfort. A range of issues such as sick building syndrome, indoor air quality thermal comfort, visual comfort and acoustic comfort are considered in this paper. The complexity of the relationship between occupant comfort and well-being parameters with IEQ are further exacerbated due to relationships that these parameters have with each other as well. Based on the review of literature in these areas it is established that design of buildings needs to consider occupant well-being parameters right at the beginning. Some good practices in all these different areas have also been highlighted and documented in this paper. The knowledge established as part of this paper would be helpful for researchers, designer, engineers and facilities maintenance engineers. This paper will also be of great benefit to researchers who endeavour to undertake research in this area and could act as a good starting point for them. Keywords Occupant well-being; Indoor environment quality; Occupant comfort; Offices; Green building

Mixed-mode buildings : a double standard in comfort

This paper investigates how mixedmode (MM) ventilation affects occupant comfort by presenting results from a longitudinal field study within an office building located in subtropical Sydney, Australia. The building automatically switches into airconditioned (AC) mode whenever indoor temperatures exceed 25°C. Coincident indoor and outdoor climate measurements along with 1359 subjective comfort questionnaires were collected. Thermal sensations during natural ventilation were, on average, 2.1°C warmer than those predicted using Fanger’s PMVPPD (Fanger 1970). Differences in thermal perception were also apparent between these two modes. Within AC mode, a +1 PMV environment elicited much ‘warmerthanneutral’ thermal sensations than the same environment within naturallyventilated (NV) mode, suggesting thermal perceptions were affected by the building’s mode of operation over and above the indoor climatic conditions. These discrepancies emphasize the complexity of thermal perception and the inadequacy of using PMV models to describe occupant comfort in MM buildings

Green occupants for green buildings : the missing link?

This paper follows the results of recent post-occupancy evaluation surveys within two office buildings at Macquarie University, Sydney Australia. Supplemented with an environmental attitudes questionnaire, based upon the New Ecological Paradigm (Dunlap et al. 2000), it was found that occupant satisfaction levels are positively associated with environmental beliefs. Occupants with higher levels of environmental concern were more tolerant of their building, particularly those featuring aspects of green design, such as naturally-ventilated façades and operable windows. Despite their criticisms of the building’s indoor environmental quality, the ‘green’ occupants were prepared to overlook and forgive less-than-ideal conditions more so than their ‘brown’ (non-green) counterparts. Drawing upon these results, statistical analyses of the association between environmental beliefs and occupant satisfaction in this paper support the hypothesis that broad environmental attitudes are closely associated with the stronger ‘forgiveness factor’ often observed in green-intent buildings.8 page(s

Green occupants for green buildings : the missing link?

Green buildings, often defined as those featuring natural ventilation capabilities, i.e. low-energy or free-running buildings, are now at the forefront of building research and climate change mitigation scenarios. This paper follows the results of recent post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys within two academic office buildings located in sub-tropical Sydney, Australia. Supplemented with an environmental attitudes questionnaire, based upon the New Ecological Paradigm [1]), it was found that occupant satisfaction levels on the POE were positively associated with environmental beliefs. Occupants with higher levels of environmental concern were more forgiving of their building, particularly those featuring aspects of green design, such as natural ventilation through operable windows. Despite their criticisms of the building’s indoor environmental quality, the ‘green’ occupants were prepared to overlook and forgive less-than-ideal conditions more so than their ‘brown’ (non-green) counterparts. These results support the hypothesis that pro-environmental attitudes are closely associated with the stronger ‘forgiveness factor’ often observed in green buildings, but the question of causality remains moot.7 page(s

Do green buildings need green occupants?

Mixed-mode: these words are synonymous with the world’s emergent ‘green’ buildings, heralded as low carbon buildings of the future. While the technical efficiency of such buildings is important, the well-being, productivity, (dis)comfort, general satisfaction of the occupants, as well as environmental attitudes and beliefs, is in itself, necessarily important. Post-occupancy evaluations for occupant satisfaction, and New Ecological Paradigm questionnaires, measuring levels of environmental concern, were conducted between March and April 2009 in two academic office buildings at Macquarie University. Upon analysis, significantly higher environmental attitudes were present for occupants possessing greater tolerance of their building’s thermal environment. This paper hypothesises that occupants valuing their building highly possess greater pro-environmental attitudes compared to those valuing their building poorly, and thus provides evidence supporting the link between environmental attitudes and occupant satisfaction within green buildings.4 page(s

Is it hot in here or is it just me? Validating the post-occupancy evaluation

Historically, post-occupancy evaluation (POE) was developed to evaluate actual building performance, providing feedback for architects and building managers to potentially improve the quality and operation of the building. Whilst useful in gathering information based on user satisfaction, POE studies have typically lacked contextual information, continued feedback and physical measurements of the building's indoor climate. They, therefore, sometimes over-exaggerate poor building performance. POEs conducted in two academic office buildings: a mixed-mode (MM) and a naturally ventilated (NV) building located within a university in Sydney, Australia, suggest high levels of occupant dissatisfaction, especially in the MM building. In order to test the validity of the POE results, parallel thermal comfort studies were conducted to investigate the differences in occupant satisfaction and comfort perceptions between these two questionnaires. Instrumental measurements of each building's indoor environment reveal that occupants tended to over-exaggerate their POE comfort responses. Analysis of thermal satisfaction and acceptability in each building indicate that occupants of the NV building were more tolerant of their thermal environment despite experiencing significantly warmer temperatures than their MM counterparts. In discussing these results, along with participant comments and anecdotal evidence from each building, this article contends that POE does not accurately evaluate building performance, suggesting occupants can and do use POE as a vehicle for complaint about general workplace issues, unrelated to their building. In providing a critical review of current POE methods, this article aims to provide recommendations as to how they can be improved, encouraging a more holistic approach to building performance evaluation.23 page(s

Mixed-mode buildings : a double standard in occupants' comfort expectations

This paper investigates how mixed-mode (MM) ventilation affects occupant comfort by presenting results from a longitudinal field study within an academic office building from a tertiary educational institution in sub-tropical Sydney, Australia. The building automatically switches into air-conditioned (AC) mode whenever indoor temperatures exceed 25 °C. Coincident indoor and outdoor climate measurements along with 1359 subjective comfort questionnaires were collected. Thermal sensations during natural ventilation did not conform to those predicted using Fanger's PMV-PPD [1]. Differences in thermal perception were also apparent between these two modes. Within AC mode, a PMV = +1 environment elicited much 'warmer-than-neutral' thermal sensations than the same PMV = +1 environment within naturally-ventilated (NV) mode, suggesting thermal subjective perceptions were affected by the building's mode of operation over and above the objective indoor climatic conditions. These discrepancies emphasize the complexity of thermal perception and the inadequacy of using PMV models to describe occupant comfort in MM buildings. ASHRAE's Standard 55 [2] currently classifies MM buildings as AC buildings, and as such, limits the operation of these buildings to the more restrictive PMV-PPD range of indoor thermal conditions. In contrast, EN15251 [3] permits the more flexible adaptive comfort standard to be applied to buildings operating under NV mode. Results from this study favour EN15251's application of the adaptive comfort model instead of PMV-PPD to MM buildings when they are operating in NV mode.8 page(s

Occupant comfort in naturally ventilated and mixed-mode spaces within air-conditioned offices

Contemporary concerns for improving environmental performance in buildings have led to an increased interest in natural ventilation either on its own (NV) or in combination with air-conditioning (mixed mode – MM) as an alternative to traditional HVAC systems. HVAC systems are widely used because they avoid many of the problems encountered with NV or MM – noise, dust, insects, odours, temperature extremes – and readily conform to steady state conditions of thermal comfort. However it is possible that NV or MM can provide improved indoor air quality precisely through variations associated with external climate conditions. This paper introduces an ARC funded project evaluating comfort conditions in MM spaces, using field studies from two buildings. The first, a University campus building in Sydney, offers MM perimeter offices with air-conditioned central spaces, while the second, a commercial building in Melbourne, offers a series of MM spaces that can be used by workers from adjacent air-conditioned office spaces. The aim of the project is to evaluate the feasibility of using MM either in place of or in association with traditional HVAC systems. The outcomes of the project will be used to elaborate the justifications for inclusion of NV spaces and/or NV periods within contemporary office environments. This paper presents preliminary results of the field work at each location.9 page(s

A sex/age anomaly in thermal comfort observed in an office worker field study: A menopausal effect?

In a field study conducted in office settings in Sydney, Australia, background survey and right-here-right-now thermal comfort questionnaires were collected from a sample of office workers. Indoor environmental observations including air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air velocity and relative humidity, were also recorded and matched with each questionnaire according to time and location. During exploratory data analyses we observed that female subjects aged over 40 and 50 or younger registered significantly warmer sensations than other subjects, male and female, from other age ranges. To further explore this phenomenon, the sample of building occupants were classified into two groups – women of perimenopausal age (over 40 and 50 or younger) while the remaining respondents served as a reference group for comparison. Women in the perimenopausal age range demonstrated an increased perception of warmth (p&lt;0.01) and expressed thermal dissatisfaction more frequently (p&lt;0.01) than the reference group respondents who were exposed to the same indoor environmental conditions. Further, women of perimenopausal age also expressed preference for cooler thermal environments i.e. lower air temperature (p&lt;0.01) and greater air movement (p&lt;0.01) than the reference group, and their thermal neutrality (i.e. the room temperature corresponding to a neutral thermal sensation), was approximately 2°C cooler than that of the reference group (20.7°C vs 22.4°C). A potential physiological explanation for the distinct thermal perception of women aged over 40 and 50 or younger observed in this study could stem from menopausal symptoms – the presence of hot flushes and dysregulation of the thermoregulatory system