Predicting Future Condition and Conservation Costs from Modelling Improvements to the Indoor Environment: The Monumental Munch-Paintings in the University of Oslo’s Aula Assembly Hall

The pigments and paint binders used by Edvard Munch have been investigated in several studies. Munch used a mixture of media in his works of art. The two versions of The Scream studied here were found to include oil paints and oil paints thickened with beeswax and also oil crayons containing beeswax and Japan wax, as well as casein pastels, a paraffin wax crayon and at least one gum-bound paint. His sketches on canvas make use of oil paints and tempera paints including egg and casein, as well as casein pastels in at least one instance. His oil paintings on canvas seem to have been executed using a more conventional technique, with most having one or a few paint layers bound with linseed oil on a ground formed from lead white in oil on top of a ground made of chalk in glue. Munch's palette is not extensive, though he was reasonably willing to introduce new materials, such as his use of a petroleum-based wax crayon in 1893, oil pastel – possibly as early as 1893 and certainly by 1910, and his use of cadmium red by 1927–1929. The identification of materials has informed conservators who are planning and carrying out conservation treatments.

Inuit infants have high rates of reported hospitalization for respiratory infection, associated with overcrowding and reduced ventilation. We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial to determine whether home heat recovery ventilators (HRV) would improve ventilation and reduce the risk of respiratory illnesses in young Inuit children. Inuit children under 6 years of age living in several communities in Nunavut, Canada were randomized to receive an active or placebo HRV. We monitored respiratory symptoms, health center encounters, and indoor air quality for 6 months. HRVs were placed in 68 homes, and 51 houses could be analyzed. Subjects had a mean age of 26.8 months. Active HRVs brought indoor carbon dioxide concentrations to within recommended concentrations. Relative humidity was also reduced. Use of HRV, compared with placebo, was associated with a progressive fall in the odds ratio for reported wheeze of 12.3% per week (95%CI 1.9-21.6%, P = 0.022). Rates of reported rhinitis were significantly lower in the HRV group than the placebo group in month 1 (odds ratio 0.20, 95%CI 0.058-0.69, P = 0.011) and in month 4 (odds ratio 0.24, 95%CI 0.054-0.90, P = 0.035). There were no significant reductions in the number of health center encounters, and there were no hospitalizations. Use of HRVs was associated with in improvement in air quality and reductions in reported respiratory symptoms in Inuit children. Reduced ventilation is common in the houses of Inuit children in arctic Canada, and is associated with an increased risk of respiratory infection. Installation of HRV brings indoor carbon dioxide concentration, as a marker of adequate ventilation, to within recommended concentrations, although relative humidity is also reduced. Installation of HRV is associated with improvements in indoor air quality, and a reduced risk of wheezing and rhinitis not associated with cold air exposure in young Inuit children. Further research is required to explore traditional Inuit cultural attitudes about air movement in dwellings.

【Despite the wide distribution of air pollutants, the concentrations of indoor air pollutants may be the dominant risk factor in personal exposure due to the fact that most people spend an average of 80% of their time in enclosed buildings. Researches for improvement of indoor air quality have been developed such as installation of air cleaning device, ventilation system, titanium dioxide $(TiO_2)$ coating and so on. However, it is difficult to evaluate the magnitude of improvement of indoor air quality in field study because indoor air quality can be affected by source generation, outdoor air level, ventilation, decay by reaction, temperature, humidity, mixing condition and so on. In this study, evaluation of reduction of formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide emission rate in indoor environments by $TiO_2$ coating material was carried out using mass balance model in indoor environment. we proposed the evaluation method of magnitude of improvement in indoor air quality, considering outdoor level and ventilation. Since simple indoor concentration measurements could not properly evaluate the indoor air quality, outdoor level and ventilation should be considered when evaluate the indoor net quality.】

Several users of a newly built school building in a university (new building) complained about their deteriorating physical health. We measured the air quality in the new building, an old school building and atmosphere in September 2007 and February 2008. We also conducted a questionnaire survey of subjective symptoms of users in the new building in February 2008. The university administrator took some remedial actions to improve the indoor air quality after the first measurement. In September 2007, the concentrations of total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) and 2-ethyl-1-hexanol in the new building were higher than those in the old building and atmosphere. Moreover, the concentrations of TVOCs exceeded the Japanese recommended guideline values. In February 2008, the concentrations of these substances in the new building were lower than the previous values. Out of the 177 users who were surveyed regarding subjective symptoms, 59 responded to the survey. In September 2007, 21 users felt that their physical health had deteriorated, while in February 2008, 12 users felt no deterioration. However, nine users still complained about the deterioration of their physical health. It was suggested that the improvement in the indoor air quality may be influenced by the decrease in room temperature. Even if the concentrations of VOCs are below the recommended guideline values, users with an enhanced sensitivity towards VOCs may lose their tolerance to low-level VOCs. Our findings suggested that a survey of the changes in the subjective symptoms of users should be conducted to evaluate the improvement in the indoor air quality of newly built buildings.

The recurrence of specific deteriorating phenomena in blue paints used by Edvard Munch, observed more frequently from artworks from 1907 and onwards, calls for an analytical investigation of these paints. Ten commercial Ultramarine blue oil paint tubes from Munch’s studio materials were studied, employing a multi-analytical approach comprising ATR-FTIR, µ-Raman, GC-MS, and SEM-EDS techniques. This study aims to ascertain the composition of these industrially produced blue oil paints and shed more light on the potential implications for darkening and other deterioration phenomena observed in Munch’s artworks. The analyzed samples exhibited complex mixtures, characterized by significant presences of additives such as non-drying or partially drying oils, metal soaps, and preservatives. Moreover, extenders including clay minerals and white and other blue pigments were identified. Some compositions diverged from those indicated on the labels of the tubes. This study presents hypotheses regarding the causes of deterioration mechanisms observed in Ultramarine blue paints and outlines future perspectives and implications of darkening and other surface degradation phenomena in paintings from MUNCH’s collection towards best conservation and display practices.

This simple model, developed by conservators, assists in the challenge of making preventive conservation, housekeeping, and care of historic interiors and collections, physically and economically sustainable, in historic houses welcoming increasing volumes of visitors (a primary source of dust). It introduces objectivity into conservation advice and management decisions: how many collections care staff should each historic house ideally employ, and how large an annual budget is required to fund the non-wage costs of routine preventive and interventive conservation? Are staffing structures rational and consistent, and tailored to the individual and developing circumstances of multiple properties? Eight qualitative and quantitative criteria are each given a score from 1–4 in relation to their data ranges. The total scores for each property are converted to percentages, correlated with staffing structures, and used to estimate the requirements for daily, weekly and annual housekeeping and conservation cleaning. Selected data are used to measure housekeeping performance against weekly targets, and to rationalize the distribution of financial resources for preventive conservation and maintenance. The model can be adapted for use in any museum or heritage building which needs to assess and quantify the routine care of interiors and collections on open display to visitors.

Indoor air quality is the dominant contributor to total personal exposure because most people spend a majority of their time indoors. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the alternative method for improvement of indoor air quality in house after coating titanium dioxide (<TEX>$TiO_2$</TEX>) photocatalyst for interior part of the house using nitrogen dioxide (<TEX>$NO_2$</TEX>) multiple measurements. To evaluate the alternative method in indoor environment, daily indoor and outdoor <TEX>$NO_2$</TEX> concentrations of an apartment and a detached house were daily measured for consecutive 21 days in winter and summer, respectively, Another daily 21 measurements were carried out after <TEX>$TiO_2$</TEX> coating on wall paper of interior part in houses. All <TEX>$NO_2$</TEX> concentrations were measured by passive filter badges. Indoor air quality models using mass balance are useful tool to quantify the relationship between indoor air pollution levels, ambient concentrations, and explanatory variables. Using a mass balance model and linear regression analysis, penetration factor (ventilation rate divided by sum of ventilation rate and decay rate) and source strength factor (emission rate divided by sum of ventilation rate and decay rate) were calculated. Subsequently, the decay constants were estimated. In this study. magnitude of improvement of indoor air quality could be evaluated by decay constant.

This article is devoted to the monumental painting technology study of the Transfiguration (Warrior) Church in the Starocherkasskaya village. The temple was built in the middle of the XVIII century. The preserved wall painting dates from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The state of monumental painting, the determination of its preservation degree, the development of methods for its restoration, including disclosure from marks, strengthening, tinting, and making up for losses, are examined. In order to develop the proposals for restoration, a study of its fragments was carried out by the X-ray phase analysis on an “ARLX’TRA” diffractometer to determine the composition of plaster, soil and paint coat. As a result of the analysis, it was established that wall paintings are oil painting on gypsum soil. Based on the studies, it is proposed to carry out the following works: cleaning from whitewash, removing the surface contaminants, strengthening the paint layer.

The trope of the valiant woman/women fighting with arms during the Ottoman siege of Szigetvár in 1566 has mainly been studied by Hungarian historiography and literary history, and art history has hardly paid attention to the motif in the visual arts. In the historical and literary sources the trope has had three distinguishable – and sometimes connected – variants since the 16th century, each of them also represented in Hungarian works of art. The story of the woman fighting at the side of her husband already cropped up in the Hungarian historical song created in the year of the battle: before the final charge the defenders wanted to kill their wives or brides to save them from falling into pagan hands but a valiant woman asked her husband to give her armour and weapon to fight the enemy. The story passed into the Transylvanian German poet Christian Schesaeus’ Ruinae Pannonicae (1571) and into a Latin-language album in memory of Miklós Zrínyi published in Wittenberg in 1587. The motif is included in the mid-17th century biographies of women by the French Jesuit poet Pierre Le Moyne, in the February 1749 issue of Mercure de France and in several 18-19th century German and Austrian periodicals and literary works. From the early 19th century the heroic deed of the brave woman of Szigetvár appeared in several Hungarian magazines and pieces of juvenile literature often together with the story of the valiant women of Eger. The first visual representation of the brave woman of Szigetvár is the monumental painting about Zrínyi’s charge from Szigetvár by Austrian Peter Krafft created upon the commission of the National Museum in 1825: there is a helmeted woman with a determined look in her eyes among the troops charging out of the castle. This detail was to be repeated not only in several engravings made after Krafft’s painting but also in multiplied prints including title-pages of printed music. Another variant of the trope appears in the Italian Giovanni Michele Bruto’s manuscript of the history of Hungary written in the 1570s-80s. In this version some brave women and mothers whom their husbands wanted to kill entreated them to let them die fighting against the foe with their children held as shields. This motif is included in German-language plays on Zrínyi by August Werthes and Theodor Körner written at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The women and children locked in the castle are also shown in Alajos Rohn’s lithograph Zrínyi’s oath after Béla Vízkelety’s painting of a tableau vivant staged after Körner’s Zrínyi play in a charity performance at the National Theatre of Pest on 3 April 1860. Women and children are important actors in Bertalan Székely’s monumental painting Zrínyi’s charge (1879–1885) showing a woman picking up a fallen sword to fight the Ottomans. The third variant of the motif of the courageous woman cropped up in literature at the turn of the 18-19th century: in the plays by Werthes and Körner Zrínyi’s wife blows up the powder-house with a torch to send as many of the intruding Ottomans into the netherworld as she could. The best-known example of the theme is the oil painting by Xavér Ferenc Weber The final moments of Szigetvár (1871) also shown at the 1873 Vienna World Fair. A fusion of historical and legendary elements can be seen in the 20th century colour print entitled Ilona Zrínyi’s heroism in defence of the castle of Munkács 1688 in which Ilona Zrínyi is about to dip her torch into a powder barrel to kill the invading Ottomans while defending the castle of Munkács in 1688 (actually against the Habsburg imperial troops).

Air pollution is a major concern in the Philippines, with indoor and outdoor air pollution among the highest causes of mortality in the country. However, the latest regulations deal only with ambient outdoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution is seldom monitored or studied. Most of the official government monitoring data also deal with outdoor air pollution even if Filipinos spend more than 80% of their time indoors. Smoking indoors can be a cause of excess air pollutants in the indoor setting. Heated Tobacco products, newly introduced in the country, have been reported to reduce the harm of exposure to users to air pollutants. We investigated this through the review of 282 studies, research papers, books, and narratives about HTP use and their effects. These studies show reduced release of harmful and potentially harmful compounds (HPHC) in the aerosol and lower concentrations of HPHCs in the indoor environment when using HTPs as compared to tobacco smoke. Short term pre-clinical studies also show a reduction in the biomarkers for potential exposure to these HPHCs and risk calculations have shown a reduction in cancer potencies across populations. While long-term epidemiological studies are still required to determine with finality the risks that HTP use may have, there is already wide agreement in the initial results that the complete switch to HTP use from cigarette smoking presents less risks of harm. The review, however, shows that much has to be studied about the manner by which HTPs can affect indoor air quality in tropical countries such as the Philippines.

Urban residential energy switching in China between 1980 and 2014 prevents 2.2 million premature deaths

Indoor air quality in passive-type museum showcases

Energy efficiency and indoor air quality (IAQ) are two crucial required features in a building. Simultaneous improvement of energy efficiency and IAQ in a building can pave the way for obtaining a green building certification. This paper examined the performance of the airflow windows’ supply and exhaust operating modes in energy-saving and providing IAQ criteria. The analytical zonal model coupled with the airflow network model was used to evaluate the system’s thermal performance and the induced airflow. The simulation was done for an office building located in Shiraz, Iran. The results showed that the energy performance of ventilated windows is positive in nine months of the year. Compared to a conventional double-glazed window, the maximum energy savings is about 10%, which occurs in August. It is predicted that using ventilated windows in office buildings in Shiraz can improve the window’s thermal performance by an average of about 5%. The results also showed that ventilated windows could provide the fresh air needed for the building in 250 days of the year to achieve the desired IAQ index (based on ASHRAE 62.1 standard). Furthermore, the effects of glass aspect ratio, airflow channel thickness, and the size of inlet/outlet openings on energy efficiency and IAQ of the suggested window were studied. Results indicated that in the climatic conditions of Shiraz, the exhaust operating mode is much more efficient than the supply mode.

The historical (1835–2020) deposition of major air pollutants (SO2, NOx, O3 and PM2.5) indoors, as represented by the monumental Edvard Munch paintings (c. 220 m2) installed in 1916 in the Oslo University Aula in Norway, were approximated from the outdoor air concentrations, indoor to outdoor concentration ratios and dry deposition velocities. The annual deposition of the pollutants to the paintings was found to have been 4–25 times lower than has been reported to buildings outdoors in the urban background in the centre of Oslo. It reflected the outdoor deposition but varied less, from 0.3 to 1.2 g m−2 a−1. The accumulated deposition since 1916, and then not considering the regularly performed cleaning of the paintings, was found to have been 43 ± 13 g m−2, and 110 ± 40 g m−2 in a similar situation since 1835. The ozone deposition, and the PM2.5 deposition before the 1960s, were a relatively larger part of the accumulated total indoor (to the paintings) than reported outdoor deposition. About 18 and 33 times more O3 than NOx and PM2.5 deposition was estimated to the paintings in 2020, as compared to the about similar reported outdoor dry deposition of O3 and NOx. The deposition of PM2.5 to the paintings was probably reduced with about 62% (50–80%) after installation of mechanical filtration in 1975 and was estimated to be 0.011 (± 0.006) g m−2 in 2020.Graphical

A proper ventilation offered warranty for a perfect indoor environment. Indoor air environment includes indoor thermal environment and indoor air quality (IAQ). In this paper a numerical investigation of the indoor environment in different ventilations was accomplished. The Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) in Al-Rifai hospital in Thi-Qar governorate was chosen to be investigated, and its thermal achievement and indoor air quality in the hot summer weather were simulated. For the numerical study, the fluent technique used to set up the physical and numerical model of CCU. An attention has been paid carefully to considerate the distributions of the temperature and the velocity fields, followed by an argument of two different ventilation patterns; up-in and up-out ventilation (UV) and displacement ventilation (DV). After making the comparison, it was noticed that the displacement ventilation (DV) is clearly super than that of the up-in and up-out ventilation (UV) due to improvement in the indoor air quality.