In this study, exposure to a range of chemical substances, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes (BTEX), formaldehyde, PM 2.5 -bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and PM 2.5 -bound metals, was estimated for two groups of fire station workers: firefighters and office workers. The health risk assessment was based on the results of self-conducted measurements, which were taken simultaneously inside and outside of a typical Polish fire station in two seasons: heating (January-March 2023) and non-heating (May-July 2023). The incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) associated with the exposure of fire station workers to BTEX, formaldehyde, PM 2.5 -bound PAHs and metals was found to be within the range of 3.35 × 10 −4 –6.70 × 10 −4 , exceeding the acceptable risk value of 10 −4 . The hazard indexes (HIs), which provide information regarding the level of non-carcinogenic risk, have values within the range of 11.34–19.13. It is important to note that these studies are in their nascent stages and are based on measurements obtained from a single fire station. However, the preliminary findings suggest that exposure to the analyzed pollutants may have adverse effects on human health. This study elucidates the critical issue of the impact of air quality at fire stations on the health of their users, underscoring the necessity for the implementation of solutions that reduce the concentrations of air pollutants at fire stations and further research in this domain.

The COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns about airborne virus transmission, particularly in enclosed spaces like hospital wards. This study examines the effectiveness of ventilation system, air purifier and curtains in mitigating virus-laden-particle spread in a hospital ward. A four-bed hospital room was simulated, where patients exhale potentially infectious particles. The impact of different configurations of ventilation systems, air purifiers and curtains on particle dispersion was evaluated. The experiments involved the release of NaCl particles to mimic virus-laden aerosols, measured by optical particle counters. The study found that operating the ventilation system alone could reduce particle concentrations, especially when the particle source was near the exhaust vent. The addition of curtains further reduced concentrations by approximately 10%. The air purifier's effectiveness varied depending on the particle source location and the airflow direction. The most significant reduction, up to 52.6%, occurred when both the ventilation system and the air purifier were used simultaneously, with a combined effect of 41.4% reduction compared to relying on ventilation alone. The results suggest that a combined strategy using ventilation systems, air purifiers and curtains is an effective way to reduce airborne virus transmission. These findings provide practical insights for improving indoor air quality and mitigating infection risks in hospitals.

The metal-organic framework MIL-100(Fe) is a novel humidity-regulating material, but it has poor water vapour desorption performance. To address this issue, MIL-100(Fe) was modified using 20% lithium chloride (LiCl), forming stable coordination bonds through ion-dipole interactions. These bonds attract water molecules, enhancing the adsorption capacity and improving the structural stability of the material. After modification, its moisture capacity was increased by 2.42 times, and the desorption amount was increased by 7.22 times, with an overall improvement in moisture adsorption–desorption equilibrium. However, the use of inorganic salts presents a leakage problem in high-humidity environments. To counter this, a 3% ethyl cellulose (EC) coating was applied to the modified MIL-100(Fe). Through surface interactions, this modification improved the material's adsorption performance in non-polar environments, preventing deliquescence in long-term high-humidity conditions. The hydrophobic angle of the modified composite material reached 93°, making the surface hydrophobic. The moisture capacity of the composite material was 1.83 times that of the pure MOF, and the desorption amount was increased by 5.2 times, significantly enhancing the material's environmental humidity regulation performance. Additionally, the material demonstrated good reusability, extending its lifespan, making it suitable for use as an intelligent humidity control material in construction.

Air conditioning is crucial for maintaining thermal comfort and health for the elderly during cooling seasons, particularly given their reduced adaptability. It is essential to first explore and establish the users’ demand profile to meet the elderly's unique needs, due to their weakened physiological and psychological adaptation abilities. This study aimed to characterize the users’ demand profile of indoor air conditioners for the Chinese elderly during cooling seasons. Fifteen elderly individuals at a care facility in Chongqing were selected. Moreover, 534 air conditioners’ operation datasets were collected from the Internet of Things platform and were clustered by the K -means algorithm. The results showed that the users predominantly turned on and operated air conditioners during midday, post-meal and sleep periods. They preferred setting temperatures between 26.0°C and 28.0°C, automatic wind speed and no-wind direction modes. Minimal adjustments were increasing temperature by 1.0°C ­–2.0°C, reducing wind speed and reverting to no-wind direction settings. Three usage demand profiles were identified by considering single operation duration and named evening comfort with moderate adjustment demand, dual-peak short-duration stable maintenance demand and sleep comfort long-duration no-wind direction demand. These findings directly inform age-optimized air conditioning technologies, emphasizing adaptive automation, sleep-optimized modes and energy efficiency for future aging-friendly residential and care facilities design.

This study investigated how different flower colours in plant walls, warm and cool, could affect human health. The experiment involved constructing three types of plant walls, warm flower plant wall, cool flower plant wall and green leaf plant wall (control group), using virtual reality (VR) technology. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used to measure psychological reactions. Heart rate variability (HRV) and blood pressure (BP) were used to measure physiological reactions during the plant wall viewing. The findings indicated that the cool flower plant wall could significantly reduce anxiety compared to the warm flower plant wall ( p = 0.001). The warm flower plant wall considerably reduced high frequency (HF) of heartbeat ( p = 0.011) compared to the green leaf plant wall and the physiological recovery effect was less pronounced. No significant differences were observed between the cool flower plant wall and the green leaf plant wall. These findings suggested that prioritising cool-coloured flowers and green leafy plants while minimising warm-coloured flowers on indoor plant wall designs may enhance mental and physical well-being, particularly for indoor occupants. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between indoor plant walls and health, providing empirical support for designing healthier and more comfortable indoor environments.

This study assesses the effectiveness of various protective measures in reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a typical meeting room setting using computational fluid dynamics and a stochastic dose–response model. The findings reveal that mask-wearing by the infected person is the most effective strategy, with infection probability reduced by up to 99.99%. Air purifier placement is crucial, with optimal positioning near the air outlet reducing infection risk by 55%. In the absence of masks and air purifiers, reducing room occupancy and strategically positioning the infection source can provide moderate protection. While partitions can block direct droplet transmission, they may also lead to aerosol retention, increasing the risk for individuals on the same side of the infected person. Therefore, partitions should be used with caution and ideally combined with other protective measures. The study underscores the importance of integrating multiple strategies, as no single measure can entirely eliminate transmission risks. These findings provide valuable insights into the use of protective measures for indoor environments, especially when ventilation systems cannot be modified.

The increasing frequency and severity of heat events driven by global warming highlight the need to assess the thermal resilience of buildings under normal operating conditions. The indoor overheating degree (IOD) is a widely adopted metric for quantifying thermal performance. However, its applicability to diverse building thermal resilience assessments is limited due to a lack of relevant data. To address this, this study introduced an improved IOD model that integrates weather conditions and building parameters for the evaluation of indoor thermal performance. The model’s effectiveness was demonstrated through a case study of a residential building in Guangzhou, China. In this study, the most influential factor on the IOD was the outdoor temperature, followed by solar radiation transmittance, the heat transfer coefficient of wall and window, lastly the indoor heat dissipation values. The results showed that by reducing the heat transfer coefficients of walls and windows by 80% and the solar radiation transmittance by 66.7% have yielded IOD reductions of 12.5%, 13.5% and 30.8%, respectively. This study presents an improved IOD model for assessing building thermal resilience, leveraging readily available climatic and building parameter data. It offers a scalable framework for supporting the design of adaptive strategies.

Although some intelligent large-scale models have been proposed recently, due to the diversity and complexity of urban planning tasks, there are still no domain-specific large-scale models tailored to urban planning that support varied tasks. To address this gap, this paper presents the Semantic Multimodal Analysis and Retrieval approach for Planning (SMART-Plan), an innovative multimodal large model that supports complex and diverse urban planning tasks such as domain knowledge questioning, multimodal data retrieval and image-based plan generation. Another key innovation of this model lies in the automated construction of a domain-specific knowledge graph, which combines textual and visual data to represent urban planning entities and their relationships comprehensively. By leveraging the constructed knowledge graph and the designed three-phase domain fine-tuning, the performance of the model was significantly improved across multiple tasks in urban planning, addressing the challenges of fragmented data and specialized terminology in urban planning. Extensive experiments demonstrated that SMART-Plan significantly outperforms existing models in accuracy, logic and professionalism, with an average improvement of 6.25% and 7.2% in knowledge Q&A and image–text Q&A, compared to state-of-the-art methods.

To explore the control effect of fine water mist on new energy vehicle fires in a tunnel, a numerical calculation model was established. This study explored the impact of various factors on the efficacy of high-pressure fine water mist fire extinguishing systems. These factors include the heat release rate, fire source location, the characteristics of fine water mist and the spatial arrangement of nozzles. The results showed that a decrease in the fire source's power led to a reduction in the heat released per unit time, thereby enhancing the fire extinguishing effectiveness. With the increase in the distance between the fire source and one side of the wall, the contact area between water droplets and the fire source expanded, resulting in improved fire suppression. An increase in the nozzle flow rate led to a higher number of spray droplets per unit time. Within a specified range, finer particle sizes of the fine water mist exhibited superior fire-extinguishing capabilities. Moreover, a greater flow rate of fine water mist directed towards the fire source resulted in a more effective fire suppression. This study contributes to fire safety in the domain of new energy vehicles operating within highway tunnels.

This study examined the relationship between CO 2 capture or emission processes and changes in indoor conditions that may contribute to sick building syndrome (SBS). The CO 2 variation was assessed in a controlled chamber under four light intensities (0, 500, 8000 and 11,000 lx) using two plant species: Sansevieria trifasciata and Epipremnum aureum . Results showed the most significant CO 2 reduction at 500 lx, with S. trifasciata achieving a 24.2% reduction and E. aureum 19.3%. However, in darkness and at high light levels (8000 and 11,000 lx), both species increased CO 2 levels, likely due to temperature and humidity changes influencing stomatal behaviour and gas exchange. A mathematical model was developed based on an ordinary differential equation (ODE) of variable order ( n = 0, 1, 2). A first-order model best-described CO 2 reduction by S. trifasciata ( R 2 = 0.9573), while a second-order model fit E. aureum better ( R 2 = 0.9334). These results suggest S. trifasciata is suitable for stable environments like offices, while E. aureum adapts to variable occupancy spaces like homes or classrooms. These findings underscore the potential of these plants as energy-efficient, cost-effective solutions to improve indoor air quality and complement sustainable building systems, enhancing both health and environmental performance.