Brick House Research Articles

Underneath Ranefer's floors – urban environments on the desert edge

The city of Akhetaten, modern day Amarna, was founded by the monotheist pharoah Akhenaten as his new capital ca. 1353 BC, and abandoned within about 25 years. Much of the site has been excavated over the past century and few deposits remain undisturbed. In one house, however, that of the king's chief charioteer, Ranefer, rebuilding had sealed occupation debris beneath the final mud brick house floors and in the desiccating conditions of the desert, these preserved extensive insect faunas, which for the first time provide detailed data on living conditions and pest infestation in a major pharaonic urban centre. Pests of stored products include the grain weevil, Sitophilus granarius, the lesser grain borer, Rhizopertha dominica, and flour beetles, Tribolium castaneum, as well as more general pests, such as the lesser mealworm, Alphitobius diaperinus, and the biscuit beetle, Stegobium paniceum. Flies include the house fly, Musca domestica, and the puparia of a flesh fly, Sarcophagidae, burrowed vertically into the mud-brick floor in a room corner, perhaps beneath abandoned offal or meat. The taphonomy of the insect assemblages would suggest that much consisted of material dumped into the house plot, either during a phase of abandonment or to level up the area before the later house, that of Ranefer, was constructed. Trampled surfaces within the midden, often consolidated with desert sand, indicate foul damp conditions and also imply that the process was intermittent. Living conditions in the city of Akhenaten are likely not to have been as salubrious as contemporary tomb paintings might suggest.

Seismic performance of an unreinforced masonry building: An experimental investigation

AbstractThis paper presents the results of an experimental investigation carried out to investigate the seismic performance of a two storey brick masonry house with one room in each floor. A half‐scale building constructed using single wythe clay brick masonry laid in cement sand mortar and a conventional timber floor and timber roof clad with clay tiles was tested under earthquake ground motions on a shaking table, first in the longitudinal direction and then in the transverse direction. In each direction, the building was subjected to different ground motions with gradually increasing intensity. Dynamic properties of the system were assessed through white‐noise tests after each ground motion. The building suffered increasing levels of damage as the excitations became more severe. The damage ranged from cracking to global/local rocking of different piers and partial out‐of‐plane failure of the walls. Nevertheless, the building did not collapse under base excitations with peak ground acceleration up to 0.8g. General behaviour of the tested building model during the tests is discussed, and fragility curves are developed for unreinforced masonry buildings based on the experimental results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Gertie and the Visitors

Gertie and the Visitors Tricia Currans-Sheehan (bio) Gertie saw them come into her lane in their beat-up Ford, pulling a wagon with a tarp on it. They looked like ne’er-do-wells but she was happy to see them. She was eighty-three and had been a widow for ten years now. She hated the loneliness of it. She heard the knock at the door and expected a man, but it was a woman with three girls. And she was a big woman. Gertie was tall but thin like a willow. This woman was a walnut tree—solid and heavy and her skin was dark like oiled wood. “I was wondering if you needed some work done. Heard in town that you were sick and could use help.” “Now who told you that?” Gertie said. “Was it Bud at the gas station or Homer at the grocery?” “Homer. That’s who said it,” the woman replied. “I see that your lawn needs mowing. Show me your mower and we’ll get right on it.” Before Gertie even had a chance to say no, this woman was walking back to the shed behind Gertie’s brick house and opening the door. She called to the youngest girl, “Ruby, you keep out of the way.” She took out the mower and pulled the cord a few times and it started. She began mowing, slowly, because the grass was so thick. The oldest two girls found Gertie’s rakes and were raking up the grass and carrying it to the grove in back. No one ever mowed the grove of walnuts and oaks. Ruby found the porch swing and sat on it and looked around. Gertie walked over and gave her a small push. The girl jumped off like she was scared. Gertie said, “No, you stay on. Just want to show you that it moves back and forth.” She sat on her wooden rocker and pretended not to notice the girl. When Gertie rocked back and forth, Ruby stuck out her foot and pushed off from the rail on the side. They both watched the lawn mowing. [End Page 152] Gertie had been sick for two months from congestive heart failure. Her neighbors had mowed a few times but they couldn’t keep up with things. Her garden had gone to hell. Weeds had taken over. Maybe these folks could hoe it. But how would she pay them? She only had her Social Security and her teacher’s pension. She watched as the lawn mower choked from too much grass and stopped. This beast of a woman tried to start it but it wouldn’t go. She unscrewed the gas lid, looked into the tank and shook her head. “Where’s your gas?” the woman called out. “In that red can,” Gertie said. “In the corn crib.” The woman found the red can and poured it but nothing came out. Then Gertie watched her push the mower over to her car. She got into the back seat and took out a piece of garden hose. The woman opened her gas tank lid, put the hose in it and then lay on the ground and sucked on the other end of the hose. When gas came out, she spit a lot and quickly put the end into the mower gas tank. In a minute it was filled and she pulled the hose away and lifted it up high so the gas wouldn’t keep coming out. “My, my,” Gertie said aloud. Were they gypsies? That’s who would pull a stunt like that. That’s probably how they got gas all the time. Gertie felt sick. She’d pay them five dollars when they were done and tell them to leave. She’d heard about folks like this who would befriend you and then rob you blind. Sixteen years ago when she’d gone on that pilgrimage to Rome with Monsignor McCain, she’d seen gypsies all over. As they were walking from St. Peter’s to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, a woman was on the sidewalk nursing a toddler. Gertie had gasped seeing this woman expose her...

Environmental factors affecting malaria parasite prevalence in rural Bolifamba, South- West Cameroon

The impact of some environmental factors on malaria parasite prevalence was investigated in rural Bolifamba, Cameroon. The study population comprised 1454 subjects aged 0 - 65 years. Malaria parasite prevalence was higher in the rainy (50.1 %) than in the dry season (44.2 %) with a significant difference (P = 0.001) in mean parasite density between seasons. Individuals < 15 years old had significantly higher malaria parasite prevalence (55.5 %) than those > 15 years (37.4 %). Malaria parasite prevalence (P = 0.001) and parasite density (P = 0.03) were higher in the individuals of wooden plank houses than those of cement brick houses. Inhabitants of houses surrounded by bushes or garbage heaps and swamps or stagnant water showed higher malaria parasite prevalence and densities compared with those from cleaner surroundings. Anopheles gambiae (63.8 %) and A. funestus (32.8 %) were associated with perennial transmission of malaria. Our data indicates that poor environmental sanitation and housing conditions may be significant risk factors for malaria parasite burden in Bolifamba.

A Doctor in the House: The Architecture of Home-offices for Physicians in Toronto, 1885–1930

Dr William Dumble’s house in Toronto (Figure 1) looked like many other middle-class homes constructed in North American urban centres in the early twentieth century. The twostorey, brick house with a hipped roof and dormer window was typical in its blocky massing, pronounced chimney, generous setback from the street, contrasting materials, and careful detailing. Such houses were intended to house a typical family: two parents, perhaps a few children, and maybe a servant or lodger. Even the way the architects Burke, Horwood andWhite drew the building’s facade—in soft pencil and red ink on tracing paper, showing the warm tone of the red brick and the rough texture of the stucco trim and manicured lawn—signalled domesticity. Both the house design and the architect's drawing, that is, were styled to appear friendly, inviting, and traditional. The house corresponds to the general type of domestic architecture built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a picturesque, non-classical, asymmetrical cottage ‘‘with diverse visual and tactile effects on the exterior and an integration between exterior form and inside spaces’’. Burke, Horwood and White’s floor plan of the house, however, reveals little integration between the front elevation and the spaces inside, which were much more commercial and scientific than the homey exterior suggested. Behind the bay window, to the right of the front door, was the physician’s office; across the hall, boasting white pine trim, oak borders, and a gas fireplace, was a waiting-room for patients. Indeed, nearly half of the ground floor area of the Dumble house was given over to his medical practice, with a close and direct connection to rooms presumably used by his family and live-in

Understanding and managing sanitary risks due to rodent zoonoses in an African city: beyond the Boston Model

The Boston Model describes a successful rodent management plan that succeeded in a first-world city in the USA. In third-world cities, which often contain informal shack settlements, it is debatable whether the Boston Model would apply. In Durban, a major harbor city of three million people on the east coast of South Africa, we investigated the sanitary risks due to rodents in both formal (residential and commercial) and informal (shacks) sectors, and we evaluated the relative merits of different management interventions suggested by the Boston Model. Blood and tissue samples of six species (Rattus norvegicus, R. tanezumi, R. rattus, Mus musculus, Mastomys natalensis, Tatera brantsi) from 262 live-trapped rodents from 54 localities were tested for antibodies or DNA for plague (n= 193: antibody test), leptospirosis (n= 221 for antibody test; n= 69 for polymerase chain reaction test for DNA) and toxoplasmosis (n= 217: antibody test). We conducted a socioeconomic survey of 90 household to determine environmental and socioeconomic disease risk factors in the shack settlement of Cato Crest. No rodents were seropositive for plague, but nine Norway rats, R. norvegicus (4.1% of the sample tested) were seropositive for toxoplasmosis, and 22 R. norvegicus (10.0% of sample tested) were seropositive for leptospirosis. Disease endemic areas were concentrated in Cato Crest and the commercial district of Durban. Serology tests of humans living in Cato Crest (n= 219) showed 0% exposure to plague, 23% to leptospirosis and 35% to toxoplasmosis. Compared with shack-dwellers, the residents of brick houses had slightly lower levels of exposure to leptospirosis and toxoplasmosis. Based on our results, environmental hygiene and rodent-trapping campaigns were launched in Cato Crest. The initiative owes much of its current success to implementation of the principles inherent in the Boston Model, even though certain elements were lacking.

Environmental risk factors for Cryptosporidium infection in an island from Western Venezuela

Few investigations have been conducted on risk factors for Cryptosporidium infection in communities from developing countries. A study was conducted to determine the prevalence and risk factors for cryptosporidiosis in San Carlos island, Venezuela. A sample of 515 subjects (mean age +/- SD: 21.4 +/- 17.8 years) was surveyed. Single fecal specimens were collected and modified Ziehl-Neelsen carbolfuchsin staining of formalin-ether concentrate stools were examined for identification of the parasite. Infections with Cryptosporidium (67 of 515, 13%) were common. Prevalence of the parasite varied among sectors of the community; 34 of 67(50.7%) cases of cryptosporidiosis clustered in two sectors with extreme poverty. Variables strongly associated with a higher risk for the infection (p < 0.01) were residing in these sectors versus the remainder, living in a hut or small residence versus a brick or larger house, using an area of backyard rather than a toilet or latrine for defecation, and having contact with soil contaminated with human feces. Crowding was also a risk (p < 0.05). Contact with human feces contaminated-soil may be an important mode of transmission and poverty a predisposing factor for the infection.

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) domains most valued by urban IsiXhosa-speaking people

The aim of the study was to investigate and identify aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) that are most valued by IsiXhosa-speaking people resident in underresourced areas of Cape Town, South Africa. Fifty-seven domains of HRQoL were identified as important through group discussions with IsiXhosa-speaking people. Participants randomly selected from the community (n = 601) and from individuals seeking medical attention at a local clinic (n = 102) graded the domains on a visual analogue scale (VAS) ranging from 0 for "not at all important" to 10 for " very important". The domains were then mapped to the categories of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. The domains regarded as being most important were Food availability [9.5, standard deviation (SD) = 1.52), Owning a brick house (9.4, SD = 1.57), Access to medical services (9.4, SD = 1.55) and Family safety (9.4, SD = 1.7). Having no bodily pain ranked 40th. Environmental Factors were valued significantly more than the other two categories, and those related to Body Functions were valued higher than domains in the category of Activity and Participation. Despite being asked specifically to answer the questions in relation to their health status, the participants apparently did not differentiate between general quality of life (QoL) and specific HRQoL. It appears that members of an underresourced community regard socioeconomic and service delivery aspects of their lives as integral to their perceived state of health. It may be that it is not possible to separate out factors relating to general QoL from those specifically related to HRQoL in an underresourced population, and such populations might not be suitable for inclusion in certain clinical trials where an improvement in HRQoL is the required outcome. Alternatively, if an HRQoL instrument is to be used to monitor the impact of medical interventions, the inclusion of Environmental Factors should be considered.

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) domains most valued by urban isiXhosa-speaking people

The aim of the study was to investigate and identify aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) that are most valued by isiXhosa-speaking people resident in under-resourced areas of Cape Town. Fifty-seven domains of HRQoL were identified as important through group discussions with isiXhosa-speaking people. Participants randomly selected from the community (n = 601) and from individuals seeking medical attention at a local clinic (n = 102) graded the domains on a visual analogue scale (VAS) ranging from 0 as "not at all important" to 10 as " very important". The domains were then mapped to the categories of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. The domains regarded as being most important were food availability (9.5, SD = 1.52), owning a brick house (9.4, SD = 1.57), access to medical services (9.4, SD = 1.55), and family safety (9.4, SD = 1.7). Having no bodily pain was ranked 40th. Environmental factors were valued significantly more than the other two categories and those related to body functions were valued more highly than domains in the category of activity/participation. Despite being asked specifically to answer the questions in relation to their health status, the participants apparently did not differentiate between general quality of life (QoL) and specific HRQoL. It appears that members of an under-resourced community regard socioeconomic and service delivery aspects of their lives as integral to their perceived state of health. It may be that it is not possible to separate factors relating to general quality of life from those specifically related to HRQoL in an under-resourced population and such populations might not be suitable for inclusion in certain clinical trials where improvement in HRQoL is the required outcome. Alternatively, if a HRQoL instrument is to be used to monitor the impact of medical intervention, the inclusion of environmental factors should be considered.

Tsunami vulnerability of buildings and people in South Java – field observations after the July 2006 Java tsunami

Abstract. A team of scientists from New Zealand and Indonesia undertook a reconnaissance mission to the South Java area affected by the tsunami of 17 July 2006. The team used GPS-based surveying equipment to measure ground profiles and inundation depths along 17 transects across affected areas near the port city of Cilacap and the resort town of Pangandaran. The purpose of the work was to acquire data for calibration of models used to estimate tsunami inundations, casualty rates and damage levels. Additional information was gathered from interviews with eyewitnesses. The degree of damage observed was diverse, being primarily dependant on water depth and the building construction type. Water depths were typically 2 to 4 m where housing was seriously damaged. Damage levels ranged from total for older brick houses, to about 50% for newer buildings with rudimentary reinforced-concrete beams and columns, to 5–20% for engineered residential houses and multi-storey hotels with heavier RC columns. "Punchout" of weak brick walls was widespread. Despite various natural warning signs very few people were alerted to the impending tsunami. Hence, the death toll was significant, with average death and injury rates both being about 10% of the people exposed, for water depths of about 3 m.

The Colored Folk Churches in East Tennessee

THE COLORED FOLK CHURCHES IN EAST TENNESSEE Robert Boyd "Oh Come, come, come to the church in the wildwoods. Oh come to the church in the dell. No lovelier place in my childhood Than the little brown church in the dell." When traveling EastTennessee's secluded ridges and dells near the Smoky Mountains, you will find small family churches where Colored folks have worshiped for more than a century. These small country churches stand like sentinels guarding the graves and history of the Colored folks who once lived on and farmed the rugged Appalachian land. Looking back, there is no lovelier place in my childhood than the days I worked the rugged land with my uncles and worshipped in the family churches with my aunts. "No lovelier place in my childhood" New Salem Baptist Church, built in 1886, is listed in the National Register of Historical Places. The New Salem Baptist Church is the oldest building in Sevierville, Tennessee, and Sevier County's oldest brick church. It sits on the banks ofa stream that runs into the Little Pigeon River, which meanders down the Smoky Mountains through Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville. New Salem Baptist Church was built in 1886 by the Dockery, McMahan and Coleman families who were ex-slaves and brick masons. They were three of the Colored families of Sevier County who saw a need for the Colored families ofthe county to have a church. Although "you can never go home again" has some element of truth, you can, however, remember home as it once was. I remember the first school that I attended. It was a one-room, brick school house 89 built on Mr. Fred McMahan's Sevier County farm, and his wife, Miss Mary, was my first teacher. The McMahans saw the need and built a solid brick school for the Colored children who lived in Sevier County. The brick school house still stands at the edge ofwhat was once a corn field. From seeds of"progress," expensive homes and townhouses have sprouted on what were once fields ofgrain. Although I "can never go home again," I remember working on Mr. Fred's farm. I remember clearing the corn stalks from a two-acre corn field with the McMahan children and how proud we were when we completed the task. I can still see four small children kneeling in prayer in the cleared field, thanking God for helping us clear the field. There was no adult present in the field urging us to pray—we just fell to our knees and prayed. It is one ofmy unforgettable childhood memories. I remember the Sundays when I would go to New Salem Baptist Church with my Uncle Kenneth and Aunt Pearl. When we arrived, my sister Ruth would follow my Aunt Pearl and the other women into the church. I would remain with my Uncle Kenneth outside under a tree with the men. I enjoyed leaning on the truck with my uncle and listening to men as they discussed their crops, their farm animals and their dogs. The shade from a tall oak tree was our shield from hot summer sun but not from the music, prayers, and sermon that resounded through the church's open windows and across the church yard. "Give me that ol' time religion Give me that ol' time religion It was good for my dear mother ..." The tombstones that mark the graves in the churches' cemeteries chronicle the life and death of the Colored families who lived in the secluded dells and along East Tennessee's mountain ridges in Knox, Blount and Sevier Counties. In Sevier County, Abe, Ruthie, Kenneth, Pearl, Paul, Mollie and Myrtle Brabson are all buried in New Salem's graveyard. They are my grandfather, grandmother, uncles, aunt and mother. It seems when I visit the graves I can still hear my uncle's and aunt's voices: 90 "Kenneth, make that boy climb back down out ofthat tree 'fore he falls and hurts hisself," my Aunt Pearl would caution. "That boy ain't gonna fall," replied my Uncle Kenneth as he watched me climb one limb at a time to the top ofthe apple tree and pluck...

Temperature Stability of Traditional and Low-cost Modern Housing in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

The aim of this study is to compare the thermal comfort of traditional (Xhosa) huts and low-cost modern houses built under the reconstruction development program (RDP) and the influence of fly ash on brick properties and the indoor environment. A mixing proportion of 50% fly ash produces a brick with lower thermal conductivity and water absorption but with a higher compressive strength, while the clay plasticity decreases with the increase in fly ash. The results indicate that traditional huts offer better thermal comfort than low-cost modern houses, while the fly ash brick house (FABH) has a better thermal performance than the RDP house.

Damage Caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami on the Southwestern Coast of Sri Lanka

The Indian Ocean Tsunami on 26 December 2004 affected Sri Lanka, which is located 1,700 km from the epicenter. A field investigation was conducted along the southwest coast of Sri Lanka to measure tsunami trace heights, investigate the damage, and obtain correct information on the tsunami. The results of the field survey showed that the tsunami arrived on the southwest coasts two and a half hours or more after the earthquake. The average tsunami height was 5 m along the southwest coast and tsunami trace heights of 10 m were found locally. The tsunami destroyed a number of wooden and brick houses, damaged port and harbor facilities and coastal railways, washed away many vessels, and scoured the foundations of coastal structures. The port and harbor facilities such as the breakwaters, and rigid coastal houses continuing along the coast reduced the tsunami and lessened the damage that it caused.Hydraulic experiments were conducted to investigate the characteristics of tsunami flooding on flat or declining ground, since it was clarified by the field survey that the severer tsunami damage was caused at the place where the coastal land inclines inland. The experimental results show that the pressure acting on the structure on the sloping bottom was at least twice that of the flat bottom under the experimental conditions.

Brick in Bayswater

The design of a brick house draws on English and Danish building cultures to challenge the growing tendency to divorce expression from structure and obsession with surface styling.

Thermal isolation and mechanical properties of fibre reinforced mud bricks as wall materials

Fibre reinforced mud bricks, which are studied in this paper, provide the expected technical performance for the thermal isolation and mechanical properties, according to ASTM and Turkish standards. The mechanical properties of waste materials and some stabilisers were investigated thoroughly and some concrete conclusions were drawn. The fibre reinforced mud bricks fulfill the compressive strength and heat conductivity requirements of the ASTM and Turkish standards. Mud bricks with plastic fibers showed a higher compressive strength than those with straw, polystyrene and without any fibers. Basaltic pumice as an ingredient was found to decrease the thermal conductivity coefficient of fibre reinforced mud bricks. The fibre reinforced mud brick house has been found to be superior to the concrete brick house for keeping indoor temperatures stationary during the summer and winter.

Veneklasen Brick: A Family, a Company, and a Unique Nineteenth-Century Architectural Movement in Michigan by Michael J. Douma

134 Michigan Historical Review provided a framework for action. Just as Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, marked the beginning of a wave of reform directed at toxic chemical pollutants, theWater Quality Agreement marked the beginning of a twenty-year period of broad-based comebacks for the Great Lakes. Dempsey deals skillfully with that era, citing its goals, successes, and failures. Yet despite some progress, he concludes that the lakes are in peril. A litany of failures and the reasons why these failures occurred are cited in rich detail, and the evidence of current serious trouble is spelled out clearly. Dempsey believes that government programs need large scale funding and that the people who live around the lakes must raise their voices and exercise their power as citizens to achieve reform. On the Brink covers several centuries in only 276 pages of text, and these pages are embellished with reminiscences about life on the lakes and colorful episodes in their history. Most of the work focuses on the last half-century, and therein lies the book's major contribution: it provides a critical review of efforts to control pollution. Also important is Dempsey's broad interpretive view of how lake quality has deteriorated during the past two centuries. Wisely, he considers the lakes as a geographic unit, drawing on the history of both Canadians and Americans, and while incomplete and occasionally incorrect, the general portrait is accurate. On the Brink is a wake-up call that draws upon the work of many other scholars. The author has served as an environmental advisor in Michigan government and as a member of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Margaret Beattie Bogue Em?rita Professor of History and Liberal Studies University ofWisconsin, Madison Michael J. Douma. Veneklasen Brick: A Family, a Company, and a Unique Nineteenth-Century Architectural Movement inMichigan. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005. Pp. 117. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Maps. Paper, $16.00. How do we learn to "read" the historic landscape/townscape? Michael Douma's study of brickworks and brick building in West Michigan is an important reconstruction of the collective memory of a particular part of America. Indeed, anyone coming upon an antique West Michigan brick structure?sometimes deep orange, sometimes with red and white detailing?should remember the artistic and entrepreneurial genius of the Veneklasen family. Book Reviews 135 Most early industries along Lake Michigan's eastern shore were connected to the extraction of raw materials from the great white pine forests or from the lake. These products included not only cut lumber and shingles by the millions of board feet, but also hemlock for leather tanning and hardwood for boatbuilding?and, of course, the yield of the lake itself, the great Lake Michigan whitefish. Most of these products were sent across the lake to Chicago and Milwaukee, often to be exported farther west. All of this, of course, was a part of that great Chicago economy that William Cronin called "nature's metropolis" in his book Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, which was published in 1991. Douma's book looks at another side ofthat story: the extraction of natural resources for local consumption. This is the story of the rich clay fields that lay between the Dutch setdements of Groningen and Zeeland in West Michigan's Ottawa County. It centers on how the Veneklasen family organized and carried on a notable industry. It is about the invention of a building type?the solid and respectable brick house?for an emigrant community as well as the story of the craft of brick making and an account of the growth and decline of an important labor force. Veneklasen Brick considers the early organization of the brick industry and the various reasons for the demand for bricks (class identification as well as fire protection), brick building as a construction form, labor conditions, and the architecture ofWest Michigan brick building. It was in 1851 that the Veneklasen family turned out the bricks for the area's first brick house?the Steketee/Scholten house, which still stands very near where the first Veneklasen brickyard was located in Holland Township. From this point onward in the Holland-Zeeland area brick houses became common...

The amount of wooden material in a closed room and its effect on the reverberation time

Optimal sound-absorbing materials are vital for desirable room acoustics. The effect of wood used for interior wall decoration on the acoustical environment is explored in a controlled room by changing the amount of wall wooden materials. The effect on the interior reverberation time (RT) is reported in this work. The experiment was conducted in a relatively small concrete brick house (approximate dimensions 4.6 × 3.2 × 4.2 m). Results showed that room shape and the arrangement of wooden wall decoration materials were important factors affecting the RT at different receiving positions. As the amount of wall decorating wood materials increased, the interior RT in the house decreased linearly; however, the RT at low frequencies diverged. After the analysis of covariance, all frequency variables were adjusted to the same level and a general regressive formula was developed as RT = C − 0.005 DR. Where RT is the reverberation time (s), DR is the amount of interior wood materials used (%), and the C values were constants that ranged from 0.888 to 1.606 and varied according to the different octave bands. Furthermore, it was found that the increasing influential effect with the DR showed diminishing marginal utility. This means that the influence of DR on RT was not linear, and, therefore, the marginal utility should be considered in order to use wooden panels economically.

Wood Bungalows and Burnt‐Clay Cottages

In 1913 a group of Midwest brick manufacturers began a daunting but ultimately successful effort to create a model brick house for the Panama‐Pacific International Exposition in 1915. The struggle reflects the challenges confronting the brick industry in the face of fierce competition from the established but innovative lumber interests and the emerging but equally competitive concrete business. It also provides a glimpse into the problems facing many of the entrenched elements of the construction industry struggling to adjust to changing markets and marketing strategies in the years just before and after World War I. Finally, because the venue of this particular skirmish was the West Coast, while the activists hailed from the Midwest and included several of Chicago's most progressive architects, the ensuing conflict also reveals something about the rivalry between adherents of the California frame bungalow and promoters of the Prairie School brick house.

Peter Mark. “Portuguese” Style and Luso-African Identity: Precolonial Senegambia, Sixteenth-Nineteenth Centuries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.

Peter Mark's “Portuguese” Style is a welcome contribution to the growing literature on the history and development of Atlantic world cultures. In particular, Mark examines the evolution and proliferation of “Portuguese”-style domestic architecture, primarily in Senegambia, but also in other parts of the Portuguese colonial world, including Cape Verde and Brazil. For Mark, “Portuguese”-style is an amalgamation of Jola and Manding architectural forms, and to a lesser extent, those of the Portuguese. This architectural style—sun-dried brick houses, rectangular in shape, with whitewashed walls, and a continuous veranda or vestibule at the entry—was most closely associated with Luso-Africans working as middlemen in the trade between the African interior and Portuguese traders on the coast.

Indoor Air Pollution from Biomass Fuels and Respiratory Health of the Exposed Population in Nepalese Households

A cross-sectional assessment of indoor air quality in Nepal and its health effects revealed that solid biomass fuels (animal dung, crop residue, and wood) were the main sources of indoor air pollution affecting health. The average smoke level (PM10) in kitchens using biomass fuels was about three times higher than that in those using cleaner fuels (kerosene, LPG, and biogas). Respondents in 98 randomly selected households included 168 who cooked daily meals, of whom 94% were disadvantaged women. Biomass smoke caused significantly more respiratory disorders than did cleaner fuels. Categorized data analysis demonstrated significant associations between biomass smoke pollution and respiratory symptoms such as cough; phlegm; breathlessness; wheezing; and chronic respiratory diseases such as COPD and asthma. The prevalences of respiratory illnesses and symptoms were considerably higher in those living in mud and brick houses compared with concrete houses. Prevalences were also higher in those living on hills and in rural areas compared with flatland and urban areas.