Dwelling Conditions Research Articles

Examining the relationship between dwelling energy efficiency and fuel poverty for retrofit strategies: A case study of the United Kingdom

In the midst of a global energy crisis, fuel poverty has become increasingly prevalent. This study examines the effectiveness of energy efficiency retrofits (EERs) in alleviating fuel poverty in the United Kingdom. Using the England fuel poverty dataset with XGBoost and interpretive analyses like Individual Conditional Expectation (ICE) and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), the research investigates the impact of EERs on fuel poverty. Findings reveal that while energy efficiency enhancements hold potential for improving conditions for vulnerable households, their effectiveness diminishes beyond a certain threshold. The study identifies solid wall and cavity wall insulation, condensing boilers, well-insulated lofts, and central heating systems as the most effective retrofit measures. However, the optimal selection of retrofit methods varies depending on household and dwelling conditions due to interactive effects. Additionally, comprehensive cost-efficiency analyses show that installing condensing combination boilers in homes without existing boilers and adding cavity wall insulation to houses with uninsulated cavity walls are more cost-efficient options. These insights shed light on the complex relationship between energy efficiency retrofits and fuel poverty, informing the development of targeted strategies to address this pressing issue in the UK and globally.

Social and built environmental factors associated with adult asthma hospital admission in the North Central Texas

Asthma, one of the most common chronic diseases of adults and children, is an important public health concern. The cause of asthma is thought to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors, and a growing body of research has investigated the possible geographic and contextual factors that contribute to asthma prevalence. However, few studies have incorporated geographic and environmental variables into their designs, despite evidence that geography is associated with asthma exacerbation. Additionally, studies of asthma exacerbations among adults are limited. The situation regarding asthma is particularly concerning in North Central Texas (NCT) compared to the national context. In light of this, we analyzed the geographic variation of approximately 12,000 adult patients hospitalized for asthma in the North Central Texas Region, and their association with built environmental features such as land use types, dwelling characteristics, exposure to traffic parameters at the Census Block Group (CBG) level, and pollutant concentrations in the relevant counties for the year 2014. We applied the Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM), and our analysis indicates that there are significant health disparities in the region. We found that the adult asthma hospitalization rate is significantly higher in low-income, low-education neighborhoods with a significant Black population. Furthermore, factors such as increased travel distance to work and substandard dwelling conditions have been found to trigger an increase in hospital visits for asthma patients. Conversely, the presence of greenspace in the surrounding area has been found to help reduce the frequency of asthma-related hospital visits. It is worth noting that both indoor and outdoor environmental quality contribute to adult asthma hospitalizations. Overall, our study highlights the importance of considering geographic and environmental factors in understanding the prevalence and exacerbation of asthma. Our findings suggest that targeted interventions, such as improving indoor and outdoor environmental quality and increasing access to greenspace, may help reduce the burden of asthma in high-risk communities.

中國古代 住居文化에 나타나는 風水觀念

In this paper, the Fengshui idea(風水觀念) of the housing culture in the Chinese Pre-Qin era was examined by referring to classics and books of philosophers. As humans lead their lives in a particular space after birth, everyone adapts to spaces. The first living place changed from a natural cave to Amdong(岩洞, a rock valley), Sogeo(巢居, a tree house), Hyeolgeo(穴居, a cave), Bonggeo(蓬居, a house with a roof of mugwort stalks) and etc. Particularly in case of Bonggeo, it had the same dwelling condition as today's tents, which has great implications. It shows that human race had already understood science as a type of environment satisfying basic life they deserved to enjoy, and that, by understanding the progress of applied technology, they improved the quantity and quality of their residence and therefore solved the problem of their survival. In addition, the ecological environment is presented in accordance with the characteristics of the region. Momul(毛物) refers to mammals, Rinmul(鱗物) fish, Wumul(羽物) poultry, Gaemul(介物) turtles, animals without fur shellfish, plants of Jomul(皂物) oaks or chestnut trees, Gomuk(膏物) royal foxglove trees or lacquer trees, Heulmul(覈物) peaches or plum trees, Hyeopmul(莢物) herbs like shepherd's purse, and Chongmul(叢物) plants like ramie and reeds. Like this, each geographical environment reflects the weight of life of the people or animals and plants living there as it is.

Evaluating the influence of old and new rental systems on the physical condition of historic mixed-use buildings: a case study of Lebanon

This article investigates the link between the physical condition of built heritage and official local authorities’ legislation in Lebanon. The research analyzed the impact of occupation on the physical condition of dwellings under the prevailing official inherited rental legislation, identifying the scale of the problem and the factors leading to it. The responsibilities of the Lebanese official bodies for rental legislation regarding historical buildings were thoroughly discussed. Moreover, a field survey for the condition of historical dwellings was conducted. To accomplish its objectives, the study employed a three-stage methodology. The first stage involved reviewing archival records, current legislation, and relevant literature to gain a comprehensive understanding of historical dwellings laws and regulations in Lebanon. The second stage was divided into two parts. First, the case study area of the Yacob Al Labban historical square in Tripoli, Lebanon, was selected and justified. This area was examined to understand the impact of local authorities’ legislation and rental regulations on the physical condition of its historical dwellings. Second, a field survey was conducted to gather specific information on building typology, physical condition, and building defects. This data will help establish a connection between legislation and buildings’ physical conditions. In the third stage, the findings were analyzed, interpreted, and compared with the existing literature to draw meaningful conclusions about the relationship between legislation and the condition of historical buildings in Lebanon. The research results revealed a strong relationship between the deterioration of historical dwellings and rental legislation. Additionally, the study found that low rental fees were directly associated with a lack of maintenance across all types of rentals.

The effect of suicide prevention program for community dwelling elderly

IntroductionThe suicide rate in the elderly population is the highest of all ages in Korea. Suicide prevention programs specialized in the elderly are scarce.ObjectivesWe evaluated the effect of the suicidal prevention program named “Nae-an-ae” (means to love oneself ), which was specifically designed for the conditions of the community dwelling elderly.MethodsThe subjects were those who agreed to participate in the Nae-an-ae program among those evaluated as suicide high-risk groups according to the 2021 Jeollanam-do Mental Health Survey. The program consisted of five sessions of simple activities that could be practiced in daily life along with knowledge transfer through education on emotion recognition, stress management, sleep and relaxation, pain and exercise, and depression. This program was conducted by social workers or nurses working at each local community mental health and welfare center. We evaluated the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form Korean Version (GDS-SF), suicidal ideation, satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) and brief resilience scale (BRS) which were measured before and after the program and compared them with the control group.ResultsA total of 276 participated in the program, 226 were in the control group. In the program participating group, the frequency of suicidal ideation was significantly decreased from 36.2% to 11.6% after the program. GDS-SF, SWLS and BRS were significantly decreased in active group than control group.Image:Image 2:Image 3:ConclusionsThese findings showed that “Nae-an-ae” program was found to affect not only the control of suicide risk factors such as depression but also positive factors such as life satisfaction and resilience.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

An energy performance baseline scenario for 19thC listed dwellings in the UK

PurposeThe inclusion of heritage dwellings in the UK decarbonization policies can contribute to cut operational carbon emissions from the building stock; this needs to be made a priority if net zero carbon targets are to be achieved. However, the energy and carbon savings potential of suitable retrofit interventions on this part of the stock is extremely variable and strictly intertwined with the range of baseline conditions of such dwellings. This study aims to propose a framework for interventions in traditional listed dwellings (TLDs) to improve their energy performance utilizing dynamic energy simulation (DES) of selected case studies (CSs) in the city of Brighton and Hove (South-East England).Design/methodology/approachTo achieve this aim, the study established a baseline scenario which provides a basis for the assessment of energy performance and thermo-hygrometric behaviour pre- and post-interventions and allows for comparison between different CSs under comparable conditions.FindingsPresenting a brief overview of the methodology adopted in this study, the paper describes the approach devised to generate such baseline scenario. The paper then compares the results obtained from simulation of normalized and baseline models with the status-quo energy consumption of the dwellings investigated (based on meter readings).Originality/valueThis analysis finally allows to highlight some key physical determinants of the baseline HEC which, in the following stage of research, proved to have a considerable effect also on the amount of energy and carbon savings achievable post retrofit interventions.

Multi-framework-based approach for optimizing dwelling conditions and energy efficiency in subtropical climatic conditions

Multi-framework-based approach for optimizing dwelling conditions and energy efficiency in subtropical climatic conditions

Extreme temperatures, mortality, and adaptation: Evidence from the county level in China.

Extreme temperatures are known to cause adverse health outcomes. Yet knowledge on the magnitude of this effect in developing countries is limited due to data availability and reliability issues. Collecting data for 2872 counties in China, we estimate the effects of daily temperatures on the monthly mortality rate. The results indicate that an additional day for which the maximum temperature is 38°C or above on average increases the monthly mortality rate by about 1.7% relative to if that day's maximum temperature had been in the range 16-21°C. This is after deducting deaths harvested from the subsequent month. Higher gross domestic product per capita at the county level is associated with lower mortality effects of hot and cold days. Improved dwelling conditions are found to be associated with a lower mortality effect of hot days and improved local healthcare infrastructure to be associated with a lower mortality effect of cold days. In the absence of strong adaptation efforts, the estimates suggest net upward pressure on annual mortality rates over coming decades in many populous counties, especially under more extreme climate change scenarios.

Crystallographic analysis of slip system activation in bimodal Ti–6Al–3Nb–2Zr–1Mo alloy under various dwell-fatigue loadings

The microscopic deformation behavior is always been of significant interest in revealing the mechanism of the dwell fatigue effect. This study systematically characterized the deformation system activation in Ti–6Al–3Nb–2Zr–1Mo (Ti6321) alloy using in situ tensile and quasi-in situ dwell fatigue tests. The critical resolved shear stresses of the basal and prismatic slip systems in the Ti6321alloy were first calculated using the slip trace analysis method. The study demonstrated that, under dwell fatigue, basal and prismatic slips consist of major microscopic deformation modes. Most of the slip deformation occurred rapidly during the early stage of dwell fatigue and was independent of the dwell loading. The basal slip was found to be the predominant slip mode regardless of the dwell conditions. The results suggested that the elastic anisotropy of the hexagonal-closed-packed (HCP) structure could lead to heterogeneous microscopic stress, thus activating more basal slip activities. Such activities were found to participate in the crack initiation through two unique cracking modes: basal plane crack and (0001) twist boundary crack.

Crossbred poultry adoption and impact: Evidence from Ethiopia

Growing efforts to achieve improved family poultry signify the importance of adoption and livelihood impact studies of crossbred poultry in Ethiopia. We employ the second panel Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey (ESS) to study the determinants of crossbred poultry adoption and its significance for household well-being. Results show that female poultry managers, constrained in other productive livelihood options, are more likely to adopt crossbred poultry. Households that are relatively wealthier in terms of human resources, assets, and dwelling conditions are more inclined to adopt crossbred poultry. Access to advisory services, experience with other crossbred animals, and the size of the agricultural land are among other significant determinants. Concerning well-being outcomes, crossbred poultry adoption increases egg sales and revenue. The sample does not provide sufficient evidence to conclude any impact on food, non-food consumption, or investment in children's human capital. Predicted revenue from an extra layer chicken in crossbreed adopting households triples the predicted revenue from egg sales in local breed keeping households. Increasing average flock size twice by crossbred birds could generate an annual revenue equal to at least 10% of yearly consumption expenditure. These results suggest that flock sizes in rural family poultry production should be increased with more crossbred birds to sustain livelihoods significantly.

Creating the architectural-landscape space in the major cities as a tool of harmonious personality development in multinational townspeople

Social issues in the XXI century form a need to change people’s living conditions in the big cities considering the ecological crisis. The art of creating architectural landscape spaces in major cities is characterized by special standards of living conditions in a multinational environment. There is a focus on creating a physiologically comfortable and harmonic environment for the development of personality of everyone in such a multinational city as the capital of the Southern Federal District, Rostov-on-Don, also called “the Caucasus gates”. Such environments are the comfortable living conditions of city dwellings and architectural-landscape environment. The landscape is needed to dominate the count of city buildings. The surrounding grounds are equipped for the comfortable living and leisure activities of different age people. The carbonate composition of the atmosphere, the waste of land transport and factories are minimizing. Such conditions are part of an optimally comfortable stay. The ethnic cultural factor is significant as a component in the visualization of objects and the landscape of the city. The visual perception of the video ecological foundations of the exteriors and interiors of buildings and objects of the urban environment has the same positive effect: the decor of buildings, the characteristics of the texture and texture of surfaces, the configuration of finishing and building materials, the color scheme of this artificial environment created by human hands are of leading importance for human psychophysiology. It affects the feeling of security and calm personality development and its' creative improvement and creativity development. It is of enormous significance for the entire nation in crisis.

Platforms for Dwelling

Under contemporary capitalism and platform urbanism, domesticity distorts to take on new forms. Dwelling is simultaneously decentralised and re-distributed via digital and urban networks. This article argues that these new forms of dwelling necessitate new modes of critique – ones primed for this networked, spatially distributed condition. It proposes to supplement typological and topographical approaches to dwelling with the more ‘anexactly rigorous’ relational cartography offered by the field of topology. The article begins with an outline of topology, drawing on mathematics, philosophy and geography towards a reconceptualisation of architecture as a boundary-drawing apparatus. The topological condition of modern dwelling is then retraced as a genealogy of interpenetrating edifices, mediating membranes, and prosthetic equipment, which have prefigured present-day formations of domesticity. The second half of the article trains this topological lens onto three architectural tendencies in response to platform urbanism: convivial arrangements of networked living, commoning platforms and thresholds, and counter-protocols of distributed domesticity. Through unpacking these trajectories, the article illustrates the potential that a topological approach engenders via new modes of mapping, critiquing, resisting and subverting the unequally distributed agency and power underlying the circuits of platform urbanism.

The Housing Question a century and a half later: Notes from New York City

New York City serves as an entry point for a brief reflection on today’s housing question. Drawing on Friedrich Engels’ inspiring work in the late 19th century, it is argued that some issues he pointed out are still present and have become endemic to the capitalist city, while others have emerged amidst recent economic and health crises. In the US economic growth machine and in one of the global capitals, working-class, vulnerable, and unemployed populations still suffer precarious and unworthy dwelling conditions, and finding a place to live is gradually becoming more complex. With many people struggling after the pandemic, homelessness is also growing. The situation comes after decades of defunding public housing, dismantling rent regulations, and neglecting welfare protections in an increasingly financialized housing market that privileges profits over human rights. However, these issues are not unique to NYC; similar accounts can be found throughout urban geographies worldwide. We need to think locally and globally about the current housing question, improve cooperation across housing justice groups and social movements, and prompt a debate about ways to rethink the tenancy regime alongside the capitalist system that has proven incapable of providing housing for everyone.

Overcrowding and Hazardous Dwelling Condition Characteristics: A Systematic Search and Scoping Review of Relevance for Health

Crowding in dwellings is an important public health issue. We hypothesize that overcrowding may cause indirect health effects by adversely affecting the dwelling itself, for example, by increasing dampness leading to mold. We therefore performed a systematic search and a scoping review on overcrowding leading to dwelling condition characteristics of relevance for health. A literature search was performed using the PubMed and Scopus databases up to 5 March 2021. The search yielded 100 records with relevant information. We found that overcrowding is defined in numerous ways and often address "socially deprived" populations. Six studies report associations of overcrowding with at least one dwelling condition characteristic, namely lead, cadmium, microorganism distribution, dust mite and cockroach allergens in dust, cockroach infestation, peeling paint, and mold. One of the studies reports associations between several characteristics, e.g., association of mold with cleanliness and rodent infestation, and points out the common use of pesticides. Additional characteristics were extracted from the remaining 94 records, without data on statistical associations with overcrowding. Our review suggests that multiple potentially hazardous dwelling condition characteristics often coincide in overcrowded dwellings. The epidemiological attribution of health effects to any characteristic is therefore difficult. Causal relationships are even more difficult to establish, as overcrowding is also associated with a range of social and other circumstances that may affect health. The complexity should be considered by scientists and practitioners dealing with overcrowding in dwellings.

Pictures Instead of Survey Questions: An Experimental Investigation of the Feasibility of Using Pictures in a Housing Survey

Abstract Anyone with a smartphone can take pictures anytime anywhere. This opens the opportunity for researchers to collect photos to augment traditional Web survey data. We conducted an experimental survey asking 2700 members of the Dutch LISS panel about their dwelling conditions. Depending on the condition, they were asked to either take several photos of their house or answer a set of survey questions about the same topics. This paper documents the feasibility of collecting pictures instead of answers in a web survey and studies the consequences of using pictures/questions or a choice for components of Total Survey Error. We find that respondents in our study were much more willing to answer survey questions than to take pictures, but this difference depended on the difficulty of the topic. We then compare the quality of the data from the pictures of the heating systems with the survey responses. Here we find that our pictures contain more useful information than the survey responses. Overall, we conclude that asking respondents to take a picture within a survey can be a feasible way to collect high-quality data.

Event-Triggered iterative learning control for asynchronously switched systems

Iterative learning control (ILC) is an effective control strategy for complex systems that uses trial and error to obtain desired output trajectories. This paper focuses on the issue of event-triggered ILC for switched systems with asynchronous switching. An event-triggered ILC method is designed to reduce unnecessary controller updates during iterations. The main technical contribution is that the analysis and synthesis are performed in both time and iteration domains. First, in order to solve the asynchronous switching problem in the time direction and the update problem in the iteration direction, a Lyapunov function involving both directions is adopted. Second, to prove the convergence of tracking error and the system stability in both domains, a new prove method is proposed, in which the tracking error is summed over the entire time domain and the average dwell condition is summed over the entire iteration domain. Finally, the feasibility of theoretical result is verified by simulation.

Saving lives by saving energy? Examining the health benefits of energy efficiency in multifamily buildings in the United States

This study reported herein assesses the health benefits attributable to weatherizing affordable multifamily buildings in the United States. Weatherization is a term used to describe programs that install comprehensive sets of energy efficiency measures into low-income homes and affordable multifamily buildings, such as air sealing, insulation, and heating system repair and replacement. Using a convenience sampling approach, 382 multifamily buildings located in the Northeast and Midwest regions were recruited for this study that fell into three samples: an already weatherized group: a treatment group; and a control group. Households in these buildings were surveyed to collect data about the quality of their dwellings (i.e., apartments), health, and demographic characteristics. The survey was 1) administered twice to the treatment group, once pre-weatherization and once one-year post-weatherization, 2) twice to the control group, also one year apart, and 3) once to the comparison group during the first phase of the survey administration. The survey results suggest that many dwelling conditions improved after weatherization, including improvements in thermal performance and reductions in noise, dust and drafts. Respondents reported improvements in mental health and sleep quality and less need of medical interventions for arthritis and being too cold in their homes. Frequency of headaches decreased. There were no impacts upon respiratory conditions such as asthma and COPD.

High-strength and low-dwell-sensitivity titanium alloy showing high tolerance to microcracking under dwell fatigue condition

Dwell fatigue failure of titanium alloy components has been one of the major threats to aircraft safety for the last 50 years. Numerous studies have focused on the identification of critical microstructural configurations, such as microtextured regions, rogue grain pairs and (0001) twist grain boundaries. In this work, a microstructure with a low primary α phase (αp) content was designed to avoid the known weaknesses in the Ti-5Al-7.5 V alloy to achieve high-strength and low-sensitivity to 2-min dwell loading. Conventional and dwell-fatigue tests confirmed the efficiency of such an approach. The deformation occurred primarily by planar slip in the αp grains, resulting in possible cracking along preexisting slip bands in the cycling process. Fatigue and dwell-fatigue failure was dominated by surface crack initiation at facet matching basal planes. Moreover, numerous internal microcracks were formed along basal slip bands and occasionally along basal twist grain boundaries. Load holds were found to facilitate cracking along prismatic planes, which highlights a mechanism switch between basal-dominant cracking mode and collective basal-prismatic mode. The mechanism switch suggests that the prismatic dislocation activity considerably increases due to the low temperature creep induced by load holding. Thanks to the low αp phase microstructure, the alloy shows remarkable tolerance to microcrack growth under dwell condition. Limited growth of the internal microcracks across transformed β regions was identified as a key feature of high dwell-fatigue resistance of the investigated material.

Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for urban informal housing and planning interventions: Evidence from Singapore

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the crucial role of social distancing and hygiene practices in reducing virus transmission and thus revealed the high risk of infection in urban informal housing. Through an empirical study of Singapore's infectious situation and antiepidemic measures, this paper shows that the number of infected migrant workers living in dormitories was three hundred times greater than the number of infected local urban residents, not only because of the migrants' ‘vulnerable’ position but also because their living conditions fostered widespread transmission of the virus. The dwelling conditions of migrant dormitories, such as overcrowded living spaces, widely shared sanitation facilities, and poor hygiene practices, present great challenges to standard prevention strategies and control measures. Adverse health impacts resulting from the lockdown of dormitories during the COVID-19 pandemic suggest the importance of planning intervention in the dwelling conditions of informal housing, and indicate a need for the governments' active reforms of building codes and health care systems to promote the health of disadvantaged groups and then create more inclusive and healthy cities for all the society.

Methods for assessing asbestos-containing roofing slate distribution in an area with poor dwelling conditions

In South Korea, asbestos has been used in large quantities for manufacturing asbestos cement roofing slates (ACRS) and the production and use of all types of asbestos were completely banned in 2009. Asbestos containing materials in buildings and ACRS are linked to environmental and human health problems. An area with poor dwelling conditions was selected as the study area, and all buildings (76) were examined for ACRS. Three survey methods were compared, namely, field investigation, building registers, and data collection using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The field investigation results reported 2785.3 m2 of ACRS in a total of 38 buildings. The results were significantly different from those of the building register survey (1255.8 m2 for 11 buildings) and the UAV survey (1043.7 m2 for 18 buildings). The building register and UAV survey methods were limited by incomplete data or data unavailability, when compared with the data associated with the field investigation. However, the former approaches require less labor and time, with decreased exposure of the investigators to asbestos. Therefore, the organic combination and proper application of such methods can reduce labor and time required to conduct surveys and yield sufficient accuracy.