Biochemical changes in tissue composition of Periplaneta americana (Linn.) acclimated to high and low temperatures

1. 1.|Cold acclimation apparently favours an increase of water content in fat body, but not in coxal muscle, of cockroaches.

2. 2.|A remarkable enhancement in the accumulation of total protein in fat body characterizes the cold acclimation of cockroaches, particularly adult males (175% increase in protein/DNA ratio). The increase in protein content of coxal muscle during acclimination to 15°C, observed in nymphs (16%) and males (16%) but not in females, is less pronounced than that of fat body.

3. 3.|A diminution (28–32%) in the free amino acid/DNA ratio due to cold acclimation has been recorded in both coxal muscle and fat body of nymphs and females, but not in males.

4. 4.|No qualitative change occurs in the free amino acid spectrum of haemolymph and tissues of this insect during acclimation to 15 and 35°C.

5. 5.|An augmentation (15–30%) of the RNA/DNA ratio occurs in fat body and coxal muscle of nymphs and males but in fat body alone of females following cold acclimation.

6. 6.|The glycogen reserve has been shown to increase by up to 30% in fat body and coxal muscle of cold acclimated cockroaches compared to warm acclimated ones.

Field surveys on cooling effects of vegetation in an urban area

1. 1. Three kinds of field survey on different scales were carried out in Fukuoka City in summer to examine the relationship between the quantity of vegetation and air temperature.

2. 2. The field of the largerst scale measurement is across the city.

3. 3. Several parks and shrines of various sizes in the city were selected as other measurement areas.

4. 4. The most detailed measurements are carried out in a park with an area of 1.25 ha located in a down town area of the city.

5. 5. Though the amount of vegetation is expressed in a unique way in each survey, it is clearly found that the greener it is, the lower is the air temperature.

Muscle potentials and temperature acclimation and acclimatization in flight muscles of workers and drones of Apis mellifera

1. 1.Muscle potentials in fibrillar flight muscles of worker and drone honeybees were recorded extracellularly at thoracic temperatures from 30 to 10°C.

2. 2.Extinction temperatures for muscle potentials were higher in drones for all treatments.

3. 3.Cold acclimation (15°C) lowered extinction temperatures significantly in workers and drones. Acclimitization changed extinction temperatures significantly only in drones.

4. 4.Cold acclimitization had a bigger effect on the rate of muscle potential amplitude decline with decreasing temperature than acclimation.

5. 5.Acclimation and acclimitization had no effect on the increase of muscle potential duration with falling temperature.

6. 6.Muscle potential frequency during shivering was not much different between cold and warm treated bees.

The actual conditions of practising traditional methods of environmental control and utilization of air conditioners by the residents of detached houses in kyoto during summer

1. 1. Reducing the carbon dioxide generated by human activity is necessary for the protection of the global environment.

2. 2. Traditional methods of environmental control, e.g. watering, called uchimizu in Japan, is interesting from this point of view. Traditional methods, other than watering, still continue to be practised in Japan.

3. 3. More than 300 residents of detached houses in Kyoto city were investigated for the methods of environmental control used in summer. Investigated areas were Kitashirakawa, Nishijin and Rakusai N.T.

4. 4. Residents' who conduct traditional methods of environmental control use air conditioner (ACs) less than those who don't. Residents' attitude toward ACs have a greater effect on total time of use rather than on frequency.

5. 5. In the centre of the city, there is a tendency for residents to use ACs against their will or only as a necessity, which leads to anxiety regarding their health.

6. 6. The use of traditional methods of protection from heat have been decreasing with social change.

Bed climate of Korean using ondol heating system

1. 1. To examine the influence of different bed conditions (ondol sleep, bed sleep on ondol with same bedding) of the Korean ondol traditional heating system on human response during sleep, bed climates and physiological responses such as skin and rectal temperatures, weight loss, body movement and subjective sensation were measured with 4 grown-up females as subjects while they were sleeping for 7 h.

2. 2. Bed climate: Temperatures under the mattress and inside the quilt were higher on ondol while temperatures on the mattress and humidity inside the quilt were higher on the bed.

3. 3. Rectal temperature was significantly higher on ondol; skin temperature showed no major differences in relation to bed conditions. The frequency of body movements had the highest correlation with bed climate of the parameters measured.

4. 4. Mattress weight decreased on ondol and increased on the bed.

5. 5. The frequency of body movements was significantly higher in ondol sleep.

6. 6. The subjects sensation showed difference on cushion sensation between the two types of bed condition.

7. 7. To obtain the same level of comfort on both ondol and bed sleeping conditions less thermal insulating value is needed for ondol sleep.

Functions of fat in hibernators: Thermal aspects

1. 1.|A numerical, distributed parameter model of heat exchange is used to evaluate the thermal significance of the presence and placement of subcutaneous fat in hibernating marmots. The model is most sensitive to changes in conductivity and metabolic rate of muscle tissue, parameters which are known to greater precision than are others in the model.

2. 2.|Alternative models are developed for animals with fat located dorsally and with no fat at all.

3. 3.|A comparison of these three models shown that there is no difference in the metabolic output required to maintain body temperature among the three alternatives. Therefore, neither the presence nor the location of fat serves an insulative role in hibernators.

Muscle temperature and muscle metabolism during short-term exercise in the goat

1. 1.|External heat exchangers acting on lower aortal blood temperature were used to dissociate hindleg muscle temperature (T_hlm) from general internal temperature (T_int) during short-term exercise of moderate intensity.

2. 2.|In series 1 39°C T_hlm was combined with 40.6°C T_int, and in series II 42°C T_hlm was combined with 39.8°C T_int.

3. 3.|At constant work rates, the 3°C difference in muscle temperature did not result in significantly different concentrations of muscle metabolites.

4. 4.|It is concluded that high local muscle temperature without general hyperthermia does not influence muscle metabolism during short-term moderate excercise.

Thermal gradients in the oesophagus of man during exercise and passive warming

1. 1.|Oesophageal temperature (T_es) has been recorded at four vertical levels in the oesophagus of human subjects during exercise and during passive body heating.

2. 2.|The temperature increased with depth.

3. 3.|The rate of increase in T_es during exercise was greatest at the level of the diaphragm.

4. 4.|During passive heating of the body T_es increased most rapidly, and with shortest latency time, at the level adjacent to the left atrium of the heart.

5. 5.|During exercise, when breathing is deeper than at rest, T_es should be measured at a deeper level than that which is used during passive heating.

Thermoregulatory significance of basking behaviour in the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)

1. 1.|The raccoon dogs frequently basked in spring while keeping their dark chest area towards the sun. The importance of this behaviour for the thermal balance was examined by using a cylinder model, and the results were compared with that of the blue fox which has pale chest and no basking behaviour.

2. 2.|With no external radiation source, cooling rates of blue fox and racoon dog models were almost equal, while in the sunshine with the chest area towards the sun, raccoon dog gained and blue fox lost heat.

3. 3.|In the same sunshine, the raccoon dog lost heat if its back area was towards the sun in comparison with the situation when the chest area was towards the sun.

4. 4.|Temperatures at the skin level were much higher for sun-exposed raccoon dogs than blue foxes especially on the chest area.

5. 5.|It is concluded that the hair coat structure of the raccoon dog is especially favourable for trapping heat from the sun, and with postural adjustments the animal takes maximal advantage of this free heat.

Heat stress and age: Skin blood flow and body temperature

1. 1. The ability to increase skin blood flow is an important mechanism for transferring heat from the body core to the skin for dissipation.

2. 2. During exercise, skin blood flow is typically 20–40% lower in men and women aged 55 and over (compared with 20–30 years old) at a given body core temperature. Yet criterion measures of heat tolerance (changes in core temperature, heat storage) often show minimal or no age-related alterations. From a series of studies conducted in our laboratory over the past 5 years, the following conclusions can be drawn.

3. 3. When fit healthy older subjects are matched with younger subjects of the same gender, size and body composition, V_O2max, acclimation state, and hydration level, age-related differences in skin blood flow are evident. However, these differences often do not translate into “poorer” heat tolerance or higher core temperatures.

4. 4. The larger core-to-skin thermal gradient maintained by the older individuals allows for effective heat transfer at lower skin blood flows.

5. 5. Furthermore, there is an increased coefficient of variation for thermoregulatory response variables with increasing age.

6. 6. Despite differences in the mechanisms underlying thermoregulation, true thermal tolerance is less a function of chronological age than of functional capacity and physiological health status.

7. 7. While this conclusion is based primarily on cross-sectional studies, it is supported by the results of more recent studies using multiple regression analyses.

8. 8. Implicit in this conclusion is the notion that thermal tolerance, at any age, is a modifiable individual characteristic.

The relation of changes in the individual levels of heat resistance of muscle tissue to their initial values during heat acclimation of Asellus aquaticus

1. 1.|In hog slater, Asellus aquaticus, five extremities were consecutively isolated in the course of heat acclimation to study the pattern of changes in the level of the heat resistance of muscle tissue of each single specimen.

2. 2.|The initial response of the population, during acclimation, is for the muscle resistance of different individuals to become less varied. Then a simultaneous increase in tissue resistance occurs in all ammals, which is complete by the 6th day of acclimation. Afterwards the heat resistance of muscles in the majority of animals shows little change and then, in spite of maintenance of acclimation, it starts to return to its initial level.

3. 3.|Thermal acclimation causes a temporary decrease in the variability of the heat resistance of the muscle tissue and also a temporary stabilization of this physiological characteristic to a new level. This phenomenon is a phenotypical masking of genotypic differences in a physiological characteristic in the population studied during changes in environmental temperature.

4. 4.|At all the stages of acclimation the relation of individual increases in cellular heat resistance to their initial levels follows a hyperbolic exponential equation. This implies that to a rise in environmental temperature a population responds as an integral functional system.

Characteristics of wettedness under constant average skin temperature

1. 1. Experiments were carried out concerning the characteristics of wettedness revealed under constant average skin temperature using sitting-resting nude subjects. From the basic measurements of both environmental parameters and human physiological responses, the conclusions detailed below were proposed regarding the changes of wettedness under constant average skin temperature.

2. 2. There is positive correlation between the wettedness and environmental humidity, and negative correlation between the wettedness and air temperature.

3. 3. There is positive correlation between the evaporative heat loss from the skin surface and air temperature, and negative correlation between the evaporative heat loss and environmental humidity.

4. 4. There is negative correlation between the wettedness and evaporative heat loss.

5. 5. Wettedness is not constant but takes varying values, that is, corresponding to each average skin temperature both the maximum and the minimum wettedness values occur.

6. 6. Deriving from the items mentioned above, the theoretical locus of equal average skin temperature is not a straight line, but is a curved line plotted on the psychrometric chart.

Comparison of thermal responses with and without cold protective clothing in a warm environment after severe cold exposures

1. 1. Ten male students remained in a severely cold room (-25°C) for 20 min. thereafter, they transferred in a warm room (25°C) for 20 min.

2. 2. This pattern was repeated three times, total cold exposure time amounting to 60 min.

3. 3. In the warm room, the subjects removed their cold-protective jackets, or wore them continously.

4. 4. Rectal temperature, skin temperatures, manual performance and thermal comfort were measured during the experiment.

5. 5. Removing cold-protective jackets after severe cold exposure increased peripheral skin temperatures and reduced the discomfort in the warm room.

6. 6. However, these results were accompanied by a greater decrease in rectal temperature and manual performance.

7. 7. It is recommended that workers continue to wear cold-protective clothing in the warm areas outside of the cold storage to prevent decreases in deep body temperature and work efficiency caused by repated cold exposures.

Work at cold storage

1. 1. Work activities in cold storage rooms were assessed by a mailed questionnaire survey of cold storage facilities in Japan.

2. 2. There are nearly 4000 cold storage facilities and about 80% are being kept at temperatures below −20°C.

3. 3. The chief items of stock in storage were marine products, livestock products, frozen food and agricultural products.

4. 4. Methods used for loading and unloading in cold storage rooms are forklift, manual handling, and automatic machines.

5. 5. Use of forklifts appeared to be widespread.

6. 6. Working time differed according to the ambient temperature of the cold storage rooms.

7. 7. Common ailments of cold storage workers are lumbago, bronchitis, neuralgia etc.

Indoor environmental study and post occupancy evaluation in an office environment

1. 1. The objective of this paper is to investigate the indoor environment from the viewpoint of interaction between physical environment and the human responses. The field survey has been conducted over 1 year.

2. 2. A continuous measurement has been carried out for 1 week and distribution of variables have been measured for 1 day.

3. 3. The attitude of workers was investigated by a questionnaire.

4. 4. As the result, average luminance represented more than 1000 lx in the new building, in contrast with less tha 300 lx in the existing building.

5. 5. There was a significant difference of the occupants' response to the light environment between the two buildings.

6. 6. Measured thermal conditions are on the edge of the ASHRAE comfort envelope in summer, and in the neighborhood of the lower dry limit of the envelope in spring.

7. 7. The occupants' evaluations were remarkably changed before and after the moving. The office environment is better than that of the factory.

The effect of temperature changes on the spontaneous activity in the neural ganglia of the cockroach, Periplaneta americana

1. 1.|The effect of localized heating or protocerebrum (bp), the prothoracic (t₁), metathoracic (t₃) and the sixth abdominal (a₆) ganglion on the spontaneous neuronal firing rate in these ganglia was investigated in Periplaneta americana.

2. 2.|In almost every case heating the ganglion increased the firing rate. The most heat sensitive were bp, t₃ and t₁, a₆ was much less so.

3. 3.|In bp and t₁ the firing rate stayed on an increased level even 90 s after the thermal stimulus was over.

4. 4.|The differentiated thermosensitivity of the tested ganglia is discussed in terms of thermoregulatory behaviour of the cockroach.

A relationship between heat load and plasma enzyme concentration

1. 1. The sensitivity of serum enzyme levels as indicators of tissue damage is less well established in the prodromal period of heatstroke, especially for sub-lethal stress conditions.

2. 2. Anaesthetized rats were exposed to two different sets of thermal conditions.

3. 3. Plasma levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LD) were assayed in each group upon termination of stress, 6 h post-stress and 24 h post-stress.

4. 4. The tissue “damage” sustained was mild to moderate and completely reversible.

5. 5. The rate of rise in body temperature may constitute an important factor in the ultimate pathology.

6. 6. CK proved to be the most sensitive parameter of tissue “damage”.

Research on office environment evaluation and worker fatigue

1. 1. The purpose of this research was to study the relationship between indoor environment and fatigue by analyzing office workers' fatigue and evaluation of indoor environment according to occupation.

2. 2. This study concerned office workers' fatigue (before and after work), questionnaires on indoor environment, and measurement of the physical environment. The subject (562 people) were businessmen, interior designers, and salesmen.

3. 3. The result of this study showed that there was a high correlation between the office workers' feeling of fatigue and the office environment.

4. 4. This research demonstrated that the workers of each type of occupation responde differently to similar office environments.

Glutathion content, rate of apoptosis, and brown adipose tissue mass in rats exposed to different ambient temperatures

1. Amount of glutathione (GSH) in the interscapular brown adipose tissue (IBAT) of cold-adapted (5±1 °C), and 1, 3 and 7 days re-adapted (22±1 °C) rats were examined.

2. The higher amount of GSH was found in the IBAT of cold-adapted rats compared to control animals (22±1 °C).

3. After 1 and 7 days of re-adaptation, the level of GSH was still significantly higher compared to control group.

4. On the third day of re-adaptation, the quantity of GSH in the tissue was significantly lower compared to the cold-adapted group.

5. In cold-adapted animals, intensity of apoptosis in IBAT was lower, whereas in re-adapted animals (3rd and 7th day) it was higher than in control group.

6. This study indicates that GSH depletion is associated with an enhanced apoptosis in IBAT during re-adaptation.

Factors affecting the resistance to heat transfer provided by clothing

1. 1. This paper discusses the factors that affect the insulation and evaporative resistance provided by clothing.

2. 2. These include: fabric thickness and density, the amount of body surface area covered by garments, the evenness of the distribution of fabrics over the body surface, the increase in surface area for heat loss due to clothing, the looseness or tightness of fit, a person's body position (seated vs standing), body motion and wind.