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ABSTRACT Background Objective Methods Results Conclusions Sensitive skin is a worldwide skin problem, and its assessment of therapeutic efficacy traditionally relies on the facial stinging test. However, this test possesses certain limitations due to its restrictive application site, intense pain sensation, and adverse effects on physical appearance.This study aimed to develop and evaluate a highly efficient and user‐friendly sensitive skin simulation model, which combines tape stripping and capsaicin testing on the forearm (FA‐TS‐CAT), as an alternative to the facial stinging test.A randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled clinical trial was conducted involving 74 subjects. Skin redness (a* value), transepidermal water loss (TEWL), and self‐assessment questionnaires were collected at different time points for analysis.Tape stripping 5 times and 10 min application of capsaicin test were identified as the optimal conditions for the FA‐TS‐CAT model. Consistent stimulation and natural recovery trends of a* value and TEWL were observed on both the FA‐TS‐CAT and facial capsaicin test (F‐CAT) models within 50 min. After the 4‐t‐butylcyclohexanol complex emulsion was applied, the a* value in the FA‐TS‐CAT model exhibited a soothing trend similar to the F‐CAT model, with a significantly reduced by 3.99‐fold and 3.28‐fold at T3 and T4 (p < 0.001), compared to the placebo. Notably, the test efficiency of the FA‐TS‐CAT model was threefold higher than that of the F‐CAT model, and subjects showed more willingness to participate in the FA‐TS‐CAT test (95.95% vs. 4.05%).These results indicated the FA‐TS‐CAT is a highly efficient and user‐friendly model for sensitive skin, providing a reliable and valid method for clinical research in sensitive skin treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acne vulgaris, a common chronic dermatological condition worldwide, is associated with inflammatory response and Cutibacterium acnes. Individuals with acne vulgaris and sensitive skin have limited suitable treatments due to the skin irritation and side effects exhibited by current hydroxy acidic medications. Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the synergistic effects of Guaiacum officinale (GO) and Rhodomyrtus Tomentosa (RT) extracts for treating acne vulgaris on sensitive skin by inhibiting inflammation. Methods: The phytochemical constituents and antioxidant activity of GO and RT extracts were determined in vitro. The anti‐inflammatory effects were investigated in peptidoglycan (PGN)‐induced HaCaT cells. Further, a 28‐day clinical trial was conducted involving 30 subjects with both sensitive skin and acne to evaluate the efficacy and subjects' satisfaction. Results: Total phenolics and flavonoids were detected in GO and RT extracts, the IC50 values for DPPH radical scavenging were 6.15 wt% and 0.76 wt%, respectively. The combination of GO and RT extracts at a 1:1 (v/v) ratio significantly decreased the expression of TLR‐2 and TLR‐4, as well as the secretion of IL‐1α, IL‐8, and TNF‐α in PGN‐induced HaCaT cells, by 2.30–7.93 times compared to GO extract alone (p < 0.05). Moreover, the cream containing 5 wt% the combination significantly improved facial acne and redness (p < 0.05). The number of comedones decreased by 50.00% and papules by 30.65% after 28 days of application. No adverse events were reported and 96.67% of the subjects were satisfied with the treatment. Conclusion: The efficacy of the GO and RT extracts in synergistically suppressing inflammation, improving acne vulgaris, and reducing redness. The study offers an effective and non‐irritant treatment for acne vulgaris in individuals with sensitive skin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ability of a low-energy wearable thermal device to improve whole body thermal comfort. The wearable device is a wristwatch-like thermal device with a 25mm * 25mm contact heating and cooling surface. Twenty-three subjects were recruited for testing in a climate chamber, with each participating in three 2-hour tests. The three tests were at 20, 23, and 26ºC ambient conditions. It was found that the local warming and cooling had a signifi-cant effect for subjects who felt cool or warm before using the device. The wearable device was able to improve whole-body thermal sensation about 1 scale unit towards neutral. The whole body thermal comfort was also improved significantly by the wearable device if sub-jects felt discomfort before using it. For people who felt neutral prior to use, the improvement of using the wearable device was small but also statistically significant. The concept of local-ized, individually-controlled thermal wearable devices is promising in providing energy effi-cient thermal comfort, especially considering the wide interpersonal differences in thermal comfort, and the device’s low energy consumption.

This paper presents laboratory study of local discomfort at the head and feet influenced by vertical temperature difference. We recruited 98 students and exposed them to four temperature differences (0.4, 2.9, 5.9, 8.3 K) between the head (1.1 m) and ankle (0.1 m) level. Results when subjects are close to whole-body thermal neutrality show that the local percentage dissatisfied (PD) is approximately 6% for 0.4 K/m (representing thermal uniformity) and slightly increased with thermal gradient. The regressed PD for all other gradients is substantially lower than the current ASHRAE Standard 55.

The discovery of RNAs (for example, messenger RNAs, non-coding RNAs) in sperm has opened the possibility that sperm may function by delivering additional paternal information aside from solely providing the DNA 1 . Increasing evidence now suggests that sperm small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) can mediate intergenerational transmission of paternally acquired phenotypes, including mental stress2,3 and metabolic disorders4-6. How sperm sncRNAs encode paternal information remains unclear, but the mechanism may involve RNA modifications. Here we show that deletion of a mouse tRNA methyltransferase, DNMT2, abolished sperm sncRNA-mediated transmission of high-fat-diet-induced metabolic disorders to offspring. Dnmt2 deletion prevented the elevation of RNA modifications (m5C, m2G) in sperm 30-40 nt RNA fractions that are induced by a high-fat diet. Also, Dnmt2 deletion altered the sperm small RNA expression profile, including levels of tRNA-derived small RNAs and rRNA-derived small RNAs, which might be essential in composing a sperm RNA 'coding signature' that is needed for paternal epigenetic memory. Finally, we show that Dnmt2-mediated m5C contributes to the secondary structure and biological properties of sncRNAs, implicating sperm RNA modifications as an additional layer of paternal hereditary information.

Existing HVAC systems involve little feedback from indoor occupants, resulting in unnecessary cooling/heating waste and high percentage of discomfort. In addition, large thermal preference variance amongst people requires the development of personal thermal comfort models, rather than group-based methodologies such as predicted mean vote (PMV). This study focuses on assessing wearable solutions with the aim to predict personal thermal preference. We collected physiological signals (e.g., skin temperature, heart rate) of 14 subjects (6 female and 8 male adults) and environmental parameters (e.g., air temperature, wind speed, solar radiation, precipitation) for two weeks (at least 20 hr/d) to infer personal real-time thermal preference. The subjects reported their real-time thermal sensation and preference using cell-phones approximately every hour. We trained a Random Forest algorithm using data collected from individuals to develop a personal comfort model with the objective to predict thermal preference. The results show that subjects expressed needs for "warmer" or "cooler" conditions at about 30% (from 21% to 88%) of their daily time on average, implying the strong demand for a personalized indoor thermal comfort. In addition, the personal comfort model using Random Forest can infer individual thermal preference with a mean accuracy of 75% (53-93%) using physiological and environmental parameters, demonstrating the strengths of the proposed data-driven method.

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is a critical aspect of the built environment to ensure occupant health, comfort, well-being and productivity. Existing IEQ monitoring approaches rely on sensor networks deployed at selected locations to collect environmental measurements, and are limited in scale and adaptability due to infrastructure cost and maintenance requirement. To enable high-granularity IEQ monitoring with agile adaption to the dynamic indoor environment, we propose an “automated mobile sensing” system that dispatches a sensor-rich navigation-capable robot to actively survey the indoor space. Data collected in this fashion is sparse in the joint temporal and spatial domain, and cannot be used directly for IEQ evaluation. To deal with this special characteristics, we developed a spatio-temporal interpolation algorithm to capture the global trend and local variation in order to use the data efficiently to reconstruct the IEQ dynamics. We compared the performance of the automated mobile sensing with a dense sensor network in a laboratory where we measured the air-change effectiveness (ASHRAE standard 129) for four different conditions. Results indicate that automated mobile sensing is able to accurately estimate the parameters with a minimal sensor cost and calibration effort. Potential applications of this system include indoor thermal comfort, lighting, indoor air quality and acoustic monitoring, pollutant source identification, and building commissioning. We shared publicly the source codes for robot control, sensor setup, and interpolation algorithm to encourage comparison study and further development.

Ceiling fans may cool room occupants very efficiently, but the air speeds experienced in the occupied zone are inherently non-uniform. Designers should be aware of several generic flow patterns when positioning ceiling fans in a room. Key to these are the fan jet itself and lateral spreading near the floor. Adding workstation furniture redirects the jet’s airflow laterally in a deeper spreading zone, making room air flows more complex but potentially increasing the cooling experienced by the occupants.This paper presents the first evaluation of the effects of tables and workstation partitions on a room’s generic air flow and comfort profiles. In a test room with a ceiling fan, we moved five anemometers mounted in a “tree” at heights of 0.1, 0.6, 0.75, 1.1, and 1.7 m to sample a dense measurement grid of 7 rows and 6 columns.  We tested five different table and partition configurations and compared them to the empty room base case. From the results we propose a simplified model of room airflow under ceiling fans, useful for positioning fans and workstation furniture.  We also present comfort contours measured in two ways that have comfort standards implications.  The measured data are publicly available on the internet.

Draft is unwanted local convective cooling. The draft risk model of Fanger et al. (Energy and Buildings 12, 21-39, 1988) estimates the percentage of people dissatisfied with air movement due to overcooling at the neck. There is no model for predicting draft at ankles, which is more relevant to stratified air distribution systems such as underfloor air distribution (UFAD) and displacement ventilation (DV). We developed a model for predicted percentage dissatisfied with ankle draft (PPDAD) based on laboratory experiments with 110 college students. We assessed the effect on ankle draft of various combinations of air speed (nominal range: 0.1-0.6 m/s), temperature (nominal range: 16.5-22.5 °C), turbulence intensity (at ankles), sex, and clothing insulation (< 0.7 clo; lower legs uncovered and covered). The results show that whole body thermal sensation and air speed at ankles are the dominant parameters affecting draft. The seated subjects accepted a vertical temperature difference of up to 8 °C between ankles (0.1 m) and head (1.1 m) at neutral whole body thermal sensation, 5 °C more than the maximum difference recommended in existing standards. The developed ankle draft model can be implemented in thermal comfort and air diffuser testing standards.

Fully ceramic microencapsulated (FCM) fuel is a five-layer intercalation system material consisting of a UO2 core, a sparse pyrolytic carbon layer (Buffer), an inner dense pyrolytic carbon layer (IPyC), an outer dense pyrolytic carbon layer (OPyC), and a silicon carbide matrix (SiC). At first, this paper researched the thermodynamic models of the materials, including heat conduction coefficient, Young's modulus, thermal expansion coefficient, etc. Then DIGIMAT, the finite element software, was used to establish the equivalent volume element (RVE) for the equivalent analysis of the thermodynamic properties of the FCM fuel pellet. Finally, the thermodynamic equivalent performance model of FCM fuel was obtained by multi-factor fitting analysis. The results show that among these thermodynamic properties of FCM fuel pellets, the Young's modulus, thermal expansion coefficient and plastic performance are mainly affected by temperature, fast neutron fluence, and UO2 volume fraction; the specific heat capacity is mainly affected by UO2 volume fraction and temperature; the heat conduction coefficient is mainly affected by temperature and UO2 volume fraction. The thermal conductivity is mainly affected by temperature, burnup and UO2 volume fraction. In this study, the equivalent models obtained through the fitting analysis of RVE model parameters can well describe the thermodynamic behavior of FCM fuel particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]