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Ventilation and thermal conditions in secondary schools in the Netherlands: Effects of COVID-19 pandemic control and prevention measures

Ding, Er (author), Zhang, D. (author), Hamida, A.B. (author), Garcia Sanchez, C. (author), Jonker, Lotte (author), de Boer, Annemarijn R. (author), Bruijning, Patricia C.J.L. (author), Linde, Kimberly J. (author), Wouters, Inge M. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of ventilation was widely stressed and new protocols of ventilation were implemented in school buildings worldwide. In the Netherlands, schools were recommended to keep the windows and doors open, and after a national lockdown more stringent measures such as reduction of occupancy were introduced. In...

journal article 2023

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Indicators and methods for assessing acoustical preferences and needs of students in educational buildings: A review

Hamida, A.B. (author), Zhang, D. (author), Ortiz, Marco A. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Sounds (e.g., human activity, nature, building systems) are one of the indoor environmental stimuli that may have positive and/or negative effects on students’ well-being and performance in educational buildings. Students in educational buildings have individual acoustical preferences and needs as portrayed by occupant-related indicators, for...

journal article 2023

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SARS‑CoV‑2 incidence in secondary schools: the role of national and school‑initiated COVID‑19 measures

Jonker, Lotte (author), Linde, Kimberly J. (author), de Boer, Annemarijn R. (author), Ding, Er (author), Zhang, D. (author), de Hoog, M.L.A. (author), Herfst, Sander (author), Heederik, Dick (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Introduction: Our aim was to gain insight into the effect of COVID-19 measures on SARS-CoV-2 incidence in secondary schools and the association with classroom CO ₂ concentration and airborne contamination. Methods: Between October 2020—June 2021, 18 schools weekly reported SARS-CoV-2 incidence and completed surveys on school...

journal article 2023

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Associations between self-reported IEQ stressors of students' homes and self-reported rhinitis, stuffy nose, migraine and headache in student profiles

Bluyssen, P.M. (author), Zhang, D. (author), Ortiz, Marco A. (author)

Recent studies have shown that both personal and building-related factors may affect the health and comfort of occupants in their homes. It is also known that people differ in their needs and can therefore respond differently to these stressors. Therefore, based on the large database from the survey conducted yearly from 2016 to 2020 among the...

journal article 2023

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Guidance to assess ventilation performance of a classroom based on CO2 monitoring

Zhang, D. (author), Ding, Er (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the ventilation of school buildings has attracted considerable attention from the general public and researchers. However, guidance to assess the ventilation performance in classrooms, especially during a pandemic, is still lacking. Therefore, aiming to fill this gap, this study conducted a full-scale laboratory...

journal article 2022

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Exploring the possibility of using CO2 as a proxy for exhaled particles to predict the risk of indoor exposure to pathogens

Zhang, D. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Airborne transmission has been confirmed as one of three principal ways of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. To reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 indoors, understanding the distribution of respiratory droplets (or aerosols) present in human breath seems therefore important. To study whether the CO2 concentration can be used as a proxy for the number...

journal article 2022

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A review on indoor environmental quality in sports facilities: Indoor air quality and ventilation during a pandemic

Zhang, D. (author), Ortiz, Marco A. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Because of COVID-19, the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in sports facilities has been a concern to environmental health practitioners. To develop an overall understanding of the available guidelines and standards and studies performed on IEQ in sports facilities, an extensive literature study was conducted, with the aim of identifying: (1)...

journal article 2022

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Self-reported rhinitis and headaches of students from universities in Taiwan, Chile, Suriname, China and the Netherlands, and its association with their home environment

Bluyssen, P.M. (author), Zhang, D. (author), Ortiz, Marco A. (author)

Next to personal, psychosocial and physiological aspects, environmental aspects of homes may affect the health and comfort of their occupants. This study aimed to investigate the multifactorial character of both rhinitis and headaches among five groups of students from universities in five different cities: Taichung (Taiwan), Concepcion (Chile),...

journal article 2021

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A child-centred experiment to test an individually controlled noise-reducing device

Zhang, D. (author), Tenpierik, M.J. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

A recently published simulation-based study has demonstrated the effect of an individually controlled noise-reducing device (ICND) on improving acoustic quality in classrooms. As a follow-up research, this current study aims to develop a real ICND and test it with its target users-- primary school children. The prototype developed in this study...

journal article 2021

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Energy consumption, self-reported teachers’ actions and children's perceived indoor environmental quality of nine primary school buildings in the Netherlands

Zhang, D. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Literature shows that both building systems and occupants’ behaviour contribute to the amount of energy used to create a comfortable indoor environment. To determine possible relationships, energy consumption of nine school buildings was studied in relation to identified building characteristics, self-reported frequency of teachers’ actions, and...

journal article 2021

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The effect of a mobile HEPA filter system on ‘infectious’ aerosols, sound and air velocity in the SenseLab

Bluyssen, P.M. (author), Ortiz, Marco A. (author), Zhang, D. (author)

High efficiency air filtration has been suggested to reduce airborne transmission of ‘infectious’ aerosols. In this study the ‘air cleaning’ effect as well as the effect on sound and air velocity (draught risk) of a mobile High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter system was tested for different settings and positions in the Experience room...

journal article 2021

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Individual control as a new way to improve classroom acoustics: A simulation-based study

Zhang, D. (author), Tenpierik, M.J. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Previous studies indicate that acoustic improvements at classroom-level, such as using ceiling panels, do not work well to solve noise problems in classrooms. Therefore, this study introduced a new way – individual control – to improve classroom acoustics. The acoustic effect of five different classroom settings is simulated: two individual...

journal article 2021

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Perceived Air Quality of different sources of smell evaluated by primary school children

Armijos Moya, T.E. (author), Zhang, D. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Our sensory system (nose) could predict the perceived odour intensity of various materials relatively well and in many cases the nose seems to be a better receptor of pollutants than some equipment. To test this ability with children, odour tests were performed as part of a study performed with 335 primary school children in the air quality test...

journal article 2019

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Clustering of Dutch school children based on their preferences and needs of the IEQ in classrooms

Zhang, D. (author), Ortiz, Marco A. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Background: It is well-known that indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in classrooms can have an effect on school children's comfort, health and performance. Unfortunately, information about the school children's perception of IEQ factors in their classrooms is still insufficient. The objective of this study was to better understand school...

journal article 2019

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Interaction effect of background sound type and sound pressure level on children of primary schools in the Netherlands

Zhang, D. (author), Tenpierik, M.J. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

The acoustic conditions of classrooms received a lot of attention in the last decades because of its important role in school children's comfort and performance. In a previous field study of 54 classrooms from 21 schools in the Netherlands, more than 85% of the 1145 primary school children reported that they were bothered by noise in the...

journal article 2019

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Actions of primary school teachers to improve the indoor environmental quality of classrooms in the Netherlands

Zhang, D. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in classrooms can have an effect on school children’s comfort, health, and performance. In most classrooms, the teacher is the only one who can take actions to change the IEQ. The objective of this study was to identify what teachers usually do to improve IEQ in classrooms and how these actions relate to...

journal article 2019

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The effect of wall and floor colouring on temperature and draught feeling of primary school children

Bluyssen, P.M. (author), Zhang, D. (author), Krooneman, A. (author), Freeke, A. (author)

To investigate whether different colours of the indoor surfaces could have an effect on thermal comfort of children, 335 primary school children were invited to take part in a series of tests conducted in the thermal test chamber of the SenseLab. A three-way factorial randomized design was used to test the effect of three different colours of...

journal article 2019

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The effect of acoustical treatment on primary school children's performance, sound perception, and influence assessment

Zhang, D. (author), Tenpierik, M.J. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

A previous field study showed that more than 85% of Dutch children reported they were bothered by noise in the classroom. To investigate the impact of acoustical treatment on children's phoneme identification, 335 school children (9 to 13 years old) from the previously studied schools were invited to take part in a series of tests in the...

journal article 2019

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Table top surface appraisal by school children under different lighting conditions tested in the Senselab

Ortiz, Marco A. (author), Zhang, D. (author), Bluyssen, P.M. (author)

To find out whether a surface finishing was preferred under different lighting conditions by school children, in the light test chamber of the SenseLab, 335 children from previous studied schools were asked to assess a desk surface during different light conditions. A two-way randomized design was used to test children's assessments for six...

journal article 2019

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First SenseLab studies with primary school children: exposure to different environmental configurations in the experience room

Bluyssen, P.M. (author), Zhang, D. (author), Kim, D.H. (author), Eijkelenboom, A.M. (author), Ortiz, Marco A. (author)

To study the combined effect of different environmental factors on children in a classroom setting, 250 children from seven primary schools were exposed to 36 different environmental configurations (‘all’ and ‘fewer’ acoustical panels; ‘displacement’ and ‘mixing’ ventilation; sound type: ‘children talk’, ‘traffic’, and ‘none’; and ‘direct’, ...

journal article 2019