An immersive multisensory virtual reality approach to the study of human-built environment interactions: Technical workflows.

Virtual Reality technology has gained increased attention due to its capacity to provide immersive and interactive experiences to its users. Although increasing evidence has suggested that incorporating multisensory components in VR can promote the sense of presence and improve user performance, most of the current VR applications are limited to visual and auditory senses. In this article, a novel method of integrating thermal-related devices (heat lamps and fans) into Virtual Reality was developed. Automated interaction with the thermal-related devices was achieved using Arduino-based control module with its program embedded into the VR platform-Unity. The functions, hardware and software requirements of the multisensory Virtual Reality system as well as the step-by-step procedures are detailed to provide a reproducible workflow for future applications.•A practical workflow to integrate thermal apparatus into Virtual Reality.•Dynamic airflow and radiative heating incorporated into Virtual Reality.•Automated process to allow user interaction with the thermal components in Virtual Reality.

Climate change and indigenous housing performance in Australia: A dataset.

A recent paper, entitled "Climate change and Indigenous housing performance in Australia: A modelling study" [1], investigated the impacts of climate change on Australian remote and regional Indigenous housing and it highlighted the significant reform necessary to maintain habitable conditions and improve energy resilience. The associated data is reported in this article. This dataset contains annual energy data and hourly internal temperature of six architectural models under current and future climates. The dataset is provided in this article as supplementary files. This original dataset was generated with a whole building simulation approach and can provide insights on the thermal behaviour of current remote and regional Indigenous building stock in regard to global warming and climate resilience. These insights can be used to improve traditional design, construction and retrofit practices, as well as policies and regulation aimed at ensuring liveable and healthy indoor environments for residents of Indigenous housing. Further, this article includes simulation inputs and assumptions used for the analysis to allow robust expansion of the dataset.

Hygrothermal climate analysis: An Australian dataset.

Transient hygrothermal assessments rely on the definition of external climatic conditions, usually collected in a moisture reference year (MRY) file. Currently, hygrothermal climate files for Australia are not available, leaving researchers and practitioners to either use typical meteorological years (TMY) files, generated for thermal analysis, or other propriety datasets that are not unified, standardized or shared, hence hindering reproducibility of studies and comparative analysis. This dataset provides a comprehensive suite of climatic files ready to be used in hygrothermal simulations, as well as general climate data that could serve as a basis for further analysis. The dataset can be used to create a hygrothermal map, as presented in Javed et al. (2022) or directly employed in building simulations. This dataset contains two different types of data that can be employed for transient hygrothermal analysis: MRYs for 30 locations across Australia completed with the climatic data necessary to generate the file, and 10 consecutive years of hourly climate parameters for Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Darwin, Hobart, Sydney, and Canberra cities, representing those locations where most of the population live. These two types of data provide the input for hygrothermal assessment as defined by the ASHRAE 160-2016. Raw climate data were extracted from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology database and the NOAA's National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration database to generate a complete hourly dataset. Additionally, for the first type of data, 30 consecutive years of climate data have been analysed following the moisture index method by calculating the wetting and drying indices. The resulting yearly moisture indexes were ranked from highest to lowest and the MRY was selected as the 10th-percentile year, considered to be the most representative year for severe moisture stress on a building envelope.

Indoor air quality and early detection of mould growth in residential buildings: a case study.

Mould growth affects one in three homes, and it is the biggest cause for complaints and litigations filed to the relevant authorities in Australia, while also significantly affecting the physical and psychological health of the building's occupants. Indoor mould is caused by excessive dampness, resulting from poor architectural specification, construction and maintenance practices, as well as inappropriate behaviour of the occupants. The consequences range from early biodeterioration of building materials, requiring anticipated renovation works, to deterioration of the indoor environment, posing a serious threat to the building's occupants. This study investigates indoor air quality (IAQ) and mould growth, providing a snapshot of the current IAQ of Australian residential buildings regarding air pollutants. It uses a case study representative of the typical Australian suburban home to investigate the effects of unnoticed mould growth. The results of the monitoring campaign indicate that buildings with a high concentration of fungal spores are also more likely to present poor IAQ levels, high concentrations of particulate matters (PM10 and PM2.5) and carbon dioxide (CO2). This research suggests the need for the development of early detection strategies that could minimise the health hazard to people, thereby preventing the need for any major renovations.

Long-term, post-deep brain stimulation management of a series of 36 patients affected with refractory gilles de la tourette syndrome.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the long-term results of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for patients affected with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, documenting refractoriness to conservative treatments. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Starting from November 2004, 36 patients diagnosed with a Tourette syndrome refractory to conventional and innovative treatments (refractory Tourette syndrome) were operated on for DBS positioning at our dedicated Tourette Clinic. A total number of 79 procedures were carried out: 67 at the thalamic intralaminar/ventralis oralis (Vo/CM-Pf) target, 2 at the posterior Gpi, and 10 at the nucleus accumbens. The target of the DBS procedure was chosen on the basis of clinical manifestations expressed by the single patient. Six out of the ten procedures centered at the Nucleus Accumbens were undertaken on the basis of a persistent behavioral comorbidity in spite of a good response over tic frequency and severity after a first DBS procedure (two interventions at the Vo/CM-Pf and one at the Gpi, bilaterally). RESULTS: All the patients were treated bilaterally except one, treated at the right Vo/CM-Pf because of vascular physiologic abnormalities at the left hemisphere. Two patients refused further treatments after DBS intervention (one of them requiring and obtaining complete removal of the DBS implant with no postsurgical complications documented) and were excluded from follow-up evaluation. Statistically significant improvements were reached for all the other patients concerning the evaluation scales used (Yale Global Tic Severity Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, and a 10-point visual analog scale for self-evaluation of the impact of TS on social integration of the patient). CONCLUSIONS: Gilles de la Tourette syndrome is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder with a significant prevalence in the general population. More than 50% of the patients with TS present a behavioral comorbidity, and anxiety and depression are, to various degrees, associated to this "waxing and waning" clinical picture. DBS in our experience proved to be a valid treatment modality for those patients who fail to respond to conservative treatment modalities. A multidisciplinary team is nevertheless necessary to properly handle this complex therapeutic option.

Issues related to deep brain stimulation for treatment-refractory Tourette's syndrome.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been used in a small number of patients with Tourette's syndrome and results on tics and comorbidities have been promising. The choice of the DBS target appears to influence the effectiveness; preliminary studies and case reports suggest that certain target areas may be more effective than others in patients with specific symptoms and comorbidities. Clinical data on the effect of DBS on tics and behavioral symptoms support its use in patients with severe, refractory Tourette's syndrome, particularly in younger adults who have a greater severity and prevalence of tics and comorbidities, and are more likely to experience social impairment. Although DBS has shown potential as an 'add-on' therapy for Tourette's syndrome patients failing to show adequate improvement with conventional conservative treatments, several issues remain to be resolved, including patient selection, choice of target, and adverse effects. Successful DBS requires an experienced multidisciplinary team for the management of these complex pre-, peri- and postoperative issues. Future studies should include establishment of consistent inclusion criteria and specific practical requirements for clinical trials, evaluation of the impact of DBS on non-tic symptoms and their influence on outcome, social impairment and quality of life, and the identification of optimum neurophysiologically based DBS targets for improved efficacy in specific patient subtypes.

De novo and rescue DBS leads for refractory Tourette syndrome patients with severe comorbid OCD: a multiple case report.

Invasive treatment for Gilles de la Tourette syndrome has shown interesting results in a number of published reports; it seems to be evolving into a promising therapeutic procedure for those patients demonstrating disabling clinical pictures who are refractory to conservative treatments. There are important issues concerning the stimulated brain target, with different nuclei currently under investigation. Our group asked in this pilot study whether Tourette syndrome could be treated by tailoring specific brain targets for specific symptoms. Deep brain stimulation for Tourette syndrome may thus in the future be tailored and patient specific, utilizing specific target regions for individual clinical manifestations. In our early experience we did not adequately address non-motor clinical symptoms as we only used a thalamic target. More recently in an obsessive compulsive disease cohort we have had success in using the anterior limb of the internal capsule and nucleus accumbens region as targets for stimulation. We therefore explored the option of a "rescue" procedure for our Tourette patients with persistent obsessive-compulsive disorder following ventralis oralis/centromedianus-parafascicularis (Vo/CM-Pf) deep brain stimulation. Following two cases where rescue anterior limb of internal capsule/nucleus accumbens leads were employed, we performed two additional procedures (anterior limb of the internal capsule plus ventralis oralis/centromedianus-parafascicularis and anterior limb of the internal capsule alone) with some mild improvement of comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder, although the number of observations in this case series was low. Overall, the effects observed with using the anterior limb of the internal capsule either alone or as a rescue were less than expected. In this report we detail our experience with this approach.

Personality profile and allodynic migraine.

Migraine is known to be associated to particular psychological features. Cutaneous allodynia is a painful sensation or discomfort induced by a non-noxious stimulus, and is a frequent complaint during migraine attacks. The aim of this study was to compare the personality profile of allodynic and non-allodynic migraineurs to identify possible relationships between psychological aspects and the presence of allodynia. The Symptom Check List 90-R (SCL90R), a 90-item self-report psychological symptom inventory, was used to investigate the psychological profile of our patients. The presence of allodynia was assessed by a set of semi-structured questions that investigated if the patient experienced abnormal scalp sensitiveness and/or discomfort during headache episodes. Twenty-five nonallodynic patients and 38 allodynic migraineurs were studied. No significant difference was found between the two groups in any area of the personality profile. The psychological profile seems not to affect the presence/absence of cutaneous allodynia in migraine patients. This reinforces the hypothesis that allodynia is a "somatic" symptom, not modified by psychological aspects.

Tourette's syndrome and role of tetrabenazine: review and personal experience.

Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (Tourette's syndrome; TS) is an inherited tic disorder commonly associated with other neurobehavioural conditions such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While the clinical presentation of TS and other features of this disorder have been well characterized, the genetic and neurobiological basis of the disease remains incompletely elucidated. The suggestion of a central role of dopamine in the aetiology of TS has been made on the basis of experimental studies, evidence from neuroimaging studies and the therapeutic response patients with TS have to agents that antagonize or interfere with putative dopaminergic pathways. Tetrabenazine is such an agent; it depletes presynaptic dopamine and serotonin stores and blocks postsynaptic dopamine receptors. In clinical studies, tetrabenazine has been found to be effective in a wide range of hyperkinetic movement disorders, including small numbers (<50) of patients with TS in some studies. Results of a retrospective chart review enrolling only patients with TS (n = 77; mean age approximately 15 years) showed that 2 years' treatment with tetrabenazine resulted in an improvement in functioning and TS-related symptoms in over 80% of patients, findings that suggest that treatment with tetrabenazine may have long-term benefits. The authors' experience with 120 heavily co-medicated patients with TS confirms these findings. Long-term (mean 19 months) tetrabenazine treatment resulted in a Clinical Global Impressions of Change scale rating of 'improved' in 76% of patients. Such findings are promising and suggest that tetrabenazine may be suitable as add-on therapy in patients for whom additional suppression of tics is required.