Junyan Hu

• Senior Researcher at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Background Reduced elementary somatosensation is common after stroke. However, the measurement of elementary sensation is frequently overlooked in traditional clinical assessments, and has not been evaluated objectively at the cortical level. This study designed a new configuration for the measurement of post-stroke elementary thermal sensation by...

Stimuli used in previous reported studies were mostly tailor-made embossed surfaces. Validation of neural signal coding mechanism to address the touch smoothness in daily life was seldom reported. In this study, 20 types of fabrics were chosen as stimuli. Their physical surface profiles were measured by Fabric Touch Tester. Afterwards three differe...

Physical stimuli from contacted objects are recorded by skin receptors and are transmitted to neural signals to the cerebrum to generate touch perceptions. Despite numerous studies having been conducted on the link between the physical properties of contacted objects and psychological sensations, factors besides the stimuli themselves have seldom b...

To investigate clothing-induced differences in human thermal response and running performance, eight male athletes participated in a repeated-measure study by wearing three sets of clothing (CloA, CloB, and CloC). CloA and CloB were body-mapping-designed with 11% and 7% increased capacity of heat dissipation respectively than CloC, the commonly use...

The aim of the current study is to evaluate airport apron worker's preferences using two types of cooling vests to identify the factor affecting the preferences for one vest over another. A total of 112 airport apron (43), construction (36), horticultural and cleaning workers (33) participated in two rounds of surveys to evaluate their perceptions...

Human skin temperature can vary widely depending on anatomical location and ambient temperature. It is also known that local changes in skin and subcutaneous temperature can affect fat metabolism. This study aimed to explore the potential effects of surrounding thermal environment on fat by investigating cell viability, lipid oxidation, and lipid a...

Touch sensation perception includes three processes – physical, neurophysiological and psychological. Psychophysical relationships that bridge physical and psychological results have varied. Meanwhile, interactive effects of thermal‐tactile physical features have seldom been investigated. Therefore, this study aims to compare various hypothesized p...

A silk fibroin-based drug delivery system was fabricated in supercritical CO2 (20 MPa pressure, 1:2 curcumin:silk fibroin ratio, 1% final concentration) to improve the solubility of curcumin. The effects of various parameters, including pressure, curcumin:silk fibroin ratio, and final concentration, on particle size, size distribution, drug loading...

Based on the physiological nature of breast movement in exercising females, a sports bra made of fabric with dynamic moisture transfer properties was developed to improve female thermal comfort. This study aimed to investigate the effects of fabrics with dynamic moisture transfer properties on breast skin temperature, and the thermal physiological...

Thermoresponsive PNIPAM polymer brushes are grafted onto the surface of cotton fabrics to construct a smart hierarchical system. The smart system exhibits thermoregulation by responsively absorbing perspiration at different atmospheric temperatures.

Touch feels of textile materials are major factors related to the clothing comfort. We could perceive touch feels through contacts between skin and fabrics. Latest researches concluded there were four types of touch information including thermal, proprioceptive, cutaneous, and irritant and pains. There is a clear gap between current measurement met...

In the present study, wool fibers were hydrolyzed in the acidic environment. The pH value of wool hydrolyzed solution was adjusted based on the principle of isoelectric precipitation. Two kinds of keratin polypeptide precipitates were collected at pH 3.22 and pH 5.55, respectively. The keratin suspensions were spray-dried and denoted as KP3 and KP5...

The study investigated the skin temperature (Tsk) at sixteen points, Stratum Corneum Water Content (SCWC) and TransepidermalWater Loss (TEWL) at fourteen points over the ventral and dorsal surfaces, during submaximal cycling exercise in an ambient temperature of 25 °C, and a relative humidity of 60%. Nine healthy competitive males completed a 20 mi...

This paper discusses the development of a novel test instrument to quantify the eco-functional properties of various shopping bags. One of the main properties, which lies at the interface of both ecological and functional properties, is the reusability of shopping bags. Other properties at this juncture also include the impact strength and weight...

A solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO2 (SEDS) was employed to prepare silk fibroin (SF) nanoparticles. The results of 24 full factorial experiment indicated that SF nanoparticles with particle size (PS) from 52.5 to 102.3 nm and particle size distribution (PSD) from 0.32 to 0.66 can be fabricated successfully. Moreover, reducing precip...

This research work deals with the development of a novel framework to assess any product/textile material in terms of its eco-functional characteristics and to derive the Eco-functional Index from various sub-indices. Functional and ecological properties combined with consumer behaviour are the key aspects influencing the implications for the envir...

The present study introduced a novel biocompatible electrospun membrane composed of poly (l-lactic acid) (PLLA) and water-insoluble keratin precipitates from wool hydrolyzed solution. Ultrafine nanofibrous membranes were successfully prepared by electrospinning the blend of PLLA and keratin/alcohol suspension. Uniform structure of the composite nan...

The environmental performance of different types of polypropylene nonwoven shopping bags, made out of two different manufacturing technologies - conventional sewing method and a thermal joining method, later is a patented technology of the industry, where the study was made, was assessed from cradle to gate stage using the Life Cycle Assessment (LC...

A focus on recycling is one of the key pillars in this environmentally conscious era. In recent times, the situation is forcing people to recycle everything that are produced due to various factors such as present and future projections of scarcity of potential resources, limited landfill space, governmental policies, rewards in terms of monetary b...

Taking the inspiration from the biomineral, the wool keratin was selected to modulate the assembly of nanosized hydroxyapatite (HA) crystals via a coprecipitation method. A series of keratin/HA nanocomposite with different ratios were synthesized by adjusting the concentrations of keratin solutions and calcium phosphate and their final components w...

Biodegradation is one of the expectations from the consumers of today whenever they seek environmental friendly products. This expectation is intensified for the products with short span of life, such as shopping bags. To date there are no studies available that report on evaluating the biodegradability of different types of shopping bags using the...

Functional and ecological properties combined with consumer behaviour are the key aspects influencing the implications for the environment of a product. The concept of combining these properties in a single platform is demonstrated by considering the shopping bags used for grocery purposes as an example. An eco-functional assessment combined with t...

This article describes the study of the eco-impact of plastic and paper bags using the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) technique under three different options: usage and disposal criteria with the existing usage behavior to reuse and governmental policies to recycle (option1), usage and disposal criteria as per consumers’ perceptions if syst...

A novel solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO2 (SEDS) was employed to prepare silk fibroin (SF) nanoparticles. The resulting SF nanoparticles exhibited a good spherical shape, a smooth surface, and a narrow particle size distribution with a mean particle diameter of about 50 nm. The results of X-ray powder diffraction, thermo gravimetry-...

This paper reports the development of a unique model to quantify the environmental impact made by various textile fibres and also to position them in terms of ecological sustainability. A wide range of textile fibres and the major contributing factors in terms of environmental impact during manufacturing phase (starting from growth/extraction stage...

This paper provides details of a research project about the eco-impact of nonwoven and woven bags using the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) technique and three different options. The three different options were as follows: usage and disposal criteria with the existing usage behaviour to reuse and governmental policies to recycle (option1), usa...

This article reports on the carbon footprint of production processes of polypropylene nonwoven shopping bags made out of two different manufacturing technologies (Products A and B, made by the conventional sewing and thermal joining methods) assessed from their cradle to the gate stage using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique. This study was...

Well-designed compression sportswear can be used for the enhancement of athletic performance and reduction of injury. The material and geometric properties of fabric for compression sportswear are vital in achieving compression effects. This study evaluated and optimized the performance of fabric using the design of experiment (DOE) methods, the re...

This study provides an objective test method to characterize the dynamic moisture management properties of disposable diapers by the Moisture Management Tester (MMT), which is developed to evaluate moisture transport properties of textiles in multi-directions. The MMT device can record the textile liquid transfer process dynamically and quantitativ...

In clinical practice, fast assessment of contact pressure is usually calculated by Laplace’s Law, which neither provides detailed surface geometry for soft materials of the leg, nor offers sufficient predictive power for designing high-performance sportswear. To bridge this gap, this paper describes a finite element (FE) model of sports tights that...

Cutaneous Aδ nociceptors encode the material and geometrical features of fiber ends evoking prickliness sensation by generating neural spikes in response to indentation of human skin, however, understanding of the underlying neuromechanism of fabric-evoked prickliness is still far from clear. This work develops and validates a fiber-skin-neuron (me...

This paper aims to review the latest researches on smoothness-roughness sensation of fabric, which is considered as one of the important factors that affect clothing comfort. To begin with, the definition of clothing comfort and position of smoothness-roughness sensation within clothing comfort were classified. Further the physical and neurophysiol...

The simple Euler model of buckling of a slender rod has been commonly used to explain the mechanics in relation to the buckling of fabric‐evoked prickliness. Unfortunately, few works have paid attention to its applicability into the buckling behavior of fiber prickling human skin to evoke prickliness, though the friction between the fiber end and t...

Carbon footprint has become a term often used by the media in recent days. The human carbon footprint is professed to be a very serious global threat and every nation is looking at the possible options to reduce it since its consequences are alarming. A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact of human activities on earth and in particular on th...

The present invention relates to a method of enhancing the negative ion properties of a material and enhance its moisture management properties if necessary. The method of the present invention teaches the determination of the moisture properties of a material, development of a negative ion agent, and the application of that agent to the material,...

The quick and the dry: Fast-absorbing and quick-drying wool fabrics with good washing durability are fabricated by functionalizing reactive siloxane monolayer on wool fiber surface, followed by grafting an ultrathin silica nanoparticles layer using an in situ growth method. The new properties are maintained even after washing 20 times because of th...

The goal of this study is to establish a link between fabric fiber features responsible for prickle and peripheral nervous responses. According to the anatomical mapping of nociceptors and their physiological property, a neuromechanical model coupling fiber-skin-nociceptor property is developed to stimulate the process of coarse fibers prickling hu...

Shopping bags are a symbol of the throw-away society, its deliberation on eco-impact is reasonably high compared to other products. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to throw light on the eco-impact of non-woven and woven bags. Life Cycle Assessment comprises of different stages of a product, from its manufacturing phase to end-of-life phase. Gov...

A simple method for fabricating environmentally stable superhydrophilic wool fabrics is reported here. An ultrathin silica layer coated on the wool altered both the surface roughness and the surface energy of the fiber and endowed the wool fabrics with excellent water absorption. The process of coating silica sols was dependent on an acid solution...

The Journal of Supercritical Fluids j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / s u p f l u a b s t r a c t An organic nonsolvent, dichloromethane was employed in the process of solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO 2 (SEDS) to prepare fine particles of puerarin. A 2 3 factorial experiment was designed...

Puerarin nanoparticles were firstly prepared in the process of solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO(2) (SEDS) and then successfully microencapsulated by poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) in a modified SEDS process. By adding an organic non-solvent, an initial puerarin solution with a higher degree of saturation and lower concentration was obtained...

Cotton fibre has played an important role in textile materials since ancient times and it is still widely used in the modern textile industry for its high quality. Superfine cotton powders have been produced from cotton fibres by special pretreatment with the aid of specially designed machines and technology. Such superfine powders can be widely ap...

Today there are varieties of comments prevailing among people who use Plastic and Paper bags for their shopping needs. A few people support Plastic bags with their own justifications and others support Paper bags. This is a hot topic of today and arguments are going up and down to deduce which one is better in terms of environmental impact, but so...

5-fluorouracil-SiO(2)-poly(L-lactide) (5-Fu-SiO(2)-PLLA) microcapsules were prepared in a novel process of solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO(2) (SEDS). The SiO(2) nanoparticles were loaded with 5-Fu by adsorption at the first place, then the 5-Fu-SiO(2) nanoparticles were coated with PLLA by a modified SEDS process. The resulted micr...

The Fe(3)O(4)-poly(L-lactide) (Fe(3)O(4)-PLLA) magnetic microparticles were successfully prepared in a process of solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO(2) (SEDS), and their morphology, particle size, magnetic mass content, surface atom distribution and magnetic properties were characterized. Indomethacin (Indo) was used as a drug model t...

This paper reports a study on the effect of phase change material (PCM) in design of cold protective clothing. Two clothing systems with the same structural design, one was smart clothing (clothing C) was treated with PCM, the other one was moisture management clothing (clothing B), were tested in a climate chamber where was controlled at -15 o C....

An integrated processing technique for preparing moisture management textiles or fabrics wherein fibers are treated with compositions which impart a hydrophobic or hydrophilic property such that when incorporated into the fabrication of composite structured textiles or fabrics a hydrophobic inner surface and a hydrophilic outer surface are formed....

This paper reports a study on the effect of moisture management in the design of cold protective clothing. In this research, two kinds of clothing systems were tested, a traditional clothing system (clothing A), and a specially designed moisture management clothing system (clothing B). Both clothing systems have the same four-layer structure (under...

In this paper, we report a study on the infrared radiation properties of pure cotton woven fabric coated with nano Zn/ZnO particles by the method of physical vapor deposition (PVD). The coated film surfaces were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation and energy dispersive spectrum (EDS) analyser. The SEM photos showed...

This paper reports on the characterization of the nano-wool fibrous materials that were obtained by using a patent pending technology to pulverise natural wool fibers into nano-scale particles in terms of morphology. After three steps pulverization, the nano-wool particles are in fibrous shape with length of around 80–300nm, diameter of 10–80nm and...

This paper reports a study on the thermal stability of phase change material microcapsules that are incorporated with silver nano-particles (Ag-NPs). The novel microcapsules were fabricated by the technique of in situ polymerization, with aminoplast as the wall and phase change material bromo-hexadecane (PCM BrC16) as the core. Thermal gravimetry (...

Nanoscale wool particles were prepared from wool fibers by a special pretreatment with the aid of specially designed machinery and techniques. Scanning electron micrographs showed that the particle sizes of wool powders produced from wool fibers approximately 8–20 μm in diameter decreased from a microscale to a nanoscale after three stages of pulve...

A new test apparatus was designed to evaluate the thermal–mechanical properties of fabric made from polymeric materials in one step. The results of statistical analysis reveal that the sensations of fabric–skin touch under non-sweating conditions like smoothness, softness, prickliness, warmth and dampness can be predicted using the measurements of...

The SARS outbreak in 2003 has spawned a major controversy concerning protective performance facemasks for healthcare workers. This study reports a study on in-vivo protective performance of surgical masks and N95 respirators. Typical surgical masks and N95 respirators used in Hong Kong hospitals were tested in comparison with those treated with nan...

In this study, wool fiber was pulverized into nanoscale powder. The wool powder was confirmed to be nanoscale by scanning electron microscopy and particle size analysis. Nano-wool was applied to cotton fabric to take advantage of the surface and volume effects of the nanoscale particles, and to provide a means of recycling and reusing discarded woo...

In order to evaluate the moisture management capacity of porous polymeric materials such as fabrics, a new test method and an instrument called the moisture management tester (MMT) have been developed. Derived from the measurement curves, 10 indices are defined to characterize the fabric liquid moisture management properties. In the improved test m...

This article reports a study on the impact of phase change materials (PCM) on intelligent thermal protective clothing. The experiments were conducted in a climatic chamber in which the temperature was −15.0°C. In the experiments, a device called a bionic skin model was used. The temperature at the simulated skin surface was controlled at 33.0°C. Fo...

A new test apparatus is designed which can be used to evaluate thermal radiation properties of fabric made from polymeric materials. The IR intensities measured by this apparatus change on both fabric surfaces in three stages: an initial stage, a dynamic stage and a steady stage. A set of indices is defined to characterize IR radiation properties i...

This paper describes a simulation of the physical processes of coupled heat and moisture transfer in a clothing assembly containing phase change material (PCM). This paper focuses on the analysis of the effect of the PCM. The results of simulation show that the PCM can delay the decrease in temperature of the clothing. The experiment results are al...

Nanoscale silk particles were prepared from silk fibers by a special pretreatment with the aid of specially designed machinery and techniques. Scanning electron micrographs showed that the particle sizes of the silk powders produced from silk fibers around 9–11 μm in diameter decreased from a microscale to a nanoscale after three stages of pulveriz...

xxi, 259 p. : ill. ; 30 cm PolyU Library Call No.: [THS] LG51 .H577P ITC 2006 Hu The purposes of research are to develop a system of objective evaluation methods to characterize the sensory comfort of clothing by designing test methods and apparatuses, and to predict clothing sensory comfort performance from fabric physical properties by carrying o...

Fabric liquid moisture transport properties in multidimensions, called moisture management properties, significantly influence human perceptions of moisture sensations. A new method and instrument called the moisture management tester (MMT) is developed to evaluate textile moisture management properties. This new method can be used to quantitativel...

In this paper, the clothing expenditure and income elasticity of Chinese consumers are investigated by analyzing the clothing expenditure and income in average households during the past 11 years, their geographic distribution in 1996, and their variation in urban households with different incomes. From these analyses, we can conclude that the cons...

Consumers in the '90s are demanding apparel products with move function and higher quality. They are tending to dress more casually and desire garments that enable them to be comfortable in whatever activity they are engaged in. Thus, development of new denim products to satisfy consumer needs has become increasingly difficult. This article discuss...

A new test apparatus is designed which can be used to evaluate thermal radiation properties of fabric made from polymeric materials. The IR intensities measured by this apparatus change on both fabric surfaces in three stages: an initial stage, a dynamic stage and a steady stage. A set of indices is defined to characterize IR radiation properties i...

A single fabric testing apparatus is capable of measuring mechanical and thermal characteristics of a specimen previously carried out in separate testing apparatuses. The single apparatus is provided with a plurality of mechanical and temperature sensors and a heatable top plate. In use, a ram moves the top plate vertically downwards to press a fab...

A technique allowing manufacturers to produce woven moisture management fabrics with good moisture transfer properties is based upon a model of the fabric construction, thereby avoiding a manufacturing trial-and-error process. An initial woven fabric design including hydrophilic and hydrophobic yarns are modeled, the warp and weft yarns generally l...

The present invention relates to a process for controllably producing silk particles including the steps of designing a particle size, setting parameters to create the particle size except one unknown parameter, calculating the unknown parameter using algorithm, dissolving a silk peptide in a solvent, adding a cleavage agent, and hydrolyzing the pe...