bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Consumer Products and Cumulative Trauma Disorders
Authors: Frank Alan S. , Drury Professor Colin 
Published: January 2012

This panel focuses on the relationship between consumer products and CTD. Between the ages of 18 to 64, more people are disabled from musculoskeletal problems than any other category of disorder. Many of these disabilities are Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTD). They result from frequent, extreme joint movements and forces. CTD's develop with the use of many different products. Computer terminals are often associated with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), one type of CTD. However common household products have also been associated with CTD's. Knives, commonly found in kitchens, are also used in the meat packing industry. When used in an industrial setting, such knives are associated with CTD's. Scissors are used in the garment industry. Under conditions of high frequency use, they are associated with CTD's. Many power tools, used by both professionals and amateurs, are inappropriately used for high frequency tasks. Finally, recreational products have long been associated with injuries such as Tennis Elbow and Golfer's Elbow. The panel will discuss attributes of such products that create the potential for a CTD type injury. In addition, the panel will discuss how recreational and work activities interact to aggravate CTD's. The discussion will include the costs, in terms of medical expenses and lost productivity, and the prevention. Special attention will be paid to the design of products and work places to reduce the incidence and severity of such disorders.
Panel Discussion of “HRA — Where Shouldst Thou Turn?”: A Controversial View
Authors: Schurman Donald L. 
Published: January 2012

The area of Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) has become increasingly important as both the nuclear industry and other high-technology industries have become conscious of the need for risk management and risk analysis. Techniques for performing and validating HRA should clearly be subjects of Human Factors Test and Evaluation attention. However, these issues have received less attention than they probably deserve from the Human Factors Society, despite the key contributions to the field of such HFS Test and Evaluation Group members as Dr. Alan Swain and Dr. David Meister. Issues that should be of interest to the HFS membership were recently raised in a white paper, recently published in “Reliability Engineering and System Safety” as an editorial. This editorial, titled “HRA — Where Shouldst Thou Turn?”, was written by Mr. Ed Dougherty, an HRA practitioner. The editorial takes to task (“pillories”, might not be too strong a term) almost every major technique and method for HRA currently in use, including his own. In addition, he castigates the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission attitudes and philosophies toward HRA use. Due to the controversial nature of the editorial, the journal editor, Dr. Apostolaikis, provided an opportunity for response to some fifteen practitioners/theorists of those mentioned. Some of these responders included such HFS members as Alan Swain, David Woods, Barry Kantowitz, Thomas Ryan, and Jens Rasmussen. However, these responders had no chance to review each others responses, nor has Mr. Dougherty had any opportunity to respond to the responses.
Verbal Protocols as a Research Tool in Human Factors: Panel Discussion
Authors: Deffner Gerhard , Snyder Harry L. , Bittner Alvah C. , Rhenius Detlef , Sanderson Penelope M. 
Published: January 2012

Verbal protocols have been used for many years in different research contexts, but there still is no clear consensus about the validity of the technique and methods for maximizing validity in an applied setting; how to standardize the collection and analysis of protocols; and last but certainly not least, whether the resulting data is worth the effort. This panel discussion is a companion to a symposium at this conference which presents empirical studies and human factors applications of verbal protocol techniques. The panel will focus in more depth on issues raised in that earlier session, with the goal of providing guidance for practical applications of the technique.
Human Factors in the Maintenance and Inspection of Aircraft
Authors: Shepherd William T. 
Published: January 2012

Recent accidents and incidents in the world-wide air carrier industry have highlighted the role of aircraft maintenance and inspection in aviation safety. However, aviation human factors research in the past has focused almost exclusively on aircrew and air traffic controller activities. It has become clear that aviation safety relies on a complex interplay of specialists in various disciplines not the least of which are the technicians who diagnose and repair aircraft and their systems. Maintenance technicians are typically members of large industrial organizations subject to problems that beset similar service-oriented industries. Competitive and time pressures abound as well as problems related to selection, training, work environment, job performance aids, and communication. The performance of these specialists is critically bound up with activities of others such as equipment and system designers, technical publication authors, and training providers. The purpose of this symposium is to explore some of the issues which appear to be crucially related to human performance in aircraft maintenance and inspection. The FAA has embarked on a multi-year research program to identify areas where human factors knowledge can lead to significant improvements in safety and to develop or synthesize this knowledge where appropriate. The first paper (Dr. William Shepherd) will overview some of the maintenance human factors issues of today and the future as well as the research program currently underway at the FAA's Office of Aviation Medicine. The three remaining papers will describe some of the specific activity being conducted within this program. Dr. James Taylor will describe his research related to the organizational psychology of the airline maintenance system. His paper addresses issues of worker-management and inter-department communication along with a variety of “socio-technical” considerations. Dr. Colin Drury will describe the results of an extensive maintenance and inspection task analysis that has been conducted at numerous airline maintenance sites. Dr. William Johnson will present the results of an analysis of industry needs related to the application of new technology to maintenance training. Dr. Johnson will also present the evolving specifications for an expert system based maintenance training intelligent tutoring system. The integration of the latter three papers will demonstrate that the overall FAA maintenance research program is studying the organization, the job and the person.
Development of a Multisensory Nonvisual Interface to Computers for Blind Users
Authors: Vanderheiden Gregg C. , Boyd Wesley , Mendenhall John H. , Ford Kelly 
Published: January 2012

The advent of graphic-based display environments such as those found on the Macintosh, Windows, OS/2 Presentation Manager, and XWindows, has the potential for providing barriers for individuals with visual impairments, particularly those who are blind. The problems stem from three factors. First, the information being displayed on the screen has shifted from a character-based format that was stored in an ASCII text buffer to a pixel-based format. This makes it much more difficult for screen reading software to determine what characters are on the screen. Second, text-based systems used a single font and relatively few attributes (bold, underline). On the graphic displays, text can assume a very large variety of sizes, fonts, and attributes (bold, underline, italic, crossed out, etc.). When these font changes or attributes contain information, they complicate the process of presenting information via speech or braille. Third, the advent of the graphics-based system has led to much more widespread incorporation of graphic elements, such as charts, diagrams, and pictures, within the text. The new systems also introduce a number of advantages or opportunities for individuals with severe visual impairments or who are blind. Both the consistency of the human interface among applications and the use of system tools in the display process hold the potential for providing access to a broader range of applications for persons who are blind, if an effective human interface to these operating systems can be developed. The Systems × project is using a multi-sensory approach to explore techniques for providing an effective and efficient interface to graphic-based by people who are blind. A prototype system, dubbed “Systems 3,” has been developed which uses speech input/output, the keyboard, and a virtual tactile tablet to allow individuals to access both text and graphic elements in the system. Using the prototype, individuals who are completely blind have been able to use a Macintosh computer, access and read text documents, and handle simple to moderate graphic elements such as bar charts. A series of research studies is now ongoing to test the limits of the access and to quantify the relative efficacy of various approaches to providing a nonvisual interface to these graphic-based operating environments.
Safe and Healthy VDT Workplace Design: Is there a Scientific Basis? Are Standards Effective? Are Regulations Appropriate?
Authors: Thompson David A. 
Published: January 2012

VDT workplace design is increasingly becoming the subject of ordinances and regulations around the country. Several political jurisdictions have adopted regulations for state, county, and municipal facilities, including California. Suffolk County in New York was the first to adopt regulations applying to private industry, but these were somewhat controversial and were rejected by the courts. Now, San Francisco has also passed an ordinance to regulate VDT workplaces for all public and private organizations, and the city is busily gearing up to meet its requirements. The bill was hammered out by both business and labor representatives and is designed to be not invalidated by the courts (although it may be challenged). If it stands, it will be the first in the nation to do so–and is being closely watched by many other political jurisdictions throughout the country as a model. Because HFS played the major role in developing the ANSI Standards (ANSI HFS-1988) for VDT workplace design, and because these Standards are increasingly incorporated into regulations and ordinances (including the San Francisco VDT Worker Safety Ordinance) we have a continuing professional interest in this whole process. Moreover, we may have an obligation to advise on the technical and psychosocial contents of the broad range of guidelines, standards, and regulations now under consideration around the United States. Our professional training and experience naturally positions us as a Society in an assessment role concerning their ergonomic appropriateness for a given target population. Each member of the panel, according to their specialty, will present his or her views on: (1) The sufficiency of existing scientific knowledge related to VDT workplace design; what else needs to be known; and why; (2) The effectiveness of ergonomic or human factors engineering standards in accomplishing proper and timely VDT workplace redesign; (3) The appropriateness of regulations to accomplish suitable VDT workplace design changes. Their separate views will reflect their particular training and experience, and may or may not reflect the position of their differing constituencies: industry, federal safety and health, academia, and the VDT worker.
Visual Integration of Tactile Information in Telerobotics
Authors: Browse Roger A. , McDonald Marcia L. 
Published: January 2012

We have carried out three experiments which explore the effectiveness of various visual depictions of tactile data for the task in which subjects view a robot gripping an object and attempt to predict if the robot will be able to pick the object up. The display types tested range from simple total closing force values through to graphic three-dimensional contour plots, overlaid with force-torque vectors, with the subject having dynamic viewpoint control over the display. Our results suggest that an operator's utilization of such tactile displays depends on the effectiveness of the model of the gripping configuration which can be obtained through visual images of the scene. In the case of simple planar contact between gripper and object, a total force value produced maximum performance enhancement. In more complicated, or awkward non-planar gripping, the total force value was of no use, but spatially distributed force representations could still yield enhanced performance. Further experimentation was carried out with complex displays which subjects reported as depicting the contact forces better. It was found that these displays actually reduced performance, drawing into question the telepresence assumption that more realistic information will lead to better telerobotic operator performance.
Educating People with Disabilities
Authors: Mital A. , Deivanayagam S. , Malzahn D. , Wiker S. , Vanderheiden G. C. , Freivalds A. 
Published: January 2012

Accommodating individuals with disabilities in the workplace is a rapidly growing concern. Furthermore, those who are functionally impaired are in a dire need of assistance. In a classroom, the main function of a student is to learn. Learning is facilitated by an instructor's lectures, writings on the board, use of audiovisuals, etc. Generally, it is presumed that students do not have any common functional impairments (visual, auditory, etc.) and, therefore, no special effort is made to accommodate those who may have such impairments. Obviously, the learning of a legally-blind student or one who has impaired hearing, for example, will be compromised if no assistance is provided. Then there are issues such as providing reading materials for the blind (college catalogues, lecture notes, etc., in braille?). What should be done? The purpose of this panel discussion is to, in general, address and discuss the issues involved in educating people with disabilities, particularly those that are not very obvious or visible (ex., wheelchair confinement). How should university campuses resolve this problem in this age of dwindling resources? Sensitive issues, such as “Needs of the many versus the needs of the few?” and “What responsibility do we have to the few that really need such assistance?”, also need to be resolved.
What we do with Human Factors Data and Theory: A Flight Deck Design Philosophy for the High Speed Civil Transport Aircraft
Authors: Dresel K. Michael , Pepitone David D. T. 
Published: January 2012

This paper reports on the results and lessons learned from constructing a design philosophy for a new aircraft. The High Speed Civil Transport aircraft is the next-generation supersonic transport, planned for initial operating capability in 2005. Current objectives for the aircraft include cruise speeds of Mach 2.4, ability to take off and land in low visibility, and restricted forward vision. These objectives necessitate consideration of major changes in some of the functions currently allocated to the human flight crew. An explicit design philosophy was defined as the first step in ensuring that system development proceeded with clear emphasis on supporting the human operators in accomplishing the goals of transporting their passengers and cargo safely, comfortably, efficiently and on schedule. This paper discusses the development and details of the integrated flight deck design philosophy that will be used to guide the development of a High Speed Civil Transport flight deck. The paper describes • the goals, scope and benefits of the flight deck design philosophy; • the effect on the current system development process; • the method used to produce the design philosophy; • examples of the philosophy and guideline statements, with rationale; • and finally, suggestions for improving the transfer of basic and applied research into the system design process.
Automated Data Analysis
Authors: Connelly Edward M. 
Published: January 2012

Automated Data Analysis (ADA) is a powerful, flexible analysis tool for systematically building performance determinants. ADA is designed to assist analysts in assessing the linkage from system processes to outcomes. It allows for or accounts for the varying conditions during performances and permits formation of complex analyses which extract relevant information from multiple variables while ignoring irrelevant data from the data base. In particular, ADA permits: 1. Focus on selected portions of the performance space, 2. Characterization of the system processes and examination of the relationship between system processes and outcomes, 3. Building analysis variables which can be made simple or as complex as necessary as knowledge of the importance of system processes to outcomes is obtained, and 4. Use of powerful prestructured analysis tools.
Using Simulations in Teaching Human Factors: Bridging the Gap between the Academic World and the World of Work
Authors: Moroney William F. , Cameron Joyce A. 
Published: January 2012

The nature of the world of work in which human factors professionals practice requires both knowledge and skill. Students of human factors need educational experiences which demand more than the acquisition of information in order to be prepared for this world. To meet this need for a broader educational experience, we incorporated three simulations into the design of a graduate course in Human Factors in Systems Development. The decision to use these three simulations required not only a restructuring of the course content, but also a reconsideration of instructional procedures. Fortunately, in the field of education there are “models of teaching” which can assist individuals who want to use simulations in teaching by providing guidance in shaping curriculum, in designing instructional materials, and in guiding instruction. The purpose of this paper is fourfold: (1) to describe the curriculum and the simulations used, (2) to indicate the type of educational objectives associated with each simulation, (3) to share a model of teaching which is intended specifically for use in conjunction with the use of classroom simulations, and (4) to relate some ideas about other types of simulations that we have begun to incorporate into other courses. It is our belief that the use of simulations can enhance the learning of both content and skills. More important, it can provide students with opportunities to experience the consequences of their individual and group efforts at problem-solving and decision making, and it can help bridge the gap between the academic experience and the world of work.
The Value Added by Cognitive Task Analysis
Authors: Klein Gary 
Published: January 2012

Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) attempts to describe how people perform tasks: the cues and patterns they use, their inferences and strategies, mental models, and other related topics. It differs from behavioral task analyses that seek to enumerate the steps that must be followed without examining the expertise needed to perform critical steps. Therefore, CTA provides a more in-depth picture, which complements the broader and more comprehensive behavioral task analysis. A CTA usually consists of five steps: Preparation, Knowledge Elicitation, Data Analysis, Knowledge Representation, and Application. The applications of CTA can take a number of forms, such as training, system design, personnel selection, and market research.
The Effect of a Commercially Available Support Belt on Torso Posture, Lift Strength, and Spinal Compression
Authors: Sherman Brian Randall , Woldstad Jeffrey C. 
Published: January 2012

The purpose of this research was to measure changes in torso posture when a commercially available abdominal support belt was worn. In addition, this study investigated whether the belt affected static lift strength and predicted spinal compression of the L3/L4 intervertebral disc. Eight males and eight females were asked to perform maximal static exertions on handles attached to a steel rig. Lifts were performed from symmetric and asymmetric positions at different heights while the support belt was worn and not worn. It was found that static lift strength and torso posture, with the exception of axial twist, were not significantly affected by belt use. Axial twist for low asymmetric exertions was significantly larger when the belt was worn as compared to when the belt was not worn. Predicted spinal compression was significantly lower when the belt was worn (2738 N) as compared to the nonbelt conditions (3087 N).
Wrist Posture during Computer Mouse Usage
Authors: Damann Elizabeth A. , Kroemer Karl H.E. 
Published: January 2012

In this experiment, we investigated the effects that mouse pad surface height and wrist support had on wrist posture. In a pointing task, 16 subjects moved a mouse-controlled cursor clockwise or counterclockwise around three fixed targets, which varied by size and distance depending on task condition. Wrist extension, flexion, radial deviation, and ulnar deviation data were collected via a wrist monitor attached to the right hand and forearm. The presence of a wrist support decreased wrist extension and radial deviation, and increased wrist flexion. Higher pad surface height resulted in increased flexion and ulnar deviation, and decreased extension and radial deviation. A comparison of the conditions which were at the same pad height, but differed due to the presence or absence of wrist support, revealed that wrist extension was reduced by the presence of a wrist support at all but the highest height.
Audibility Problems with Fire Alarms in Apartment Buildings
Authors: Proulx Guylène , Laroche Chantal , Latour John C. 
Published: January 2012

A previous study of apartment building evacuation drills showed that as many as 25% of the occupants mentioned not hearing the fire alarm from inside their apartments. A new experiment was developed to observe evacuation drills and to measure the sound level of the fire alarms in three high-rise apartment buildings. These buildings, built during the 1980's, met the local building regulations regarding the provision of fire alarms at the time of construction. Each building contained approximately 200 apartments, with 1 to 4 persons per apartment. For each building, the printed fire safety procedures stated that all occupants should leave the building or move to an area of refuge, upon hearing the building fire alarm. During each evacuation drill, video cameras, were located in corridors and staircases, to record the movement time and behaviour of occupants. Using a digital audio tape recorder, precise sound samples of the fire alarm and background noise were taken from different locations in the buildings. Analyses of the alarm sound spectrum and levels were performed. Results confirm the subjective assessment of occupants who mentioned not hearing the fire alarm in specific locations of the building. It was also found that, in some other areas, the alarm was overpowering. The impact of alarm audibility on fire safety is discussed.