bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Sitting and Low Back Pain Sitting with Rotary Continuous Passive Motion a New Seating Concept
Authors: van Deursen Leo L.J.M. , van Deursen Dirk L. , Patijn Jaap 
Published: January 2012

A static spinal load, such as during prolonged periods of sitting, seems to be a provocative factor in the development of Low Back Pain (LBP). Patients with LBP usually experience increasing pain during sitting. To investigate the negative influence of this static component during sitting we decided to examine the influence of dynamic rotary stimuli on patients during sitting. Three different investigations done with the minor stimulation of 1.2-degree cyclic rotation are described here. I. 120 a-selective LBP-patients were asked to sit on an experimental chair for an unbroken period of one hour. They were randomly divided into two groups. One group was subjected to dynamic stimuli which were generated by alternating rotations in the horizontal plane of the seat of the chair, with the back and arm rests in fixed position. Two different frequencies of rotation were applied to subgroups. The effect on low back pain was measured by an open visual analogous scale (VAS). There was a significant difference on pain experience in these two groups. Rotary dynamic stimuli especially of the lower frequency, reduced pain in prolonged sitting. II. In a second investigation 60 a-selective LBP-patients were tested in the same way on two other frequencies. In this investigation the results of 21 patients, who were in the control group of the first trial, proved very interesting. There was a significant improvement and none of these patients had a higher individual score than in the previous test. III. In a third investigation, the time-related response of swelling in the lower extremities was investigated in the normal static sitting condition during three hours and in sitting with continuous low-frequent rotary movements. A significant difference was found for lower leg swelling between the static and dynamic situation. The authors concluded that rotary stimuli, especially at the lower frequency, reduce the development of pain in prolonged sitting. Dynamic sitting also results in a better blood circulation of the lower extremities. The use of dynamic stimuli could produce a new seating concept.
Occupational Exposure to Whole-Body Vibration among Bus Drivers
Authors: Melo Rui Bettencourt , Miguel Alberto Sérgio 
Published: January 2012

An ergonomic analysis aiming at the identification of the main reasons for urban bus drivers' early retirement included the characterisation of the vibrations transmitted through their seat. The assessment was accomplished in terms of vibration magnitude, dominating frequencies and the most risky stimuli's direction. Due to the importance of vehicle-terrain interactions on the vibration transmission process, the road surface role was also investigated. This preliminary study involved a single brand of buses and is being extended to the entire bus fleet. The first results revealed vertical solicitations to be the most intense, reaching acceleration values of 0.5 m s-2, and significant frequencies were located below 16 Hz, where the human's vulnerability to vibrations is high. Apparently, horizontal vibrations may be neglected in comparison to the vertical ones and the seat pan is the principal vibration-transferring surface. The driving speed seems to have taken advantage over the road's roughness on the vibration level control.
The New UK Industry Design Standard for ATMS - An Ergonomics Approach with Special Reference to the Needs of the Disabled Person
Authors: Feeney Robert 
Published: January 2012

The UK Guidelines - Access to ATMs was published in August 1999. They provide manufacturers, purchasers, and installers of ATMs guidance on user interaction issue and incorporate the requirements of disabled people. The guidance is based on research into the needs and characteristics of disabled people and on trials with prototype ATMs. Reaching and viewing features and screen design are important issues and need to be designed in such a way that both disabled people and non-disabled are able to use the machines comfortably, effectively and with a sense of security. Other factors that acknowledge the difficulties which disabled people have, especially those with visual impairments are also addressed. The implications for manufacturers if ATMs can be considerable when design changes are required. The Guidelines recognise this and whilst not compromising user requirements allows for the designs to develop over a number of years. It is clear however from current developments that manufacturers are already supplying machines that are 90% compliant. The Guidelines have been welcomed in the UK and in other European countries and as a significant step forward and in tune with current Disability Discrimination legislation.
Sitting with Rotary Continuous Passive Motion Biomechanical Explanation of Health Effects
Authors: van Deursen Dirk L. , Snijders Chris J. , van Deursen Leo L.J.M. 
Published: January 2012

Sitting with the use of a Rotary Continuous Passive Motion (RCPM) device seemed to be a promising technique for practical use with regard to spinal therapy and prevention. Spinal exercises and stimulation have been widely described to influence intervertebral disc nutrition, general flexibility and muscular health. Minor stimulation of only 1.0-degree cyclic rotation resulted in a remarkable physiological effect, expressed in a smaller amount of shrinkage during 1 hour of sitting compared to the conventional way of sitting. Intervertebral disc height is influenced by small axial rotation, even before facet joint interference. The cylindrical oriented annular fibers are stretched or slacked as a result of twisting, which is most common during daily life ambulation. Such stress-relaxation phenomenon occurs in the lumbar discs due to pelvic stimulation by means of Rotary Continuous Passive Motion, i.a. a motor driven seat pan moving in the horizontal plane. This RCPM response not only affects the intradiscal pressure changes, which are related to in- and outflux of nutrients by osmosis and diffusion, but forms also additional mechanical stiffening of the annulus fibrosis. This information may be of great importance for treatment and prevention of low back pain.
Electrical Connector Acceptability Rating (ECAR)

: Ergonomic Guidelines for Electrical Connectors for Vehicle and Component Assembly
Authors: Siffer L. , Jimmerson G. 
Published: January 2012

In the past, the Electrical Connector Capability Rating (ECCR) [1] system was developed to determine to what extent connector effort contributed to first run in-plant disconnects. The ECCR independent variables were connector type, accessibility, connector orientation, obscurity, arm distance, and body position. There was a 98% positive correlation between connector effort and disconnect rates when efforts exceeded 25 pounds. There was a 67% correlation between connector effort and disconnect rates for efforts above 17 pounds. Combined, these circumstances affected approximately thirty per cent of the connector population. Of all connections, 68% had efforts below 17 pounds and were not significantly affected by effort alone. The Connectors Study [2] was conducted to recommend a means of evaluating the manual mating of electrical connectors considering force required to complete the connection and postures used during mating. The independent variables were force and travel distances, grip type, wrist postures, and elbow postures. Connecting frequency was a control variable determined by psychophysical data. The results yielded a Force Times Rate (FTR) value and Concern Levels for individual connectors and an overall Concern Level for a complete job. A study was conducted to integrate ergonomic variables into the ECCR using some of the logic from the Connectors Study [2]. This study is the Electrical Connector Acceptability Rating, also known as ECAR.
Ergotoxicology: New Model to Prevent Adverse Effects of Industrial Chemical Hazards
Authors: Mohammed-Brahim B. 
Published: January 2012

Starting from the three notions of toxicity, risk and safety, occupational toxicology can therefore be defined as the science which, from the study of toxicity and determination of the risk, establishes measures of safety. These measures are materialized in admissible limits of exposure, safety orders and protective advice, and medical control, modeled in what we designed by “screening model“. It suppose that conditions of exposure and the workers' tasks are defined in such a way that they do not cause an unacceptable health risk. This purpose is rarely reached in practice. Our hypothesis is that preventing model proposed by toxicologists is not operative. First, because work activity is more variable as any plant method service prediction of exposure conditions and workers' tasks. Then, worker is reduce in this pattern, to his biologic component in physical term, and to his executive capacity in cognitive term. Starting from this hypothesis, supplied by own ground experience at once on occupational medicine and toxicology, then on ergonomics, we develop an alternative model.
Ergonomic Guidelines for Forest Machines
Authors: Gellerstedt Sten 
Published: January 2012

New ergonomic guidelines to the design and assessment of forest machines have been completed in the Nordic countries. These guidelines will stimulate the development of safe forest machines that is easy to use and maintain. The guidelines are mostly functional regarding the operator workplace, controlling the machine and its tools, and maintenance work. The purpose of the guidelines is to achieve long-term efficiency of mechanised forestry operations. This is done by meeting the demands of the machine operators on health, safety and well-being, which hopefully will help the operators to earn a high and sustainable income. Many of the operators still suffer from pain in the neck and shoulder region. The classification of a machines usability is based on its ergonomic status in relation to work task and duration, tempo and the difficulty of the work. Task forces in the Nordic countries participated in developing the guidelines. These included representatives from the forest sector and ergonomic research. A comprehensive review was carried out covering scientific knowledge and practical experiences in the area to serve as the basis of the guidelines. After tree years of deliberations and statements, an agreement on the guidelines was reached.
Effect of Subject Pose for 3D Database Management
Authors: Paquet Eric , Rioux Marc 
Published: January 2012

Cleopatra is a 3D database management software to classify the digitized 3D shape of the human bodies contained in the CAESAR database. The classification process is based on the geometric characteristics of the digitized data, along with a filtering process based on text information contained in both, the traditional anthropometric and the extracted measurements files. The information contained in the demographic file is also available for filtering. This paper discusses the experimental results of tests related to the subject's pose while the scan is made. This is a repeatability test where the subjects (a male and a female) are repeatedly scanned ten times. Each scan is made at different times and the subject attempts to assume the same pose each time.
Effect of Forward/Backward Standing Posture on Foot Shape
Authors: Daanen H.A.M. , Tan T.K. , Punte P.A.J. 
Published: January 2012

Foot length and breadth are generally used to determine the correct shoe size. An important question is whether foot length and foot breadth are dependent upon body posture. Therefore, the effect of leaning forward/backward on foot length and breadth is investigated in this study. Seven subjects participated in the experiment in three standing postures; neutral (N), leaning forward (F) en leaning backward (B). The foot pressure was determined and the feet were scanned using a 3D-whole body scanner. Foot length and foot breadth were determined from the scans of the right foot. The centre of gravity (COG) was calculated from the pressure distribution and showed that the COG moved 11 cm forward in posture F and 8 cm backward in posture B. No difference existed between foot length and breadth between the three postures. Thus, it does seem important to standardize the standing posture to determine foot length and breadth reliably. The 3D scans showed some differences in foot shape, however. In position F the forefoot was rotated inwards as compared to B.
3-D Anthropometric Information for Designing the Wearable
Authors: Lee Young-Suk 
Published: January 2012

Anthropometry deals with the measurement of the dimensions and certain other physical characteristics of the body such as volumes, centers of gravity, internal properties, and masses of body segments. In addition to these measurement, 3-dimensional anthropometric informations such as body shape, body contour, body slice shape and body silhouette are very essential for designing and fitting the wearables. Our main gold in this paper is to demonstrate the use of 3-D information in connection with human sensibility thanks to several examples of body shape analysis methods, and their results. As a supplementary set of information, our desire was also to provide the reader with an international size chart.
In-Vehicle Cell Phones: Fatal Distraction—Yes or No?
Authors: Curry David G. 
Published: January 2012

Debate in the popular press regarding the issue of cell phone use on American roadways is extremely prevalent, highly vituperative, and almost completely devoid of actual hard data on the problem itself. Editorials are rife with emotionally-charged personal accounts of tragedies or near-tragedies, but suspiciously empty of any facts regarding the issues involved or experimental evidence supporting the positions they adopt. The resulting general consensus in the public mind is that these products are a dangerous national problem and that something must be done about them. The rash of legislation proposing various types of quick fix is proof that lawmakers are being crowded into a position that something must be done about this “problem”, though the real data surrounding this issue is mixed at best. This paper attempts to place the problem in its proper perspective using publicly available facts and figures in an attempt to support an alternative solution.
The Postural Comfort Zone for Reaching Gestures
Authors: Kölsch Mathias , Beall Andrew C. , Turk Matthew 
Published: January 2012

We have proposed a method for objective assessment of postural comfort (Kölsch et al., 2003). We defined comfort as the range of postures that is voluntarily assumed despite the availability of other postures. Designing user interfaces within the limits of comfort zones can avert risks associated with unknown alternative use patters of the interface. Here we report on a user study that investigated the comfort zone for free-hand gestures in the horizontal plane at about stomach height. This space is of particular interest to novel technologies such as gesture recognition and virtual reality. The results are in line with previous studies on postural discomfort, but improve on resolution and are not based on subjective, questionnaire-based data acquisition. This study also serves as an example for how to design studies for comfort evaluation.
Placement Opportunities for Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics Professionals in Industry and Government/Military Positions
Authors: Voorheis Christopher M. , Snead Andrea E. , Moroney William F. 
Published: January 2012

During the period from January 2002 through December 2002, the Placement Service of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society distributed announcements describing 141 new positions available for human factors and ergonomics professionals. This paper describes placement opportunities for HF and ergonomics professionals in Industry and Government/Military (N=117). The attributes of the position descriptions examined include: employment sector, major field of study, degree requirements, required work experience, salary, geographic location, travel, and areas of expertise. The type of industry seeking most employees was Consulting at 32%. The most frequently specified major field of study was Human Factors (N=73). Forty-nine percent of positions describe the master's degree as the minimum requirement. The geographical areas with the most jobs were East Central (N=20) and the Mid Atlantic (N=17). Finally, the area of expertise most frequently requested by employers was Human Computer Interaction (N=23) and Human Factors/Ergonomics (N=32) was the most commonly specified job expertise/function.
Wrist and Forearm Movements While Homing in on Precision Targets
Authors: Shyhalla Kathleen 
Published: January 2012

To determine whether people employed different movement strategies when they homed in on precision targets during repetitive tapping tasks, homing in movements were isolated for analysis. The time required to home in on the targets and the absolute magnitudes of peaks in joint velocities during homing in were calculated. In addition, the number of times that three types of corrective actions: changes in movement direction, inflections in velocity, and peaks in velocity, were made during pronation/supination and in radial/ulnar actions were counted. The number of times each type of corrective action was made was regressed against the time required for homing in. The relationships were highly linear, with correlation coefficients between 0.78 and 0.94. The implication was that corrective actions occurred at a similar mean frequency, regardless of the level of task precision and that homing in was a very active process at all levels of precision studied. The number of times any type of corrective action was taken increased significantly with increased precision (P < 0.001). The mean absolute magnitudes of pronation/supination and radial/ulnar velocities declined significantly with increased task precision (P < 0.001). However, the fact that the number of corrective actions increased with increased task precision showed that the movements toward the high precision targets were not just ‘slowed down’ versions of the movements to the low precision targets. Differences between the number of corrective actions, and the magnitudes of peak velocities for tasks of different levels of precision reflect different biomechanical stresses at the wrist and forearm for the different tasks. These differences are expected to result in different effects on shoulder muscles at different levels of precision.
Human Factors Engineering for Space Exploration Missions
Authors: Peacock Brian , McCandless Jeffrey , McCandless Jeffrey , Rajulu Sudhakar , Mount Frances , Mallis Melissa , Whitmore Mihriban , Null Cynthia 
Published: January 2012

NASA now has a focused mission for space exploration. We will continue to use ground based analogs and simulators, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station as research and development platforms, but the challenges of time, distance and very hostile environments raise the challenges to human factors engineering designers to an even greater level. We will have a new generation of vehicles, equipment, habitats and space suits; operations and activity management will present novel scheduling, training and task allocation opportunities. The safety stakes will also be higher and the cold euphemisms of risk management will require some humanization, both for the crew and the public. Space vehicle launch, docking, navigation and landing will require complex interactions between automation and human operators. Commanders and pilots will require considerable simulator training and will be expected to perform flawlessly despite the debilitating exposure to extended time in space. Physical tasks on planetary surfaces will require protective suits that allow explorers to function effectively without the risk of excessive fatigue. Deviations from our familiar 24 hour day night cycle will demand innovative countermeasures if crew members are not to succumb to performance decrements due to cumulative sleep deprivation. Operation of complex life support, transportation, emergency response and scientific systems will require the development of effective and efficient job aids and procedures. Planetary surface habitats will be designed with the life support systems and home comforts necessary for long duration tenure. Finally, the safety of the human crew will be paramount and will require robust hybrid human-robotic systems, activity schedules and operations management. The NASA space human factors community is addressing these challenges by observing the performance of crew members in analogs, simulators and real missions and supporting this activity by basic and applied research in NASA laboratories and in collaboration with external scientists. The presentations in this panel will describe some of the current efforts to support this focused NASA exploration mission.
Two ‘Micro’ IDC Field Investigations Requiring ‘Macro’ Interventions
Authors: Scott P. A. , Christie C. J. , Renz M 
Published: January 2012

In industrially developing countries where there are so many minor to major problems across the broad spectrum of basic to sophisticated work sites, and where there is little knowledge of ergonomics, the very limited number of qualified Ergonomists are often ‘forced’ into taking a micro or macro approach to deal with the immediate problem as soon and as effectively as possible. Two recent requests for an investigation of the Human Operator–Task interaction (micro level) reiterated the clear need for a micro-macro approach in the analysis of any work site no matter what the reported problems are. Two contrasting sites were investigated and although the overt problems had been correctly identified at both sites, the underlying ‘organisation’ causes were not so obvious to management. The authors suggest that the poor working conditions so prevalent in IDCs is the ideal arena to reiterate the need to consider central and peripheral components in order to establish Hendrick's (1996) “Organisational Synergism”.
A Preliminary Evaluation of a Driver-Infrastructure Interface for a Left-Turn Warning
Authors: Nowakowski Christopher 
Published: January 2012

To examine the viability of an infrastructure-based, left-turn warning, twenty test participants drove through a test-track intersection with oncoming traffic. Participants decided, both with and without the aide of an infrastructure-based real-time warning, whether or not there was enough time to complete the turn in front of the oncoming traffic. In order to allow for natural driving behaviors such as turning without stopping, a new metric, the predicted trailing buffer (spare time), was introduced to describe the synthesis of vehicle movements, and as a basis for a warning algorithm. This study also examined the effect of or the timeliness of three different warning onset points. Gap (lag) acceptance increased as the predicted trailing buffer increased with almost all gaps being accepted with greater than one second of predicted spare time. Overall, the activation of an infrastructure-based warning reduced the percentage of turns made by about twenty percent. As the predicted spare time decreased, the activation of a warning was even more effective in persuading the drivers to both stop and to agree with the warning. Drivers were largely insensitive to the onset of the warning; however, a warning onset of 32 m or 4 s before reaching the stop bar was mostly considered acceptable.