bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Minimal Remote: A Standard Input Device for Consumer Interactive TV
Authors: Angiolillo Joel S. 
Published: January 2012

This paper is a polemic and a plea. The almost complete lack of user interface conventions in consumer entertainment equipment, if carried over to the new world of Consumer Interactive TV (CITV), will result in chaos and confusion for CITV users as well as developers. Interface designers of computer software know exactly what sort of input devices a computer user will have, namely, a QWERTY keyboard with 83 to 103 keys, including 10 to 12 function keys, a control key, escape key, a tilde, slash, and so on. In addition, the user will have a mouse (or an equivalent pointer) with two unlabeled buttons, one for “selection” and the other for “menu.” This standardization of keys and labels allows great freedom in the design of software because software can be designed independently of any hardware. It also permits users to move from system to system with no relearning of the basic capabilities of the physical input device (albeit, how these “key primitives” are assembled into commands may require significant relearning.) As a community devoted to reducing the anxiety levels of consumers, our goal should be to create the same environment for CITV, a world that is a stranger to conformance and convention today. A basic set of core controls should be present on all CITV devices. We must define these core controls carefully because they will be the tools by which the future shape of CITV applications will be cut. In this paper, I argue that all CITV input devices should include • a pointer (with associated select key), • a twelve button dial pad, and • four function keys. Individual input devices can enhance this set of “core controls” (as a keyboard can add a separate number entry pad), but they should not omit any of them. I call this CITV input device with only the basic set of core controls a “Minimal Remote.”
Ergonomic Evaluation of the General Purpose Workstation on a Space Mission
Authors: Whitmore Mihriban , Mount Frances E. 
Published: January 2012

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory (HFEL) at the Johnson Space Center conducted an ergonomic evaluation of the General Purpose Workstation (GPWS), a glovebox-type workstation flown on one of the Spacelab Life Sciences missions. The HFEL study consisted of: (1) Crew evaluations via pre-flight, in-flight questionnaire and structured post-flight interview, and (2) Video analysis. Findings indicate that the workstation design was acceptable for performing dissection tasks. The crew reported that the task distribution between operators was completely acceptable. Based on the video analysis and the crew comments, the glove interface was found to be critical for crew comfort. A follow-up evaluation is planned for an upcoming mission to evaluate a materials science glovebox and the design impact on posture. Additional microgravity evaluations are planned to obtain objective data on postural changes while working at different gloveboxes.
When Should Auditory Guidance Systems Tell Drivers to Turn?
Authors: Green Paul , George Kellie 
Published: January 2012

This two-part experiment examined how far from an intersection an auditory route-guidance system should present the final turn instructions (e.g., “Turn right.”). In part 1, 48 drivers followed instructions from a simulated in-vehicle navigation system (“In approximately 2 miles, turn right at the traffic signal”), responding “Is this it?” when they thought they had reached the desired intersection. In response, the computer gave the appropriate guidance (“No, continue…” or “Turn…”). In part 2, they repeatedly approached 2 different intersections. Feedback from previous trials (“too far,” “too close,” “OK”) was used to adjust when messages (e.g., “Turn left.”) were presented. Regression analysis revealed that last turn messages should be provided approximately 450 feet before an intersection (approached at 40 mi/h), with that value being adjusted 15 feet for each mile per hour change. Adjustments are also made for gender (plus or minus 56 feet), age (plus or minus 60 feet), and turn direction (plus or minus 48 feet).
Computer Modeling of a Nuclear Power Plant Operating Crew to Aid in Analysis of Crew Size Issues
Authors: Plott Beth M. , Scott-Nash Shelly , Hallbert Bruce P. , Sebok Angelia L. 
Published: January 2012

An analytical approach to addressing the implications of nuclear power plant shift sizing is needed as an augmentation to the classical empirical approach. The research reported in this paper was to evaluate the feasibility and validity of one potential analytical approach as a means of evaluating the consequences of crew reduction on crew performance in a nuclear power plant setting. The approach selected for analysis was task network modeling and simulation using a tool named Micro Saint. Task network modeling allows the human factors engineer to extend the information from a task analysis and generate a computer simulation of crew performance that can predict critical task times and error rates. Through modeling, the current and proposed processes can be evaluated and analyzed in order to understand, identify, and test opportunities for process improvement or reengineering. For this effort, models of a conventional nuclear power plant during four extremely demanding scenarios were developed. Task analysis and timing data were collected at the Imatran Voima Nuclear Power Plant at Loviisa, Finland. The task analyses were collected over a two week period by interviewing reactor operators, reviewing procedures, and conducting walk-throughs. We then refined the models and incorporated workload modeling constructs. At the completion of the modeling effort, the models were executed and the data collected were used to predict crew performance in varying staffing conditions.
Corporate Memory: Lessons Learned from Innovative Human Factors Researchers
Authors: Hutton Robert J. B. , Klein Gary 
Published: January 2012

Lessons learned from experienced researchers can provide an invaluable resource for any organization. The purpose of this project was to interview successful researchers from the Armstrong Laboratory (AL/HEA) at Wright-Patterson AFB to learn from some of their successful projects. The ultimate goals of the project were threefold: to provide AL/HEA with an alternative way to capture and describe the successes of their researchers; to identify themes that emerged from these projects regarding researchers' problem-solving, project leadership, and project management skills; and finally, to provide recommendations to the organization which would promote and support ways to increase opportunities for successful projects. Eleven interviews were conducted. Each of the researchers was interviewed about a project that had provided some concrete benefit to the Air Force. We used a form of the Critical Decision method to elicit 15 accounts. Several themes were identified that characterized the research projects, and recommendations were made to encourage the initiative of laboratory personnel and increase opportunities for successes.
Sharpness of Lid Edges
Authors: Konz Stephan , Aye Don , Fu Yanci 
Published: January 2012

In Experiment 1, 15 plexiglass lids were constructed, using all combinations of 3 diameters (32, 70, 82.5 mm) and 5 edges (having a radius of curvature of 0, .8, 1.6, 2.4 and 3.2 mm). The lids were inserted into a torquemeter and held vs 2.3 kg-m of torque. The 44 adult subjects (18 M; 26 F) indicated their discomfort. Gender significantly affected discomfort, with female discomfort values about 70% greater than male values. For the same radius of curvature, discomfort was highest at 32 mm dia, intermediate at 82.5 mm and least at 70 mm. In Experiment 2, 82.5 mm dia lids with edges of .8, 1.6 and 2.4 mm radii were used by 10 subjects (5 M, 5 F). The torques were 1.1, 1.7, 2.3, 2.8 and 3.4 kg-m. Female discomfort vote increased 1.9/ kg-m while male vote increased 1.2/kg-m.
Differences in the Evacuation Behaviour of Office and Apartment Building Occupants
Authors: Proulx Guylène , Pineau Joelle 
Published: January 2012

An experiment was designed to observe evacuation times and occupant movement in two office buildings during a simulated fire emergency and to compare these results with previous studies of evacuation drills in apartment buildings. The evacuation drills were recorded using videocameras located throughout the buildings. The results were analyzed with respect to occupant behaviour, occupants' time to start to evacuate, occupants' time to reach an outside exit, and the occupants' speed while travelling in the stairways. A comparison of the results from this office buildings study with previous studies involving evacuations of midrise and highrise apartment buildings reveals many interesting differences. The physical organization of the buildings, evacuation strategies, and the occupants' characteristics, behaviour and movement are discussed. The study showed that apartment building occupants delay their evacuation more than office building occupants, either by a long preparation time or because they cannot hear the alarm from their apartments. Travelling speeds are slowest in midrise apartment buildings where the population is more diverse and includes children, elderly people and occupants with limitations. The more structured evacuation plans, the presence of fire wardens and the easier access to fire safety information also contribute to the efficiency of evacuation procedures in office buildings.
The Impetus for the Development of a New Risk Management Training Program for Young Teen Drivers
Authors: Willis David K. 
Published: January 2012

In the U.S., 16 and 17 year-old drivers have horrendous motor vehicle crash rates. Young teen drivers are also vastly over-involved in fatal traffic crashes. In order to better understand the causes of this teen driver crash problem and then develop appropriate countermeasures, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety commissioned the first comprehensive re-examination in more than 20 years of what novice drivers need to learn and do in order to be safe drivers. The resultant research report (Lonero, et al., 1995) led to the creation of an innovative, computer-based risk management training program for teen drivers, released in February, 1998.
Analysis and Evaluation of Cockpit Concept and Crew Concept of a Two-Seater Combat Aircraft
Authors: Schweingruber Joerg 
Published: January 2012

The two-seater combat aircraft that went into service with the German Airforce in 1981 and with the German Navy in 1982 was based on operational requirements and technical standards of the 70's and earlier. Changes in the operational goals forced requirements for improving, conserving, and adjusting performance capabilities and made various equipment necessary being added to the current system. During the realization of these modifications ergonomic aspects of the cockpit concept and the crew concept were largely neglected. An analysis and evaluation of human-machine-interactions and crew coordination in the cockpit was carried out, including analysis of tasks, loads, and demands on crew members and task allocations between crew and machine resources depending on various typical airforce missions. In addition, extensive workload experiments were conducted with simulated and real flights, tailored for airforce missions. Demands on crew members in simulated flights were measured with questionnaires and rating scales SWORD and ZEIS, and in real flights with questionnaires and rating scales ZEIS and NASA-TLX/ZEIS combination. Experimental results indicated a wide range of demands and high workload on crew members during specific mission segments. Furthermore, extensive recommendations were established to reduce workload, optimize crew members interaction, and ensure the required performance level. This resulted in a changed cockpit concept with major effects on the crew concept. Beside these more technical aspects social aspects were taken into account and recommendations to improve the actual training concept were worked out to optimize crew members interactions and system performance.
The Application of Human Factors to the Design of a Toy: Little People® then and Now
Authors: Torres Brenda A. , Stool Daniel K. 
Published: January 2012

In the 1960 s, Fisher-Price® introduced the first Little People® toys. These figures had a cylindrical body with a spherical head, and were approximately two inches in height and one inch in diameter. It was this original hard plastic design that has been associated with 13 reported fatalities. A recall was never issued as this product met all compliance standards. Since then, Fisher-Price has changed the design of the Little People at least two times. The designs of the 1990's are approximately the same height with an increased maximum diameter. Subsequient to this change, no serious injuries have been reported. This paper describes design hazard analyses of the original and the new Little People design. By understanding the human factors of developing children cognitive skills, motor skills, behavior and oral cavity anatomy, hazardous characteristics of the original design were changed to create a safer toy.
Intranet Development and Design That Works
Authors: Baca Bobby , Cassidy Andrea 
Published: January 2012

Making information available and easy to find is the objective of designing a good web site. A company's Intranet typically provides a great deal of information to its employees in an effort to help them better perform their jobs. If the information is available but is difficult to locate, the usefulness of this information is diminished. Sandia National Laboratories performed a redesign of its home page and has obtained a successful design which enables its employees to locate information quickly and efficiently. Three phases of usability testing were conducted to develop and optimize the home page. This paper will discuss the redesign of the Intranet home page and describe how usability studies were used to help ensure a usable design.
Deriving causal Bayesian networks from human reliability analysis data: A methodology and example model
Authors: Groth Katrina M , Mosleh Ali 
Published: January 2012

Within the probabilistic risk assessment community, there is a widely acknowledged need to improve the scientific basis of human reliability analysis (HRA). This has resulted in a number of independent research efforts to gather empirical data to validate HRA methods and a number of independent research efforts to improve theoretical models of human performance used in HRA. This paper introduces a methodology for carefully combining multiple sources of empirical data with validated theoretical models to enhance both qualitative and quantitative HRA applications. The methodology uses a comprehensive set of performance influencing factors to combine data from different sources. Further, the paper describes how to use data to gather insights into the relationships among performance influencing factors and to build a quantitative HRA causal model.  To illustrate how the methodology is applied, we introduce the Bayesian network model that resulted from applying the methodology to two sources of human performance data from nuclear power plant operations. The proposed model is introduced to demonstrate how to develop causal insights from HRA data and how to incorporate these insights into a quantitative HRA model. The methodology in this paper provides a path forward for carefully incorporating emerging sources of human performance data into an improved HRA method. The proposed model is a starting point for the next generation of data-informed, theoretically-validated HRA methods.
Serotonin-mediated modulation of Na+/K+ pump current in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons
Authors: Zhang Li Nan , Su Su Wen , Guo Fang , Guo Hui Cai , Shi Xiao Lu , Li Wen Ya , Liu Xu , Wang Yong Li 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Background
The aim of this study was to investigate whether serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) can modulate Na+/K+ pump in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons.

Results
5-HT (0.1, 1 mM) showed Na+/K+ pump current (Ip) densities of 0.40 ± 0.04, 0.34 ± 0.03 pA/pF contrast to 0.63 ± 0.04 pA/pF of the control of 0.5 mM strophanthidin (Str), demonstrating 5-HT-induced inhibition of Ip in a dose-dependent manner in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. The effect was partly attenuated by ondasetron, a 5-HT3 receptor (5-HT3R) antagonist, not by WAY100635, a 5-HT1AR antagonist, while 1-(3-Chlorophenyl) biguanide hydrochloride (m-CPBG), a 5-HT3R specific agonist, mimicked the effect of 5-HT on Ip.

Conclusion
5-HT inhibits neuronal Na+/K+ pump activity via 5-HT3R in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. This discloses novel mechanisms for the function of 5-HT in learning and memory, which may be a useful target to benefit these patients with cognitive disorder.
An improved method for isolation of RNA from bone
Authors: Carter Lauren E , Kilroy Gail , Gimble Jeffrey M , Floyd Z Elizabeth 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Background
Bone physiology is increasingly appreciated as an important contributor to metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes. However, progress in understanding the role of bone in determining metabolic health is hampered by the well-described difficulty of obtaining high quality RNA from bone for gene expression analysis using the currently available approaches.

Results
We developed a simple approach to isolate bone RNA that combines pulverizing the bone and the phenol-guanidinium based RNA extraction in a single step while maintaining near-freezing temperatures. This single step method increases the yield of high quality RNA by eight-fold, with RNA integrity numbers ranging from 6.7 to 9.2.

Conclusions
Our streamlined approach substantially increases the yield of high-quality RNA from bone tissue while facilitating safe and efficient processing of multiple samples using readily available platforms. The RNA obtained from this method is suitable for use in gene expression analysis in real-time quantitative PCR, microarray, and next generation sequencing applications.
Mixed modality treatment planning of accelerated partial breast irradiation: to improve complex dosimetry cases
Authors: El Nemr Mohamed , Heymann Steve , Verstraet Rodolfe , Biron Bruno , Azoury Fares , Marsiglia Hugo , Bourgier Céline 
Published: January 2012

Background

Background
Although 3D-conformal accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) is widely used, several questions still remain such as what are the optimal treatment planning modalities. Indeed, some patients may have an unfavorable anatomy and/or inadequate dosimetric constraints could be fulfilled ("complex cases"). In such cases, we wondered which treatment planning modality could be applied to achieve 3D-conformal APBI (2 mini-tangents and an "en face" electron field or non-coplanar photon multiple fields; or a mixed technique combining non-coplanar photon multiple fields with an "en face" electron beam).

Methods
From October 2007 to March 2010, 55 patients with pT1N0 breast cancer were enrolled in a phase II APBI trial. Among them, 7 patients were excluded as they were considered as "complex cases". A dosimetric comparison was performed according to the 3 APBI modalities mentioned above and assessed: planning treatment volume (PTV) coverage, PTV/whole breast ratio, lung and heart distance within irradiated field and exposure of organs at risk (OAR).

Results
Adequate PTV coverage was obtained with the 3 different treatment planning. Regarding OAR exposure, the "mixed technique" seemed to reduce the volume of non-target breast tissue in 4 cases compared to the other techniques (in only 1 case), with the mean V50% at 44.9% (range, 13.4 - 56.9%) for the mixed modality compared to 51.1% (range, 22.4 - 63.4%) and 51.8% (range, 23.1 - 59.5%) for the reference and non-coplanar techniques, respectively. The same trend was observed for heart exposure.

Conclusions
The mixed technique showed a promising trend of reducing the volume of non-target breast tissue and heart exposure doses in APBI "complex cases".
Oxidative and pre-inflammatory stress in wedge resection of pulmonary parenchyma using the radiofrequency ablation technique in a swine model
Authors: Karaiskos Theodoros , Tomos Periklis , Asouhidou Irene , Nikiteas Nikolaos , Kontakiotis Theodoros , Papalois Apostolos 
Published: January 2012

Abstract

Background
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a thermal energy delivery system used for coagulative cellular destruction of small tumors through percutaneous or intraoperative application of its needle electrode to the target area, and for assisting partial resection of liver and kidney. We tried to evaluate the regional oxidative and pre-inflammatory stress of RFA-assisted wedge lung resection, by measuring the MDA and tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNF-α) concentration in the resected lung tissue of a swine model.

Method
Fourteen white male swines, divided in two groups, the RFA-group and the control group (C-group) underwent a small left thoracotomy and wedge lung resection of the lingula. The wedge resection in the RFA-group was performed using the RFA technique whereas in C-group the simple "cut and sew" method was performed. We measured the malondialdehyde (MDA) and TNF-α concentration in the resected lung tissue of both groups.

Results
In C-group the MDA mean deviation rate was 113 ± 42.6 whereas in RFA-group the MDA mean deviation rate was significantly higher 353 ± 184 (p = 0.006). A statistically significant increase in TNF-α levels was also observed in the RFA-group (5.25 ± 1.36) compared to C-group (mean ± SD = 8.48 ± 2.82) (p = 0.006).

Conclusion
Our data indicate that RFA-assisted wedge lung resection in a swine model increases regional MDA and TNF-a factors affecting by this oxidative and pre-inflammatory stress of the procedure. Although RFA-assisted liver resection can be well tolerated in humans, the possible use of this method to the lung has to be further investigated in terms of regional and systemic reactions and the feasibility of performing larger lung resections.