bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Longitudinal Assessment of Industrial Workers
Authors: Franzblau Alfred , Werner Robert A. , Armstrong Thomas J. , Ulin Sheryl S. 
Published: January 2012

Numerous investigators have performed cross-sectional studies of upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders (UEMSDs) among industrial workers, and modeled the prevalence of these conditions in relation to potential ergonomic exposures and other covariates. However, prospective studies have been rare for a variety of reasons. Results of a cross-sectional study of UEMSDs based on data collected approximately 5 years ago were published in 1999 (Latko et al., 1999). A subset of the workers from this study were available for re-examination approximately 5 years after the first investigation. The survey tools and clinical examination protocols used in the follow-up examinations were largely identical to the baseline procedures, thus permitting direct comparison of results between rounds. Workers from 2 of the 3 employers in the original study were available for the follow-up investigation. Just over 50% of available and eligible workers participated in the follow-up examinations (152 out of 267, or 57%). The mean age at follow-up was almost 48 years (standard deviation = 9.5 years). The mean body mass index (BMI) was 28.9 at follow-up, and just over half of the study participants were male (53%). Most subjects were still employed by the same employer, and most were still in the same jobs. The prevalence and severity of upper extremity symptoms declined significantly in most body regions between baseline and follow-up. In contrast, the prevalence of most upper extremity diagnoses (tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome based on symptoms, standardized physical examinations, and/or nerve conduction tests) increased slightly, though not significantly. Relative median-minus-ulnar peak latency differences increased slightly, and significantly, between rounds. There are almost no studies for comparison of results. More prospective studies are needed to better understand the natural history of upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders among workers.
Return to Work of Subjects Affected by Upper Limb WMSD's in an Office Environment: Comparison of Experiments and Results
Authors: Colombi Alberto M. 
Published: January 2012

Upper limb musculo-skeletal disorders are not rare in office environments where automation has spread the use of video display terminals to almost every office task. At a corporate headquarters where 1200 employees work, efforts were conducted to identify, prevent and accommodate upper limb disorders by means of: a) An early report of discomfort questionnaire, b) training volunteers as observers, c) a workstation assessment tool based on observable behaviors that are the result of incongruent organization, anthropometry requirements, awkward posture and repetitive movements, d) a corrective action procedure based on quality/continuous improvement in order to address major risk factors and accommodate workers' re-integration into productive employment. During 1997–1998, 77 symptomatic employees had their interaction with their work tasks and workstations evaluated according to a defined procedure, and were returned to their workstations after modification of that interaction pursuant to a defined improvement process. Persistence of subjective symptoms, satisfaction with changes and evaluation of the process were assessed after six months with a follow up survey. The three most frequent beneficial changes were attributed to the availability and proper use of an adjustable chair (53.3%), adjustable keyboard/mouse tray (31.7%) and adjustable desk configuration (17.7%); 68.8% stated that they were feeling better after the workstation modifications, 9.1% stated they were feeling much better after work adjustments, and 22.1% had noticed none or questionable improvements in their symptoms. None had lost additional work time after the work adjustments up to the follow-up survey. The overall cost of the changes was $35,470.61, or $460.65 per employee average.
Characterization of the Complex Load of Miners utilizing the Delta Increment in Heart Rate, Body Temperature and other Physiological Variables during Work
Authors: Varga József , Pórszász János 
Published: January 2012

It is generally accepted that the work of miners is a complex task. The physical work must be performed in artificial environment with multiple physical, ergonomical and psychosocial influences. This study aims at analyzing and defining the complex load and strain of physical workers in underground bauxite mines. The results suggest that the absolute values of heart rate and body temperature, due to the large individual variations and other (environmental) factors, are not suitable for characterizing the physical workload or the physiological strain during physical work. We suggest the use of the increments above the lowest values occurring during the working shift.
Evaluation of Manual Handling Legislation
Authors: Caple David C , Kenningham Lance 
Published: January 2012

The state of Victoria, Australia proclaimed its first Regulations and Code of Practice to address musculo-skeletal disorders (MSD) in 1988. After 10 years of implementation across industry, it has been replaced by new, revised Regulations and Code of Practice on 1st July 1999. This paper will review evaluation studies conducted as part of the evaluation of the original Australian Regulations on Manual Handling as well as the evaluation of the Draft 1999 Regulations. These studies indicated that industry was able to embrace the performance based approach to legislation relating to manual handling injuries. However, there was a distinct difference in the approach between small and large employers. The second study identified that the useability of the new Regulations and Code of Practice was influenced by the length, complexity of technical language and practical information relating to compliance provided in the Regulation and Code of Practice.
ISO/FDIS 11226: Evaluation of Static Working Postures
Authors: Delleman Nico , Boocock Mark , Kapitaniak Bronislaw , Schaefer Peter , Schaub Karlheinz 
Published: January 2012

The authors constitute the writing group of ISO/TC159/SC3/WG2 for ISO 11226. This paper describes ISO/FDIS 11226, the international standard on evaluation of static working postures. The scope, the evaluation procedure, and the current status are described.
prEN 1005-4: Evaluation of Working Postures in Relation to Machinery
Authors: Delleman Nico , Boocock Mark , Kapitaniak Bronislaw , Schaefer Peter , Schaub Karlheinz 
Published: January 2012

The authors constitute the writing group of CEN/TC122/WG4 for EN 1005-4. This paper describes prEN 1005, the European standard on evaluation of working postures in relation to machinery. The scope, the status, and the risk assessment approach are described.
The Changing Nature of Test and Evaluation: Four Perspectives
Authors: Moroney William F. 
Published: January 2012

Historically, research and development efforts, and testing and evaluation (T&E), activities, were separate and distinct from each other. At that time, the goals of T&E were predominantly two: 1. To determine whether or not the system met requirements 2. To determine whether or not the system “worked”? Testing focused on factors that influence task performance. Evaluation criteria were often specified in general design guidelines and specifications, or in system requirements documents. And, the majority of T&E efforts were expended in conjunction with military systems. Today, development, testing, and evaluation are routinely performed as part of the concurrent engineering process. Research, if conducted at all, is likely to be focused on situation-specific issues. The previously stated T&E goals are still valid, but T&E practitioners may also be expected to provide design recommendations. Testing of task performance is still a high priority, but testing may also be performed to assess usability, workload, situation awareness, safety, and acceptance by operational and maintenance personnel. The beginning of a new millennium is an appropriate time to examine this redefined problem space. The presentations by our four panelists will illuminate some of these changes and describe how we may react to them.
Making an Anthropometric Size System Interactively
Authors: Molenbroek Johan FM 
Published: January 2012

When designers with an ergonomic background want to minimize the number of users that will be excluded from their design, they need interactive insight into the distribution of users throughout the design process of the size system for their product. For this purpose a software tool ‘Ellipse’ was developed. The type of problems, which can be solved with Ellipse, can easy be illustrated by taking the size system of shoes where the distribution of foot length and the foot breadth, and their interrelation would be the key issues for the program Ellipse. Ellipse needs the raw data, or mean values, standard deviations and correlation coefficients of both variables. The program Ellipse creates an ellipse for a chosen percentage of users to fit. Within the program the designer can choose if he wants to breakdown the bivariate (normal) distribution into one size of shoes for all, or in for example 10 length and 4 breadth sizes (10 stones). Then the production cost could be studied and compared with another size system of 8 times 3, for example. Both concept size systems can easy be analyzed and modified. For every stone the size of the included sample is displayed and also the amount of users that will be excluded from the concept size system. For economic reasons mostly the minimum number of sizes is preferred, however from the ergonomically viewpoint the comfort of fit makes the designer to take care of an acceptable roominess between the product and the human. This paper will describe the working of Ellipse more in detail.
Inclusive Design: Excluding Users in a Conscious Way
Authors: Kallmann Roel 
Published: January 2012

In the ‘Inclusive Design’ or ‘Design for all’ approach according to the name one should include all users. Important in this approach is the idea to include a wide diversity of people. So defining your users or target groups is a major step towards ‘Design for all’. On the other hand excluding people isn't a mortal sin. As long as it is a conscious process. When at the end of the design process it becomes feasible that certain people are excluded then there will be a problem. P5 developed a method in defining profiles of use in terms of critical users, critical aspects and critical circumstances. Critical users are the starting point to keep in contact with end users during the design process. They can become a kind of hypothetical archetypes used by designers to focus their design on. This approach is used as a communication tool towards the design teams.
Designing Small Electronic Products; Is Inclusive Design Possible?
Authors: Porter C.S. , Newman R.N. 
Published: January 2012

Increasingly the world is full of small, hand held, complex electronic products with modern interfaces e.g. small digital cameras and personal organisers. The control of the operations of the products by embedded systems has removed the necessity to organise the human interface according to the mechanical constraints. Another consequence of the size of the products and the control systems is that there is much greater likelihood of dynamic concurrent use of the hands in any given task. The scope for inclusive design (and inclusive design errors) is infinite. Using a product based Hierarchical Task Analysis and reviewing the available ergonomics data revealed only inadequate tools and large data gaps in ergonomics information. A method of task analysis is being developed, and a series of investigations are planned, to attempt to fill some of the data gaps and discover more about the ways in which people use their hands. This will allow the potential for inclusive design for small electronic products to be explored.
Mental Model Assessments: Is There Convergence Among Different Methods?
Authors: Evans A. William , Jentsch Florian , Hitt James M. , Bowers Clint , Salas Eduardo 
Published: January 2012

Knowledge elicitation and mental model assessment methods are becoming increasingly popular in applied psychology. However, there continue to be questions about the psychometrics of knowledge elicitation methods. Specifically, more needs to be known regarding the stability and consistency of the results over time (i.e., whether the methods are reliable) and regarding the degree to which the results correctly represent the underlying knowledge structures (i.e., whether the methods are valid). This paper focuses on the convergence among three different assessment methods: (a) pairwise relatedness ratings using Pathfinder, (b) concept mapping, and (c) card sorting. Thirty-six participants completed all three assessments using the same set of twenty driving-related terms. Assessment sequences were counterbalanced, and participants were randomly assigned to one of the six assessment sequences. It was found that the three assessment methods showed very low convergence as measured by the average correlation across the three methods within the same person. Indeed, convergence was lower than the sharedness across participants (as measured by the average correlation across participants within the same assessment method). Additionally, there were order effects among the different assessment sequences. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Generating Line-Oriented Flight Simulation Scenarios with the Rrloe Computerized Tool Set
Authors: Jentsch Florian , Bowers Clint , Berry Devon , Dougherty William , Hitt James M. 
Published: January 2012

Line-Oriented Simulation (LOS) is a scenario-based training and evaluation methodology used at airlines to provide trainees with practice, to evaluate their performance, and to validate their proficiency. LOSs consist of realistic flight simulation scenarios from preflight check to after-landing shutdown that are highly scripted. From 1997 on, the Federal Aviation Administration has supported the development of software for “Rapidly Reconfigurable Event Set-Based LOEs (RRLOE),” In this method, LOSs are created by combining phase-based event sets into a coherent and logical flight. The method is computerized, supports LOS development, and reduces the predictability of scenarios for the trainees. In 2000, the RRLOE software was distributed to airlines participating in the Advanced Qualification Program. In this demonstration, we describe the challenge of automated scenario design further, and show how the RRLOE tool can assist those that develop scenario-based training.
Investigation of Factors Affecting Driver Performance Using Adverse Condition Warning Systems
Authors: Gupta Nitin , Bisantz Ann M. , Singh Tarunraj 
Published: January 2012

This study addresses issues concerning the design of adverse condition warning systems (ACWS). An ACWS was designed to sense when a car was likely to skid. Through the use of a virtual-driving environment, two important design considerations, alerting system sensitivity (low and high) and type of auditory alarm signal (Binary ON/OFF and Graded) were analyzed and compared with a no-alarm control group. Dependent measures reflecting driver performance and response to the alarm signal were analyzed to understand the effect of different system configurations. Additionally, participants' trust in the alerting system under different configurations was measured to reveal user acceptance in these systems. Participants had fewest skids in the low sensitivity and graded alarm signal condition compared to other alerting system configurations and the no-alarm condition. Participants in the graded signal condition also had a greater degree of lateral control over the vehicle. Additionally, trust was found to be the lower for the high vs. low sensitivity alarm condition, indicating a reduction in trust when the alerting system activated more often (at a lower threshold) perhaps because participants' did not feel the system was accurately reflecting a dangerous condition. Over sessions, positive feelings of trust tended to increase, while negative feelings decreased, as expected given increased experience with the system. This research emphasizes the fact that while ACWS can provide an advantage in terms of vehicle control, characteristics of both the alerting signal, and system configuration must be considered to insure successful outcomes.
A Survey of Desktop and Notebook Computer Use by Professionals
Authors: Sommerich Carolyn M. 
Published: January 2012

Over the last quarter century, extensive research concerning work-related musculoskeletal discomfort has been conducted in the area of desktop computer (DPC) use, among professionals and clerical workers. Notebook style computers (NPC) are increasing in popularity and use, often replacing DPCs, yet limited information is available on workers' experience with NPCs. Results are presented from a survey that explored work-related use of desktop and notebook computers by professionals (n=335). Associations were found between musculoskeletal discomfort and work patterns and methods, including work-break patterns, notebook configuration, and notebook transportation mode. Laptop Computer usage and OSHA's lie Program, Memorandum from Byron R. Chadwick, Regional Administrator – VIII to Roger A. Clark, Director, Directorate of Compliance Programs and Leo G. Carey, Director, Directorate of Field Programs, http://gabby.osha-slc.gov/OshDoc/Interp_data/INTERP_19940104.html
Emergency Physician to Admitting Physician Handovers: An Exploratory Study
Authors: Matthews Amy L. , Harvey Craig M. , Schuster Richard J. , Durso Francis T. 
Published: January 2012

Current emphasis on the number of deaths due to medical errors has pushed the patient safety issue to the forefront at many medical institutions. The Institute of Medicine's recommendation for improved coordination and collaboration between physicians, as well as the paucity of related literature, has led the authors to explore the nature of the handover between emergency department and admitting physicians. Research was conducted at two Ohio hospitals to document the phases and issues found in emergency department (ED) handovers. The phases for ED handovers were similar to those found in shift changes in other types of industries (e.g., paper mill, air traffic control) with minor variations in the order of the phases. Three areas were identified where potential errors could occur including the spoken communication between physicians, selection of diagnostic tests based on the specific admitting physician, and the use of surrogates by the admitting physician. Physicians identified the level of trust in ED resident physicians, incomplete handovers between ED physicians at their shift change, differences in exams and treatment plans based on admitting physician, and notification of possible admission prior to receiving results for exams as potential problem areas. The findings of this research illustrate the need for future research into physician communication. These studies have tremendous opportunity to enable the Institute of Medicine's goal of improving communication between physicians for better patient care and outcomes.
Human Robot Coordination: Panel Overview
Authors: de Pontbriand Rene J. 
Published: January 2012

In recent years, accelerating maturation of robotics technologies, such as machine perception and intelligent control technologies have led to a widening knowledge and experiential base serving as a springboard for expanded research. This maturation has led to increased engineering reliability, opening the way for more tractable human-robot research. The technology area from which a good deal of this work can draw inspiration and guidance is humans in automation (Parasuraman, Sheridan and Wickens, 2000), which lets us examine issues including air traffic controllers' multi-tracking or pilots' multi-tasking operations under conditions of time and other stressors. Among the issues the panelists will address are: How will human-robot teams dynamically reconfigure or gracefully degrade as assets are lost? How can people and robots make judgments of the robots ability to traverse or climb broken terrain? How can people manage multiple robots? How can robots and people build a shared awareness of the remote environment? What metrics will capture human-robot teamwork? Overall, human-robot team work is a new frontier for Human Factors.
Applying Human Factors to the Procurement of Electrosurgical Medical Devices: A Case Study
Authors: Cassano Andrea L. 
Published: January 2012

Human factors evaluations are currently not conducted as part of the procurement process for medical devices in most hospitals. The complexity of medical devices and interactions between those devices, the working environment and the people who use them can create a high potential for errors. This study reports on the methods used to integrate human factors usability testing into the product evaluation of electrosurgical units (ESU's) prior to procurement. It also comments on the results of the various testing methods and the impact of the results on the final purchasing decision. The results of the human factors evaluations were used to make a purchasing decision for a major metropolitan hospital in Canada. A new purchase was necessary because the manufacturer was no longer supporting the product in use. Surprisingly, the product of choice was the oldest on the market with few new features. It was preferred and chosen based on usability and clinical acceptance by all users.
IAS™ — A Human Factors Methodology for Incorporating User Feedback into System Design
Authors: Turieo Melanie J. , Devine Marlene A. 
Published: January 2012

“The window is too big.” “The window is too small.” “It's too loud.” “It's too quiet.” How does system design and development proceed to address the needs of the user when there is a general sense that users — and other stakeholder groups — are dissatisfied with a product, but the feedback is vague, inconsistent, and often times, conflicting? This situation occurs quite often, when designers and developers have only sparse, anecdotal information available to them about user response to a system, and there is no systematic collection or interpretation of user feedback. This paper uses a case study format to present Investigation-Analysis-Solution (IAS)™, a methodology for systematically collecting, quantifying, evaluating, prioritizing, and incorporating human factors feedback into the system design — or redesign — process. While the example project was executed for a large-scale military system, the IAS method and tools presented are applicable and transferable to any system development, design, or redesign effort.