Showing papers in "Applied Ergonomics in 2015"

TL;DR: The development of Inclusive Design in the UK is described, from its early beginnings, through its subsequent adoption as a topic of academic research, leading to its recent emergence embodied as a framework and toolkit for design.

TL;DR: The need to further explore multiple actors, contexts, and interactions in the patient work system during research and intervention design, as well as the need to develop new models and measures for studying patient and family work, is suggested.

TL;DR: The results indicate the proposed alignment method can effectively align the Kinect sensor with respect to the motion tracking system, and the accuracy level of the Kinect-identified joint center location is posture-dependent and joint-dependent.

TL;DR: A back-propagation neural network model was developed and can accurately predict drivers' lane changing behaviour for at least 1.5 s in advance, superior to the use of turn signals in predicting lane-changing behaviour.

TL;DR: Sustainability requires a significant input from Ergonomics/Human Factors, but the profession needs some expansion in its thinking in order to make this contribution, highlighting the need for some new thinking and knowledge capture by systems ergonomics professionals.

TL;DR: Inclusive design applies an understanding of customer diversity to inform decisions throughout the development process, in order to better satisfy the needs of more people.

TL;DR: A high prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms, particularly in the neck/shoulders, back and hands/wrists, was found among 251 Iranian sewing machine operators and the findings add to the understanding of working conditions of those jobs involving sewing activities and emphasise the need for ergonomic interventions to reduce musculo- skeletal symptoms in the future.

TL;DR: This systematic literature review provides information on the use of mixed methods research in human factors and ergonomics research in health care and identifies 58 studies that primarily address HFE issues in health information technology and in the work of healthcare workers.

TL;DR: The effects of input device type, texting style, and screen size on upper extremity and trapezius muscle activity and cervical posture during a short texting task in college students are determined to help inform whether the ergonomic stressors observed during texting are associated with musculoskeletal disorder risk.

TL;DR: This article demonstrates how work debate space (WDS) contribute to the development of an integrated safety culture through the establishment methods and function of WDS within a technical group.

TL;DR: Optimizing the balance between schedule flexibility and patient needs could enhance physicians' sleep when working the night shift, thereby reducing their levels of fatigue and enhancing patient care.

TL;DR: It has been observed that gender and age are factors that must be taken into account in the assessment of thermal comfort in the hospital due to very weak correlation between AMV and PMV values.

TL;DR: The discussion focuses on two case studies, the first of which examines the use of personas in the car design process, as demonstrated by the HADRIAN system, which exemplify the benefits 'data rich' personas contribute as opposed to 'assumption based' persona.

TL;DR: A systematic survey of research publications in the fields of ergonomics and sustainable development over the past two decades shows that 'methods and techniques', 'human characteristics', 'work design and organization', 'health and safety' and 'workplace and equipment design' are the top five frequently researched areas in ergonomic.

TL;DR: The peak pressure on the seat pan, the pressure distribution on the backrest and the pressure pattern changes (seat pan and backrest) all appear to be reliable measures for quantifying comfort or discomfort.

TL;DR: Predictions of six tools for the L4-L5 and L5-S1 compression and shear loads in twenty-six static activities with and without hand load are compared to identify its shortcomings and preferred application domains.

TL;DR: Interventions aimed at reducing LBS and its consequences should address both physical and psychosocial factors, with a focus on smokers, permanent employment and night shift work.

TL;DR: A framework for the operationalization of the "attribute view" of complexity, which involves the delimitation of the socio-technical system (STS) and the identification of leverage points for improving the STS design, based on both the analysis of relationships among the attributes and their classification as irreducible/manageable complexity, and liability/asset.

TL;DR: Exposure to bright light in the morning hours can improve subjective measures of mood and alertness, but can also have detrimental effects on mental performance as a result of visual distraction, so it is important that adequate lighting should correspond to both non-visual and visual demands.

TL;DR: The present study investigates how enthusiast cyclists conceptualize comfort using an online survey with 244 respondents to determine which factors contribute to comfort when riding a bicycle, to identify situations in which comfort is relevant and to determine the extent to which vibrations play a role in comfort evaluations.

TL;DR: Gender was demonstrated to greatly influence the thermal judgement of the thermal environment when an outdoor cold climate occurs and the user possibility to control the indoor plant system produced a significant impact on the thermal sensation and the acceptability of the Thermal environment.

TL;DR: It is shown that exposure to vibration increases the rate of discomfort onset in comparison to periods of static sitting, and whether methods of assessment are sensitive enough to detect small changes in foam composition is investigated.

TL;DR: This context-sensitive, mixed methods study addressed how hospital workers' perceptions of lean varied across contexts in three Swedish hospitals, highlighting the importance of attending to levels, context, and worker consequences of lean.

TL;DR: A sociotechnical model of interruptions in complex settings that motivates new directions in research and design is presented that conceptualizes interruptions as a process that occurs within and is shaped by an interacting socio-technical system and that results in a variety of interrelated outcomes.

TL;DR: The experiment showed that the interaction with visual and audio-visual head-up displays is faster and more efficient than with the audio-only display and the majority of test subjects clearly preferred to use the multi-modal interface while driving.

TL;DR: This study hypothesized that regulatory focus and presence can effectively enhance user's perceived usability, as well as users' regulatory focus on usability for a somatosensory VR learning system.

TL;DR: The results show that an anthropometric shape model can be a valuable tool for both research and design and the study of the male and female population and the design of a brain-computer interface headset.

TL;DR: It is suggested that increasing officers' ASDS experience, teaching officers to perform with high anxiety, or reconsidering the taught skills, may be necessary to further improve performance of police officers on duty.

TL;DR: An active seating system for the back seat of a car, consisting of sensors in the back rest that register upper body movements of the passenger, with which the passenger controls a game is developed, showing a higher muscle activity and higher muscle variability for active seating compared to other activities.

TL;DR: This research deals with an analysis of forms of participation in a participatory design (PD) process of a software that assesses the sustainability of agricultural cropping systems by adapting an Actual Role Analysis in Design approach to capture the levels of abstraction of participants' discussions.