Countdown timers (CDTs) for pedestrians and cars have been shown to produce various effects, including improved efficiency and decreased safety. This study aimed to explore adaptive behaviours of cyclists towards a CDT to green traffic light, conducted as a before-after study in real traffic. Cyclists adapted to the CDT by searching for and using the information that it provided, mainly in terms of

Objective To identify requirements for human-in-the-loop simulation capabilities and improve their utility in predicting and optimizing soldier-systems integration. Background Technological development rates within the military are rapidly increasing. Emergent technologies often exclude in-depth consideration of human-system interactions until the physical prototyping phase. Human-in-the-loop simulation

Characterization of Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) exposure is important for the development and evaluation of mitigation strategies for occupational WBV. However, barriers associated with cost and complexity limit widespread use of current gold-standard accelerometer (GSA) measurement systems. Small, simple, low cost Acceleration Measurement Unit (AMU) devices with built-in batteries and memory potentially

This study investigated kinematic and perceptual differences between the sexes in a heavy lifting and pulling task. A 20 kg box was lifted from floor to chest height, and a 70 kg mannequin pulled across 20m. The effect of height, mass and average grip strength on kinematics and perceived workload was examined in 42 (19 females, 23 males) healthy individuals. A univariate linear regression analysis

Deficits in the accommodative and/or vergence responses have been linked with inattentive behavioral symptoms. While using automated systems (e.g., self-driving cars, autopilot), operators (e.g., drivers, pilots, soldiers) visually monitor displays for critical changes, making deficits in the accommodative and/or vergence responses potentially hazardous for individuals remaining actively engaged in

Repositioning patients in bed is the most common patient handling activity and is associated with musculoskeletal disorders in caregivers. Hospital bed features may mitigate the risk of injury. The current study investigated the effect of bed features on the physical stress on caregivers. Ten nurses were recruited to perform three repositioning activities. Hand forces were recorded, and spine loading

Since the inception of High Reliability Theory in 1981, researchers and practitioners have theorized about the questions, “How do you know if you're an HRO, and how do you validate it?” Evidence now exists that organizations seeking high reliability and resilience have moved away from the theoretical phase, and into the application phase where organizations adopt the HRO hallmarks plus culture as operational

Anthropometry is critical for product and workplace design. Highly prevalent, office work is associated with sedentarism and physical discomfort due to prolonged sitting. Dynamic seating (alternating across sitting, perching, and standing) has been suggested as an alternative to overcome those problems. The current study tested a large sample of anthropometric data for mismatch levels against national

Workers who experienced prolonged sitting have higher risk of mortality from all causes compared to non-sedentary workers. However, work can also be a health enhancement opportunity and it also can be designed to improve health and well-being. This research presents a novel intervention designed to reduce sedentary behavior in the workplace. Seven teams of employees (N = 30) conducted two meetings:

Training of surgeons is essential for safe and effective use of robotic surgery, yet current assessment tools for learning progression are limited. The objective of this study was to measure changes in trainees’ cognitive and behavioral states as they progressed in a robotic surgeon training curriculum at a medical institution. Seven surgical trainees in urology who had no formal robotic training experience

Curved displays are believed to create a feeling of immersiveness similar to virtual reality. However systematic studies are needed to demonstrate that this is, in fact, true and under what conditions. In an experimental study 24 participants compared five different displays (concave, convex, hemisphere, sphere and a flat display) in terms of their immersiveness and perceptibility, and they also rated

Right-angle power-tools (RAPT) employed in automotive manufacturing promote greater productivity and quality fastenings, as well as, improve process efficiency. Due to RAPT technological advances automotive manufactures desire to understand their ergonomics consequences within a laboratory environment, however, laboratory-based representation must accurately represent the real world. A survey within

A portable headset has been developed to analyze breathing gases and establish the energetic workload of physically active workers. This proof-of-concept study aimed to investigate the following: (1) the validity of the headset compared to indirect calorimetry using a mouth mask; (2) the validity of the headset compared to the validity of oxygen consumption (V̇O2) estimated on the basis of heart rate;

This quasi-experimental study was conducted in a poultry processing industry with the aim of assessing the benefits of ergonomics educational training for novice and experienced workers in preventing work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Sociodemographic and occupational questionnaires were used to evaluate age, marital status, education, time in job, musculoskeletal complaints and pain intensity

Users frequently commit typing errors due to input language mode confusion (ILMC) when switching between multiple languages. This study evaluated two mode display cursors (MDCs) as a potential solution to ILMC: the monochrome and color-changing MDCs. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the two MDCs in different dimensions of usability. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of MDCs on ILMC and related

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of age on response time and accuracy during a hammering task. Older male workers aged 51–69 years (older group: OG, n = 23) and younger male reference individuals aged 25–36 years (younger group: YG, n = 16) performed the experiment. Response time, accuracy, and 3D shoulder/arm kinematics were acquired using motion capture. The effects of age were

With advances in information technology, people spend more time on touchscreen-based virtual keyboards than physical keyboards. However, typing on touchscreens usually lacks informative tactile feedback and anchoring references to locate the right keys, and thus requires more visual attention. Most prior tactile keyboard research used single stimulus pattern, which was not enough to recognize different

In this article, we compare and evaluate two methods of procedure design using an aircraft go-around (GA) as a test scenario. We contrast the manufacturer specified, crew-centric procedure with a redesigned process-centred perspective. We test the claim that the process-centred design can take into account situational factors more effectively and generate less workload. We report a heuristic assessment

Everyone can be susceptible to motion sickness (except those with complete loss of labyrinth function) and around one in three are known to be servery susceptible. Motion sickness can be experienced in many domains, including car travel, on a boat, using virtual reality headsets and simulator use amongst others. It is expected that due to potential designs and use cases, self-driving cars will increase

Decision-making during critical outbreak management may require standard strategies, but also more creative ones. Our goal was to characterize the expert decision processes that take place during critical situations, where rule-based strategies and usual procedures cannot be satisfactorily applied. More specifically, we focused on the strategies experts use to deal with epidemiological problems, depending

Advancements in sensing and network technologies have increased the amount of data being collected to monitor the worker conditions. In this study, we consider the use of time series methods to forecast physical fatigue using subjective ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and gait data from wearable sensors captured during a simulated in-lab manual material handling task (Lab Study 1) and a fatiguing

Municipal waste collectors must avoid bag-body contact, requiring waste bags to be held further from the body. Donning sharps-proof clothing would permit bag-body contact, allowing the bag to be closer to the body, reducing biomechanical exposures. To test this hypothesis, 25 participants loaded waste bags into a simulated garbage truck hopper under two lifting (contact allowed, no contact) and bag

Automated decision aids can undoubtedly benefit system performance, but have the potential to provide incorrect advice, creating the possibility for automation disuse or misuse. This paper examined the extent to which increased automation transparency could improve the accuracy of automation use in a simulation of unmanned vehicle control. Participants were required to assign the best unmanned vehicle

Powered two-wheelers are a common means of transport all over the world. In several countries, primary motorcycles with high displacement involve another purpose, namely motorcycling is a leisure activity. Motorcycles are used as tools of transport pleasure as opposed to being purely used for individual commuting purposes. The aim of the current study involves investigating the relation between experienced

The accumulation of sweat and heat between the skin and the prosthesis is one of the common causes of discomfort experienced by post-mastectomy women who wore silicone-type external breast prostheses. This study aimed 1) to investigate the effect of a newly designed heat-reduction mastectomy bra on the thermal responses and thermal comfort performance; and 2) to propose an evaluation protocol for post-mastectomy

Nursing is often hazardous work. Promoting safety and care requires nurses to apply knowledge, skill and creativity in patient encounters. Nurses' risk exposures are well documented, with research on student nurses' safety more limited. We studied final-year nursing students’ risk perceptions using questionnaire-based vignettes involving four patient presentations on patient aggression, manipulating

The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders is very high amongmidwives resulting in sickness absenteeism, functional limitation and staff shortages. There are several contributory risk factors having impact on the development of MSDs. This study aimed to (1) explore midwives' experiences and views about work-related MSDs and contributing risk factors, and (2) analyse working postures for musculoskeletal

The purpose of this study was to identify challenges and action plans from 2.497 structured communication sessions between employee and supervisor and to gain insight into the processes of a quasi-experimental stepped wedge clustered intervention, which implemented workplace health literacy for reducing musculoskeletal pain among eldercare workers. Most challenges concerned staffing (17%), organisation

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship among attention span, instrument reading, and eye movement mode. Sixteen pilots participated in procedural tests for attention span and instrument reading ability while completing simulated flight take-offs. Different instrument types corresponded to different reaction times – as response time increased, presentation time decreased. It can also

In real life, many objects catch our attention involuntarily or exogenously. Exogenous attention occurs fast and its effects are short-lived. In the laboratory, when attentional orientation is studied, both valid and invalid attentional signals are used: the valid ones direct the attention to a location where something relevant is going to appear. The invalid ones occur in a location where nothing

Superimposing virtual visual information within the real world is referred to as augmented reality (AR). This technique becomes increasingly popular and due to technical advances can be applied to various purposes ranging from consumer entertainment to industrial use cases. Workplaces equipped with AR assistance-systems promise fast and accurate performance. Within the field of intralogistics, palletization

Purpose This study investigates the effects of the usage of a novel camera system compared to a conventional lens system for manual precision tasks. Utilizing the novel camera system aims to improve neck posture, reduce neck muscle tension and thereby minimize the risk of neck pain. Methods Camera and lens systems were compared by assessing the craniovertebral angle (CVA), electromyographic activity

Building, bridge or wind turbine maintenance requires manual dexterity tasks by a specialist rope-access trained workforce via two principal means: harness suspension of individual workers from above, or deployment of a suspended platform or cradle from which workers access the structure to be maintained. Currently no published research compares accuracy and efficiency of simulated maintenance tasks

Background Infra-red and thermal imaging enable wireless systems to monitor patients’ vital signs and absence of wires may improve patient experiences. No studies have explored staff perceptions of the concept of this specific type of technology in the adult population. Understanding existing working systems before introducing technology could improve adoption. Methods We conducted semi-structured

Antibiotic-resistant infections cause over 20 thousand deaths and $20 billion annually in the United States. Antibiotic prescribing decision making can be described as a “tragedy of the commons” behavioral economics problem, for which individual best interests affecting human decision-making lead to suboptimal societal antibiotic overuse. In 2015, the U.S. federal government announced a $1.2 billion

Falls on icy surfaces are the leading cause of occupational injuries for workers exposed to outdoor winter conditions. Slip resistant footwear has been shown to reduce the risk of falls for indoor workers but until recently, there was no accepted standard for evaluating the slip resistance of winter footwear on icy surfaces. Our team recently developed a lab-based testing protocol for measuring footwear

We present a mesoergonomic approach to the early detection of neonatal sepsis, analyzing clinical data for 4999 patients from a neo-natal intensive care unit to predict positive culture results. The Apgar score at birth predicted positive results. For neonates with poor and intermediate Apgar scores, culture results for monitored infants were more likely to be positive than those for unmonitored infants

Discrepancies exist in backpack load recommendations for obese/overweight children, and the recommendations do not consider school trolleys. This study analysed obese/overweight and healthy-weight students’ perceived load and fatigue when carrying schoolbags and their gait kinematics and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) when carrying backpacks or pulling school trolleys with different loads. Twelve

Operating a small carry-on unmanned aerial system (UAS) alone is challenging. Research on facilitating single-operator work has focused mainly on payload operation and health monitoring. Little focus has been given to mission-related aspects and how the command and control (C2) map display contributes to mission accomplishment. This study uses cognitive work analysis (CWA) to describe the operational

Most usability assessments of medical devices describe the problems of individual devices in detail, but few account for the real context of use or provide designers with actionable guidelines for improvement. To fill this gap, this paper reports the results of a case study on the usability of operating room technologies and documents the creation of contextual design guidelines for operating room

This research represents one of the first qualitative studies to investigate fatigue in the tunnelling sector of the construction industry. It explores the opinions of tunnellers and their managers about how fatigue influences or is influenced by tunnelling, and how this is managed. Fatigue and sleepiness were discussed in six focus groups with frontline workers (n = 42) and 10 manager interviews.

Objective Compare musculoskeletal discomfort, productivity, postural risks, and perceived fatigue for a sit-stand-walk intervention between two workstation configurations – one, individually customized for office workers according to ergonomic guidelines (Ergo-Fit); another, self-adjusted by office workers according to their preference (Self-Adjusted). Methods 36 participants performed a 60-min computer

Aim The aim of this study was to assess the work-related physical demands of long-distance truck drivers employed by a large gas delivery company in Canada. Methods A total of 15 truck drivers participated in a data collection that included self-reporting assessments, field observations, and direct measurements to describe daily tasks organization, postural demands, physical workload, and force exertions

Research in aviation and driving has highlighted the importance of training as an effective approach to reduce the costs associated with the supervisory role of the human in automated systems. However, only a few studies have investigated the effect of training on highly automated driving. Moreover, available interactive trainings are mostly based on automated driving simulators and the application

Traffic signs are an integral part of the traffic control plan and they provide road users with necessary information on the upcoming situation. This paper aims to examine the level of understanding of traffic sign imagery used in different countries and to track participants' eye movement when they encounter unfamiliar signs. Tobii eye tracking glasses were used to track gaze differences between familiar

With the increase in digital communications systems and social media, there is a need for simple graphics-based ways to signal the occurrence of major disasters. We describe the development and initial usability testing of a sign to indicate that an earthquake has occurred. We involved 264 Italian adults, who completed an online survey to evaluate the evocativeness, simplicity, and universality of

This research aimed to develop a comprehensive evaluation of the mobile user interface abilities of the elderly so that technology can be designed to meet individualized needs. A total of 135 older adults were evaluated with the developed system, the Elderly Mobile User Interface Ability Evaluation System (EMUIAES). The prediction of age and the use of technology on elderly mobile interface usage were

This study compared farmworkers’ exposure to non-neutral postures using a new mobile platform apple harvesting method and the traditional method using ladders. Twenty-four workers were recruited and assigned into three groups: ladder workers (n = 8) picking apples from full trees using a ladder, mobile platform workers (n = 8) picking apples from upper part of the trees while standing on a moving platform

Aim This study assessed the work-related physical demands of short-distance truck drivers employed by a large gas delivery company in Canada. Methods A total of 19 truck drivers participated in the data collection, which included a combination of self-reports, field observations and direct measurements to report on the work shift task composition, postures, physical workload, and force exertions. Results

Consultations entail transitions in care between referrers and consultants, as patients visit different clinicians and care sites. This complex process has been consistently prone to communication breakdowns. Despite expectations and benefits of electronic health records (EHRs), incomplete, vague, or inappropriate referrals continue to hinder consultations; referrals can be sent to the wrong specialty

Management of travelers' cognitive load is crucial for efficient information processing for optimal railway operations. We investigated variations in travelers' cognitive load with different expertise levels, in a field study. We aimed to assess the use of three eye metrics: pupil diameter, saccade amplitude and gaze of fixation duration for cognitive load analysis between expert and novice travelers

Background Despite the breadth and diversity of research and policies on care transitions, research studies often report similar components that affect the quality and safety of care, including communication across professional groups and care settings, transfer of information, coordination of resources or training of healthcare personnel. In this article, we aim to deepen our understanding of care

The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of a newly developed steering unit with enhanced self-alignment and deadband on mental workload (MW) during heavy vehicle operation. Fourteen participants performed two tasks consisting of a lane keeping and a double lane shift with two tractors equipped with 1) a conventional and 2) an enhanced steering system. Physiological measurements, i.e

Environmental and logistical difficulties associated with obtaining whole-body vibration measurements from mobile equipment during operation in underground coal mines have hampered attempts to assess the potential vibration exposures associated with the use of such equipment. An alternative measurement technique was used to gather data from mobile equipment during normal operation at three low-methane

This study examined the characteristics of perceived discomfort and postural shifts at different magnitudes during a 4-h sitting period and the association between perceived discomfort and number of postural shifts. Forty healthy participants continuously typed a standardized text passage at a computer work station for 4 h. Subjects rated perceived body discomfort using Borg's CR-10 scale in 10 body