Search results for "ergonomics"

'I had to help my child!': The role of emotions, risk, and trust in use of nasal decongestants in children.

2013

Recent studies suggest that a number of common cold medicines, including nasal decongestants are not suitable for small children. In Latvia nasal decongestants are primarily over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, and patient information leaflets generally permit use of these medicines for small children. The previous studies in Latvia investigating the use of medicines in cases of common cold demonstrated extensive use of decongestants in children less than six years of age, marking a necessity for more profound research. As a result a qualitative study was implemented in 2011 to identify sources of information that offer advice for the use of decongestants in children. The caregivers’ percepti…

Robust Dynamic Comfort Modeling for Motorcycle Riding

2014

Comfort modeling is considered a prerequisite in motorcycle design, primarily to address safety concerns and to position the product on the market. However, a comprehensive methodology for comfort modeling during the earliest development phases of a motorcycle model is still missing. Anthropometrical variation is the main noise factor to consider in comfort modeling in relation to the unavoidable variability of body segments. However, comfort is a subjective concept influencing riders' choice of motorcycle model. This work is a generalization of the robust ergonomic design methodology aimed at designing products whose ergonomic performance is insensitive to anthropometrical variation. This …

Association of extent of cannabis use and psychotic like intoxication experiences in a multi-national sample of first episode psychosis patients and …

2021

AbstractBackgroundFirst episode psychosis (FEP) patients who use cannabis experience more frequent psychotic and euphoric intoxication experiences compared to controls. It is not clear whether this is consequent to patients being more vulnerable to the effects of cannabis use or to their heavier pattern of use. We aimed to determine whether extent of use predicted psychotic-like and euphoric intoxication experiences in patients and controls and whether this differs between groups.MethodsWe analysed data on patients who had ever used cannabis (n = 655) and controls who had ever used cannabis (n = 654) across 15 sites from six countries in the EU-GEI study (2010–2015). We used multiple regres…

The Safety Culture Enactment Questionnaire (SCEQ): Theoretical model and empirical validation

2015

This paper presents the Safety Culture Enactment Questionnaire (SCEQ), designed to assess the degree to which safety is an enacted value in the day-to-day running of nuclear power plants (NPPs). The SCEQ is based on a theoretical safety culture model that is manifested in three fundamental components of the functioning and operation of any organization: strategic decisions, human resources practices, and daily activities and behaviors. The extent to which the importance of safety is enacted in each of these three components provides information about the pervasiveness of the safety culture in the NPP. To validate the SCEQ and the model on which it is based, two separate studies were carried…

2016

How do individuals emotionally cope with the imminent real-world salience of mortality? DeWall and Baumeister as well as Kashdan and colleagues previously provided support that an increased use of positive emotion words serves as a way to protect and defend against mortality salience of one’s own contemplated death. Although these studies provide important insights into the psychological dynamics of mortality salience, it remains an open question how individuals cope with the immense threat of mortality prior to their imminent actual death. In the present research, we therefore analyzed positivity in the final words spoken immediately before execution by 407 death row inmates in Texas. By u…

Reliability and validity of the Home Care STAT (Safety Task Assessment Tool).

2013

Abstract Home care workers are a priority population for ergonomic assessment and intervention, but research on caregivers' exposures to hazards is limited. The current project evaluated the reliability and validity of an ergonomic self-assessment tool called Home Care STAT (Safety Task Assessment Tool). Participants (N = 23) completed a background survey followed by 10–14 days of self-monitoring with the STAT. Results showed that the most frequent task was house cleaning, and that participants regularly performed dangerous manual client moving and transferring tasks. Researcher in-home observations of 14 workers (duration ≤2 h) demonstrated that workers' self-assessments were moderately re…

Driver training interests of a Spanish sample of young drivers and its relationship with their self-assessment skills concerning risky driving behavi…

2013

Abstract Poor driving self-assessment skills (e.g., over-confidence) have been pointed out as an important explanatory factor behind young drivers’ accident involvement. This paper explores (1) what young drivers miss in their training as drivers in order to analyze whether an assessment of one's own driving skills plays an important role in their desire to improve as drivers, and (2) how these training interests are related to an estimate of their self-assessment skills concerning risky driving behavior. For this purpose, a study was conducted using a survey with a blocked sampling design of novice drivers. The survey solicited respondents’ self-report about (1) the contents of training co…

Testosterone and attribution of successful competition

2000

Mood, personal merit, and/or its perception have been suggested to be mediating factors in testosterone responses to competition. Previously we have found that personal contribution and attribution were related to testosterone levels after successful competition. To confirm such associations, two basketball teams (n = 17 players) that emerged as winners in two actual matches were studied. Salivary testosterone levels and mood were measured before and after the games. Individual contribution to the outcome was assessed, and personal satisfaction and causal attribution of outcome were reported by players. Testosterone concentrations increased to near significance in Team 1 but not in Team 2, …

Ergonomics and cultural heritage: the Palatina chapel in Palermo, Italy

2007

The present article presents results of a study that aims at the assessment of ergonomic safety conditions inside the Palatina chapel of Palermo. To reach this object, an informative questionnaire was established so as to collect visitors’ subjective judgments regarding overall ergonomic conditions in terms of accessibility, availability, safety or else environmental conditions (thermo-hygrometry; air, sound and visual quality); this stage was carried out, bearing in mind the Museum Visitors’ Rights Card that is currently under creation by the "Legambiente" group. An automatic instrument was bought to daily count the numbers of visitors; the latter element shall then be related to indoor en…

Interaction by ear

2019

Abstract Speech-based interaction is now part of our everyday experiences, in the home and on the move. More subtle is the presence of designed non-speech sounds in human-machine interactions, and far less evident is their importance to create aural affordances and to support human actions. However, new application areas for interactive sound, beyond the domains of speech and music, have been emerging. These range from tele-operation and way-finding, to peripheral process monitoring and augmented environments. Beyond signalling location, presence, and states, future sounding artifacts are expected to be plastic and reconfigurable, and take into account the inherently egocentric nature of so…