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Books > Professional & Technical > Technology: general issues > Technical design > Ergonomics
Many inquiry reports blame management for their failures of foresight. These reports are based on the premise that, with a little more thought, these oversights, and so the crisis, would have been avoided. Is it really that simple? The important question is whether, without hindsight, it would have even been possible to identify the actual factors that lead to the failure. This book explores this issue as a practical problem. The book takes Barry Turner's Disaster Incubation Theory as its central theme. The first chapter explores the way Turner structured his theory and the way it has been used, before re-imagining it as a way to fostering foresight. The next three chapters examine key issues in detail. They explain why Turner's model was chosen, outline the issues that need to be considered when seeking to prevent such failures and how to use the proposed frameworks. Chapter 5 examines the lessons learnt from this study and, in particular, looks at the mental approach required when seeking such foresight. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a fully worked example. It uses work by Frank Stech who has applied Turner's theory to a past case. Crises occur everywhere and we continue to struggle to avoid them. In this book Mike Lauder provides executives with thinking tools to help them avoid missing the warning signs of their next crisis.
Disability Management is perceived and understood to be an important approach to reducing the negative impact, for workers and the company, of absence due to illness and accidents, and to assisting those with disabilities to enter or re-enter the workplace. Disability Management has already become established in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. Recently European countries have begun to promote the approach in order to reduce illness related expenses and avoid unemployment, early retirement and costs to the welfare state. In Disability Management and Workplace Integration leading researchers from around the World consider the development of Disability Management over the last three decades. They examine the on-going debate about methodology and implementation of disability management strategies and programmes, highlighting the critical debate about the implications of a stricter cost-benefit approach to Disability Management theory and practice. Professionals involved in workplace integration, researchers approaching workplace integration from a variety of perspectives such as sociology; rehabilitative medicine; psychology; education; social policy; and economics, and students on a range of courses, will appreciate this valuable book.
Written by one of the most eminent scholars in the field, Ethnographies of Reason is a unique book in terms of the studies it presents, the perspective it develops and the research techniques it illustrates. Using concrete case study materials throughout, Eric Livingston offers a fundamentally different, ethnographic approach to the study of skill and reasoning. At the same time, he addresses a much neglected topic in the literature, illustrating practical techniques of ethnomethodological research and showing how such studies are actually conducted. The book is a major contribution to ethnomethodology, to social science methodology and to the study of skill and reasoning more generally.
This study explores the reasons behind the different responses of the legal systems of Europe, Japan and the USA in coping with BSE, one of the major food safety crises in recent years. Making reference to the most recent advances on risk perception that cognitive and social sciences, such as legal anthropology and sociology of law, have experimented with, Risk Perception, Culture, and Legal Change examines the role that culture plays in moulding the process of legal change. Attention is focused on the regulative frameworks implemented to guarantee the safety of the food chain against the BSE menace and on the liability responses sketched to compensate the victims of mad cow disease, showing how both these elements have been influenced by the cultural context within which they are situated.
Every issue of Ashgate's Human Factors and Aerospace Safety: An International Journal publishes an invited, critical review of a key area from a widely-respected researcher. To celebrate a successful first three years of the journal and to make these papers available to a wider audience, they have been collated here into a single volume. The book is divided into three sections, with articles addressing safety issues in flight deck design, aviation operations and training, and air traffic management. These articles describe the state of current research within a practical context and present a potential future research agenda. Contemporary Issues in Human Factors and Aviation Safety will appeal to both professionals and researchers in aviation and associated industries who are interested in learning more about current issues in flight safety.
Browsing for information is a significant part of most research activity, but many online collections hamper browsing with interfaces that are variants on a search box. Research shows that rich-prospect interfaces can offer an intuitive and highly flexible alternative environment for information browsing, assisting hypothesis formation and pattern-finding. This unique book offers a clear discussion of this form of interface design, including a theoretical basis for why it is important, and examples of how it can be done. It will be of interest to those working in the fields of library and information science, human-computer interaction, visual communication design, and the digital humanities as well as those interested in new theories and practices for designing web interfaces for library collections, digitized cultural heritage materials, and other types of digital collections.
In our increasingly globally interconnected world, understanding and appreciating the sociocultural context within which individuals make their decisions is critical to developing successful partnerships. The collection of chapters in this volume illustrates how advances in information and social media technologies, as well as modeling and simulation tools, combined with the social sciences, can be leveraged to better understand how sociocultural context influences decision making. The chapters in this volume were contributed by leading experts from academia, industry, and government and provide: Insights into cross-cultural decision making based on recent international events, with grounding in an historical context Discussions of cutting-edge modeling techniques used today by professionals across multiple organizations and agencies Descriptions of specific cross-cultural decision making tools designed for use by laypeople and professionals Case studies on the role of cross-cultural decision making grounded in current events and (in many cases) military applications.
In the past twenty years digital technology has had a radical impact on all the disciplines associated with the visual arts - this book provides expert views of that impact. By looking at the advanced ICT methods now being employed, this volume details the long-lasting effects and advances now made possible in art history and its associated disciplines. The authors analyze the most advanced and significant tools and technologies, from the ongoing development of the Semantic Web to 3D visualization, focusing on the study of art in the various contexts of cultural heritage collections, digital repositories and archives. They also evaluate the impact of advanced ICT methods from technical, methodological and philosophical perspectives, projecting supported theories for the future of scholarship in this field. The book not only charts the developments that have taken place until now but also indicates which advanced methods promise most for the future.
First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Using both theoretical and language acquisition arguments, this study proposes a new model of the lexicon-syntax interface defined in terms of checking event-semantic features. The research is based on Dutch verbs and their possible verb frames (intransitive, transitive, etc.) and two studies of children's Dutch. The model developed from these cases represents more generally the way in which Universal Grammar organizes the lexicon of a language and the mapping system that associates a verb's lexical features with its syntactic projection.
This new handbook is about the practices of conducting research on military issues. As an edited collection, it brings together an extensive group of authors from a range of disciplinary perspectives whose chapters engage with the conceptual, practical and political questions raised when doing military research. The book considers a wide range of questions around research about, on and with military organisations, personnel and activities, from diverse starting-points across the social sciences, arts and humanities. Each chapter in this volume: Describes the nature of the military research topic under scrutiny and explains what research practices were undertaken and why. Discusses the author's research activities, addressing the nature of their engagement with their subjects and explaining how the method or approach under scrutiny was distinctive because of the military context or subject of the research. Reflects on the author's research experiences, and the specific, often unique, negotiations with the politics and practices of military institutions and military personnel before, during and after their research fieldwork. The book provides a focussed overview of methodological approaches to critical studies of military personnel and institutions, and processes and practices of militarisation and militarism. In particular, it engages with the growth in qualitative approaches to military research, particularly research carried out on military topics outside military research institutions. The handbook provides the reader with a comprehensive guide to how critical military research is being undertaken by social scientists and humanities scholars today, and sets out suggestions for future approaches to military research. This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, war and conflict studies, and research methods in general.
Ergonomics is concerned with the 'fit' between people and their work. With an increasing number of people becoming conscious about their health and participating in sport or physical activity, ergonomics has become an increasingly prominent concern within the sport and exercise sciences. From the design of footwear and artificial playing surfaces, to studies of proprioception by obese children , the way in which people interact with their environment - designed and natural - has important implications for performance sport and for the design of safe and beneficial forms of physical activity. The Routledge Handbook of Ergonomics in Sport and Exercise is the first book to offer a comprehensive and in-depth survey of cutting-edge scientific research into ergonomics in sport and exercise. Written by world-leading international scientists and researchers, the book explores key topics such as: musculoskeletal adaptation to sports and exercise environmental factors of injury and fatigue load weight and performance ergonomics in adapted sports and exercise measurement in sports and exercise modelling and simulation in ergonomics design influence of playing surface, footwear and equipment design. Bridging the gap between fundamental scientific research in sport and exercise and applications in sport and exercise contexts, this is an important reference for all advanced students, researchers and professionals working in sport and exercise science, kinesiology, sports technology, sports engineering, ergonomics, and product design.
Safety performance is a complicated issue, particularly in high-hazard environments, where time and other constraints can be amplified, and result in numerous impacts. From an organizational and business perspective, safety and production/performance are often seen as competing goals. When production is increased, safety defenses and barriers frequently decrease, and when programs are developed in an effort to improve safety, employees may be unable to meet production goals within the safety constraints. Team Leadership in High-Hazard Environments recognizes these difficulties and constraints and proposes an approach to safety leadership in which safety and organizational performance are inextricably linked; one that addresses safety from both the systems and human factors perspectives. To that end, Randy Cadieux introduces the nine essential components to team leadership. By studying these areas and using the information in each chapter, organizational leaders, managers, and supervisors will gain an understanding of key factors that will help them design, develop, and implement team training programs that improve the way employees work together and the way they mitigate hazards. Additionally, the book describes how work systems and work environments may be designed or shaped so that teams are placed in a position to do their optimal work, maximizing the potential for human and team performance. This is an important book that draws on techniques and models developed from Crew Resource Management, human factors, risk management, as well as more traditional HR management disciplines.
Data will not help you if you can't see it where you need it. Or can't collect it where you need it. Upon these principles, wearable technology was born. And although smart watches and fitness trackers have become almost ubiquitous, with in-body sensors on the horizon, the future applications of wearable computers hold so much more. A trusted reference for almost 15 years, Fundamentals of Wearable Computers and Augmented Reality goes beyond smart clothing to explore user interface design issues specific to wearable tech and areas in which it can be applied. Upon its initial publication, the first edition almost instantly became a trusted reference, setting the stage for the coming decade, in which the explosion in research and applications of wearable computers and augmented reality occurred. Written by expert researchers and teachers, each chapter in the second edition has been revised and updated to reflect advances in the field and provide fundamental knowledge on each topic, solidifying the book's reputation as a valuable technical resource as well as a textbook for augmented reality and ubiquitous computing courses. New Chapters in the Second Edition Explore: Haptics Visual displays Use of augmented reality for surgery and manufacturing Technical issues of image registration and tracking Augmenting the environment with wearable audio interfaces Use of augmented reality in preserving cultural heritage Human-computer interaction and augmented reality technology Spatialized sound and augmented reality Augmented reality and robotics Computational clothing From a technology perspective, much of what is happening now with wearables and augmented reality would not have been possible even five years ago. In the fourteen years since the first edition burst on the scene, the capabilities and applications of both technologies are orders of magnitude faster, smaller, and cheaper. Yet the book's overarching mission remains the same: to supply the fundamental information and basic knowledge about the design and use of wearable computers and augmented reality with the goal of enhancing people's lives.
There has been widespread dissatisfaction with accepted models for predicting the conditions that people will find thermally comfortable in buildings. These models require knowledge about clothing and activity, but can give little guidance on how to quantify them in any future situation. This has forced designers to make assumptions about people's future behaviour based on very little information and, as a result, encouraged static design indoor temperatures. This book is the second in a three volume set covering all aspects of Adaptive Thermal Comfort. The first part narrates the development of the adaptive approach to thermal comfort from its early beginnings in the 1960s. It discusses recent work in the field and suggests ways in which it can be developed and modelled. Such models can be used to set dynamic, interactive standards for thermal comfort which will help overcome the problems inherited from the past. The second part of the volume engages with the practical and theoretical problems encountered in field studies and in their statistical analysis, providing guidance towards their resolution, so that valid conclusions may be drawn from such studies.
Textiles and Human Thermophysiological Comfort in the Indoor Environment delivers a methodical assessment of textile structures for various applications in the indoor environment with respect to the thermophysiological comfort of the inhabitants. The book begins by offering an overview of the role of indoor textiles and clothing as a barrier between the environment and the human body, and then: Explores the use of textiles as an insulation barrier, examining the relationships between textiles and the environment, and textiles and the human body Details an experimental study of heat and mass transfer processes through woven textiles with different applications in the indoor environment Describes a numerical investigation of the transport of air and heat through woven fabrics by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Develops, applies, and verifies an original approach for simulating the woven macrostructure as a jet system, presenting proven results Evaluates thermophysiological comfort under the influence of indoor environmental parameters, clothing insulation, and activity Textiles and Human Thermophysiological Comfort in the Indoor Environment provides a valuable reference for students and researchers working in the area of clothing comfort.
This book provides a unique, authoritative and detailed examination of the physiological and clinical consequences of human exposure to high G forces. Pilots of military fast jets, civilian aerobatic pilots and astronauts during the launch and re-entry phases of spaceflight are frequently and repetitively exposed to high G forces, for which the human body is not fundamentally designed. The book examines not only the nature of the high G environment, but the physiological effects of exposure to high G on the various systems of the human body. In particular, the susceptibility of the human cardiovascular system to high G is considered in detail, since G-Induced Loss of Consciousness (G-LOC) is a serious hazard for high G pilots. Additionally, the factors that influence tolerance to G and the emerging scientific evidence of physiological adaptation to high G are examined, as are the various countermeasures and techniques that have been developed over the years to protect pilots from the potentially adverse consequences of high G flight, such as the G-suit and positive pressure breathing. The accumulated knowledge of human exposure to high G is drawn together within High G Flight, resulting in a definitive volume on the physiological effects of high G and their countermeasures.
Written by a hazardous materials consultant with over 40 years of experience in emergency services, the five-volume Hazmatology: The Science of Hazardous Materials, suggests a new approach dealing with the most common aspects of hazardous materials, containers, and the affected environment. It focuses on innovations in decontamination, monitoring instruments, personal protective equipment in a scientific way utilizing common sense, and takes a risk-benefit approach to hazardous material response. This set provides the reader with a hazardous materials "Tool Box" and a guide for learning which tools to use under what circumstances. Options for stabilization can very widely depending on the scope and size of the incident and the hazards involved. Volume Four, Common Sense Emergency Response, covers this process and includes science and risk analysis and the part it plays in a successful outcome of the stabilization portion of the response. FEATURES Offers a risk-benefit approach based upon science and history Provides an exploration of current research Outlines a systematic approach based on science and risk management Includes hazmat case studies Focuses on common sense utilization of hazmat tool box
Ergonomics is a human-centered discipline. This is particularly true for healthcare systems and patient safety where the human's well-being will undergo critical impacts if solutions are not properly designed and practiced. Effective handling of these concerns involves knowledge from healthcare work (e.g., shift work, patient handling, and medical teamwork), to safety research (resilience, medical process control, intensive care, surgery/anesthesiology, and patient involvement), and to more general issues such as community participation in public affairs. To pursue the mission, the Healthcare System Ergonomics and Patient Safety (HEPS) commenced its first conference in Florence, Italy in 2005. Following the founding success, HEPS became an IEA-sponsored event and the series subsequently took place in Strasbourg, France in 2008, and in Oviedo, Spain in 2011. The three remarkable conferences have forged a world-class platform for researchers and practitioners from around the globe to exchange and disseminate the knowledge in HEPS. This volume contains the selected papers presented at the Fourth International conference on HEPS, held from June 23 to 26, 2014 in Taiwan. The Fourth HEPS, organized by the Ergonomics Society of Taiwan (EST) and endorsed by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), aims to consolidate the knowledge bridged between ergonomics research and healthcare practices for the safety and welfare of patients. Researchers, professionals, and practitioners in ergonomics and healthcare around the world have shared their wisdom, experience, insights, and visions on past, current and future efforts in healthcare systems ergonomics and patient safety. The papers contributing to this book address the latest research, applications and practices in accordance with the theme of the conference, "Bridging Research and Good Practices towards Patients Welfare," and cover the following areas: "Aging and Healthcare System", "Healthcare, Mobil Application and Usability", "Safety, Hazards and MSDs", "Simulation, Modeling and Decision Making", "Environment and System Design", and "Human Factors and Product Design".
This book, first published in 1986, focuses on the activity of the Soviet Union in Southeast Asia and the effects of Soviet policy on the region since 1969. In particular, Leszek Busynski examines the rivalry between the Soviet Union and China, Soviet presence in Vietnam, and the responsive efforts of surrounding regions towards collective security. U.S. policy in the region is a key consideration, particularly in terms of American attempts to both placate China and encourage Japan to assist in the defence of the region. With a concluding assessment of regional trends and possible outcomes, this is an important and valuable work for students and scholars with an interest in the history and politics of international diplomacy in Southeast Asia.
The semiotic perspective of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) can give you insight into values, beliefs, and reference systems of the users that often go unnoticed when using traditional HCI approaches. Cross-Cultural Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design: A Semiotic Perspective focuses on the semiotic approach in product, services, and system design, and emphasizes the semiotic and linguistic aspects in HCI and user experience (UX). The book shows you how to leverage these insights when creating useful, usable, and appealing user interfaces. The book covers the theoretical background of HCI semiotics with emphasis on the interaction elements present in the user interface, the methodology to work with them to achieve useful insights both for design and evaluation, and the results obtained compared to traditional UX methods. It then examines a cross-cultural study presenting a semiotic method for design and evaluation in a different cultural background, and discusses the resulting insights, which are then structured as guidelines for HCI/UX design for Chinese users. Although extensive research has been done in HCI semiotics and the cultural aspects of HCI, this book differs by exploring how these fields are informed by the linguistic perspective. It presents a novel approach to cross-cultural HCI/UX, covers the latest research in the field, and brings a set of tools and methods to benefit the design process by taking a semiotic perspective. It also supplies a set of design guidelines for developing more usable, useful, and appealing products, services, and systems.
Most occupational safety and health books explain how to apply concepts, principles, elements, tools of prevention and develop interventions, and initiatives to mitigate occupational injuries, illnesses and deaths. This is not a how-to book. It is a book that addresses the philosophical basis for all of the varied components and elements needed to develop and manage a safety and health program. It is a book designed to answer the questions often posed as to why should we do it this way. It is the “Why” book and the intent is to provide a blueprint and a helpmate for the philosophical basis for occupational safety and health and the justification as an integral component of doing business.
Most frauds perpetrated by senior managers take longer to uncover than those by other occupational groups and they steal more. This is a serious problem world-wide. Currently the Red Flag approach is used by auditors to prevent and uncover fraud and in some countries it is statutory. However, the existing approach does not catch managerial fraudsters quickly or very often. In Managerial Fraud, Dr Terry Sheridan reports the findings of her study of fraudulent executives. Her work illuminates the particular methods fraudsters employ to appear more authentic than the average person and reveals two types of executive fraudster with very different behaviours. All this helps to explain why the current Red Flag approach fails to identify potential fraudsters and instead tends to focus on Red Flag executives who are negative characters, but non-fraudulent and accounts for the problem auditors face, who see Red Flag indicators and are obliged to conduct further audits, yet find nothing of substance. During the author's research, the innocent colleagues who worked closely with fraudulent managers have for the first time been interviewed about their experiences and had their impressions analysed, leading to the development of an innovative typology of fraudulent executives based on Impression Management Theory. Better understanding of what Dr Sheridan has uncovered might result in organisations being able to reduce their exposure to fraud perpetrated by their own senior management.
In The Laws of the Knowledge Workplace, Dr Jemielniak has collected research-based chapters providing deep, interdisciplinary insight into knowledge professions, addressing issues of professional identity, emotion, power and authority, trust and indoctrination, and management behaviour. This leads to an examination of issues related to time and work scheduling and its bearing on play, family, symbolic sacrifices, and employee burn-out. In particular, it delves into the identity shifts between knowledge workers and managers, nepotism and turnover intentions among knowledge workers, the implementation of engineering projects, coordination problems in offshore production systems, leadership in virtual teams, decision support systems; taking into account the moral aspects of consequences, netnography as a tool for studying knowledge work, and innovative networks in the aviation industry. The accounts and studies in this book come from management, organization studies, sociology, and anthropology of work perspectives and are fully international in scope. They highlight the scale of the serious changes in occupational roles and to the meaning of work that is taking place in knowledge-intensive environments and give a pointer to what might constitute good and bad management practice in knowledge-intensive companies.
This volume presents a scientific and practical trend in lifelong education, which focuses on "human activity." This trend is particularly apparent in French speaking countries where a seminal tradition of ergonomics, born in the middle of the 20th century, produced studies about work and workers activity in various contexts. Results demonstrate that working activity, firstly, is always complex, creative and enigmatic despite the efforts done by the designers to create prescribing working environments and by managers to control production procedures, and secondly, cannot be understood without specific field studies about real work. This approach influenced adult educational researchers and trainers to develop programs in order to help trainers to better know human activity and its transformations in various social practices (and not only in working context). It also helps them to design learning environments accompanying human activity transformations at various time scales. The chapters in this volume present a range of original studies on human activity in various social practices, such as tourism, theatre prop-makers in opera, manual job environments, management in a small company, high level athletes illegal practices, school teaching and finally during teachers retirement ceremonies. These studies of the relationships between social practices and human activity and its transformations, give empirical and conceptual bases for designing programs aimed at emphasizing and accompanying specific individual and collective learning, and human development in a lifelong perspective. This book was published as a special issue of "International Journal of Lifelong Education."" |
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