Worldwide, the attention for health, innovation, and productivity is increasing. In all situations, humans interact with their environment, which is the concern of the field of ergonomics. The need for knowledge and its applications is large and this book contributes to knowledge development as well as its application. The content varies from the effect that a complete new office interior has on its occupants, to the most efficient design of gloves for those wearing them. It examines topics as diverse as the facilitation of human interaction through work place design, the effects of vibration, and the improvement of the latest virtual reality applications. This book is concerned with issues in Occupational, Social, and Organizational ergonomics. It contains a total of 90 articles. The authors of the articles represent 24 countries on five continents. These articles range from individual to multi-organizational perspectives in many different settings. Explicitly, the articles are organized according to the following themes: I: Participation and Collaboration II: Human Performance III: Health and Well-being IV: Working and Working Environment V: Environment and Living Environment VI: Virtual Environment VII: Macro-ergonomic Aspects Seven other titles in the Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series are: Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare Advances in Applied Digital Human Modeling Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making Advances in Cognitive Ergonomics Advances in Human Factors, Ergonomics and Safety in Manufacturing and Service Industries Advances in Ergonomics Modeling & Usability Evaluation Advances in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors of Special Populations

Savvy managers no longer look at contracts and the law reactively but use them proactively to reduce their costs, minimize their risks, secure key talent, collaborate to innovate, protect intellectual property, and create value for their customers that is superior to that offered by competitors. To achieve competitive advantage in this way managers need a plan. Proactive Law for Managers provides this plan; The Manager's Legal PlanTM. George Siedel and Helena Haapio first discuss the traditional, reactive approach used by many managers when confronted with the law, then contrast it with a proactive approach that enables the law and managers' legal capabilities to be used to prevent problems, promote successful business, and achieve competitive advantage. Proactive Law for Managers shows how to use contracts and the law to create new value and innovate in often neglected areas - and implement ideas in a profitable manner.

This book describes system dynamics with discontinuity caused by system interactions and presents the theory of flow singularity and switchability at the boundary in discontinuous dynamical systems. Based on such a theory, the authors address dynamics and motion mechanism of engineering discontinuous systems due to interaction. Stability and bifurcations of fixed points in nonlinear discrete dynamical systems are presented, and mapping dynamics are developed for analytical predictions of periodic motions in engineering discontinuous dynamical systems. Ultimately, the book provides an alternative way to discuss the periodic and chaotic behaviors in discontinuous dynamical systems.

The chapters in the book come from an international group of authors with diverse backgrounds including ergonomics, psychology, architecture, computer science, engineering, and sociology. Specific topics include biometric systems development, military command and control, cellular phone interface design, methodologies for workplace design, medical device design, cockpit display and decision tool design for pilots, driver visual and cognitive processes, and performance of inspection tasks in manufacturing operations; and extend to human-automation integration in future aviation systems, novel 3-D display technologies for enhancing information analysis, training methods for mental models, approaches to activity analysis, new research-oriented frameworks and paradigms in training, and the use of virtual reality for skill development and assessment. The book is divided into sections covering: I. Cultural Differences in Computing Systems Design II. Decision Making and Decision Support III. Desktop/Mobile Interface Design IV. Ergonomics in Design V. Ergonomics in Product Design VI. Human Factors in Aviation Systems VII. Human Factors in Driving VIII. Human Factors in Manufacturing IX. Human Factors in NextGen Operations X. Information Visualization for Situation Awareness XI. Mental Models XII. Perceptuo-Motor Skills & Psychophysical Assessment XIII. Task Analysis XIV. Training Technology XV. Virtual Reality for Behavior Assessment XVI. Virtual Reality for Psychomotor Training The implications of all this work include design recommendations for complex systems and commercial products, new procedures for operator training and self-regulation as well as methods for accessibility to systems, and specification of ergonomic interventions at the user. It is expected that this book will be of special value to practitioners involved in design process development, design and prototyping of systems, products and services, as well as training process design for a broad range of applications and markets in various countries. Seven other titles in the Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series are: Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare Advances in Applied Digital Human Modeling Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making Advances in Occupational, Social and Organizational Ergonomics Advances in Human Factors, Ergonomics and Safety in Manufacturing and Service Industries Advances in Ergonomics Modeling & Usability Evaluation Advances in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors of Special Populations

This book provides the readers with a timely guide to the application of biomimetic principles in architecture and engineering design. As a result of a combined effort by two internationally recognized authorities, the biologist Werner Nachtigall and the architect Goeran Pohl, the book describes the principles which can be used to compare nature and technology, and at the same time it presents detailed explanations and examples showing how biology can be used as a source of inspiration and "translated" in building and architectural solutions (biomimicry). Even though nature cannot be directly copied, the living world can provide architects and engineers with a wealth of analogues and inspirations for their own creative designs. But how can analysis of natural entities give rise to advanced and sustainable design? By reporting on the latest bionic design methods and using extensive artwork, the book guides readers through the field of nature-inspired architecture, offering an extraordinary resource for professional architects, engineers, designers and urban planners, as well as for university teachers, researchers and students. Natural evolution is seen throughout the book as a powerful resource that can serve architecture and design by providing innovative, optimal and sustainable solutions.

This book covers several bases at once. It is useful as a textbook for a second course in experimental optimization techniques for industrial production processes. In addition, it is a superb reference volume for use by professors and graduate students in Industrial Engineering and Statistics departments. It will also be of huge interest to applied statisticians, process engineers, and quality engineers working in the electronics and biotech manufacturing industries. In all, it provides an in-depth presentation of the statistical issues that arise in optimization problems, including confidence regions on the optimal settings of a process, stopping rules in experimental optimization, and more.

Computer graphics, computer-aided design, and computer-aided manufacturing are tools that have become indispensable to a wide array of activities in contemporary society. Euclidean processing provides the basis for these computer-aided design systems although it contains elements that inevitably lead to an inaccurate, non-robust, and complex system. The primary cause of the deficiencies of Euclidean processing is the division operation, which becomes necessary if an n-space problem is to be processed in n-space. The difficulties that accompany the division operation may be avoided if processing is conducted entirely in (n+1)-space. The paradigm attained through the logical extension of this approach, totally four-dimensional processing, is the subject of this book. This book offers a new system of geometric processing techniques that attain accurate, robust, and compact computations, and allow the construction of a systematically structured CAD system.

* One of the first critiques of participatory design processes that are currently the fashion in design and business * highlights political, social and methodological obstacles when designers turn to design thinking, participation and "living labs" * uses global examples to introduce a more critical and post-colonial perspective on participation and social innovation throughout the book

Covering key topics in the field such as technological innovation, human-centered sustainable engineering and manufacturing, and manufacture at a global scale in a virtual world, this book addresses both advanced techniques and industrial applications of key research in interactive design and manufacturing. Featuring the full papers presented at the 2014 Joint Conference on Mechanical Design Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing, which took place in June 2014 in Toulouse, France, it presents recent research and industrial success stories related to implementing interactive design and manufacturing solutions.

The aim of the book is to lay out the foundations and provide a detailed treatment of the subject. It will focus on two main elements in dual phase evolution: the relationship between dual phase evolution and other phase transition phenomena and the advantages of dual phase evolution in evolutionary computation and complex adaptive systems. The book will provide a coherent picture of dual phase evolution that encompasses these two elements and frameworks, methods and techniques to use this concept for problem solving.

This thesis conceptualizes and implements a new framework for designing materials that are far from equilibrium. Starting with state-of-the-art optimization engines, it describes an automated system that makes use of simulations and 3D printing to find the material that best performs a user-specified goal. Identifying which microscopic features produce a desired macroscopic behavior is a problem at the forefront of materials science. This task is materials design, and within it, new goals and challenges have emerged from tailoring the response of materials far from equilibrium. These materials hold promising properties such as robustness, high strength, and self-healing. Yet without a general theory to predict how these properties emerge, designing and controlling them presents a complex and important problem. As proof of concept, the thesis shows how to design the behavior of granular materials, i.e., collections of athermal, macroscopic identical objects, by identifying the particle shapes that form the stiffest, softest, densest, loosest, most dissipative and strain-stiffening aggregates. More generally, the thesis shows how these results serve as prototypes for problems at the heart of materials design, and advocates the perspective that machines are the key to turning complex material forms into new material functions.

Many complex aeronautical design problems can be formulated with efficient multi-objective evolutionary optimization methods and game strategies. This book describes the role of advanced innovative evolution tools in the solution, or the set of solutions of single or multi disciplinary optimization. These tools use the concept of multi-population, asynchronous parallelization and hierarchical topology which allows different models including precise, intermediate and approximate models with each node belonging to the different hierarchical layer handled by a different Evolutionary Algorithm. The efficiency of evolutionary algorithms for both single and multi-objective optimization problems are significantly improved by the coupling of EAs with games and in particular by a new dynamic methodology named "Hybridized Nash-Pareto games". Multi objective Optimization techniques and robust design problems taking into account uncertainties are introduced and explained in detail. Several applications dealing with civil aircraft and UAV, UCAV systems are implemented numerically and discussed. Applications of increasing optimization complexity are presented as well as two hands-on test cases problems. These examples focus on aeronautical applications and will be useful to the practitioner in the laboratory or in industrial design environments. The evolutionary methods coupled with games presented in this volume can be applied to other areas including surface and marine transport, structures, biomedical engineering, renewable energy and environmental problems. This book will be of interest to students, young scientists and engineers involved in the field of multi physics optimization.

The 1980s have witnessed a tremendous growth in the field of computer integrated manufacturing systems. The other major areas of development have been computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, industrial robotics, automated assembly, cellular and modular material handling, computer networking and office automation to name just a few. These new technologies are generally capital intensive and do not conform to traditional cost structures. The net result is a tremendous change in the way costs should be estimated and economic analyses performed. The majority of existing engineering economy texts still profess application of traditional analysis methods. But, as was men tioned above, it is clear that the basic trend in manufacturing industries is itself changing. So it is quite obvious that the practice of traditional economic analysis methods should change too. This book is an attempt to address the various issues associated with non-traditional methods for evaluation of advanced computer-integrated technologies. This volume consists of twenty refereed articles which are grouped into five parts. Part one, Economic Justification Methods, consists of six articles. In the first paper, Soni et at. present a new classification for economic justification methods for advanced automated manufacturing systems. In the second, Henghold and LeClair look at strengths and weaknesses of expert systems in general and more specifically, an ap plication aimed at investment justification in advanced technology. The third paper, by Carrasco and Lee, proposes an enhanced economic methodology to improve the needs analysis, conceptual design and de tailed design activities associated with technology modernization."

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to Subdivision Surface Modeling Technology focusing not only on fundamental theories but also on practical applications. It furthers readers' understanding of the contacts between spline surfaces and subdivision surfaces, enabling them to master the Subdivision Surface Modeling Technology for analyzing subdivision surfaces. Subdivision surface modeling is a popular technology in the field of computer aided design (CAD) and computer graphics (CG) thanks to its ability to model meshes of any topology. The book also discusses some typical Subdivision Surface Modeling Technologies, such as interpolation, fitting, fairing, intersection, as well as trimming and interactive editing. It is a valuable tool, enabling readers to grasp the main technologies of subdivision surface modeling and use them in software development, which in turn leads to a better understanding of CAD/CG software operations.

This book will describe ultra low-power, integrated circuits and systems designed for the emerging field of neural signal recording and processing, and wireless communication. Since neural interfaces are typically implanted, their operation is highly energy-constrained. This book introduces concepts and theory that allow circuit operation approaching the fundamental limits. Design examples and measurements of real systems are provided. The book will describe circuit designs for all of the critical components of a neural recording system, including: Amplifiers which utilize new techniques to improve the trade-off between good noise performance and low power consumption. Analog and mixed-signal circuits which implement signal processing tasks specific to the neural recording application: Detection of neural spikes Extraction of features that describe the spikes Clustering, a machine learning technique for sorting spikes Weak-inversion operation of analog-domain transistors, allowing processing circuits that reduce the requirements for analog-digital conversion and allow low system-level power consumption. Highly-integrated, sub-mW wireless transmitter designed for the Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) and ISM bands.

Vital signs, such as heart rate and respiration rate, are useful to health monitoring because they can provide important physiological insights for medical diagnosis and well-being management. Most traditional methods for measuring vital signs require a person to wear biomedical devices, such as a capnometer, a pulse oximeter, or an electrocardiogram sensor. These contact-based technologies are inconvenient, cumbersome, and uncomfortable to use. There is a compelling need for technologies that enable contact-free, easily deployable, and long-term monitoring of vital signs for healthcare. Contactless Vital Signs Monitoring presents a systematic and in-depth review on the principles, methodologies, and opportunities of using different wavelengths of an electromagnetic spectrum to measure vital signs from the human face and body contactlessly. The volume brings together pioneering researchers active in the field to report the latest progress made, in an intensive and structured way. It also presents various healthcare applications using camera and radio frequency-based monitoring, from clinical care to home care, to sport training and automotive, such as patient/neonatal monitoring in intensive care units, general wards, emergency department triage, MR/CT cardiac and respiratory gating, sleep centers, baby/elderly care, fitness cardio training, driver monitoring in automotive settings, and more. This book will be an important educational source for biomedical researchers, AI healthcare researchers, computer vision researchers, wireless-sensing researchers, doctors/clinicians, physicians/psychologists, and medical equipment manufacturers.

This book is a collection of papers presented by renowned researchers, keynote speakers, and academicians in the International Conference on VLSI, Communication, Analog Designs, Signals & Systems and Networking (VCASAN-2013), organized by B.N.M. Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India during July 17 19, 2013. The book provides global trends in cutting-edge technologies in electronics and communication engineering. The content of the book is useful to engineers, researchers, and academicians as well as industry professionals.

Geometric modelling has been an important and interesting subject for many years from the purely mathematical and computer science viewpoint, and also from the standpoint of engineering and various other applications, such as CAD/CAM, entertainment, animation, and multimedia. This book focuses on the interaction between the theoretical foundation of geometric modelling and practical applications in CAD and related areas. Geometric Modelling: Theoretical and Computational Basis towards Advanced CAD Applications starts with two position papers, discussing basic computational theory and practical system solutions. The well-organized seven review papers give a systematic overview of the current situation and deep insight for future research and development directions towards the reality of shape representation and processing. They discuss various aspects of important issues, such as geometric computation for space search and shape generation, parametric modelling, feature modelling, user interface for geometric modelling, geometric modelling for the Next Generation CAD, and geometric/shape standard. Other papers discuss features and new research directions in geometric modelling, solid modeling, free-form surface modeling, intersection calculation, mesh modeling and reverse engineering. They cover a wide range of geometric modelling issues to show the problem scope and the technological importance. Researchers interested in the current status of geometric modelling research and developments will find this volume to be an essential reference.

This is an edited collection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the Ninth International Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry. Defined as the relationship between human body structure and function, kinanthropometry is an area of growing interest, and these proceedings will be of use to students, academics and professionals in the areas of ergonomics, sports science, nutrition, health, and other allied fields. The assembled works represent the latest research findings across kinanthropometry, moving the discipline forward and promoting good practice and the exchange of expertise.

-A comprehensive text for students and professionals on an essential and emerging area of knowledge and skills for today's technical communication professions -Covers a growing area of focus for the field of technical communication, with relevance to digital marketing, social media publishing, and other professional fields -The first core textbook in this area designed to cover a full range of content strategy skills and practices

The rapid introduction of sophisticated computers, services, telecommunications systems, and manufacturing systems has caused a major shift in the way people use and work with technology. It is not surprising that computer-aided modeling has emerged as a promising method for ensuring products meet the requirements of the consumer. The Handbook of Digital Human Modeling provides comprehensive coverage of the theory, tools, and methods to effectively achieve this objective. The 56 chapters in this book, written by 113 contributing authorities from Canada, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Taiwan, UK, and the US, provide a wealth of international knowledge and guidelines. They cover applications in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, data visualization and simulation, defense and military systems, design for impaired mobility, healthcare and medicine, information systems, and product design. The text elucidates tools to help evaluate product and work design while reducing the need for physical prototyping. Additional software and demonstration materials on the CRC Press web site include a never-before-released 220-page step-by-step UGS-Siemens JackTM help manual developed at Purdue University. The current gap between capability to correctly predict outcomes and set expectation for new and existing products and processes affects human-system performance, market acceptance, product safety, and satisfaction at work. The handbook provides the fundamental concepts and tools for digital human modeling and simulation with a focus on its foundations in human factors and ergonomics. The tools identified and made available in this handbook help reduce the need for physical prototyping. They enable engineers to quantify acceptability and risk in design in terms of the human factors and ergonomics.

Dealing with environmental issues should no longer be considered simply as a cost of doing business. Effective environmental improvements to a company's products and services can be turned into business opportunities. This book was written with the express purpose of helping managers of companies, in particular of Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), to better deal with environmental challenges and address customer requirements, all in order to turn their environmental inve- ments into competitive market advantages. Several examples are provided throughout the book, but also warning signs (Alert Boxes). These "Alerts" are posted to help managers avoid typical traps when working with environmental considerations in business processes. The authors have many years of experience in the various aspects of impleme- ing Ecodesign. This experience includes working in industry for many years; le- ing the environmental departments in a multinational company; managing research projects in eco-product development; Life Cycle Assessment; and national and international environmental communication and marketing. This book is the latest in a series. The 2002 "Ecodesign Pilot" introduced a tool and software to help design more environmentally compatible products. It was directed specifically at designers. The 2004 book, "Ecodesign Implementation," was written to help project managers optimize product development processes from an environmental perspective.

This book covers recent advances in the field of logic synthesis and design, including Boolean Matching, Logic Decomposition, Boolean satisfiability, Advanced Synthesis Techniques and Applications of Logic Design. All of these topics are valuable to CAD engineers working in Logic Design, Logic Optimization, and Verification. Engineers seeking opportunities for optimizing VLSI integrated circuits will find this book as an invaluable reference, since there is no existing book that covers this material in a systematic fashion.

This book offers psychologists and those who are involved with systems design an overview of changing technology and guidelines for using new techniques in the design and development of systems in the workplace. The first part of the book concerns productivity and cognitive assessment. The papers provide state of the art appraisals of robotic perception, artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, decision making and the control of automation systems. The second part, on systems design research, discusses a number of key applied human factors problems, including supervisory control systems, human workloads, methods of systems design, job aiding, and human factors considerations.