Old scissors to industrial automation: the impact of technologic evolution on worker's health

To cut a fabric, the professional performs different jobs and among them stands out the cut. The scissors has been the instrument most used for this activity. Over the years, technology has been conquering its space in the textile industry. However, despite the industrial automation able to offer subsidies to answer employment market demands, without appropriate orientation, the worker is exposed to the risks inherent at the job. Ergonomics is a science that search to promote the comfort and well being in consonance with efficacy. Its goals are properly well defined and clearly guide the actions aimed at transforming the working conditions. This study aimed to analyze the activity of cut tissues with a machine by a seamstress and the implications on their body posture. The methodology used was the observation technique and application of the Protocol RULA, where the result obtained was the level 3 and score 5, confirming that "investigations and changes are required soon". Conclude that using the machine to tissue cut should be encouraged, but in conjunction with orientations for improving posture while handling it. It seeks to prevent dysfunction of the musculoskeletal system that prevents employees from performing their work tasks efficiently and productively.     

Ergonomics at Volkswagen Brasil. Multidisciplinary work to equalize health, productivity and quality

Following the technological developments and presented to the multidisciplinary processes as automakers, Volkswagen Brazil, represented by its ergonomists, through this paper, shows the importance of ergonomic efficiency of management applied to various levels of life of a product, since its creation to its final implementation on production lines.The preventive work of ergonomists during the processes leading to production of a vehicle is accomplished through assessments on a simulated system called the Digital Factory. Since the initial stages to final product delivery there is a need for a multidisciplinary aligning the concepts of ergonomics, productivity and quality of product. Industrial Engineering, Process Engineering, ergonomists and workers are involved in the analysis made through the Workshop's showing the importance of discussion between the various users of the systems. The processes of series are also equipped with a set of certifications flow of job and planned audits on items that describe processes and applied ergonomics.     

Primary Care Providers’ Perspectives on Screening Older Adult Patients for Food Insecurity

Food insecurity has been associated with poor health and health outcomes among older adults, yet food assistance resources are available and underutilized. Routine screening and referral for food insecurity in primary care is one avenue to connect food-insecure older adults with available resources. This qualitative study aims to better understand the beliefs of primary care providers (PCPs) about food security screening and referrals in a primary care setting and perceived barriers to implementation. PCPs (n = 16) who have older adult patients but do not routinely screen for food insecurity were interviewed by phone. PCPs recognize the importance of food security for older patients and discuss nutrition and food access with patients under certain circumstances. Concerns emerged with regard to implementing a systematic screening and referral process: limited time to meet with patients, a lack of resources for addressing food insecurity, and prioritizing food insecurity at both the health system and the patient levels. Despite perceived challenges, PCPs are receptive to the idea of systematically screening and referring patients to external resources for food assistance and support. Barriers could be addressed by health systems prioritizing food insecurity as a health concern and public and private payers providing reimbursement for screening.     

Bedeutungskonstitution als argumentativer Vorgang: Der Begriff „Forschung“ als Gegenstand semantischer Umdeutung

This paper treats on semantic shifting in communication. It is part of an investigation project which works on expert-layman-communication in modern reproduction medicine. The purpose of the project is to investigate changes in the meaning of concepts as a consequence of the discussion about new reproduction technologies. A basic hypothesis is that such changes in the meaning of concepts (e.g. family, motherhood, fatherhood, child, partnership, nature, artificiality etc.) reflect in language use. The data are taken from a presentation held by a natural scientist and doctor within a hearing at the Enquete-Kommission “Chances and Risks of Genetics” (“Chancen und Risiken der Gentechnologie”) of the German Bundestag in 1984. The theoretical starting point is to take meaning as a social product, i. e. meaning is constituted in interaction. This is shown in the first part of the paper applying a phenomenologist argumentation following Husserl, Schütz and Luckmann. Secondly it is proposed to consider semantic shifting — at least as it emerges here in expert-layman-communication — as a matter of style, since the actors have to maintain some conventional “truth” in the terms they use, which ought not to be changed. In the empirical part we analyse the meaning of the terms “nature” and “evolution” as it emerges in the data. Further we interpret the use of copperplates taken from Brehms Tierleben, the use of love-symbols and cartoonlike pictures as illustration material of the presentation. This analysis lead finally to the interpretation of the term “investigation”. It is shown how in the course of argumentation — prepared by a proper use of “nature”, “evolution” and certain types of illustrations — “investigation” turns out to be rather something natural than to be an element of human acting.     

The concept of the gene in psychiatric genetics and its consequences for the concept of mental illness

At this point in time, it is hard to say which consequences for the concept of mental illness result from modern genetics. Current research projects are trying to find significant statistical correlations between the diagnosis of a disease and a gene locus or an endophenotype. Up until now, there has not been any identification of alleles or mutations causing mental illness. In the meantime, the relations between the genetic basis and the disease are given the term “genetic vulnerability” as a placeholder; this concept simplifies the complex relations between the DNA and even the simplest cell functions observed in modern genetics. According to complex gene models like the systemic theory of DNA, it will not be possible to identify the genetic factors without a precise knowledge of the factors which modulate the gene expression. The significance of genetics as part of the concept of mental illness will not be able to be defined without further progress in developmental biology and psychology. Currently, psychological theory fails to acknowledge the complexity of the relationship between the DNA and the environment. Some starting points from which to develop such an understanding can be received from “developmental studies” and studies of the “psychophylogenesis”. An interdisciplinary concept of the biological basis of the psyche is needed.     

Gender-biased behavior at work: Exploring the relationship between sexual harassment and sex discrimination

This paper examines survey-based reports of sexual harassment and sex discrimination in order to identify the stylized facts about the nature of the relationship between them. In particular, we are interested in assessing whether these concepts measure similar forms of gender-biased behavior and whether they have the same effect on workers’ job satisfaction and intentions to leave their jobs. Our results provide little support for the notion that survey-based measures of sexual harassment and sex discrimination capture the same underlying behavior. Respondents do appear to differentiate between incidents of sexual harassment and incidents of sex discrimination in the workplace. There are gender differences in the consequences, however. Both sex discrimination and sexual harassment are associated with a higher degree of job dissatisfaction. However, women’s intended job changes appear to be more sensitive to experiencing sex discrimination, while men’s are more sensitive to experiencing sexual harassment. Although exploratory, when taken together these results give us hope that in the future sufficiently detailed surveys could provide a useful foundation for quantifying the link between sexual harassment and sex discrimination. They also suggest that the best prospect for developing—and then testing—a conceptual framework of gender bias lies in adopting a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating the insights of disciplines such as sociology, psychology, and economics.     

Notions of self: lived realities of children with disabilities

To research children’s notions of self, semi‐structured interviews, drawings and focused group discussions were used with 14 children with mobility ‘impairments’ aged 11–16 years. The objective was to capture children’s ‘lived realities’. Findings illuminated immense variation and fluidity in children’s understanding of ‘disability’. Children desired to appear similar to ‘non‐disabled’ children. Most attributed ‘disability’ to existential causes. Parents’ ambivalent attitudes and societal reactions to ‘disabled’ children are discussed. The study points out the unremitting hope and potential of these children, which is often silenced by the overarching ‘negativism’ that surrounds ‘disability’.     

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Indices of Memory in Typically Developing and Hypoxic‐Ischemic Injured Infants

Behavioral and electrophysiological indices of memory were examined in 12‐month‐old typically developing control infants (CON) and infants with history of perinatal hypoxic‐ischemic injury (HII) across 2 days. Using a visual paired comparison (VPC) procedure, novelty preference was tested immediately after a familiarization period and then after delays of 2 min and 24 h. Both groups showed a significant novelty preference only for the no‐delay condition. On day two, event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while infants viewed the VPC familiar face, a more recently familiarized face, and a novel face, and mean amplitude for components thought to reflect memory (positive slow wave, PSW) and attention (negative central, Nc) were computed. In temporal regions, HII showed a diminished Nc and enhanced PSW to the recently familiarized face, while CON showed a similar trend for the PSW only. Overall, infants showed the largest PSW over left scalp regions. Finally, a positive correlation between VPC novelty preference after 24 h and PSW was found in CON, and preliminary results suggest that this association differs as a function of group. Therefore, in comparison with CON, HII showed both similarities and differences on individual tasks of memory as well as potentially disparate relations between the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying memory performance.