The ergonomics analysis of work: a case study in a experimental farm

This work presents the initial steps of ergonomic analysis of industrial activities, which are being held in the premises of an Agricultural Experimental farm belonging to an institution of higher education. The methods employed in the initial step was confined to desk research, its purpose was to know the demographic profile and understand organizational structure followed by systematic observations in workplaces using semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire of perception to operators. The presentation of the results will provide a summary of the analysis of activity sectors visited, understanding the biomechanical efforts entered (posture and strength), as well as the evaluation according to the perception of officials to respect the constraints, ambience and suggestions. It was noted that 90% of employees surveyed feel some kind of discomfort. It also highlights the age factor of this questionnaire, in which the majority (90%) is above 40 years old, and this fact confirms and reinforces the appearance or accumulation of injuries among the employers. At this stage there was no intention to deploy improvements, but create assumptions and guide future intervention actions that can be performed.     

Giving Mexico: Giving by Individuals

This paper offers a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of one of the most important expressions of philanthropy in Mexico: giving by individuals. The data we present have been produced using a survey specifically redesigned to collect information on the giving practices of Mexicans, a national survey on giving and volunteering. We offer a brief literature review and then proceed to provide our results on the incidence of money donation and mean annual donation patterns among different segments of the Mexican population, test different variables as determinants of giving and provide the first estimation of the total value of individual money donation for a given year. We also provide findings on in-kind donations and an assessment of the evolution of individual giving to nonprofit organizations.     

Intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of yard vegetation in urban residential areas: implications for conservation planning

Residential green areas often represent a significant portion of a city’s green infrastructure which has generated great interest in studying the factors that contribute to the formation of plant associations in residential yards. This project evaluated the external factors to the household social-ecological system that influence the availability of plants for residential landscapes and how they may influence the presence of native plants in residential yards on households within the Río Piedras watershed in the metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The methods used included a residential survey with open and closed questions that addressed the sources of plants used in landscaping and an evaluation of ornamental plant species inventories from local nurseries. A total of 432 yards were surveyed. Yard plants in this watershed have multiple sources. Aside from obtaining plants at local nurseries, natural dispersion, exchanges among family and friends and historical plantings can be just as important sources of yard plants. Our results also suggest that the majority of residents do not know where to get native plants which could represent a challenge for the development and implementation of initiatives for natives gardening. At the same time, most commercial nurseries have a deficit of native plants in their inventories. This information is critical to species conservation strategies that seek the inclusion of urban residential areas and may help improve initiatives about the involvement of individual citizens in sustainable gardening practices at the residential scale.     

Appraisal of Lifecolon; ``Area' Versus ``Dimension' Conceptualizations

The aim of the present work was to study the relationship between theresponses given by participants from various age groups and situations toa life appraisal questionnaire constructed from an area (work, spouse,family, friends) x dimension (acceptance, autonomy, mastery, purpose)matrix. When subjected to confirmatory factor analyses, the response datawere more supportive of an ``area' model than of a ``dimension' model. Whensubjected to an exploratory factor analysis, they revealed a seven-factorunderlying structure, which was more easily interpreted in terms of areasthan in terms of dimensions, and the effects of age and gender on thesefactors were the expected ones. When this seven-factor structure waslinked to a global measure of well-being, only factors with a clear ``area'definition could explain a significant part of the variance. These factorswere Love life, Family life, Leisure, and Occupational Life.