Drivers of fish assemblage structures in a Neotropical urban watershed

Urban Ecosystems - Urbanization results in major changes in stream morphology, hydrology, and water quality; the consequences on fish assemblage of Neotropical urban streams remain poorly...     

Interface of drug use

Packaging and labeling play a crucial role awhile protecting medicaments and transmitting a range of crucial information to the users. Taking into account the scarcity of specific studies in this area, it was considered great the need for a comprehensive survey about customers' satisfaction when handling these containers.     

The profile of cyclists in the city of Juiz de Fora

The problems related to the means of transport in urban Brazilians have been getting worse over the years. The increase of the fleet, to the detriment of the adequacy and extent of the road network of cities contributes to this fact. This paper presents a profile of users of cycling in the city of Juiz de Fora, and thus contributes to the study of sustainable urban mobility, providing researchers with information that can guide the search for the encouragement of the use of means of transport to meet environmental needs urban centers that contributes to social equity.     

Analysis on the relationship between the school furniture and the work surface lighting and the body posture of public Middle School students from João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of school furniture and work surface lighting on the body posture of two public Middle School students from Paraíba (Brazil). The target population included 8th grade groups involving 31 students. Brazilian standards for lighting levels, the CEBRACE standards for furniture measurements and the Postural Assessment Software (SAPO) for the postural misalignment assay were adopted for the measurements comparison. The statistic analysis includes analyses of parametric and non-parametric correlations. The results show that the students' most affected parts of the body were the spine, the regions of the knees and head and neck and about 90% of the students presented postural misalignment. The lighting levels were usually found below 300 lux, below recommended levels. Such results indicate the need of investments in more suitable school furniture and structural reforms aimed at improving the lighting in the classrooms, which could fulfill the students' profile and reduce their complaints.     

Influence of door handles design in effort perception: accessibility and usability

The application of ergonomics in product design is essential to its accessibility and usability. The development of manual devices should be based on ergonomic principles. Effort perception analysis is an essential approach to understand the physical and subjective aspects of the interface. The objective of the present study was to analyze the effort perception during a simulated task with different door handles by Portuguese subjects of both genders and different ages. This transversal study agreed with ethical aspects. 180 subjects of both genders pertaining to three age groups have participated. Five door handles with different shapes were evaluated. A subjective numeric rating scale of 5 levels was used to evaluate the effort. For statistical analysis it was applied the Friedman non-parametric test. The results have showed no significant differences of effort perception in door handles "A" and "B"; "A" and "D"; and "D" and "C". Door handle "E" presented the lowest values of all. In general, there's an inverse relationship between the results of biomechanical studies and the effort perception of the same task activity. This shows that door handles design influence directly these two variables and can interfere in the accessibility and usability of these kinds of products.     

Heavy physical work under time pressure: the garbage collection service--a case study

The increased generation of garbage has become a problem in large cities, with greater demand for collection services. The collector is subjected to high workload. This study describes the work in garbage collection service, highlighting the requirements of time, resulting in physical and psychosocial demands to collectors. Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA) - a method focused on the study of work in real situations was used. Initially, technical visits, global observations and unstructured interviews with different subjects of a garbage collection company were conducted. The following step of the systematic observations was accompanied by interviews conducted during the execution of tasks, inquiring about the actions taken, and also interviews about the actions, but conducted after the development of the tasks, photographic records and audiovisual recordings, of workers from two garbage collection teams. Contradictions between the prescribed work and activities (actual work) were identified, as well as the variability present in this process, and strategies adopted by these workers to regulate the workload. It was concluded that the insufficiency of means and the organizational structure of management ensue a situation where the collection process is maintained at the expense of hyper-requesting these workers, both physically and psychosocially.     

The RFad Method--a new fatigue recovery time assessment for industrial activities

This paper presents a study about fatigue recovery time assessment processes in work activities. It came about due to a demand presented by an automotive industry giant, in need of updating existing cycle time sheets and TAKT time parameters. The company decided to hire an Ergonomics Laboratory with ties to a major Brazilian University in order to evaluate current conditions and establish a new method to either calculate recovery times or validate existing assessment criteria, based in the ergonomics evaluation of the work activities. It is clear that there has been evident evolution in the industrial sector in the past two decades. It brought up fast modernization of industrial processes, not only in production but also in terms of management systems. Due to improved computer and robotics systems, combined with overall operational advancements - like the use of lighter hand tools and more effective hoist systems - most work activities have had its physical effort requirements reduced in the past decades. Thus, compensation factors built into production times need to be reviewed in order to avoid unnecessary costs associated to them. By using ergonomics considerations, we prevent simply removing the physical variables built in rest time calculations without taking on account, for example, additional cognitive load represented by the use of more sophisticated pieces of equipment.     

Leadership’s Role in Process Safety: An Understanding of Behavioral Science Among Managers and Executives Is Needed

ABSTRACT

A recent prevalence of high visibility catastrophic events has garnered increased attention to process safety issues. While the use of Behavior-Based Safety interventions demonstrate a reduction in workplace injuries by targeting employee behavior, we believe that process safety requires a greater focus on the behavior of leaders (e.g., creating and executing strategy). One effective method to begin targeting leader behavior for the improvement of process safety is to teach leaders about the principles of behavior, including ways by which the science may be applied within their own organizational models.