Innovation in user-centered skills and performance improvement for sustainable complex service systems

In order to leverage individual and organizational learning and to remain competitive in current turbulent markets it is important for employees, managers, planners and leaders to perform at high levels over time. Employee competence and skills are extremely important matters in view of the general shortage of talent and the mobility of employees with talent. Two factors emerged to have the greatest impact on the competitiveness of complex service systems: improving managerial and employee's knowledge attainment for skills, and improving the training and development of the workforce. This paper introduces the knowledge-based user-centered service design approach for sustainable skill and performance improvement in education, design and modeling of the next generation of complex service systems. The rest of the paper cover topics in human factors and sustainable business process modeling for the service industry, and illustrates the user-centered service system development cycle with the integration of systems engineering concepts in service systems. A roadmap for designing service systems of the future is discussed. The framework introduced in this paper is based on key user-centered design principles and systems engineering applications to support service competitiveness.     

Biochemical assessment and differentiation of mental and physical effort

Abstract

Evaluation of mental effort under industrial conditions encounters both methodological and practical problems mainly because of lack of appropriate indices and difficulties in differentiation between body responses to physical and mental effort.

This paper presents a review of laboratory and field research from our laboratories aimed at finding objective indices for discrimination between body responses to mental and physical effort. The laboratory data show that urinary noradrenaline/adrenaline (NA/A) ratio decreases in response to mental tasks and increases in response to physical tasks. Under industrial conditions the predominating component of effort (mental or physical) evokes body response similar to that found during laboratory experiments. Re-analysis of data published in various other papers shows the same pattern of body response.

Another possible index for assessment of effort seems to be salivary cortisol which increases in response to both mental and physical tasks. Its deviations from the circadian pattern of excretion may represent a potential criterion for assessment of the emotional component of mental effort.     

Biochemical assessment and differentiation of mental and physical effort

Evaluation of mental effort under industrial conditions encounters both methodological and practical problems mainly because of lack of appropriate indices and difficulties in differentiation between body responses to physical and mental effort.

This paper presents a review of laboratory and field research from our laboratories aimed at finding objective indices for discrimination between body responses to mental and physical effort. The laboratory data show that urinary noradrenaline/adrenaline (NA/A) ratio decreases in response to mental tasks and increases in response to physical tasks. Under industrial conditions the predominating component of effort (mental or physical) evokes body response similar to that found during laboratory experiments. Re-analysis of data published in various other papers shows the same pattern of body response.

Another possible index for assessment of effort seems to be salivary cortisol which increases in response to both mental and physical tasks. Its deviations from the circadian pattern of excretion may represent a potential criterion for assessment of the emotional component of mental effort.     

A Comparison of Some Tests for Determining the Number of Nonzero Canonical Correlations

When considering the relationships between two sets of variates, the number of nonzero population canonical correlations may be called the dimensionality. In the literature, several tests for dimensionality in the canonical correlation analysis are known. A comparison of seven sequential test procedures is presented, using results from some simulation study. The tests are compared with regard to the relative frequencies of underestimation, correct estimation, and overestimation of the true dimensionality. Some conclusions from the simulation results are drawn.     

Embedded systems engineering for products and services design

Systems engineering (SE) professionals strive to develop new techniques to enhance the value of contributions to multidisciplinary smart product design teams. Products and services designers challenge themselves to search beyond the traditional design concept of addressing the physical, social, and cognitive factors. This paper covers the application of embedded user-centered systems engineering design practices into work processes based on the ISO 13407 framework [20] to support smart systems and services design and development. As practitioners collaborate to investigate alternative smart product designs, they concentrate on creating valuable products which will enhance positive interaction. This paper capitalizes on the need to follow a user-centered SE approach to smart products design [4, 22]. Products and systems intelligence should embrace a positive approach to user-centered design while improving our understanding of usable value-adding, experience and extending our knowledge of what inspires others to design enjoyable services and products.     

The elderly in the shopping centers: the usability study of semipublic spaces as attractiveness generator

This article aims to study the importance of the attributes of usability and attractiveness for the semi-public spaces of Shopping Centers considering the elderly users, the psycho-cognitive and bio-physiological changes resulting from the aging process, as well as their expectations of the built space. Through a qualitative study of theoretical review with a multidisciplinary focus in architecture, ergonomics, gerontology, environmental psychology and management, the conditions of the elderly users were identified, and also the attributes related to usability and attractiveness, collected in order to understand and organize their interrelationships, to suggest recommendations about the drafting of Shopping Centers, aiming to generate projects and environments that should promote the efficient and satisfactory use for elderly and may also create a competitive advantage for these enterprises.     

Mental fatigue at work and pain perception

The object of this study was to determine whether mental fatigue connected with high and low stimulation at work can affect the subjects' perception of pain. Two groups of female visual display unit operators were studied: the first group performed tasks involving high levels of stimulation, while the second group performed tasks involving low levels of stimulation. The results show that mental fatigue due to a high level of stimulation causes an increase in pain ratings, while the mental fatigue due to low stimulation level causes a decrease in pain ratings.