Journal of Human Ergology

The objective of this stuay was to determine the optimal duration of work exposure while sitting in a squatting posture. A simulation study was formulated on work similar to the traditional jewellery manufacturing activity. The task of metal setting was simulated in a controlled environment. Fifteen young adult males participated in this study. The results of 12 participants were included as others discontinued the study for their personal reasons. The study continued for 2 hours. Trunk muscle strength and body part discomfort (BPD) were measured before and after completion of the task...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Balinese have built amazing residences and temples by using many tools. The tools are not only effective in a physical sense, also in the value of ethics. One of the tools is gegulak. The nearest same tool in ergonomics is anthropometrics. The gegulak and anthropometrics are used to humans to be humane. Besides gegulak, there is another tool named sikut natar. LontarAsta Kosali is a kind of Balinese traditional book about material measurement to build a house, and Asta Kosala to build a temple. Even if studied further, this book does not merely determine measuring materials of the housing, but inherent in the spiritual aspects of measurement...

With the goal of facilitating the creation of relaxing sound environments in stressful places, such as offices, we examined differences in the heart rate fluctuations of men and women induced by different sounds. Twenty-three healthy students (13 males and 10 females) aged between 18 and 23 listened to seven different sounds while we collected electrocardiogram data. We extracted the high frequency component (HF) and low frequency component (LF) of the signals using the wavelet method, and calculated LF/HF...

Singing performance is based on the efficiency of the respiratory system. The present study was aimed to evaluate the results of pulmonary function tests (PFTs) in female singers of Kolkata, India and to compare the data with their sedentary counterparts from India and abroad. The study was also aimed to propose prediction norms for PFTs in both the groups. Fifty-six female singers and fifty-two female non-singers (control group) with similar socioeconomic backgrounds were randomly sampled from the Rabindrabharati University, Kolkata...

The present study was aimed to evaluate physiological strain among women cultivators engaged in potato cultivation. The cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 150 women participants in different districts of West Bengal State, India. The physiological strain was evaluated by working heart rate, blood lactate and oxygen consumption. The average working heart rate was 109.97 ± 9.94 beats/min when all tasks were considered together. According to the working heart rate, oxygen consumption and energy cost, the potato cultivation job was categorized as a moderate work category...

The purpose of this study is to clarify the activities of daily living and behaviour disturbances related to inpatients and outpatients with dementia experiencing falls. Patients diagnosed with dementia belonging to 18 facilities which consented to the study were subjected. The study involved "whether or not the patient has fallen in the past 12 months", "Barthel Index (B.I)", and "Dementia Behaviour Disturbance Scale (DBD)" and other data from 325 people in 18 facilities who had been diagnosed with dementia...

This paper discusses a computer program, ErgoNBC, which provides suggestions regarding the ergonomic settings of a notebook computer (NBC), workstation components, and selected accessories in order to help computer users to assume an appropriate work posture during the NBC work. From the users' body height, NBC and workstation component data, ErgoNBC computes the recommended tilt angle of NBC base unit, NBC screen angle, distance between the user and NBC, seat height and work surface height. If necessary, the NBC base support, seat cushion and footrest, including their settings, are recommended...

This study compares foot shape and foot dimensions between Taiwanese and Japanese females. One hundred Taiwanese and 100 Japanese female 3D foot scanning data were used for comparison. To avoid the allometry effect, data from 23 Taiwanese and 19 Japanese with foot length between 233 to 237 mm were used for shape comparison. Homologous models created for the right feet of the 42 subjects were analyzed by Multidimensional Scaling. The results showed that there were significant differences in the forefoot shape between the two groups, and Taiwanese females had slightly wider feet with straighter big toe than Japanese females...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of long-time commuting and long-hour working on lifestyle including sleeping, physical exercise, breakfast, smoking, alcohol intake and mental health. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 146 school teachers in Tokyo. The binary associations of commuting time and working hours with lifestyle, mental stress measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and stress coping measured by the Sense of Coherence (SOC) scores were examined...

Individuals' expertise in human factors and ergonomics in Malaysia was studied with a view to aiding in gauging the confusion and conjectures of the expertise in this area. The choices and preferences of individuals in dealing with the current issues of human factors and ergonomics were examined. The authors suggest the ways to meet ethical challenges in their work and professions.

This study investigated laterality of manual pushing during a gait cycle by measuring pushing force, muscular activation and foot pressure. Subjects were 17 healthy young adult males; (11 right-handed [RH], and 6 left-handed [LH]). They pushed a force plate while walking on a treadmill at 1.5, 3, and 4 km/h. Electromyogram (EMG) data were collected bilaterally from the tibialis anterior, soleus, lumbar erector spinae and triceps brachii. To measure foot pressure, ten pressure sensors were attached bilaterally on five points of the sole...

Coal in India is extracted generally by semi-mechanized and mechanized underground mining methods. The Bord and Pillar (B & P) mining method still continues to be popular where deployment of manual miners is more than that of other mining methods. The study is conducted at haulage based mine of Eastern Coalfields of West Bengal. Underground miners confront with a lot of hazards like extreme hostile environment, awkward working posture, dust, noise as well as low luminosity. It is difficult to delay the onset of fatigue...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Children are likely to assume very awkward seated postures when using a desktop computer at workstations with limited adjustability. This also includes the workstations that are not built for them such as adult visual display terminal (VDT) workstations. This paper proposes simple step-by-step procedures for estimating necessary adjustments so that children can sit and maintain an appropriate seated posture at VDT workstations with limited adjustability (i.e., fixed keyboard and monitor heights). From the anthropometric and VDT workstation data, the procedures compute the recommended VDT workstation settings for a concerned child, compare them with the actual workstation adjustment ranges, determine the appropriate settings, and suggest necessary accessories...

This study analyzed the perceived attention represented by "gazing" points of cyclists to expose a latent accidental factor hidden in cyclist behaviour. Eleven elderly people and 23 young people equipped with an eye camera participated in the study. From the camera images, the objects viewed by the cyclists were analyzed. A main road and a community road were used in the experiment. The objects viewed by the cyclists were categorized into nine items that would be indirectly related to the cause of bicycle traffic accidents: gates and porches, parking lots, signals, alleys, other bicycles on the road, pedestrians, signs and painted symbols on the road, schoolyards and houses, and other items...

Horse-drawn carriages popularly known as Tanga in India provide a popularjoy ride. Such vehicles were selected from two cites in Central India and the other from a city in Western India, based on complaints from the users that these vehicles were not comfortable to ride. Twelve male and twelve female participants were selected for the user study. Two of the members of the research team travelled on the vehicle on twelve trips over a 7 kilometer stretch (considered to be the maximum stretch for a Tanga ride)...

In order to reconcile contradictory results from previous studies on manual pushing, a study was conducted to examine the effect of trunk inclination on muscular activities, centre of pressure (COP) and force exertion during static pushing. Ten subjects pushed at 0 degrees, 15 degrees, 30 degrees, and 45 degrees body inclinations in parallel and staggered feet stances. Wall and ground force plates measured pushing force, wall COP, vertical ground reaction force (GRF) and ground COP. Electromyogram data were recorded at 10 trunk muscle sites...

Evidence regarding possible risk factors associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) can guide the selection of possible intervention measures and the work towards developing appropriate ergonomic and safety measures. The intention of the study was to explore the factors associated with developing MSDs among construction workers. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire was used to measure the severity, duration, frequency and prevalence of symptoms of MSDs in nine anatomical body regions. Physical fitness was assessed based on the workers' answers regarding the perception of their own physical fitness...

Sedentary male (n = 94) and female (n = 111) university students were randomly sampled to enumerate the prediction methods for estimating maximum oxygen uptake (VO(2max)) by the heart rate ratio method (HR(peak) x HR(rest)(-1) or HR(max) x HR(rest)(-1)). VO(2max) was directly measured by incremental bicycle exercise whereas equations of Uth et al. (2004) were used for indirect prediction of VO(2max). The difference between directly measured VO(2max) (males: 38.95 ± 3.81 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1); females: 35.90 ± 3...