The introduction of sit-stand worktables; aspects of attitudes, compliance and satisfaction

The introduction of sit-stand worktables was examined in this study. Purchasers at four companies were interviewed regarding preparations prior to purchase, follow-up after installation, and if expectations had been fulfilled. Personnel at the four companies answered a questionnaire examining use of the worktables' sit-stand function, and the influence of some variables on this. Utilisation of the sit-stand function was less than what could be expected to relieve static musculoskeletal loading during VDU work. Pain experienced during the past year, and education on the use of the worktable gave rise to modest increases in utilisation. Investment in sit-stand worktables was satisfactory to purchasers, in terms of providing flexible furniture to suit modern organisational dynamics. Users were, in general, positive to the worktables, but showed poor compliance in using them. User and purchaser satisfaction with regard to improving individual health ergonomics was questionable in respect of the low level of usage.     

Estimation and prediction metrics for adaptive maintenance effortof object-oriented systems

Many software systems built in recent years have been developed using object-oriented technology and, in some cases, they already need adaptive maintenance in order to satisfy market and customer needs. In most cases, the estimation and prediction of maintenance effort is performed with difficulty due to the lack of metrics and suitable models. In this paper, a model and metrics for estimation/prediction of adaptive maintenance effort are presented and compared with some other solutions taken from the literature. The model proposed can be used as a general approach for adopting well-known metrics (typically used for the estimation of development effort) for the estimation/prediction of adaptive maintenance effort. The model and metrics proposed have been validated against real data by using multilinear regression analysis. The validation has shown that several well-known metrics can be profitably employed for the estimation/prediction of maintenance effort     

Differential nanofiller cluster formations in dental adhesive systems

Nanofillers are added to dental adhesives to improve mechanical properties of the hybrid layer. Ethanol or water added to the demineralized dentin to improve adhesive infiltration may produce filler aggregation. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of 5 vol% water or ethanol addition on nanoparticles distribution in dental adhesives. METHODS: Six available commercial adhesives systems were selected: Clearfil SE Bond (CSE), Clearfil Protect Bond (CPB), FL‐Bond (FLB), Clearfil S3 (CS3), Bond Force (BF), One Up Bond F plus (OUB), and an experimental adhesive system without filler (EXP). Polymer films were obtained by adding 0 (control) or 5 vol% water or ethanol into the bonding resins. Preparations were light‐cured (40 s). Three specimens were analyzed for each mixture. Three phases and 3D images were taken from each specimen by means of an atomic force microscope in taping mode (TM/AFM). Cluster sizes and surface nanoroughness were assessed. RESULTS: Control specimens from CSE, FLB, OUB, and BF presented clusters. The addition of solvents lead to particles aggregation in tested bonding resins. Ethanol addition produced more aggregates, particularly in adhesives containing fluoraluminosilicate as fillers. CONCLUSIONS: Nanofillers aggregation occurred in all adhesive systems in presence of additional solvents. In general, aggregate sizes were higher after the addition of ethanol. Formed clusters size values are always above the dimensions of the spaces existing between the demineralized collagen fibers. Microsc. Res. Tech. 75:749–757, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Predictable service overlay networks: Predictability through adaptive monitoring and efficient overlay construction and management

Providing bounded communication among participating nodes is significant for distributed systems. Internet-based applications suffer with lower performance due to absence of bounded latency. We describe PSON, an overlay network solution to this challenging problem. PSON has two components. The monitoring component, SyncProbe, utilizes efficient and adaptive monitoring techniques to measure latency, detect packet loss, and provide real-time estimates of maximum expected latency along paths of an Internet substrate. The QoSMap component constructs and manages overlay such that it yields application-level QoS and provides resilience against network failures. A distinctive feature of QoSMap is construction of QoS-compliant backup paths which facilitate in overlay management and operation during the period when primary overlay paths violate QoS. We evaluate PSON on PlanetLab to provide predictable communication for applications with different topology and QoS requirement. Our experiments confirm the effectiveness of PSON in providing an inexpensive and efficient application-layer solution to Internet’s unpredictable behavior.     

A mobility constraint model to infer sensor behaviour in forest fire risk monitoring

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) play an important role in forest fire risk monitoring. Various applications are in operation. However, the use of mobile sensors in forest risk monitoring remains largely unexplored. Our research contributes to fill this gap by designing a model which abstracts mobility constraints within different types of contexts for the inference of mobile sensor behaviour. This behaviour is focused on achieving a suitable spatial coverage of the WSN when monitoring forest fire risk. The proposed mobility constraint model makes use of a Bayesian network approach and consists of three components: (1) a context typology describing different contexts in which a WSN monitors a dynamic phenomenon; (2) a context graph encoding probabilistic dependencies among variables of interest; and (3) contextual rules encoding expert knowledge and application requirements needed for the inference of sensor behaviour. As an illustration, the model is used to simulate the behaviour of a mobile WSN to obtain a suitable spatial coverage in low and high fire risk scenarios. It is shown that the implemented Bayesian network within the mobility constraint model can successfully infer behaviour such as sleeping sensors, moving sensors, or deploying more sensors to enhance spatial coverage. Furthermore, the mobility constraint model contributes towards mobile sensing in which the mobile sensor behaviour is driven by constraints on the state of the phenomenon and the sensing system.     

Cognitive engineering of a new telephone operator workstation using COGNET

Many cognitive engineering methodologies for user-centered design involve modeling procedural knowledge; others deal with domain semantics or conceptual models. COGnitive NEwork of Tasks (COGNET) is a framework for modeling human cognition and decision-making which provides an integrated representation of the knowledge, behavioral actions, strategies and problem solving skills used in a domain or task situation, yielding a powerful cognitive engineering tool. A case study of the design of the user interface for a new telephone operator workstation is presented to illustrate the derivation of the design from the components of the COGNET model. The model does not directly convey any specific feature of the interface design, but rather a formal representation of what the user must do with the resulting interface. This information is then evolved through a set of transformations which systematically move toward design features, in a fully traceable manner.

Relevance to industry

With the increasing prevalence of technical systems in complex work domains, cognitive engineering is necessary in designing the user interface for those systems to promote efficient integration of person and machine. The cognitive engineering methodology presented here addresses that need.     

Why Intervals? Because If We Allow Other Sets,Tractable Problems Become Intractable

We show that if we add at least one non-interval set to the family of all intervals, then some reasonable interval computation problems that were previously computationally feasible become intractable. This result provides one more motivation for using the interval family: because if we increase this family, we lose computability.     

Distribution of nitric oxide synthase immunoreactivity in the mouse brain

Nitric oxide (NO) is a gaseous intercellular messenger with a wide range of neural functions. NO is synthesized by activation of different isoforms of nitric oxide synthases (NOS). At present NOS immunoreactivity has been described in mouse brain in restricted and definite areas and no detailed mapping studies have yet been reported for NOS immunoreactivity. We have studied the distribution of neuronal NOS-containing neurons in the brain of three months male mice, using a specific commercial polyclonal antibody against the neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). Neuronal cell bodies exhibiting nNOS immunoreactivity were found in several distinct nuclei throughout the brain. The neurons that were positively stained exhibited different intensities of reaction. In some brain areas (i.e., cortex, striatum, tegmental nuclei) neurons were intensely stained in a Golgi-like fashion. In other regions, immunoreactive cells are moderately stained (i.e., magnocellular nucleus of the posterior commissure, amygdaloid nucleus, interpeduncular nucleus, lateral periaqueductal gray) or weakly stained (i.e., vascular organ of the lamina terminalis, hippocampus, inferior colliculus, reticular nucleus). In the mouse, the NO-producing system appears well developed and widely diffused. In particular, nNOS immunoreactive neurons seem chiefly present in several sensory pathways like all the nuclei of the olfactory system, as well as in many regions of the lymbic system. These data suggest a widespread role for the NO system in the mouse nervous system.     

A cross‐cultural comparison of colour emotion for two‐colour combinations

Psychophysical experiments were conducted in the UK, Taiwan, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, and Iran to assess colour emotion for two‐colour combinations using semantic scales warm/cool, heavy/light, active/passive, and like/dislike. A total of 223 observers participated, each presented with 190 colour pairs as the stimuli, shown individually on a cathode ray tube display. The results show consistent responses across cultures only for warm/cool, heavy/light, and active/passive. The like/dislike scale, however, showed some differences between the observer groups, in particular between the Argentinian responses and those obtained from the other observers. Factor analysis reveals that the Argentinian observers preferred passive colour pairs to active ones more than the other observers. In addition to the cultural difference in like/dislike, the experimental results show some effects of gender, professional background (design vs. nondesign), and age. Female observers were found to prefer colour pairs with high‐lightness or low‐chroma values more than their male counterparts. Observers with a design background liked low‐chroma colour pairs or those containing colours of similar hue more than nondesign observers. Older observers liked colour pairs with high‐lightness or high‐chroma values more than young observers did. Based on the findings, a two‐level theory of colour emotion is proposed, in which warm/cool, heavy/light, and active/passive are identified as the reactive‐level responses and like/dislike the reflective‐level response. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2012