Physiological computing for occupational health and safety in construction: Review,challenges and implications for future research

Recent advances in physiological computing have been made due to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which have profoundly begun to influence occupational health and safety (OHS) in construction. Acknowledging the current and future use of physiological computing, we address the following research question in this paper: What developments in physiological computing can be used to improve OHS in construction? Using a narrative systematic review, we examine studies that have used physiological computing in construction to monitor people OHS. Our review indicates that there is a need for physiological computing systems to be: (1) more accurate; (2) portable and easier to use; (3) generalizable across varying work tasks; and (4) accepted by users and their benefits realized. Considering our observations derived from the prevailing literature and practice, we suggest that future research should aim to mitigate OHS risks by focusing on: (1) development of high-quality database; (2) feature engineering extraction by using an array of machine learning techniques; (3) understanding the context and enacting intervention strategies. The upshot of performing such a review is to provide a signpost for future research in physiological computing of OHS in construction.     

Worker productivity, and occupational health and safety issues in selected industries

The main objective of this research was to identify factors that affected worker productivity, occupational health and safety in selected industries in a developing country. Fifty production managers participated in the study. Fifty-four percent of the managers reported hot environmental conditions, 28% a noisy environment, and 26% a lack of resources and facilities. Managers received worker complaints of fatigue, back pain, upper-body pain, hand and wrist pain and headaches. Management (88%) acknowledged not having knowledge or access to ergonomics information. Ninety-four percent of the companies did not carry out ergonomic assessments. A significant correlation (p<0.01) was found among productivity indicators and health and organizational attributes. Lack of skills in ergonomics and training, communication and resources are believed to be some of the factors contributing to the poor ergonomic conditions and consequent loss of worker productivity and reduced health and safety in these industries.     

Computer vision techniques for construction safety and health monitoring

For construction safety and health, continuous monitoring of unsafe conditions and action is essential in order to eliminate potential hazards in a timely manner. As a robust and automated means of field observation, computer vision techniques have been applied for the extraction of safety related information from site images and videos, and regarded as effective solutions complementary to current time-consuming and unreliable manual observational practices. Although some research efforts have been directed toward computer vision-based safety and health monitoring, its application in real practice remains premature due to a number of technical issues and research challenges in terms of reliability, accuracy, and applicability. This paper thus reviews previous attempts in construction applications from both technical and practical perspectives in order to understand the current status of computer vision techniques, which in turn suggests the direction of future research in the field of computer vision-based safety and health monitoring. Specifically, this paper categorizes previous studies into three groups—object detection, object tracking, and action recognition—based on types of information required to evaluate unsafe conditions and acts. The results demonstrate that major research challenges include comprehensive scene understanding, varying tracking accuracy by camera position, and action recognition of multiple equipment and workers. In addition, we identified several practical issues including a lack of task-specific and quantifiable metrics to evaluate the extracted information in safety context, technical obstacles due to dynamic conditions at construction sites and privacy issues. These challenges indicate a need for further research in these areas. Accordingly, this paper provides researchers insights into advancing knowledge and techniques for computer vision-based safety and health monitoring, and offers fresh opportunities and considerations to practitioners in understanding and adopting the techniques.     

Risk analysis for occupational safety and health in the textile industry: Integration of FMEA,FTA, and BIFPET methods

Identifying and managing health and safety risks that threaten personnel in production systems are vital for the continuity and success of organizations. Many tools are used to accurately analyze and assess risks. Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is one of the most commonly used tools in different industries. However, the accuracy and reliability of FMEA method have been fairly criticized by many researchers in the field. In this study, an approach based on FMEA that integrates the advantages of the fault tree analysis (FTA) method and belief in fuzzy probability estimations of time (BIFPET) algorithm has been proposed in order to improve the performance of the FMEA method. In order to practically apply the proposed method to real life problems, it has been employed to analyze and assess the potential risks for a finishing process in the fabric dyeing department of a textile company. The performance of the proposed FMEA-FTA-BIFPET method has been compared to the results obtained by FMEA-FTA and FMEA-FTA-program evaluation and review technique (PERT) distribution integrated methods. The results of this study show that failure related to fabric trimming adjustment in the tenter has the highest risk priority number. The proposed approach can be used in various industry for risk analysis. In addition, results obtained by the study have indicated that the proposed approach can be implemented in practice to perform comprehensive risk assessment procedures as it reflects real-life dynamics to analyze and assess potential risk.     

Model-based analysis of the health, safety and environment domain in the process industry

The chemical process industry needs well-defined, engineering-controlled operation procedures to insure the safety of their plant operations and to protect the people working with hazardous materials. Accidents may seriously harm the employees, destroy expensive factory equipment and contaminate and deteriorate the environment of the entire areas. The engineering control can be significantly enhanced through the use of process models for situation analysis. Process models will also provide effective decision support in the plant operation. The objective was to develop in Elf-Atochem a reference model for improving the complex process for implementing and tracking a work permit for people working in plant areas with health, safety and environmental risks. This permit documents all protection and formal authorisations required prior to any work in the hazardous areas of a chemical plant. The model consists of a process model and an information model. It further provides the identification of knowledge required to manage the work permit and to facilitate the automation of a number of activities. The model serves to analyse the process and to define the user requirements for a workflow application program. The methodology CimOsa/rg, which is based on CIMOSA, has been applied together with the modelling tool CimTool to document the requirements model.     

Understanding workplace violence: The value of a systems perspective

Workplace violence is a leading form of occupational injury and fatality, but has received little attention from the ergonomics research community. The paper reports findings from the 2012 New Zealand Workplace Violence Survey, and examines the workplace violence experience of 86 New Zealand organisations and the perceptions of occupational health and safety professionals from a systems perspective. Over 50% of respondents reported violence cases in their organisation, with perpetrators evenly split between co-workers and external sources such as patients. Highest reported levels of violence were observed for agriculture, forestry and construction sectors. Highest risk factor ratings were reported for interpersonal and organisational factors, notably interpersonal communication, time pressure and workloads, with lowest ratings for environmental factors. A range of violence prevention measures were reported, although most organisations relied on single control measures, suggesting unmanaged violence risks were common among the sample.     

The effects of occupational health and safety management on work environment and health: a prospective study

According to Norway's Internal Control Regulation, all companies are required to have an occupational health and safety (H&S) management system. This study investigated the effects of implementing or improving occupational H&S management on the work environment, H&S-related behaviour and musculoskeletal health of workers in small and medium-sized companies. A one-year prospective cohort study, using self-administered questionnaires, was performed among the managers and blue-collar workers in 226 motor vehicle repair garages. Out of 1559 workers that responded at baseline 721 workers could be identified at follow-up. These 721 workers were included in the study. The workers in companies with improved H&S management from baseline to follow-up reported increased satisfaction with the H&S activities at the garage; improved support from management and colleagues; improved health-related support and control; and increased participation in H&S activities.     

Towards a trust,reputation and recommendation meta model

New trust, reputation and recommendation (TRR) models are continuously proposed. However, the existing models lack shared bases and goals. For this reason, in this work we define an innovative meta model to facilitate the definition and standardization of a generic TRR model. Following the meta model, researchers in the field will be able to define standard models, compare them with other models and reuse parts of them. A standardization is also needed to determine which properties should be present in a TRR model.In accordance with the objectives we were seeking, following our meta model, we have defined a pre-standardized TRR model for e-commerce, identified the fundamental concepts and the main features that contribute to form trust and reputation in that domain, respected the dependence on the context/role of trust and reputation, aggregated only homogeneous trust information; listed and shown how to defend from the main malicious attacks.     

RFuzzy: Syntax, semantics and implementation details of a simple and expressive fuzzy tool over Prolog

We present the RFuzzy framework, a Prolog-based tool for representing and reasoning with fuzzy information. The advantages of our framework in comparison to previous tools along this line of research are its easy, user-friendly syntax, and its expressivity through the availability of default values and types.In this approach we describe the formal syntax, the operational semantics and the declarative semantics of RFuzzy (based on a lattice). A least model semantics, a least fixpoint semantics and an operational semantics are introduced and their equivalence is proven. We provide a real implementation that is free and available. (It can be downloaded from http://babel.ls.fi.upm.es/software/rfuzzy/.) Besides implementation details, we also discuss some actual applications using RFuzzy.     

A comparison of managers' and safety delegates' perceptions of work environment priorities in the manufacturing industry

This study investigated the attention and priority accorded to factors of work environment within manufacturing companies, as perceived by managers and safety delegates at small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises. Representatives from 142 Swedish manufacturing companies answered a 43‐item questionnaire covering seven areas of the work environment and a priority‐ranking question of company interests. Respondents (n = 249) rated the present situation and the situation one year earlier, using a visual analogue scale. The findings showed that both managers and safety delegates ranked profitability as the main company interest. Respondents rated the priorities of the work environment currently as higher than one year earlier (p = <0.05). Managers rated the priorities of the work environment higher than did the safety delegates (p = <0.05). We conclude that the two professional roles, manager and safety delegate, differ in their perceptions regarding to what extent different work environment factors are being attended to. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Heavy load carrying and musculoskeletal health: An exploratory study of biomechanical risk factors among sand miners in Pokhara,Kaski District,Nepal

BackgroundTrends in urbanization contribute to the growing global demand for raw construction materials. The health effects of load carrying among occupational groups that mine and carry sand and stone used for construction of roads and buildings remains poorly understood.MethodsWe conducted an exploratory cross-sectional study among a convenience sample of sand miners working at an excavation site on the Seti River in Pokhara, Nepal. Load carrying weight, duration, and frequency were used to categorize miners as having “low” or “high” load-carrying exposures. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) were identified using self-reported symptoms of moderate to severe musculoskeletal pain, as well as physical examinations.ResultsThe average loads carried by female and male sand miners weighed 66 kg and 87 kg, respectively. Among all participants (N = 42), 45% reported moderate to severe musculoskeletal pain in at least one body region and 16 (38%) had MSDs identified using specified case criteria. The prevalence of MSDs was lower among miners carrying, on average, heavier loads compared to those carrying lighter loads (OR = 0.18; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.7), possibly indicative of the healthy worker survival effect. Miners carrying loads for longer durations had higher odds of MSDs compared with those carrying for shorter durations.ConclusionThis study has provided data on the extraordinary loads carried by sand miners in Nepal and preliminary evidence of health impacts associated with these loads. However, larger epidemiologic studies are needed to justify action to protect the health and safety of these unrecognized and understudied groups.     

The role of the New Zealand forest industry injury surveillance system in a strategic ergonomics,safety and health research programme

Forestry is among the most hazardous of all industry sectors internationally. In New Zealand, highest work-related morbidity and mortality incidence rates are found in the logging sector. The New Zealand Forest Industry Accident Reporting Scheme (ARS) is a forestry injury surveillance system maintained by the Centre for Human Factors and Ergonomics (COHFE). The paper highlights the pivotal role of an industry-wide injury surveillance system in an industry-specific strategic research programme, giving examples of the use of ARS data in identification of priority areas for ergonomics, safety and health research attention, for safety awareness feedback to the industry, and in the evaluation of injury countermeasures. An analysis of injury patterns and trends for one high-risk forestry operation (skid work) is presented to illustrate both the capabilities and limitations of the ARS in its present stage of development.     

Mapping the influences of resilience engineering on health,safety, and environment and ergonomics management system by using Z‐number cognitive map

This study evaluates and analyzes the impacts of resilience engineering (RE) principles on integrated health, safety, environment, and ergonomics (HSEE) management system. In decision sciences, information should be reliable due to uncertainty and vagueness existing in information. To this end, in this study, the concept of Z‐numbers with fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) approach is integrated and a novel approach named Z‐number cognitive map is proposed. The main advantages of the proposed approach are determination of the weighted causality relations (for employing FCM) as well as handling uncertainty (for considering Z‐numbers concept). This approach is used to show the effects of RE indicators on HSEE management system. The required data for the proposed approach is collected from a large petrochemical plant by distributing questionnaires. According to the results, the RE principles have significant impact on HSEE management system. Top management commitment, learning, preparedness and awareness have the most impacts on environment, health, ergonomics and safety factors, respectively. This is the first study that employs Z‐number cognitive map for evaluating and improving the impacts of RE on HSEE factors in a large petrochemical plant. The proposed approach in this study, can help managers of various safety‐critical systems to improve their performance in terms of HSEE factors using RE concept.     

Status quo and open challenges in vision-based sensing and tracking of temporary resources on infrastructure construction sites

Modern construction projects require sufficient planning and management of resources to become successful. Core issues are tasks that deal with maintaining the schedule, such as procuring materials, guaranteeing the supply chain, controlling the work status, and monitoring safety and quality. Timely feedback of project status aids project management by providing accurate percentages of task completions and appropriately allocating resources (workforce, equipment, material) to coordinate the next work packages. However, current methods for measuring project status or progress, especially on large infrastructure projects, are mostly based on manual assessments. Recent academic research and commercial development has focused on semi- or fully-automated approaches to collect and process images of evolving worksites. Preliminary results are promising and show capturing, analyzing, and documenting construction progress and linking to information models is possible. This article presents first an overview to vision-based sensing technology available for temporary resource tracking at infrastructure construction sites. Second, it provides the status quo of research applications by highlighting exemplary case. Third, a discussion follows on existing advantages and current limitations of vision based sensing and tracking. Open challenges that need to be addressed in future research efforts conclude this paper.     

A Review of: “The Elite Athlete”. By NANCY BUTTS,T. T. GUSHIKEN and B. ZARINS (Champaign,IL.: Life Enhancement Publications, 1985.) [Pp. 283.] $28·00. ISBN 0873229053

The past decade has seen an increase in the application of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) techniques to healthcare delivery in a broad range of contexts (domains, locations and environments). This paper provides a state of science commentary using four examples of HFE in healthcare to review and discuss analytical and implementation challenges and to identify future issues for HFE. The examples include two domain areas (occupational ergonomics and surgical safety) to illustrate a traditional application of HFE and the area that has probably received the most research attention. The other two examples show how systems and design have been addressed in healthcare with theoretical approaches for organisational and socio-technical systems and design for patient safety. Future opportunities are identified to develop and embed HFE systems thinking in healthcare including new theoretical models and long-term collaborative partnerships. HFE can contribute to systems and design initiatives for both patients and clinicians to improve everyday performance and safety, and help to reduce and control spiralling healthcare costs.     

State of worksite health promotion in companies with and without Quality‐Management systems: A comparative study

The goal of comprehensive worksite health promotion (WHP) is to protect and promote the health and performance of employees. WHP principles link health‐promotion activities to existing management systems, such as Quality Management (QM), to better integrate these activities into goals and processes of the company. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that the presence of a QM system is related to increased institutionalization and scope of WHP. Swiss companies in the service sector with a certified QM system (N = 289) were compared to a random sample of service‐sector companies without QM systems (N = 334). The results show that the presence of a certified QM system is related to the quality of WHP, as companies have both a stronger institutionalization and a broader scope of WHP compared to companies without a certified QM system. The present study produced empirical evidence that QM systems might be an enhancing factor for WHP. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mirrored selves: The influence of self-presence in a virtual world on health,appearance, and well-being

Though considerable research has investigated spatial and social presence, little research has examined the influence of self-presence in a mediated environment. The present work is an empirical study of the role of self-presence in a social virtual world on individuals’ offline health, appearance, and well-being. Second Life users (N = 279) completed an online questionnaire about their experiences of presence in the virtual world, the influence of their avatar on their offline appearance and health behaviors, and their level of satisfaction with the relationships they developed online. It was hypothesized that self-presence would be positively associated with avatar influence on health and appearance and that self-presence would render the influence of spatial and social presence statistically non-significant. Additionally, it was hypothesized that self-presence would be positively associated with satisfaction with relationships developed in the virtual world. Support was found for these predictions. Results suggest that self-presence is uniquely linked to the influence of the virtual self on offline health and appearance and is a significant predictor of the development of satisfying online relationships. Individual differences and potential prosocial effects of virtual worlds are also discussed.     

Geospatial information infrastructures to address spatial needs in health: Collaboration,challenges and opportunities

Most health-related issues such as public health outbreaks and epidemiological threats are better understood from a spatial–temporal perspective and, clearly demand related geospatial datasets and services so that decision makers may jointly make informed decisions and coordinate response plans. Although current health applications support a kind of geospatial features, these are still disconnected from the wide range of geospatial services and datasets that geospatial information infrastructures may bring into health. In this paper we are questioning the hypothesis whether geospatial information infrastructures, in terms of standards-based geospatial services, technologies, and data models as operational assets already in place, can be exploited by health applications for which the geospatial dimension is of great importance. This may be certainly addressed by defining better collaboration strategies to uncover and promote geospatial assets to the health community. We discuss the value of collaboration, as well as the opportunities that geographic information infrastructures offer to address geospatial challenges in health applications.     

Balancing documentation and direct patient care activities: A study of a mature electronic health record system

US hospitals now fully embrace electronic documentation systems as a way to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety outcomes. Whether spending time on electronic documentation detracts from the time available for direct patient care, however, is still unresolved. There is no knowledge on the permanent effects of documenting electronically and whether it takes away significant time from patient care when the healthcare information system is mature. To understand the time spent on documentation, direct patient care tasks, and other clinical tasks in a mature information system, we conducted an observational and interview study in a midwestern academic hospital. The hospital implemented an electronic medical record system 11 years ago. We observed 22 health care workers across intensive care units, inpatient floors, and an outpatient clinic in the hospital. Results show that healthcare workers spend more time on documentation activities compared to patient care activities. Clinical roles have no influence on the time spent on documentation. This paper describes results on the time spent between documentation and patient care tasks, and discusses implications for future practice.Relevance to industryThe study applies to healthcare industry that faces immense challenges in balancing documentation activities and patient care activities.