scholarly journals Footwear comfort: a systematic search and narrative synthesis of the literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hylton B. Menz ◽  
Daniel R. Bonanno

Abstract Objective To provide a narrative synthesis of the research literature pertaining to footwear comfort, including definitions, measurement scales, footwear design features, and physiological and psychological factors. Methods A systematic search was conducted which yielded 101 manuscripts. The most relevant manuscripts were selected based on the predetermined subheadings of the review (definitions, measurement scales, footwear design features, and physiological and psychological factors). A narrative synthesis of the findings of the included studies was undertaken. Results The available evidence is highly fragmented and incorporates a wide range of study designs, participants, and assessment approaches, making it challenging to draw strong conclusions or implications for clinical practice. However, it can be broadly concluded that (i) simple visual analog scales may provide a reliable overall assessment of comfort, (ii) well-fitted, lightweight shoes with soft midsoles and curved rocker-soles are generally perceived to be most comfortable, and (iii) the influence of sole flexibility, shoe microclimate and insoles is less clear and likely to be more specific to the population, setting and task being performed. Conclusion Footwear comfort is a complex and multifaceted concept that is influenced not only by structural and functional aspects of shoe design, but also task requirements and anatomical and physiological differences between individuals. Further research is required to delineate the contribution of specific shoe features more clearly, and to better understand the interaction between footwear features and individual physiological attributes.

Author(s):  
T.J. Kasperbauer

This chapter discusses why people often fail to meet their moral goals and identifies the main obstacles in achieving moral change. It shows how psychological processes specific to animals, as outlined in chapters 2–4, interact with broader components of moral psychology. Three main moral psychological factors are discussed: emotions, situational conditions, and self-control. These factors are used to illustrate the frequent failure of reason and higher-level cognition to modify our moral responses, including our treatment of animals. The discussion draws from a wide range of research within empirical moral psychology as well as recent critical discussion of this research among philosophers.


Author(s):  
Pranav Madhav Kuber ◽  
Ehsan Rashedi

A new forklift backrest has been developed by incorporating adjustability concepts into the design to facilitate comfort to a wide range of users. We have conducted a comparative study between the new and original backrests to assess the effectiveness of design features. Using the phenomenon of restlessness, discomfort of the user was associated with the amount of body movement, where we have used a motion- capture system and a force platform to quantify the individuals’ movement for a wide range of body sizes. Meanwhile, subjective comfort and design feedback were collected using a questionnaire. Our results showed a reduction in the mean torso movement and the maximum center of pressure change of location by 300 and 6 mm, respectively, for the new design. Taking advantage of adjustability feature, the new backrest design exhibited enhanced comfort for longer durations and reduced magnitude of discomfort for a wide range of participants’ body sizes.


Author(s):  
Madeleine Evans Webb ◽  
Elizabeth Murray ◽  
Zane William Younger ◽  
Henry Goodfellow ◽  
Jamie Ross

AbstractCancer, and the complex nature of treatment, has a profound impact on lives of patients and their families. Subsequently, cancer patients have a wide range of needs. This study aims to identify and synthesise cancer patients’ views about areas where they need support throughout their care. A systematic  search of the literature from PsycInfo, Embase and Medline databases was conducted, and a narrative. Synthesis of results was carried out using the Corbin & Strauss “3 lines of work” framework. For each line of work, a group of key common needs were identified. For illness-work, the key needs idenitified were; understanding their illness and treatment options, knowing what to expect, communication with healthcare professionals, and staying well. In regards to everyday work, patients wanted to maintain a sense of normalcy and look after their loved ones. For biographical work, patients commonly struggled with the emotion impact of illness and a lack of control over their lives. Spiritual, sexual and financial problems were less universal. For some types of support, demographic factors influenced the level of need reported. While all patients are unique, there are a clear set of issues that are common to a majority of cancer journeys. To improve care, these needs should be prioritised by healthcare practitioners.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhasmina Tacheva ◽  
Anton Ivanov

BACKGROUND Opioid-related deaths constitute a problem of pandemic proportions in the United States, with no clear solution in sight. Although addressing addiction—the heart of this problem—ought to remain a priority for health practitioners, examining the community-level psychological factors with a known impact on health behaviors may provide valuable insights for attenuating this health crisis by curbing risky behaviors before they evolve into addiction. OBJECTIVE The goal of this study is twofold: to demonstrate the relationship between community-level psychological traits and fatal opioid overdose both theoretically and empirically, and to provide a blueprint for using social media data to glean these psychological factors in a real-time, reliable, and scalable manner. METHODS We collected annual panel data from Twitter for 2891 counties in the United States between 2014-2016 and used a novel data mining technique to obtain average county-level “Big Five” psychological trait scores. We then performed interval regression, using a control function to alleviate omitted variable bias, to empirically test the relationship between county-level psychological traits and the prevalence of fatal opioid overdoses in each county. RESULTS After controlling for a wide range of community-level biopsychosocial factors related to health outcomes, we found that three of the operationalizations of the five psychological traits examined at the community level in the study were significantly associated with fatal opioid overdoses: extraversion (β=.308, <i>P</i>&lt;.001), neuroticism (β=.248, <i>P</i>&lt;.001), and conscientiousness (β=.229, <i>P</i>&lt;.001). CONCLUSIONS Analyzing the psychological characteristics of a community can be a valuable tool in the local, state, and national fight against the opioid pandemic. Health providers and community health organizations can benefit from this research by evaluating the psychological profile of the communities they serve and assessing the projected risk of fatal opioid overdose based on the relationships our study predict when making decisions for the allocation of overdose-reversal medication and other vital resources.


Author(s):  
Ruzimov Sanjarbek ◽  
Jamshid Mavlonov ◽  
Akmal Mukhitdinov

The paper aims to present an analysis of the component sizes of commercially available vehicles with electrified powertrains. The paper provides insight into how the powertrain components (an internal combustion engine, an electric motor and a battery) of mass production electrified vehicles are sized. The data of wide range of mass production electrified vehicles are collected and analyzed. Firstly, the main requirements to performance of a vehicle are described. The power values to meet the main performance requirements are calculated and compared to the real vehicle data. Based on the calculated values of the power requirements the minimum sizes of the powertrain components are derived. The paper highlights how the sizing methodologies, described in the research literature, are implemented in sizing the powertrain of the commercially available electrified vehicles.


Author(s):  
Ellen Swift

The relationship between design, function, and behaviour is explored in this chapter by assessing design features and their affordances against firstly, evidence of use drawn from wear studies of the artefacts that indicate the way they have been used; secondly, both experimental recreations, and the end-products the tools were used to create; and thirdly, archaeological context. In this way, we can examine both the potential of an approach focusing on design features, and also any limitations. I hope to show that affordances are an important source of evidence and provide insights that cannot be gained fromother sources, but that it is important not to take potential affordances at face value, and to interrogate their relationship to likely uses by comparison with other types of evidence. The first method through which possible affordances can be evaluated is through comparison with use-wear. In this way, it is possible to see how ‘proper function’ uses, suggested by practical affordances, compare to evidence of actual use as represented by use-wear. In a previous study, I investigated use-wear in relation to the functional features of Roman spoons (principally cochlear spoons with pointed handles), which I will briefly summarize here. Two principal affordances were evaluated: firstly, the shape of the spoon bowl, and secondly, the capacity of the bowl to hold varying amounts of liquid. I also investigated some other features such as the handle shape. The data, studied through personal inspection of museum objects, were drawn mainly from south-east Britain with some comparative material from the Roman site at Augst in Switzerland which has a very large collection of Roman spoons. Roman cochlear spoons occur in a wide range of well-dated forms, with different bowl shapes broadly succeeding one another chronologically (with some inevitable overlap). Round-bowled spoons are the earliest, found in the first and second centuries AD. Forms with a pear-shaped bowl are found from towards the end of the first century AD to the end of the second century, and forms with a fig-shaped bowl from the mid-second into the third century AD.


Author(s):  
Michelle Baddeley

Behavioural macroeconomics has significant constraints, reflecting the difficulty of bringing together the choices of different people with widely different personality types, moods, and emotions, making decisions in complex ways using a wide range of heuristics that generate an even wider range of biases. ‘Behaviour in the macroeconomy’ explores how behavioural economists can overcome these difficulties, contributing to the development of innovative macroeconomic theories and collection of new types of behavioural macroeconomic data. It focuses on how social and psychological factors, including optimism and pessimism, help us to understand macroeconomic fluctuations; the impact of confidence and social mood on macroeconomic outcomes; and another theme in behavioural economics—happiness and well-being.


2020 ◽  
pp. 105756772093915
Author(s):  
Clare Farmer ◽  
Robyn Clifford

Jurisdictions across Australia have implemented a range of policies to tackle problems associated with alcohol consumption in and around licensed premises. One key measure, patron banning, has proliferated in various forms. Banning applies spatial restrictions and locational prohibitions upon recipients. It is typically predicated upon a presumed deterrent effect for both recipients and the wider community to reduce alcohol-related disorderly behaviors and to improve public safety. This article documents a mapping review of patron banning mechanisms across Australian jurisdictions, using an analysis of legislation, operational practices, policy documentation and reviews, published data, and research literature. The mapping review then frames an analysis of banning policy. Key conceptual and operational issues are discussed with respect to deterrence and community protection; displacement, diffusion, and isolation of effects; enforcement; due process and legitimacy; and the steady civilianization of punishment. Given the wide range and reach of banning mechanisms, there is an urgent need for specific empirical examination of the use and effect of spatial exclusion and prohibition across Australia’s nighttime economy to inform policy development and refinement, to strengthen the assurance of due process, and to optimize the potential beneficial effects of patron banning.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Fraser-Arnott

This grounded theory project asked: “How do Library and Information Science (LIS) graduates in non-library roles experience professional identity?” This is an important question for current LIS practitioners and students because job opportunities are increasingly available in non-library work settings. There is limited research available on the professional identity experiences of LIS graduates in general and even less available on the professional experiences of LIS graduates in non-library roles. The study produced the theory of Personalizing Professionalism which found that individuals possess two identities which interact with each other throughout one’s career. The first is an internal appraisal of self which represents an individual’s assessment of who they “really” are as a professional. The second is an externally expressed identity, which represents who that individual presents him or herself to be. Interactions with others impact individuals’ internal appraisal of self and externally expressed identity and represent an area of potential conflict. This study contributes to the research literature on professional identity and identity formation and expression. For the LIS community, understanding how these professionals experience professional identity can help practitioners, educators, and professional associations to take advantage of a wide range of employment options.


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