Getting Personal: Physiological Measurements and Human Performance in Safety Critical Tasks. Facing the Ethical Implications

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiachra O'Brolchain ◽  
Maria Chiara Leva
Keyword(s):  
Human Performance ◽  
Safety Critical ◽  
Ethical Implications

scholarly journals An Engineering Approach to Storage and Access in High Priority Scenarios

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 1349-1353
Author(s):  
FNU Varun Ananthasivan Srikrishnan ◽  
Richard T. Stone ◽  
Cong Xu
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
Aviation Industry ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Safety Critical ◽  
Work Spaces ◽  
Storage Room ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Time Critical

Over the past few years, an extensive amount of research has been done in the field of Human Factors. Applications range from the design of day-to-day products like cell phones to the design and development of safety-critical systems like flight displays. The highly critical aviation industry has shown time and again the importance of human-centered approach in developing systems for the safety of those operating it and the passengers. Similarly, other safety-critical industries like law enforcement have been seen to incorporate human factors in the design of weapons and exoskeletons aimed at adapting to humans and making their unit stronger. Many manufacturing firms have begun to see the importance of proper work postures for their employees to avoid musculoskeletal disorders and the financial and regulatory implications of not following proper work ethics that take care of employees’ health. Further, many organizations have started to consider team dynamics in their operations understanding the importance of healthy interaction among the employees and between employees and the management. However, there are a very few references to any studies or organizational practices that draw a connection between human performance and human-centric re-design of work places, with most designs being limited to work desks and activity-based working (ABW) work spaces. This paper focuses on the organizational engineering of storage spaces to enable easy location and retrieval of equipment, thus supporting the time-critical nature of operations at a miscellaneous storage room at the Story County Sheriff’s Office. Experiments were carried out using two familiar scenarios both before and after the redesign of the storage room. A significant improvement in the performance of the operator was observed after the redesign, as could be seen by the reduction in time taken to identify and retrieve equipment and the qualitative survey that was obtained at the end of the experiment. The wasted time was translated to a cost and the newly designed storage design saved a significant amount of money spent on actions that precluded efficient accomplishment of tasks, something that could have been used by the Sheriff’s office to purchase equipment for normal operation of the office. The results suggested such interventions in different sectors that have similar high-priority operations. The results of the study indicates that there is a need for the industry to extend research towards this field that we name “organization engineering”.

NETWORK PERFORMANCE IMPACTS ON OPERATORS IN SAFETY-CRITICAL SYSTEMS

2006 ◽  
Vol 05 (01) ◽  
pp. 173-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
TUNCAY BAYRAK ◽  
MARTHA R. GRABOWSKI
Keyword(s):  
Network Performance ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Network Reliability ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Wide Area ◽  
Wide Area Networks ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Safety Critical ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Operator Workload

Safety-critical wide area networks are comprised of human and technical elements cooperatively performing tasks in a safety-critical setting. In such settings, both human and technical dimensions are critical in performance evaluation. It is the relationships between changes in network performance and their impacts on human operator performance with safety-critical wide area networks that we investigate in this research. The paper begins by examining the theoretical background for this research, and then describes the research model. It was found that decreases in network reliability were associated with expected degradations in operator satisfaction, operator confidence, and increases in operator workload. Likewise, it was found that an increased number of network tasks processed was associated with a decrease in operator accuracy and decreased operator communication. The results of this study suggest that understanding the impact of the network performance on human performance is important in safety-critical settings employing wide-area networks.

Limits to Growth in Elite Sport - Some Ethical Considerations

1998 ◽  
pp. 10-16
Author(s):  
Gunnar Breivik
Keyword(s):  
Human Performance ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Elite Sport ◽  
Limits To Growth ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Extreme Stress ◽  
Common Ethic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Science And Research

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the ethical implications and problems in elite sport as it gets closer to the human performance limit. Modern elite sport must be viewed on the background of the idea of systematic progress. The Olympic motto, 'citius, altius, fortius'- faster, higher, stronger-gives a precise concentration of this idea. Modern sport is also influenced by the liberal idea of a free market where actors can perform, compete and be rewarded according to performance. However, one may ask why and how athletes are willing to risk their health and even their life on the free market of sport when they do the extreme: push limits, break records, set new standards, develop new events. This paper discusses what may be the result as sport moves toward the limits of human performance. The ethical focus on the development of the elite sport should not be restricted to the individual athlete, but should also include the various systems that make up elite sport. Other actors, like coaches, leaders, sponsors, medical personnel, service people, etc., are taking part in the same development. One problem in the modern context is that society is divided into different moral sectors. What is accepted in entertainment or art may not be accepted in sport. It is suggested that we should develop a common ethic for all performance-centered activities like music, painting, science and research, acrobatics and stunts, acting, top politics and business. Or one could include all situations and events where people are put under extreme stress and have to perform well, like during expeditions, in idealistic humanitarian work, during hazards, and catastrophes. At the same time, one should not develop a sort of elite ethic. We need a new ethic that defines the ethical tolerance level in elite sport and that also points to some of the possibilities for development of both character and virtues under extreme pressure.

The limits of human performance

2008 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 11-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Beneke ◽  
Dieter Böning
Keyword(s):  
Human Performance ◽  
Safety Margin ◽  
Afferent Input ◽  
Metabolic Energy ◽  
Human Organism ◽  
Mechanical Resistance ◽  
As Doping ◽  
Gene And Protein Expression ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Biochemical Research

Human performance, defined by mechanical resistance and distance per time, includes human, task and environmental factors, all interrelated. It requires metabolic energy provided by anaerobic and aerobic metabolic energy sources. These sources have specific limitations in the capacity and rate to provide re-phosphorylation energy, which determines individual ratios of aerobic and anaerobic metabolic power and their sustainability. In healthy athletes, limits to provide and utilize metabolic energy are multifactorial, carefully matched and include a safety margin imposed in order to protect the integrity of the human organism under maximal effort. Perception of afferent input associated with effort leads to conscious or unconscious decisions to modulate or terminate performance; however, the underlying mechanisms of cerebral control are not fully understood. The idea to move borders of performance with the help of biochemicals is two millennia old. Biochemical findings resulted in highly effective substances widely used to increase performance in daily life, during preparation for sport events and during competition, but many of them must be considered as doping and therefore illegal. Supplements and food have ergogenic potential; however, numerous concepts are controversially discussed with respect to legality and particularly evidence in terms of usefulness and risks. The effect of evidence-based nutritional strategies on adaptations in terms of gene and protein expression that occur in skeletal muscle during and after exercise training sessions is widely unknown. Biochemical research is essential for better understanding of the basic mechanisms causing fatigue and the regulation of the dynamic adaptation to physical and mental training.

1880: Assessment of Basic Human Performance Resources Predicts Performance of Ureterorenoscopy in Human Cadavers

2004 ◽  
Vol 171 (4S) ◽  
pp. 496-497
Author(s):  
Edward D. Matsumoto ◽  
George V. Kondraske ◽  
Lucas Jacomides ◽  
Kenneth Ogan ◽  
Margaret S. Pearle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Performance ◽  
Human Cadavers

Behavior in the Brain

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin M. Monti ◽  
Adrian M. Owen
Keyword(s):  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Motor Output ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Minimally Conscious ◽  
Brain Insults ◽  
Brain Behavior

Recent evidence has suggested that functional neuroimaging may play a crucial role in assessing residual cognition and awareness in brain injury survivors. In particular, brain insults that compromise the patient’s ability to produce motor output may render standard clinical testing ineffective. Indeed, if patients were aware but unable to signal so via motor behavior, they would be impossible to distinguish, at the bedside, from vegetative patients. Considering the alarming rate with which minimally conscious patients are misdiagnosed as vegetative, and the severe medical, legal, and ethical implications of such decisions, novel tools are urgently required to complement current clinical-assessment protocols. Functional neuroimaging may be particularly suited to this aim by providing a window on brain function without requiring patients to produce any motor output. Specifically, the possibility of detecting signs of willful behavior by directly observing brain activity (i.e., “brain behavior”), rather than motoric output, allows this approach to reach beyond what is observable at the bedside with standard clinical assessments. In addition, several neuroimaging studies have already highlighted neuroimaging protocols that can distinguish automatic brain responses from willful brain activity, making it possible to employ willful brain activations as an index of awareness. Certainly, neuroimaging in patient populations faces some theoretical and experimental difficulties, but willful, task-dependent, brain activation may be the only way to discriminate the conscious, but immobile, patient from the unconscious one.

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