Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Dog Behaviour: Pilot Study

Environmental enrichment (EE) can be used to enhance the environment of various animals. The aim of this pilot study was to determine the effects of seven EE activities (Bonding, Bubble machine, Conspecific play, Interactive toy, Playhouse, Stuffed food toy and Tug play) on dog behaviour, pre- and post-EE for dogs housed in an office environment during training as part of an assistance dog training programme. EE activities resulted in a significant increase in the frequency of relaxation behaviours (p < 0.01) and a significant reduction in alert (p < 0.01) and stress behaviours (p = 0.02). Results suggest various benefits of the different activities with Conspecific Play and Playhouse activities having the greatest overall positive behaviour change when compared to the other activities. The food-based EE activities (Interactive toy and Stuffed food toy) had the least behaviour change of all the activities provided. Findings will be of interest to pet owners, animal rescue centres, dog trainers and working dog organisations.

Size Constraint to Limit Interference in DRL-Free Single-Ended Biopotential Measurements

Purpose: In this work, it is shown that small, battery-powered wireless devices are so robust against electromagnetic interference that single-ended amplifiers can become a viable alternative for biopotential measurements, even without a Driven Right Leg (DRL) circuit. Methods: A power line interference analysis is presented for this case showing that this simple circuitry solution is feasible, and presenting the constraints under which it is so: small-size devices with dimensions less than 40 mm × 20 mm. Results: A functional prototype of a two-electrode wireless acquisition system was implemented using a single-ended amplifier. This allowed validating the power-line interference model with experimental results, including the acquisition of electromyographic (EMG) signals. The prototype, built with a size fulfilling the proposed guidelines, presented power-line interference voltages below 1.2 µVPP when working in an office environment. Conclusion: It can be concluded that a single-ended biopotential amplifier can be used if a sufficiently large isolation impedance is achieved with small-size wireless devices. This approach allows measurements with only two electrodes, a very simple front-end design, and a reduced number of components.

How Does Office Design Support Employees’ Health? A Case Study on the Relationships among Employees’ Perceptions of the Office Environment, Their Sense of Coherence and Office Design

This study investigated the current design circumstances of an office as well as employees’ perceptions of the office environment in relation to their perceived health, drawing on sense of coherence theory (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness). Previous studies have related the physical office environment to employee health. However, most studies have focused on alleviating negative effects, while health-promoting potential, including employee sense of coherence, has been overlooked. This study adopted a mixed method case study approach, combining semi-structured interviews with employees, structured observations, and analysis of architectural drawings. The results indicated that employees’ perceptions did not always align with the ideas behind the architectural design and that employees understood the environment differently. The study also highlighted the interrelations (and contradictions) among the different components of sense of coherence. The findings imply that organizations may need to prioritize which components of coherence should be supported most by the office environment. It also suggests that case-specific design aspects should play a more central role in studying and conceptualizing healthy office design and that design solutions should be continuously modified during the use phase, while ensuring employees’ participation. The study concluded that an ‘ideal’ office environment should not be the goal. Instead, office design should provide an environment in which employees are able to cope with challenges in comprehensible, manageable and meaningful ways.

Employee Engagement in A Remote Working Scenario

Remote working is a concept in which the employees do not commute or travel to the Organizations place of work but allows the employees to work outside of the traditional office environment. Employee engagement can be viewed as an attitude of an employee/employee’s a to be productive, to excel and therefore be committed towards the organisation. Remote working applies to a variety of employees especially office or desk-based workers. This paper explores different facets of the remote worker’s persona and provides recommendations and practices to enhance employee engagement of the employees working remotely. Remote work culture is not a new concept, but due to the current Covid-19 Pandemic situation there seems to be a rapid shift of many employees to the remote working model essentially working away from the traditional office ecosystem. This paper examines two aspects of working remotely, a. In regular times b. during a crisis and in both these scenarios how to keep the remote workers engaged and motivated to ensure a minimum if not zero loss of Productivity.

Maximum Luminances and Luminance Ratios and their Impact on Users' Discomfort Glare Perception and Productivity in Daylit Offices: Testing the Hypothesis: Maximum Luminance and Ratio Recommendations For Visual Comfort Should be Specific to the Luminous Conditions and by Accounting For the Impact of Adaptation, the Recommendations Will be More Accurate.

<p>Lighting is an important environmental factor when considering health and safety, visual comfort and workplace design. But how well do we really understand the implications of lighting on these factors, especially in a workplace environment? When one attempts to digest the enormous volume of information of the past century regarding recommended lighting conditions, one begins to see that these recommendations are varied, not extensively tested and often apply to a very limited set of luminous conditions. In a world with daylighting design which increasingly challenges creative and technological boundaries, it is important that the factors and limits which contribute to visual comfort are well understood in order to test these new designs. Daylighting design also becomes important simply from a sustainability standpoint with energy efficiency becoming increasingly important in this age of diminishing natural resources. With an increase in the amount of daylight in buildings spawning from this desire to capitalize on the free and daily renewable light from the sun, difficult and often immeasurable factors such as a view of the outdoors and higher adaptation levels of space users' eyes could very realistically affect the current limits of the human visual system for visual comfort. Visual comfort, limits, which at best are ball park figures, loosely understood and rarely adhered to. This paper documents the testing of 48 test subjects, all of an age where they could feasibly be expected to work in an office environment, in a simulated contemporary office environment with a simulated daylighting window where the luminous conditions and layout were altered to assess the impact of such changes on visual comfort, productivity and different types of user characteristics. The window is designed so luminances of the window can be changed at will. By comparing subjective assessments of the lighting conditions with test performances, a greater understanding of the luminance limits (maximums and ratios) of the human eye for different contemporary lighting layouts within working-aged populations can be defined. With improved understanding of human tolerances to luminance distributions and lighting conditions which romote visual comfort and productivity, designers can begin to give glare prediction with respect to likely effects on these factors. This information would be highly valuable to office based firms who are currently building new or retrofitting premises (to the point where they would likely pay for it as an investment for future efficiency of their firms) thereby proving beneficial to demand for skilled architects, interior and lighting designers. In comparison to the relatively more complicated glare prediction indices involving various factors and calculations, luminance ratio recommendations are an easy to understand tool which with further study could become a powerful method of site and even user-specific glare prediction in the future.</p>

Maximum Luminances and Luminance Ratios and their Impact on Users' Discomfort Glare Perception and Productivity in Daylit Offices: Testing the Hypothesis: Maximum Luminance and Ratio Recommendations For Visual Comfort Should be Specific to the Luminous Conditions and by Accounting For the Impact of Adaptation, the Recommendations Will be More Accurate.

<p>Lighting is an important environmental factor when considering health and safety, visual comfort and workplace design. But how well do we really understand the implications of lighting on these factors, especially in a workplace environment? When one attempts to digest the enormous volume of information of the past century regarding recommended lighting conditions, one begins to see that these recommendations are varied, not extensively tested and often apply to a very limited set of luminous conditions. In a world with daylighting design which increasingly challenges creative and technological boundaries, it is important that the factors and limits which contribute to visual comfort are well understood in order to test these new designs. Daylighting design also becomes important simply from a sustainability standpoint with energy efficiency becoming increasingly important in this age of diminishing natural resources. With an increase in the amount of daylight in buildings spawning from this desire to capitalize on the free and daily renewable light from the sun, difficult and often immeasurable factors such as a view of the outdoors and higher adaptation levels of space users' eyes could very realistically affect the current limits of the human visual system for visual comfort. Visual comfort, limits, which at best are ball park figures, loosely understood and rarely adhered to. This paper documents the testing of 48 test subjects, all of an age where they could feasibly be expected to work in an office environment, in a simulated contemporary office environment with a simulated daylighting window where the luminous conditions and layout were altered to assess the impact of such changes on visual comfort, productivity and different types of user characteristics. The window is designed so luminances of the window can be changed at will. By comparing subjective assessments of the lighting conditions with test performances, a greater understanding of the luminance limits (maximums and ratios) of the human eye for different contemporary lighting layouts within working-aged populations can be defined. With improved understanding of human tolerances to luminance distributions and lighting conditions which romote visual comfort and productivity, designers can begin to give glare prediction with respect to likely effects on these factors. This information would be highly valuable to office based firms who are currently building new or retrofitting premises (to the point where they would likely pay for it as an investment for future efficiency of their firms) thereby proving beneficial to demand for skilled architects, interior and lighting designers. In comparison to the relatively more complicated glare prediction indices involving various factors and calculations, luminance ratio recommendations are an easy to understand tool which with further study could become a powerful method of site and even user-specific glare prediction in the future.</p>