Trends in Macroergonomics Applications for Improved Work Systems

Macroergonomics is the subdiscipline of ergonomics that is concerned with the analysis, design, and evaluation of work systems. It means, macroergonomics focuses on harmonizing the organizational structure of a company and not only one workstation or one task, as microergonomics does. Macroergonomics is a top-down, middle-out, and bottom-up approach. In the top-down approach, the overall general work system structure may be prescribed to match the organization's sociotechnical characteristics. On the other hand, the middle-out approach focuses on the analysis of subsystems and work processes, which can be assessed both up and down the organizational hierarchy from intermediate levels, and also, up and down some changes may be done to ensure the work system design is harmonized. Finally, the bottom-up approach comprises an extensive participation of employees in the identification of problems. Currently, macroergonomics is considered an emergent subdiscipline, and there is the need to promote current theories and methods and propose new ones.

8. Governing Through Bureaucracy

This chapter explores the central government departments, executive agencies, and other public bureaucracies in operation in the UK today, such as those in local and territorial governments. These bodies help make and implement public policies and run public services. The chapter reviews more general work on bureaucracy and public administration, and sets out the theory of politician–bureaucrat relationships (going back to the principal–agent model), before addressing the classic question of civil service influence over public policy. It then takes account of the diversity of bureaucratic organizations operating in Britain today. The chapter also looks at the evidence of how politicians manage to satisfy their political objectives through delegating authority to these bodies.

Simple and cheap photosystem for herbarium digitization

The digitization of the natural history collections is a crucial task of today. It allows not only sharing the data but also virtually preserving the specimens. This is especially important for small collections that suffer from limited financial support and can be easily lost. Here we share our experience of the building of cheap and simple photosystem that can be used for routine digitization of local herbaria with low or without incomes. This photosystem is modular and based on the regular components that can be easily purchased and/or updated. It is compact and can be conveniently assembled and disassembled, and transported. This photosystem consists of horizontal tripod Beike Q999H with two led lamps Yongnuo YN-300 Air mounted on the 11” Magic Arm handles. The camera Canon EOS 800D was chosen due to presence of fully rotated display, the high resolution, modern focusing system, RAW format support, and low price on the market. The lens Tokina AT-X M35 PRO DX AF 35 mm f/2.8 Macro was chosen due to extreme sharpness along the whole capturing field, low aberrations and optical distortion, high light sensitivity, and fast autofocus. We also tested light box as an option for herbarium specimens’ digitization. However, we found that light box is inconvenient for herbarium digitization dues several reasons, among which its massive sizes, limited access to working space, and necessity of application of huge mounting system that should hold the camera far higher over the center of light box. In general, work with light box significantly decelerated the digitization process. We did not find any advantaged in use of the light box and therefore it was rejected. We hope that our experience will be useful for other curators wanting to digitize their collections and having limited budget.

Effects of Prevalent and Newly Diagnosed Arthritis on Changes in Perceived Physical Demands and Work Stress Among Older Workers: Results of a 3 Year Panel Study

Objectives Examine the effects of prevalent and newly diagnosed arthritis on changes in perceived physical demands and general work stress. Methods Conditional change logistic regression models examined the strength of association between arthritis and perceived (1) work stress and (2) physical demands, using data from the NIDI Pension Panel Study ( n = 2099). Results Prevalent and newly diagnosed arthritis were associated with increased odds of perceived work stress and high physical demands. Manual workers with newly diagnosed arthritis exhibited a 6.73-fold (95% CI = 2.87–15.77) increased odds of physical demands. Arthritis in three body extremities was differentially associated with increased odds of work stress and physical demands in manual and non-manual workers. Discussion Prevalent and incident arthritis were associated with changes in work stress and physical demands in older workers. Policies and workplace interventions to reduce stress and physical demands and improve workability in older workers with arthritis are needed.

The city as a theatre of characters. John Hejduk’s Masques

The architectural work of John Hejduk (1929-2000) is marked by theoretical-design research, collected in series with titles and periods. Among these series the one entitled Masques, developed since about 1979, can be considered the nucleus of his research on the architecture of the city and the place of origin of his language of construction later developed in his realized buildings. This paper analyses the dense network of references and analogies established by Hejduk to create his Masques, trying to fix its origin in the idea of the city as a theatre of characters composed of architecture. Starting from the name chosen for the title of this series, the paper tries to trace the threads that lead from the general work of the various projects of the Masques series, to the reflections and ideas that produced it. Then, it comes back again to the observation of architecture and of a case study (Security, 1989), to understand and explain its meaning and the compositional methods involved into the process of genesis of form. Through the entire work named Masques, and its recognizable link with the buildings and installation realized around the world, Hejduk has built an archive of architectural prototypes ready to construct different parts of the city, thus highlighting the strong connection that his work establishes with reality in order "to conceive it, represent it and finally realize it".

Towards Reducing Risk of Injury in Nursing: Design and Analysis of a New Passive Exoskeleton for Torso Twist Assist

Nursing is among the most physically challenging occupations and involves intensive lifting activities often including twisting of torso while performing tasks such as patient handling. Frequent and repetitive twisting of the body is known to induce large demands on the musculature, which may lead to MSD with direct and indirect costs to the hospital governance. One solution proposed through this article includes an exoskeleton specifically designed to assist in twisting movements of the trunk. This involves a double-actuator fully passive system that assists in rotation of the torso with the help of mechanical springs and cable modules. Our study provides a conceptual design of the mechanism, and a preliminary analysis using the concepts of kinematics, dynamics, usability, wearability, and freedom of movement. Results show that the mechanism could offer freedom of rotation for the wearer’s torso up to 52, 25 and 22 degrees (with stationary hip joint) along the transverse, sagittal and coronal planes, respectively. Moreover, similar force generation (up to 80N) was obtained in both actuators for same rotation on transverse plane in both directions for a combination of spring stiffness (0.5 – 1 N/mm) and damping (0.1 - 0.5 N-sec/mm) parameters. Our proposed design could also be integrated to the current exoskeletons in the form of a module and could be beneficial in more general work settings.

A Crossover Design for Comparative Efficacy: A 28 Days-Randomized Clinical Trial of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain of Degenerative Conditions

In physiotherapy practice, a number of patients are known to suffer from chronic pain which results in reduced activity levels, interference in sleep, enjoyment of life, mood, and relations with others. Cognitive behavioral therapy, in this aspect will provide a holistic approach to the available treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy has also been shown to target cognitive distortions such as pain catastrophizing, fear avoidance, overgeneralizing and others, all the while improving physical health, activity levels and quality of life. This study assessed the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy in the management of patients with chronic pain at the University Teaching Hospitals in Zambia. A randomized clinical trial utilizing a crossover design was utilized for the study. A random sample of 32 participants was used in the study after fulfilling the study criteria. Data was analyzed using ANCOVA with alpha of 0.05. The study recorded small effects in the reduction of pain intensity in both phase one and two. In phase one, it also recorded small effects in general work interference, sleep interference and enjoyment of life interference but recorded medium effects in normal work interference and mood interference. Phase two of the study recorded small effect size in reduction of general work interference, normal work interference, mood interference, relations with others interference, sleep interference and Enjoyment of Life interference. Cognitive behavioral therapy ensures the management of chronic pain addresses areas in which an individual is affected by pain and which in turn exacerbate the chronic pain. Physiotherapy provides a more holistic approach when used in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy.

Portuguese Monarchs and Their Royal Convents and Monasteries, Early Renaissance-Manueline

Following the pattern in vogue during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the religious architecture policy followed by the Portuguese kings was based on the construction of buildings. This approach unsurprisingly sought to respond to the growth of religious orders in the kingdom and simultaneously served as a mirror of magnificence and royal power. In order to make the construction sites of such buildings more successful, working procedures such as the direction of general work, how the tasks were divided, and how workers were paid needed an in-depth but careful adjustment. The royal patronage around the Mendicants (mainly Dominicans and Franciscans) throughout the 15th century appeared to be dominant. At the end of the century, during the reign of King Manuel I, the tendency was to favor and support instead the Hieronymites, a contemplative and intellectual religious order, responsible for spreading the Devotio Moderna and a reformist spirit centered on Erasmus. The Monastery of Batalha, the Monastery of Jesus of Setubal, and the Monastery of Jerónimos are three representative sides of an architectural strategy where power and spirituality mix in the interior and exterior of buildings that fortunately still remain.

GENERAL THEORETICAL FUNDAMENTALS OF FORMATION OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE OF THE HEAD OF THE INSTITUTION OF GENERAL SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE PROCESS OF SELF-EDUCATION

The article considers the basics of formation of communicative competence for heads of general secondary education institutions in the process of self-education. The article also confirms the necessity of self-improvement and development for the work of educational managers. The author notes that the meaning of self-education is to meet the cognitive activity and the need of the leader in self-realization through continuing education. The content of self-education is to master the technique and culture of mental work with the ability to overcome problems and work independently on personal professional self-improvement. The process of self-education and its management in its structure consists of several successive stages, the basis of which is related to the preparation, implementation and receipt of the results of their activities. The main stages are determining the purpose of the activity and formulating priorities, collecting all information about the state of the object of management, defining tasks for general work, programming and forecasting, organization and correction, analysis of the effectiveness of what has been done. The main principles of self-education are: continuity, purposefulness, integration, general and professional culture, interconnection and continuity, creativity and variability, etc. The content of individual self-education of the manager includes systematic and continuous research of scientific, popular science, educational, artistic and other literature. Opportunity to directly participate in the functioning of school, district, regional, state and interstate methodological associations, webinars, conferences, pedagogical readings, development of individual problems and non-standard quick solution.

Necesidades Educativas Especiales y Educación Física: un análisis desde la propuesta curricular ministerial de Chile (Special Educational Needs and Physical Education: an analysis from the Chilean ministerial curricular proposal)

El artículo tiene como objetivo analizar las Bases Curriculares (BC) de la asignatura de Educación Física y Salud (EFS) en relación con la atención de estudiantes con Necesidades Educativas Especiales (NEE). Se utilizó una metodología cualitativa de tipo descriptiva que tiene como procedimiento el análisis bibliográfico y documental. Los resultados indican que las BC no están diseñadas en lo específico para trabajar con estudiantes con NEE puesto que no existen orientaciones puntuales para ello, sino que el enfoque está en el trabajo general con estudiantes que no tienen dificultad para conseguir los objetivos y habilidades establecidas por el currículo nacional chileno. Se concluye que las BC están orientadas a la homogeneidad del alumnado y presenta poca o nula utilidad en el abordaje de la EFS propiamente tal en este grupo. Abstract. The article aims to analyze the Curricular Bases (BC) of the Physical Education and Health (EFS) subject in relation to the attention of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN). A qualitative descriptive methodology was used that has as a procedure the bibliographic and documentary analysis. The results indicate that the BC are not specifically designed to work with students with SEN since there are no specific guidelines for it, but rather that the focus is on general work with students who do not have difficulty in achieving the objectives and skills established by the national curriculum. It is concluded that the BC are oriented to the homogeneity of the students and that their usefulness does not contribute to the approach of the SAI itself in this group.