Using a participatory ergonomic approach, this research explored if the self-identified needs and concerns of computer users are reflected in a typical occupational therapy office ergonomic educational presentation. While the study confirmed that generally the needs of computer users are met, the topics that the participants found to be most relevant were workstation layout and equipment adjustment. This study also revealed that knowledge transfer/translation is an important factor and that clinicians should consider involving clients at the initial development phase of client educational information. The study participants preferred ergonomic information to be communicated in a brief manner, emphasizing action-oriented information and avoiding medical references. They wanted client information to employ humour, colour and lots of “pizzazz.” The manner in which clinical information is communicated to clients is vital for effective client education.

O metal mercúrio é conhecido pela sua grande toxidade apesar de seu emprego difundido. Desde a Antigüidade, se reconhece sua ação tóxica na exposição ocupacional. Em alguns ambientes laborais, os riscos são maiores, como é o caso de hospitais, que utilizam o mercúrio elementar em vários equipamentos, especialmente em termômetros de verificação da temperatura corporal, largamente empregados. Como na instituição objeto deste estudo foram quebrados 148 termômetros em uma Unidade de Terapia Intensiva no período de um ano, esta pesquisa objetivou a realização de uma avaliação de alguns indicadores ambientais neste espaço de trabalho e de alguns indicadores biológicos e psicológicos em uma amostra de trabalhadores desta unidade, que se dispuseram a participar da pesquisa. A avaliação de tais indicadores são recomendados como pertinentes pela literatura (ATSDR, 1989). Não se detectou em nenhuma das avaliações realizadas, índices acima das normas estabelecidas. Interpreta-se que a temperatura da unidade (20ºC) reduz a possibilidade do mercúrio se volatizar e intoxicar os trabalhadores. As regras de higiene, típicas do contexto hospitalar, e a rotina de rápido recolhimento dos resíduos dos termômetros quebrados e seu acondicionamento em recipientes com tampa são os principais fatores explicativos para os índices encontrados. / Mercury is known by its great toxity in spite of its wide use. Its toxic action in the occupational exposition has been known since ancient time. In some working places risks are great such as hospitals. Once mercury is used in a greater variety of equipments, especially in thermometers to check bodily temperature. In the institution where this study was carried out 148 thermometers were broken in the intensive care unit in a one-year period. This paper aims at assessing environmental e as well as some biologic and psycho logic rates in this area considering a group of employees of this unit, who were willing to take part in the study the rate assessment is recommended by literature (ATSDR 1989). In rates above normality have not been found in these assessments therefore, it is concluded that the unit temperature (20ºC) reduces in mercury the possibility to volatize and intoxicate employees. Hygiene rules, usual in the hospital routine, as well as quich collection of residues from the broken thermometers and their placement in containers with lids are the main reason for the found rates.

O metal mercúrio é conhecido pela sua grande toxidade apesar de seu emprego difundido. Desde a Antigüidade, se reconhece sua ação tóxica na exposição ocupacional. Em alguns ambientes laborais, os riscos são maiores, como é o caso de hospitais, que utilizam o mercúrio elementar em vários equipamentos, especialmente em termômetros de verificação da temperatura corporal, largamente empregados. Como na instituição objeto deste estudo foram quebrados 148 termômetros em uma Unidade de Terapia Intensiva no período de um ano, esta pesquisa objetivou a realização de uma avaliação de alguns indicadores ambientais neste espaço de trabalho e de alguns indicadores biológicos e psicológicos em uma amostra de trabalhadores desta unidade, que se dispuseram a participar da pesquisa. A avaliação de tais indicadores são recomendados como pertinentes pela literatura (ATSDR, 1989). Não se detectou em nenhuma das avaliações realizadas, índices acima das normas estabelecidas. Interpreta-se que a temperatura da unidade (20ºC) reduz a possibilidade do mercúrio se volatizar e intoxicar os trabalhadores. As regras de higiene, típicas do contexto hospitalar, e a rotina de rápido recolhimento dos resíduos dos termômetros quebrados e seu acondicionamento em recipientes com tampa são os principais fatores explicativos para os índices encontrados. / Mercury is known by its great toxity in spite of its wide use. Its toxic action in the occupational exposition has been known since ancient time. In some working places risks are great such as hospitals. Once mercury is used in a greater variety of equipments, especially in thermometers to check bodily temperature. In the institution where this study was carried out 148 thermometers were broken in the intensive care unit in a one-year period. This paper aims at assessing environmental e as well as some biologic and psycho logic rates in this area considering a group of employees of this unit, who were willing to take part in the study the rate assessment is recommended by literature (ATSDR 1989). In rates above normality have not been found in these assessments therefore, it is concluded that the unit temperature (20ºC) reduces in mercury the possibility to volatize and intoxicate employees. Hygiene rules, usual in the hospital routine, as well as quich collection of residues from the broken thermometers and their placement in containers with lids are the main reason for the found rates.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:28:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-01-13Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:57:52Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 martins_ap_me_bauru.pdf: 1632375 bytes, checksum: 705fa3aa72b24009e5708a255111bd95 (MD5) / Os trabalhadores em marcenarias, de maneira geral, estão expostos a diversos riscos para a sua integridade física e psicológica. Existe um elevado risco de acidentes, podendo levar ao afastamento do trabalhador por períodos de tempo consideráveis, o que, além de prejudicar o funcionário, implica em prejuízos para as empresas, ocasionados pela indisponibilidade de mão-de-obra qualificada para substituir o acidentado, interferindo, assim, nos prazos de entrega dos produtos e levando conseqüentemente ao afastamento da clientela. O objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar os inconvenientes relacionados às posturas adotadas pelos operadores da atividade da célula de produção responsável pelo corte de painéis de madeira, descrevendo os sintomas músculo-esqueléticos correlacionados, através da aplicação da análise ergonômica, propondo melhorias baseadas nos resultados desta análise, quantificando-as. Como metodologia utilizou-se a aplicação do protocolo avaliação ergonômica, contendo o diagrama de desconforto de CORLLET & BISHOP, a realização da análise ergonômica da atividade e a aplicação do método OWAS. Como resultado dos métodos aplicados verificou-se os pontos necessários para a aplicação da ergonomia corretiva, bem como os resultados oriundos das implantações das melhorias efetuadas / The workers in carpentry, in general, are exposed to various risks to their physical and psychological integrity. There is a high risk of accidents, leading to the expulsion of the worker for considerable periods, which, in addition to harming the official, results in losses for businesses, caused by the unavailability of labor-qualified to replace the bumpy, interfering, so in the time of delivery and consequently leading to the expulsion of customers. The objective of this research is identifying the problems related to the posture adopted by operators of the activity of the cell responsible for the production of wood cutting boards, describing the skeletal muscle-related symptoms by applying ergonomic analysis and propose improvements based on the results of this analysis , quantifying them. Methodology was used as the application of ergonomic assessment protocol, containing the diagram of discomfort of CORLLET & BISHOP, the analysis of ergonomic activity and the method Owas. As a result of the methods it was found the points necessary for the implementation of corrective ergonomics as well as the results from the deployment of the improvements made

O metal mercúrio é conhecido pela sua grande toxidade apesar de seu emprego difundido. Desde a Antigüidade, se reconhece sua ação tóxica na exposição ocupacional. Em alguns ambientes laborais, os riscos são maiores, como é o caso de hospitais, que utilizam o mercúrio elementar em vários equipamentos, especialmente em termômetros de verificação da temperatura corporal, largamente empregados. Como na instituição objeto deste estudo foram quebrados 148 termômetros em uma Unidade de Terapia Intensiva no período de um ano, esta pesquisa objetivou a realização de uma avaliação de alguns indicadores ambientais neste espaço de trabalho e de alguns indicadores biológicos e psicológicos em uma amostra de trabalhadores desta unidade, que se dispuseram a participar da pesquisa. A avaliação de tais indicadores são recomendados como pertinentes pela literatura (ATSDR, 1989). Não se detectou em nenhuma das avaliações realizadas, índices acima das normas estabelecidas. Interpreta-se que a temperatura da unidade (20ºC) reduz a possibilidade do mercúrio se volatizar e intoxicar os trabalhadores. As regras de higiene, típicas do contexto hospitalar, e a rotina de rápido recolhimento dos resíduos dos termômetros quebrados e seu acondicionamento em recipientes com tampa são os principais fatores explicativos para os índices encontrados. / Mercury is known by its great toxity in spite of its wide use. Its toxic action in the occupational exposition has been known since ancient time. In some working places risks are great such as hospitals. Once mercury is used in a greater variety of equipments, especially in thermometers to check bodily temperature. In the institution where this study was carried out 148 thermometers were broken in the intensive care unit in a one-year period. This paper aims at assessing environmental e as well as some biologic and psycho logic rates in this area considering a group of employees of this unit, who were willing to take part in the study the rate assessment is recommended by literature (ATSDR 1989). In rates above normality have not been found in these assessments therefore, it is concluded that the unit temperature (20ºC) reduces in mercury the possibility to volatize and intoxicate employees. Hygiene rules, usual in the hospital routine, as well as quich collection of residues from the broken thermometers and their placement in containers with lids are the main reason for the found rates.

In Virtual Reality (VR), the body is often used as input in VR, having a healthy working posture is important for long session in VR. To assess how severe different interaction methods are for the body, user tests was done in VR. 14 people participated and tested six manipulation controls which operate in different ways. Their hands' and neck's position and orientation was measured throughout the test, and from this data characteristic body postures for each control setup was chosen. These were evaluated with RULA. How great the wrist angle is can have an effect on the severity of the posture. Also whether or not the arm is to the side or across the midpoint of the body should be taken into consideration.When accounting for both the hands and neck, one of these have to come outside their comfortable zone if the hands are supposed to be seen by the user in VR.

Virtual reality is rapidly expanding its capabilities and accessibility to consumers. The application of virtual reality in training for precision tasks has been limited to specialized equipment such as a haptic glove or a haptic stylus, but not studied for handheld controllers in consumer-grade systems such as the HTC Vive. A straight-line precision steadiness task was adopted in virtual reality to emulate basic linear movements in industrial operations and disability rehabilitation. This study collected the total time and the error time for the straight-line task in both virtual reality and a physical control experiment for 48 participants. The task was performed at four different gap widths, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, and 7mm, to see the effects of virtual reality at different levels of precision. Average error ratios were then calculated and analyzed for strong associations to various factors. The results indicated that a combination of Environment x Gap Width factors significantly affected average error ratios, with a p-value of 0.000. This human factors study also collected participants’ ratings of user experience dimensions, such as difficulty, comfort, strain, reliability, and effectiveness, for both physical and virtual environments in a questionnaire. The results indicate that the ratings for difficulty, reliability, and effectiveness were significantly different, with virtual reality rating consistently rating worse than the physical environment. An analysis of questionnaire responses indicates a significant association of overall environment preference (physical or virtual) with performance data, with a p-value of 0.027. In general, virtual reality yielded higher error among participants. As the difficulty of the task increased, the performance in virtual reality degraded significantly. Virtual reality has great potential for a variety of precision applications, but the technology in consumer-grade hardware must improve significantly to enable these applications. Virtual reality is difficult to implement without previous experience or specialized knowledge in programming, which makes the technology currently inaccessible for many people. Future work is needed to investigate a larger variety of precision tasks and movements to expand the body of knowledge of virtual reality applications for training purposes.

The Master’s thesis addresses the issue of ergonomics. The aim of the diploma thesis is to analyze the current ergonomic state of the production line with the subsequent detection of ergonomic risks, the use of various assessment methods and comparison with legislative requirements. After defining the deficiencies, corrective actions are proposed, leading to their elimination and reduction of work intensity. The ergonomic analysis was performed within Tyco Electronics Czech s.r.o. The analytical part follows up on, in depth, the theoretical part of the work, where all its aspects are listed in addition to the introduction of ergonomics as a scientific discipline.

Workers within production and assembly lines are often exposed to ergonomically unfavorable tasksand conditions. Reaction forces and reaction torques generated by industrial power tools may causenot only discomfort but also health issues and injury. The forceful tasks in combination with highlyrepetitive hand-arm motions and prolonged tool use paves the way for loss in workforce capacitywhich in turn can lead to great losses in productivity and product quality. An umbrella term for themany injuries and diseases that may arise from the use of such tools is Cumulative Trauma Disorders(CTD).This study aimed to investigate the ergonomic effect of power tool use for various tool and taskrelated conditions. The study required the setup of a test rig with a simulated handle of the tool. Theergonomic impact was assessed by measuring the torques associated with different tighteningstrategies, as well as measuring the angular displacement of the tool handle. By varying the jointstiffness and workplace orientation, the complexity of the task was varied and thus quantified.Measurements of muscle activity during each tightening procedure provided a quantification of thephysiological impact on the operator. By combining the measurements on the operator withsubjective assessment of perceived exertion and discomfort, a more holistic perspective on thetightening procedure was obtained.The results obtained from the study stressed the negative impact on the operator which the QuickStep tightening strategy on medium hard joints implies, regardless of workspace orientation. TheTurbo Tight and Tensor Pulse tightening strategies turned out to generate the lowest reactiontorques and handle deflections, regardless of joint stiffness and workspace orientation. The findingsfrom the muscle activity measurements in combination with the subjective evaluation methodsfurther confirmed the mildness of the Turbo Tight and Tensor Pulse strategies. Moreover, horizontalworkspace resulted in lower tool handle deflection compared to vertical workspace for all tighteningstrategies and joint stiffnesses. / Många antällda på monteringsband exponeras ofta för ergonomiskt ofördelaktiga arbetsuppgifter och arbetsförhållanden. De handhållna monteringsverktyg som används genrerar ofta reaktionskrafter som i många fall kan orsaka en känsla av obehag eller ge upphov till mer bestående hälsobesvär. De kraftfulla och repetetiva arbetsuppgifterna som montering många gånger innebär kan bana väg för förluster i arbetskraftskapacitet, vilket i sin tur kan leda till stora förluster i produktivitet och produktkvalitet. En paraplyterm för de många åkommor och besvär som kan uppstå som ett resultat av användandet av handhållna monteringsverktyg är ’förslitningsskador’ (Cumulative Trauma Disorders på engelska). Målsättningen för denhär studien har varit att undersöka de ergonomiska effekter som användandet av handhållna monteringsverktyg innebär vid olika vektygs- och arbetsuppgiftsrelaterade parametrar. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av en test rig där ett simulerat verktygshandtag utnyttjades. Den ergonomiska effekten på användaren undersöktes genom mätningar av uppnådda reaktions moment och handtags vinklar associerade med olika åtdragningsstrategier, styvhet av förband samt orientering av arbetsyta. Genom att mäta muskelaktiviteten i underarmen hos testpersonerna erhölls en kvantifiering av den fysiologiska effekten på testpersonerna. Mätningarna av vinkel, moment och muskelaktivitet kombinerades med subjektiva skattningsmetoder för att på så sätt kunna erhålla ett mer holistiskt perspektiv på åtdragningarna och deras effekt på människan. Resultaten från studien underströk de negativa effekterna av åtdragning med Quick Step strategin på medium hårda förband, oavsett orientering av arbetsytan. Turbo Tight och Tensor Pulse strategierna genererade de lägsta reaktions momenten och handtags deflektionerna. Resultaten från muskelsaktivitetsmätningarna och de subjektiva skattningsmetoderna bekräftade den relativa mildheten hos Tensor Pulse och Turbo Tight strategierna. Dessutom påvisades att åtdragningar som sker på en horisontell arbetsyta resulterade i lägre handtagsdeflektion jämfört med åtdragningar på en vertikal arbetsyta, oavsett åtdragningsstrategi och styvhet hos förband.

This thesis examines the presence of ergonomics in the design process at IKEA of Sweden. It also attempts to describe how IKEA of Sweden can implement more ergonomics in their development process of new products. The study is based on interviews with employees at IKEA of Sweden and with an employee at the design bureau Veryday.  The thesis also includes a design process that has been conducted using a given brief by IKEA of Sweden with a predetermined way of production. The purpose of the design process should have an overall ergonomic perspective. The interviews were analysed using the theory presented which includes the perception and fallacies of ergonomics, anthropometrics and universal design. The result shows that ergonomic aspects are not included in a structured way common for all areas when developing products at IKEA of Sweden. The study also points to a need of information about ergonomics, like a guideline. Access to an expert as an occupational therapist or a physiotherapist would also improve the design process. The analysis of the design process and the products Höghult shows the importance of preparation in the design process using functional analysis, specifications and analysis of the way of production. To proceed with the implementation of the overall ergonomic perspective in the design process, it is important to test and evaluate the prototype using an expert and a test panel representing the potential customers. / Den här uppsatsen undersöker förekomsten av ergonomi i designprocessen på IKEA of Sweden. Den försöker även beskriva hur IKEA of Sweden kan föra in mer ergonomi i deras arbete med att ta fram nya produkter. Studien är baserad på intervjuer av medarbetare på IKEA of Sweden samt av företrädare för designbyrån Veryday. Parallellt med intervjustudien genomfördes en designprocess efter given brief av IKEA of Sweden med angivet produktionssätt där processen ska ha ett övergripande ergonomiskt perspektiv. Intervjuerna analyserades utifrån den teori som presenterats om bland annat föreställningar om ergonomi, antropometri och universell design. Resultatet visar att det inte finns ett strukturerat arbetssätt för ergonomiska frågeställningar gällande produktutveckling på IKEA of Sweden. Studien visar också på att det finns behov av information om ergonomi som t ex en guideline. Att ha tillgång till en expert, såsom t ex en arbetsterapeut eller fysioterapeut, skulle också berika designprocessen. Analysen av designprocessen och produkterna Höghult visar betydelsen av att noga förbereda designprocessen med hjälp av funktionsanalys, kravspecifikation samt analys av produktionssättet. För att komma vidare med implementeringen av det övergripande ergonomiska perspektivet i designprocessen är det viktigt att testa och utvärdera prototypen med hjälp av exempelvis en expert samt en testgrupp som representerar kundgruppen.