For many years seat cushions have been investigated for their ability to reduce seating discomfort. The objective of this thesis is to examine air-inflated seat cushions to determine how seating comfort (determined by pressure change rate) is affected by changing various parameters of the cushion. To this end, a mathematical model was built using MatLab and SimuLINK to accurately represent the cushion and its response. Different aspects of the cushion, such as seating area, outlet size, cell height, and material elasticity are varied to determine how they each affect seating comfort. For each parameter three different weights are tested to see how the trends observed per parameter are affected by a person's weight. The results of this study indicate that by changing the base radius, the cell height, the outlet diameter, and the material elasticity of each cell, it is possible to improve seating comfort, as determined by pressure change rate. The study confirms that comfort levels increase with increasing seated area. The study also shows that although increasing the weight of a person decreases the comfort performance of the cushion, not all the trends observed when the cushion parameters are varied remain the same as the person's weight is changed. The trends observed when the cell height and outlet diameter are varied are not affected by the subject weight but all the other trends changed as the subject weight was changed. / Master of Science

The objective of this investigation was to make two surveys relating to environmental control in the Azle Elementary School, Azle, Texas. The first survey was designed to furnish a list of favorable and unfavorable factors in classroom environment as they existed in the Azle Elementary School at the close of the school session of 1946-1947, and the second survey , conducted in the same school approximately a year later, was for the purpose of ascertaining what improvements had been made in the interim in order to increase the educative values in the classroom environment of this school.

High-tone extensor thrusts, or involuntary muscle contractions experienced by many children with cerebral palsy, can cause problems that are not addressed by current seating systems. This thesis is concerned with the development of a dynamic seating system to better accommodate individuals who exhibit high-tone extensor thrusts. The first part of the thesis is focused on obtaining a general understanding of extensor thrusts from a mechanical perspective. To achieve this goal, an analytical dynamic model of a human subject undergoing an extensor thrust on a rigid chair is created. This model is validated experimentally, and inferences about the nature of extensor thrusts are made from the simulation and experimental results. A Dynamic-Hingeback Seating System which allows the occupant to lean back during an uncontrolled extensor thrust is developed. This system is capable of maintaining seatback rigidity during an intentionally-induced episode, thereby enabling the occupant to communicate or interact with his/her environment. The design of this system is influenced by the results obtained from the rigid seat study, as well as by numerical simulation results gathered with a commercial dynamic simulation software package (Working Model 2D). The improved seatback performance is characterized through experimentation. Alternative dynamic seating systems are considered. The important features of each of these systems are identified, and the desired motion of the system occupant during an extensor thrust is verified through Working Model simulations.

Seating is an integral part of work environment. When people are at work, they often sit in chairs for long periods of time without changing postures. This results in reduced blood circulation in the body, especially in the buttock-thigh area causing muscle fatigue, pain and discomfort. Ergonomically designed task chairs adopt a passive approach to guiding people into better postures by providing adjustability inside the chair. However most people do not adjust their chairs because they fail to sense the need for changing posture. They are left to sensing the need to change posture through guesswork or extreme discomfort. This thesis proposes a new system to address this problem by sensing static posture in a seated person with the use of electronic sensors embedded in the seat, and by providing interactive feedback to static posture via sound, light and tactile channels. The new technology is an sensing-feedback mechanism embedded in a chair, that allows people to receive postural information and make body adjustments periodically to avoid pain and discomfort caused by prolonged seating.The feedback mechanism was tested with four subjects to determine its efficacy in generating posture change through pressure relief and user feedback was gathered in order to design the final prototype.

Orientador: Zeila de Brito Fabri Demartini / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T21:48:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Machado_Vitor_D.pdf: 17156697 bytes, checksum: 740c04533bfaeca622d40bb75827c070 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: O autor procurou compreender o significado da educação escolar de ensino fundamental das escolas do assentamento Sumaré, com o propósito de verificar se o processo de ensino aprendizagem produzido por elas atendeu ou ainda atendem aos princípios filosóficos formulados pelo Movimento Sem Terra, os quais fazem parte dos documentos oficiais editados por esse movimento. Para a elaboração dessa pesquisa foram colhidos dados junto aos jovens assentados que realizaram seus estudos, de primeira a quarta séries do ensino fundamental, nas escolas do assentamento e com representantes do corpo docente e administrativo da escola, priorizando a história oral dos sujeitos pesquisados, o que possibilitou uma maior proximidade com a realidade dos indivíduos pesquisados. Os dados revelaram que o ensino praticado nas escolas do Assentamento Sumaré, sempre seguiram as diretrizes impostas pelo sistema oficial de ensino, trabalhando os conteúdos característicos da escola urbana, as quais não atendem a diversidade e as necessidades diferenciadas das crianças assentadas / Abstract: The author sought to understand the meaning of school education of basic education schools in the settlement Sumaré, with the purpose of verifying that the process of teaching learning produced by them met or meet the philosophical principles formulated by the Landless Movement, which are part of official documents published by that movement. For the development of this research were collected data from the young settlers who carried out their studies, first to fourth grades of basic education, in schools and the settlement with representatives of the faculty and administration of the school, giving priority to oral history of the subjects studied, the that has allowed greater closeness to the reality of individuals surveyed. The data showed that the teaching practice in schools of Seating Sumaré, always followed the guidelines imposed by the official system of education, working the contents of typical urban school, which do not meet the diversity and the differing needs of children settled. / Doutorado / Ciencias Sociais na Educação / Doutor em Educação

During the last couple of years several studies have been conducted to investigate how children move and position during car rides. This in order to map when, and for how long children sit in positions that are not safe as well as to identify the reason for these movements. One of the conclusions is that children do not always sit comfortable in today’s belt-positioning boosters and thereby they chose positions that are unwanted for safety reasons. The aim for the master thesis has thereby been to improve seating comfort for children while traveling safely in the rear seat of a car. The target group has been children in ages 5-11 years old with body height 110-145 cm, a Swedish population 50 percentile has been used for the extreme dimensions. The master thesis process is divided in three phases; Discovery, Development and Testing and Evaluation. In the Discovery phase information in the areas child safety, child methodology and comfort was gathered through literature study, interviews with experts, benchmarking and a focus group with parents. As a final step customer needs were formulated. In the Development phase a workshop with children was initially performed to complement the customer needs with inputs from the users. The customer needs were afterwards reformulated into a specification of requirements and five comfort hypotheses. Finally a prototype was developed, designed from the requirements with the purpose to validate the comfort hypotheses, using an anthropometric design method (Osvalder, et al., 2010). In the final phase, Testing and Evaluation, the prototype and reference belt-positioning boosters were evaluated by children in two user studies; one static study and one on road study, to evaluate comfort features and try out different seating comfort evaluation methods. The result is divided into child seating comfort characteristics and child seating comfort methodology guidelines. To assist future development of belt-positioning boosters, seven comfort features are defined to help children ride comfortable in a safe position in the car. Furthermore, 13 child methodology guidelines are formulated to help further seating comfort evaluation with children. Conclusively to make children sit comfortable and safe positioned in the car they should be seated in a belt-positioning booster with headrest, backrest, seat cushion and foot support, the supporting parts need to be perceived as soft around head, back and under the buttock and all parts need to be dimensioned for all children in the target group. The size of the belt-positioning booster and the combination of foam thickness, foam hardness and shape are the main factors for affecting the perceived seating comfort. Furthermore, children shall be included as both design partners and testers during the development of belt-positioning boosters. During the prototype development static comfort evaluation with children should be done repeatedly to verify measurements, shape and foam hardness. To evaluate comfort both static evaluation and on road evaluation should be performed since comfort varies over time. Data should be collected subjectively from children through quantitative methods, such as rating scales, and qualitative methods, such as general questions regarding comfort/discomfort experience. Video observations can identify children’s position during car rides. Different positions can be timed and together with subjective data reasons for repositioning can be identified.

Urban green spaces are put under high pressure due to increasing population density in cities. This problem will potentially accelerate where the densification in the cities continues. Consequently, this sets high requirements on the management, if the green spaces are to generate the benefits and values that are associated with greens spaces as urban parks. One way to increase these benefits and values could be to incorporate ecosystem services and indicators for ecosystem services in a multi-stakeholder management system. Is it possible that ecosystem service indicators could facilitate collaboration between stakeholders and thus improve the value of urban green space? This master thesis aimed to identify ecosystem service indicators for a green space and incorporate them in a multi-stakeholder management system. The study was made to clarify if indicators can facilitate collaboration between stakeholders and thus improve the management of an urban green space. In order to achieve that, the first step was to let the stakeholders express what they desired the green space to generate in terms of benefits and values. These expressed benefits and values were formulated into target variables which were linked with the ecosystem services that the green space was assessed to generate if the target variables are achieved. A literature study was conducted to identify applicable indicators for the chosen ecosystem services. These indicators were quantified and incorporated into an already existing management system. This management system performed as a framework and a fundament which was further developed to incorporate more functions as indicators and ecosystem services. The thesis resulted in two identified indicators for ten ecosystem services and the development of a multi-stakeholder management system. Identified indicators were birds and compliant seating. Birds were identified as an indicator because they indicated many of the same ecosystem services as the ones that are generated in the green space. These ecosystem services are linked with the benefits and values that are associated with the target variables. In addition, the birds were chosen because they were possible to quantify. Compliant seating was the second indicator, and it has the potential to function as a control indicator as it can be seen as a manifestation of the cultural ecosystem services generated at the green space. A multi-stakeholder management system was developed with the incorporation of indicators for ecosystem services. The developed management system aimed to facilitate the collaboration between stakeholders with the use of ecosystem service indicators. Taken together, the findings suggest a role for ecosystem service indicators in multi-stakeholder management plans to improve the value of green spaces. / Grönytor i städer är satt under hög press på grund av ökande befolkningstäthet vilket leder till att fler människor behöver dela på samma mängd urban grönyta. Detta fenomen ökar kraven på förvaltningen av grönytor då de behöver generera fler nyttigheter och mera värde. Ett sätt att öka dessa värden skulle kunna vara att använda sig av indikatorer för ekosystemtjänster inom ett förvaltningssystem där flera förvaltare verkar. Är det möjligt att indikatorer för ekosystemtjänster kan underlätta samarbetet mellan olika förvaltare och därigenom öka värdet av en grönyta?   Den här masteruppsatsen hade målet att identifiera indikatorer för ekosystemtjänster genererade av en grönyta och sedan inkorporera dem i en förvaltningsmetod som ökar samverkan mellan förvaltare. Studien syftade till att tydliggöra om användandet av ekosystemtjänstindikatorer kan underlätta samarbetet av mellan olika förvaltare för att förbättra förvaltningen av en grönyta. Det första steget för att åstadkomma detta var att låta förvaltarna uttrycka vilka värden och nyttigheter de vill att grönytan skulle skapa. Dessa värden och nyttigheter formulerades som målvariabler vilka länkades till de ekosystemtjänster som grönytan bedömdes generera. Genom en litteraturstudie identifierades indikatorer som kunde indikera de ekosystemtjänster som genererades vid grönytan. Indikatorerna kvantifierades och inkorporerades in i ett redan existerande förvaltningssystem.   Studien resulterade i två identifierade indikatorer och i utvecklandet av ett förvaltningssystem som underlättar samverkan genom användandet av indikatorer. Fåglar identifierade som en indikator på grund av att fåglar indikerade samma ekosystemtjänster som genereras på grönytan. Fåglar valdes också för att det var möjligt att kvantifiera fåglarna vid grönytan. Villkorlig sittplats var den andra indikatorn och den har möjligheten att fungera som en kontrollindikator eftersom den kan beskrivas som en manifestation av de ekosystemtjänster som genereras på grönytan. Sedan så utvecklas även ett förvaltningssystem där indikatorerna inkorporerades. Förvaltningssystemet hade målet att underlätta samverkan mellan de olika förvaltarna med hjälp av indikatorerna. Sammanfattningsvis så bedöms det att indikatorer för ekosystemtjänster har potentialen att användas i ett förvaltningssystem och därigenom kunna bidra till att öka värdet av grönytan.