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Objective: Using eye tracking technology, this study sought to determine if differences in hazard statement (HS) compliance based on design elements are attributable to attention maintenance (AM). Background: Recent empirical work has demonstrated counter-intuitive findings for HS designs embedded in procedures. Specifically, prevalent HS designs in procedures were associated with lower compliance. Method: The current study utilized eye tracking technology to determine whether participants are attending to HSs differently based on the inclusion or absence of visually distinct HS design elements typically used for consumer products. We used two different designs that previously yielded the largest gap in HS compliance. In a fully-crossed design, 33 participants completed four rounds of tasks using four procedures with embedded HSs. To assess AM, eye tracking was used to measure gaze and fixation duration. Results: The results indicated there are differences in AM between the two designs. The HSs that included elements traditionally considered effective in the consumer products literature elicited lower fixation duration times, and were associated with lower compliance. However, AM did not mediate the design effect on compliance. Conclusions: The study results suggest the design of HSs are impacting individuals as early as the AM stage of the C-HIP model. The absence of HS design-AM-compliance mediation suggests other C-HIP elements more directly explain the HS design-compliance effects. Application: These results provide more evidence that the communication of Health, Environment, and Safety information in procedures may need to be different from those on consumer products, suggesting design efficacy may be task dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction has been recognised as an essential lens to understand how cognition is formed in a complex adaptive team such as a multidisciplinary crisis management team (CMT). However, little is known about how interactions within and across CMTs give rise to the multi-team system's overall cognitive functioning, which is essential to avoid breakdowns in coordination. To address this gap, we characterise and compare the component CMTs' role-as-intended (RAI) and role-as-observed (RAO) in adapting to the complexity of managing informational needs. To characterise RAI, we conducted semi-structured interviews with subject matter experts and then made a qualitative synthesis using a thematic analysis method. To characterise RAO, we observed multiteam interaction networks in real-time at a simulated training environment and then analysed the component CMTs' relative importance using node centrality measures. The resulting inconsistencies between RAI and RAO imply the need to investigate cognition in multiple CMTs through the lens of interaction. Practitioner summary: When a disaster occurs, multidisciplinary CMTs are expected to serve their roles as described in written or verbal guidelines. However, according to our naturalistic observations of multiteam interaction networks, such descriptions may be (necessary but) insufficient for designing, training, and evaluating CMTs in the complexity of managing informational needs together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of these studies was to identify hazard statement (HS) design elements in procedures that affected whether both workers and lab participants performed the associated hazard mitigation. Background: Many of the incidents in high-risk industries are the result of issues with procedures (e.g., standard operating procedures; SOPs) workers use to support their performance. HSs in these procedures are meant to communicate potential work hazards and methods of mitigating those hazards. However, there is little empirical research regarding whether current hazard design guidelines for consumer products translate to procedures. Method: Two experimental studies—(1) a laboratory study and (2) a high-fidelity simulation—manipulated the HS design elements present in procedures participants used while performing tasks. Participants' adherence to the mitigation of the hazard was compared for the HS designs. Results: The guidelines for HSs from consumer products did not translate to procedures. Specifically, the presence of an alert icon, a box around the statement, and highlighting the statement did not improve adherence to HSs. Indeed, the only consistent finding was for the Icon, with its presence reliably predicting nonadherence in both studies. Additionally, the total number of design elements did not have a positive effect on adherence. Conclusion: These findings indicate that more fundamental procedure HSs research is needed to identify effective designs as well as to understand the potential attentional mechanisms associated with these findings. Application: The findings from these studies indicate that current regulations and guidelines should be revisited regarding hazard presentation in procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience is an important attribute of incident management teams (IMTs) for managing disasters. Previous research on resilience of IMTs has focused on comparing work-as-imagined (WAI) and work-as-done (WAD) but predominantly used narrative analyses which limited comparisons between IMTs. This paper presents a novel Interaction Episode Analysis (IEA) method to identify the IMT's WAI and WAD episodes by analyzing dynamic interactions that occur between different roles that carry out information management tasks. Observations and audio--visual recordings of two high-fidelity IMT exercises were conducted to capture WAD episodes, and semi-structured interviews with experts elicited corresponding WAI episodes. Quantitative analyses using five interaction-based measures were conducted to detect differences of the WAD episodes between two IMTs. Next, qualitative analyses were focused on identifying reasons why such differences have occurred by comparing the gaps between WAI and WAD episodes. Some of the reasons for WAI-WAD gaps included the non-occurrence of critical interactions that were expected and occurrence of unexpected interactions between IMT members. This paper also identifies cases of preparatory, proactive, and reactive performance adjustment that characterizes IMT resilience. The IEA method shows promise for investigating how and why the gaps between WAI and WAD in IMTs occur. With the identification of these gaps, future research can be conducted to reconcile the gaps between WAI and WAD episodes, and thus enhance resilience of IMTs in future disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The goal of this study is to assess machine learning for predicting procedure performance from operator and procedure characteristics. Background: Procedures are vital for the performance and safety of high-risk industries. Current procedure design guidelines are insufficient because they rely on subjective assessments and qualitative analyses that struggle to integrate and quantify the diversity of factors that influence procedure performance. Method: We used data from a 25-participant study with four procedures, conducted on a high-fidelity oil extraction simulation to develop logistic regression (LR), random forest (RF), and decision tree (DT) algorithms that predict procedure step performance from operator, step, readability, and natural language processing-based features. Features were filtered using the Boruta approach. The algorithms were trained and optimized with a repeated 10-fold cross-validation. After training, inference was performed using variable importance and partial dependence plots. Results: The RF, DT, and LR algorithms with all features had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.78, 0.77, and 0.75, respectively, and significantly outperformed the LR with only operator features (LROP), with an AUC of 0.61. The most important features were experience, familiarity, total words, and character-based metrics. The partial dependence plots showed that steps with fewer words, abbreviations, and characters were correlated with correct step performance. Conclusion: Machine learning algorithms are a promising approach for predicting step-level procedure performance, with acknowledged limitations on interpolating to nonobserved data, and may help guide procedure design after validation with additional data on further tasks. Application: After validation, the inferences from these models can be used to generate procedure design alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundMost older Americans do not exercise regularly and many have chronic conditions. Among an increasing number of fitness mobile and Web apps, few are designed for older adults with chronic conditions despite high ownership rates of mobile tools and Internet access in this population. We designed a mobile-enabled Web app, iCanFit, to promote physical activity in this population. ObjectiveThis study aimed to test the usability and acceptability of iCanFit among older adults in a community setting. MethodsA total of 33 older adults (aged 60 to 82 years) were recruited from communities to test iCanFit. Of these 33, 10 participants completed the usability testing in a computer room of a senior community center. A research assistant timed each Web application task and observed user navigation behavior using usability metrics. The other 23 participants used the website on their own devices at home and provided feedback after 2-3 weeks by completing a user-experience survey assessing ease of use, helpfulness, and satisfaction with iCanFit. ResultsParticipants completed all 15 tasks on the iCanFit site in an average of 31 (SD 6.9) minutes; some tasks required more time or needed assistance. Participants’ comments were addressed to improve the site’s senior friendliness and ease of use. In the user-experience survey, participants reported high levels of usefulness and satisfaction. More than 56% (13/23) of participants indicated they would continue using the program and recommend it to their families or friends. ConclusionsTesting usability and acceptability is a very important step in developing age-appropriate and user-friendly Web apps, especially for older adults. Testing usability and acceptability in a community setting can help reveal users’ experiences and feedback in a real-life setting. Our study suggested that older adults had a high degree of acceptance of iCanFit and could use it easily. The efficacy trial of iCanFit is currently underway.

The occurrence of significant incidents in academic and professional laboratories indicates insufficient methods for ensuring effective and safe performance of protocols. Using written standard operating procedures (SOPs) is one method that could improve this situation. Although there are currently numerous guidelines regarding the necessary content for SOPs, there is a dearth of information regarding how these SOPs should be written and designed. Human Factors/Ergonomics principles and guidelines can provide insight and guidance regarding writing SOPs that are more likely to result in safe and accurate performance by the user. This paper presents some guidance for developing procedures for those who regularly perform laboratory protocols and resources for more guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discipline of human factors and ergonomics is largely focused on principled development of generalizable solutions. The process is typically slow, spanning months, even years. A crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic presents a different problem. How can human factors and ergonomics professionals react quickly, within hours or days, to provide viable solutions to unanticipated problems as they become apparent? Here we report on a small project in which we were able to respond rapidly to an emergent COVID-19 requirement. Given time constraints, we had no opportunity to follow a systematic analysis and design strategy. Our development and testing strategies reveal lessons that can be applied more generally to development of human factors and ergonomics interventions within emerging crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2004.08.046 Byline: S. Martinez (a), S. Dauzere-Peres (b), C. Gueret (a), Y. Mati (b), N. Sauer (a) Keywords: Scheduling; Flowshop; Blocking; Complexity Abstract: This article deals with makespan minimization in the flowshop scheduling problem under the condition of no intermediate storage between machines. A new blocking constraint met in several industrial problems is introduced, and several complexity results are presented from two to five machines. Some problems with four machines in which the new and the classical blocking constraints are mixed, are polynomial. Problems with only the new blocking constraint are polynomial for up to three machines. Although the complexity of the problem with four machines is left open, several cases are shown to be polynomial. Finally the problem with five machines is NP-hard. Author Affiliation: (a) IRCCyN -- Ecole des Mines de Nantes, CNRS, UMR 6597, La Chantrerie, BP 20722, F-44307 Nantes Cedex 3, France (b) Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne, CMP, Georges Charpak, Avenue des Anemones -- Quartier Saint-Pierre, F-13541 Gardanne, France Article History: Received 30 September 2003; Accepted 27 August 2004

In the one-machine scheduling problems analysed in this paper, the processing time of a job depends on the time at which the job is started. More precisely, the horizon is divided into time windows and with each one a coefficient is associated that is used to determine the actual processing time of a job starting in it. Two models are introduced, and one of them has direct connections with models considered in previous papers on scheduling problems with time-dependent processing times. Various computational complexity results are presented for the makespan criterion, which show that the problem is NP-hard, even with two time windows. Solving procedures are also proposed for some special cases. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601931 Keywords: scheduling; one-machine: time-dependent processing time; time windows; computational complexity

A shop scheduling problem is presented characterized by multi-resource processing, resource flexibility and non-linear routings. The problem involves operations that require multiple resources to be undertaken. It also takes into consideration an operation that may probably have more than one predecessor and/ or successor on the routing. A neighborhood structure that can be utilized to obtain a local search algorithm, such as tabu search, was created.

A robust coordinated AVR/PSS, called the 'Desensitized Four Loops Regulator' (DFLR) has been recently designed using the 'desensitized control' theory. Its synthesis method (which can be applied to other problems than excitation control) and its structure are detailed in this paper. It is a state feedback controller including an integrator on the regulation error. This structure, although it is well known in the control community, is not usual for excitation control of generators (except in France). Hence, in order to make this approach more widely applicable in an industrial point of view, this controller is put, using approximations, in the standard AVR+PSS structure IEEE ST1A+PSS1A. The resulting AVR+PSS is proven to have a good performance, in particular for damping inter-area oscillations. Keywords - AVR, PSS, Linear quadratic control, Desensitivity, Inter-area oscillations.