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Discusses a study on plasma display panels (PDP). Potential of PDP as a technology for flat panel displays; Operation of PDP and its discharge dynamics; Description of the model used in the study; Investigation on the radiation transport in PDP; Results of the study.

Among the computer users, symptoms are attributed to use of computer also but as the symptoms to user are not always visible, many users will not attribute computer for symptoms of VDTS. Dryness and headache were significantly less among them. 87 subjects were not using the terminal from below the eye levels. Eyestrain, dryness and watering were major problems for them. Eyestrain and dryness were major complaints among those who did not use Anti-glare screen. Frequent breaks during work can reduce itching while not taking breaks can cause eyestrain, dryness and headache. 116 subjects (79% females & 58% males) were NOT using 20-20-20 rule. Eyestrain, dryness, headache and watering were major problems for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The objective of this study was to develop a strategy to optimize medical health surveillance protocols for administrative employees using video display terminals (VDTs). A total of 2453 medical examinations were analysed for VDT users in various sectors. From these data, using Bayesian statistics we inferred which factors were most relevant to medical diagnosis of the main disorders affecting VDT users. This information was used to build an influence diagram to evaluate the time and monetary costs associated with each diagnostic test and define an optimal protocol strategy based on occupational risks.Results: Musculoskeletal and ophthalmological diseases were identified as the most frequent disorders among VDT users. The Bayesian network inferred age, sleep quality, activity level, smoking and the consumption of alcohol as risk factors. The blood count was the most costly test (5.23 USD/employee) and the second most costly test in time terms (4 min/employee), yet is a diagnostic test that has little influence on the medical decision regarding an employee's capacity to perform their job.Conclusions: Current occupational health surveillance protocols for VDT users may lead to expenditure that is 54% greater than necessary. For many employees and employers, failure to perform a wide range of medical tests for occupational health surveillance purposes is subjectively perceived as a threat to health. Awareness needs to be raised of the appropriate role of different health areas, so as to optimize diagnostic efficiency on the basis of greater flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eye diseases caused by long times of use of visual display terminal (VDT) products is considered as a serious problem in recent years. The eye fatigue monitoring is significant for early warning. Here, an unconstrained measuring method is used to extract Ballistocardiogram (BCG) by acceleration sensor. The acceleration signals are acquired by installing the sensor on seat back. Adaptive threshold wavelet transform is processed for denosing non-linear noise interference such as power line interference, baseline drift, random movement of human body, and ground vibration. Frequency domain filtering and IFFT are applied to extract BCG from acceleration sensor. RR interval of ECG and JJ interval of BCG in time domain have the similar cycle, and the correlation coefficient is up to 0.9918, which prove the feasibility to extract BCG from vibration signals using unconstrained method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of people suffering from eye fatigue induced by visual display terminal (VDT) viewing is expected to increase in the modern world. Eye dysfunction is suggested to induce a decrease in cognitive function, at least in the long term. Furthermore, considering other previous findings, it may be reasonable to think that acute or relatively short-term eye dysfunction attenuates cognitive function for not only older but also young individuals. Hence, clarification of the effect of eye fatigue induced by VDT viewing on cognitive performance is essential in order to maintain and/or improve our quality of life in the modern world regardless of age. The present study investigated the effect of eye fatigue induced by 1-h VDT viewing on cognitive performance, to test the hypothesis that such eye fatigue impairs cognitive performance in young individuals. A total of 19 healthy female university students voluntarily participated in this study. Before and after the 1-h VDT viewing or resting, the degree of eye fatigue and cognitive performance were evaluated. Refractive error measurement was performed to assess the degree of eye fatigue using a binocular auto refractometer, and a memory recognition task and Go/NoGo task were used to estimate cognitive performance. Response accuracy and reaction time were evaluated in the two tasks. Due to difficulty in interpreting the data of refractive error for one participant from the perspective of eye fatigue, the data for 18 participants were used for further analysis. The refractive error was significantly lower after than before the VDT viewing, but a corresponding change was not found before and after resting. Regarding cognitive performance, only the reaction time in the memory recognition task varied with the VDT viewing or resting. The reaction time was significantly longer after than before resting, without a corresponding difference before and after the VDT viewing. Thus, the 1-h VDT viewing induced eye fatigue, but relatively improved rather than attenuated reaction time in the memory recognition task. These results suggest that the effect of the increase in arousal level induced by the present VDT viewing on memory recognition compensated for the negative effect of 1-h resting of the eyes. We conclude that the acute eye fatigue induced by the 1-h VDT viewing does not have detrimental effects on cognition in young females at least under the present conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate tear meniscus height and tear meniscus area measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and to determine the prevalence of dry eye disease in video display terminal (VDT) users.Methods: This was a case-control study performed on VDT users. The case group consisted of 53 subjects who vocationally use VDT more than six hours per day and the control group consisted of 49 subjects who used VDT not more than one hour per day. The pre-vocational and post-vocational tear meniscus height and tear meniscus area measurements were performed twice in one day using OCT. Tear-film break-up time, Schirmer's test, Ocular Surface Disease Index score and corneal staining score measurements were performed in all subjects.Results: The mean age was 38.9 ± 5.5 years in VDT users and 37.8 ± 5.8 years in the control group (p = 0.426). Twenty patients (37.7 per cent) had dry eye disease in VDT users and five patients (10.2 per cent) had dry eye disease in the control group (p = 0.001). The mean tear meniscus height and tear meniscus area values (pre-vocational and post-vocational) were significantly lower in VDT users than in the control group (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.024 and p < 0.001, respectively). The Schirmer's test results, Ocular Surface Disease Index scores, corneal staining scores and tear-film break-up time values revealed significant differences between VDT users and control subjects (p = 0.002, p = 0.006, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). In addition, significant correlations were demonstrated between Schirmer's test results, Ocular Surface Disease Index scores, corneal staining scores, tear-film break-up time measurements, tear meniscus height results and tear meniscus area values.Conclusion: Tear meniscus evaluation using OCT is an effective, non-invasive and sensitive method for detection of dry eye disease in VDT users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital technology has become a necessity and is integrated into our daily activities. This ever increasing use of visual display terminal (VDT) has led to an increase in eye-related symptoms. Dry eye disease (DED) is frequently encountered problem among VDT users. Not just the adults, but it is becoming common among children as well especially when they have reduced amount of outdoor activities. Dry eye occurs can happen due to inadequate amount of tears or poor quality of tears due to reduced blink rate. Subjects on digital device users are often found to have symptoms but with little evidence to compare with non-visual display terminal users. A total of 288 subjects were recruited in the study. Of which 144 were VDT and 144 were non-VDT users. The mean age of VDT and non-VDT users were 27.72±4.88 years (Male= 102, Female = 42) and 25.96±5.43 years (Male=77, Female=67), respectively. Blink rate of VDT and non-VDT users were recorded. All the subjects were given Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire to record their symptomatic score for dry eye. Data were collated and analysed on SPSSv21 and correlation analysis was performed between VDT users and non-VDT users using paired sample test. P-value<0.05 and confidence interval (CI) of 95% was considered statistically significant. 82.64% of VDT users were found to have affected blink rate. Mean blink rate in VDT and non-VDT users were found to be 5.88±4.88 and 11.12±7.84 respectively (P = 0.01). Risk of blink rate getting affected due to VDT use were found to be higher than non-VDT (OR=3.02; 95% CI (1.75-5.22), p =0.001). Statistical significant differences were found in blink rate of VDT and non-VDT users of different age group (p<0.05). Prevalence of dry eye was found out to be 44.44 % as per OSDI score. It also shows that male were more symptomatic for dry eye compared to female in both the groups of VDT and non-VDT. VDT users were found to have reduced blink rate and were found to be more symptomatic for dry eye. Therefore, a quick and non-invasive description may be a useful aid to the diagnosis and prevention of further chronic ocular problems [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many process control and service operations in productions are carried out in control centers via visual display unit workstations. The operator's tasks often have great relevance for system safety. Modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) should support the operator's workflow and their supervisory role. Multimodal output devices with task adequate structures of relevant information, process variables and units intent to improve the situation awareness of the operating staff. Intuitively designed input devices should promote quick responses in time critical situations to prevent loss of control. Mobil Display Screen Equipment can help to improve the communication between operators in control centers and plant operators in the field. In order to support operators optimally, modern ICT should be selected, designed and implemented carefully in the operating concept. Additional it should be adaptable to the operator's needs in a wide variety of situations. Possible risks, requirements and measurements are described using examples of operation errors and better masteries of situations as improvements due to new ICT. Within Risk Assessments of the control system the requirements of ICT are determined to optimize the operators' workplace and workload in order to support the operators' safety behaviour for their own and other employees' occupational safety and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current rendering techniques struggle to fulfill quality and power efficiency requirements imposed by new display devices such as virtual reality headsets. A promising solution to overcome these problems is foveated rendering, which exploits gaze information to reduce rendering quality for the peripheral vision where the requirements of the human visual system are significantly lower. Most of the current solutions model the sensitivity as a function of eccentricity, neglecting the fact that it also is strongly influenced by the displayed content. In this work, we propose a new luminance-contrast-aware foveated rendering technique which demonstrates that the computational savings of foveated rendering can be significantly improved if local luminance contrast of the image is analyzed. To this end, we first study the resolution requirements at different eccentricities as a function of luminance patterns. We later use this information to derive a low-cost predictor of the foveated rendering parameters. Its main feature is the ability to predict the parameters using only a low-resolution version of the current frame, even though the prediction holds for high-resolution rendering. This property is essential for the estimation of required quality before the full-resolution image is rendered. We demonstrate that our predictor can efficiently drive the foveated rendering technique and analyze its benefits in a series of user experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often require support both for learning new skills and for communication. This study used a multiple baseline across activities design to evaluate the effect of videos with integrated visual scene displays (video VSDs), presented using a tablet-based app, on the percentage of steps completed independently within vocational training tasks by an adolescent with ASD and complex communication needs (CCN). Using the video VSDs, the participant met the mastery criterion for completing three tasks (including participation in communication exchanges) in a vocational setting. The results provide evidence that video VSDs may provide an effective support both for learning new skills in vocational contexts, and as a method of augmentative and alternative communication for individuals with ASD and CCN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examined the effects of display curvature, presbyopia, and task duration on visual fatigue, task performance, and user satisfaction.Background: Although curved displays have been applied to diverse display products, and some studies reported their benefits, it is still unknown whether the effects of display curvature are presbyopia-specific.Method: Each of 64 individuals (eight nonpresbyopes and eight presbyopes per display curvature) performed four 15-min proofreading tasks at one display curvature radius setting (600R, 1140R, 4000R, and flat; mm). Diverse measurements were obtained to assess visual fatigue, task performance, and user satisfaction.Results: The mean pupil diameter was the largest with 1140R, indicating this curvature radius was associated with the least development of visual fatigue; 600R was comparable with 1140R in terms of pupil diameter. The presbyopic group showed a 28.5% slower proofreading speed compared with the nonpresbyopic group, whereas their proofreading accuracy was comparable. For both groups, the mean visual fatigue increased significantly during the first 15 min of proofreading, as indicated by a decrease of 0.11 mm in the mean pupil diameter, an increase of 3.8 in the mean bulbar conjunctival redness, and an increase of 9.13 in the mean eye complaint questionnaire score.Conclusion: The effect of display curvature was not presbyopia-specific. Low visual fatigue was observed with 1140R and 600R.Application: Display curvature radii near or in the range of 600R and 1140R and frequent breaks are recommended for both presbyopic and nonpresbyopic groups to reduce their visual fatigue due to visual display terminal tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a microcomputer program that can facilitate research on consumer information search and decision making. Search Monitor is a menu-driven user interface with data collection and recording facilities. This article suggests research problems for which Search Monitor is appropriate and briefly describes its features and options.
This article describes a microcomputer program called Search Monitor that enables the researcher to take advantage of the benefits just discussed. Search Monitor, a menu-driven user interface with data collection and recording facilities, allows researchers to design shopping or information search experiments in which subjects are successively presented with menu-type screens on video display terminals. Menu screens, which are created by the researcher for each experimental application, contain a message followed by a series of options. A subject's response or option choice to each menu determines the subsequent menu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For example, while many studies have examined defocus and clinical visual acuity,1 fewer could be found on the effects of defocus on common activities such as maintaining posture,2,3 walking,4-6 driving7-9 or playing sports.10-12 With regard to driving, it was interesting to read Wood I et al i .'s study13 in the current issue specifically addressing whether 0.5 D of defocus could affect pedestrian detection in night driving. Of these, spherical and astigmatic defocus are common due to refractive errors, and presbyopia and accommodative anomalies can lead to spherical blur. Detailed field studies of real tasks - as found in these two examples, and others - can be combined with knowledge of the other contributors to understand how defocus may be important in specific daily activities. Sources of blur in the eye include spherical and astigmatic defocus, chromatic and monochromatic aberrations, scatter and diffraction. [Extracted from the article]

• VDT fatigue is active fatigue due to the accumulation of brain and visual loads. • VDT fatigue affects the perception and comprehension phases of operator situational awareness. • The XGboost model in this study predicts situational awareness of VDT operators. In order to study the changing pattern of the posture perception ability of video display terminal operators in the main control room of energy power plants such as nuclear power plants in a state of fatigue, subjective and objective data of 19 energy system operators were collected through experiments. The effect of video display terminal fatigue on the operator's level of situational awareness was analyzed, and the subjective and objective data were selected to construct an XGboost model to predict the identified operator's situational awareness capability. The study results showed that the subjective and objective data showed significant differences, and it could be inferred that the subjects had developed video display terminal fatigue. The combination of data showed that fatigue affected the manipulator's ability to perceive and understand, decreasing the manipulator's situational awareness. The XGboost model, based on subjective and objective data, achieved a validation rate of 88.90%, indicating that the model can identify and predict the situational awareness of video display terminal manipulators. The study's results can be used to assess the situational awareness of video display terminal operators in nuclear power plants and provide a scientific basis for safety training in nuclear power plants and other energy power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed at developing a simple fatigue measurement system, so far the influence of the noise is small under laboratory environment and the experimenter side who uses a simulator. We have been studying fatigue measurement in a manageable environment. In order to show the effectiveness of our proposed method in a real environment, we collected fatigue measurement indexes before and after work for technical engineers of Software Development Company operating visual display terminals (VDT) work, changes before and after were compared and examined. As a result, in the conventional indexes, a significant difference was found in the pulse rate and the flicker value. We found that there are significant differences between before and after some speech of fundamental frequency, speech power, and period of speech indexes. In VDT work, there was a difference in flicker value as a fatigue measurement index, which was also supported by subjective symptoms and self‐evaluation results. In addition, since significant differences were also found in the speech index, in the work centering on the VDT work as well as the bicycle simulator so far, it was shown that speech indexes can be effective indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction : The digital screen has become a part of the everyday life at present which is a common item now-a-days in offices, colleges, universities and home This has led to an increase in number of patients complaining of ocular symptoms. Objective: To assess Computer Vision Syndrome in Visual Display Terminal users (VDT) Material and method: In a cross sectional, questionnaire survey study, data was collected to identify the impact of digital screen on Visual Display Terminal users. Sample was selected by simple random sampling and Data was appropriately analyzed using spss version 21. Result : A total of 144 subjects with mean age of 27.73 ± 4.88 years old (range 18-35 years). Of all these 94 (65.28%) were having CVS where mean score of CVS was 7.50±5.86. Out of that 65.95% of male and 34.04% of female were having CVS. 34 subjects were using Visual Display Terminal for 4-6 hours per day, 63 subjects were using Visual Display Terminal for 7-10 hour per day and 47 subjects were using Visual Display Terminals for more than 10 hours per day. According to pearson correlation coefficient there was no significant association between computer vision syndrome with number of hours working on computer per day(+0.048;p=0.567) Conclusion : The present study revealed 65.28% of the subjects were affected with Visual Display Terminals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a manner of evaluating visual display resolution, contrast modulation has been widely used for decades. But, as various types of sub‐pixel layout are adopted for flat panel displays, the contrast modulation metric shows a limitation that it is not consistent with human visual perception on those displays. To overcome this limitation, a new quantitative metric is proposed in this paper by introducing structure comparison and combining it with contrast modulation. Experimental results performed on TV displays with various sub‐pixel structures demonstrate that the proposed metric has higher correlation with perceived visual resolution than the conventional metric. As a manner of evaluating visual display resolution, contrast modulation has been widely used for decades. But, as various sub‐pixel layouts are adopted for flat panel displays, the contrast modulation metric on those displays shows inconsistency with human visual perception. To overcome this limitation, a new quantitative metric is proposed by introducing structure comparison and combining it with contrast modulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) and nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) levels in tears obtained from Video Display Terminal (VDT) workers and correlate their expression with ocular signs and symptoms. Methods: A total of 120 VDT workers (62M/58F; 31-63 years old) and 40 age/sex matched no-VDT volunteers (19M/21F; 30-60 years old) were enrolled in the study. Participants completed the OSDI questionnaire and were subjected to clinical assessment of ocular surface status, including ocular symptoms and tear film parameters. NGF and iNOS levels were quantified in tear samples and their expressions correlated with OSDI, ocular symptoms and tear film parameters. Results: 59.17% of the studied population was symptomatic based on OSDI scores. Women were more commonly affected. The most frequent symptom was asthenopia and except for dryness, no differences were found between genders regarding other symptoms. A statistically significant decrease in NGF levels was found between normal and moderate (p < 0.05) and between mild and moderate (p < 0.05) OSDI grading. iNOS expression was increased in moderate OSDI grading compared to normals (p < 0.05). A negative correlation was found between NGF and respectively OSDI results, dryness and blurry vision (p < 0.05). No correlations were found among NGF, iNOS and ocular surface parameters (Schirmer, BUT, ocular surface staining). Conclusion: Our data suggest that NGF and iNOS levels contribute to VDT ocular discomfort. Further studies are required to better understand the relationship between NGF and iNOS in VDT ocular surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data derived from eight hours work at a visual display terminal, a model for evaluating visual fatigue under LED light sources has been developed based on five ophthalmological parameters and three physiological signals. A simplified model based on one ophthalmological parameter and one physiological signal is also proposed. Both models show a high correlation with subjective data and are confirmed by a validation experiment. The results also show that the visual fatigue occurring after eight hours of visual display terminal work under LED lighting is rather small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important research question in the domain of highly automated driving is how to aid drivers in transitions between manual and automated control. Until highly automated cars are available, knowledge on this topic has to be obtained via simulators and self-report questionnaires. Using crowdsourcing, we surveyed 1692 people on auditory, visual, and vibrotactile take-over requests (TORs) in highly automated driving. The survey presented recordings of auditory messages and illustrations of visual and vibrational messages in traffic scenarios of various urgency levels. Multimodal TORs were the most preferred option in high-urgency scenarios. Auditory TORs were the most preferred option in low-urgency scenarios and as a confirmation message that the system is ready to switch from manual to automated mode. For low-urgency scenarios, visual-only TORs were more preferred than vibration-only TORs. Beeps with shorter interpulse intervals were perceived as more urgent, with Stevens’ power law yielding an accurate fit to the data. Spoken messages were more accepted than abstract sounds, and the female voice was more preferred than the male voice. Preferences and perceived urgency ratings were similar in middle- and high-income countries. In summary, this international survey showed that people’s preferences for TOR types in highly automated driving depend on the urgency of the situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Target onsets in dynamically changing displays can be predicted when contingencies exist between different stimulus states over time. In the present study, we examined predictive monitoring when participants searched dynamically changing displays of numbers and colored squares for a color target, a number target, or both. Stimuli were presented in both contiguous and discrete spatial configurations. Response time (RT) and accuracy were recorded, and evidence of predictive monitoring was assessed via first fixations and refixations of target‐predictive stimuli. RTs to target onsets and evidence of predictive monitoring were reduced in dual‐target, relative to single‐target, conditions. Further, predictive monitoring did not speed RTs but was influenced by display configuration. In particular, discrete displays impaired monitoring for number targets in the dual‐target condition. Implications exist for real‐world visual tasks involving multiple target categories and for visual display design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ever-increasing queries related to temporal (or time-related) information, such as the product launching time, in search engine, most web pages will be augmented with such information in the future. Meanwhile, the gradual emergence of the use of electronic textbooks (or e-Textbooks), which enrich the traditional paper-based textbooks with multimedia contents such as interactive quizzes and multimedia-based simulations, has led us to infer that e-Textbooks will be blended with temporal information to support learning. The use of temporal information helps teachers and students to understand the level of prior knowledge required to study a topic, as well as the sequence of learning activities and related sub-topics, that best attains the educational goals. This paper presents a simple yet efficient tool called TimeMap, which is based on mind mapping, to create an e-Textbook called TimeBook that takes account of time-related curriculum and the ability of students to learn via collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of technology has increased the number of activities workers are able to perform while using visual display units (VDUs), as well as the amount of time spent executing those activities; the developing technology, however, has also increased the probability of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which can decrease a worker's productivity and result in a company's economic loss. Workers at PT. X use VDUs 8 hours per day. This research aimed to analyse the risk factors that are the likely cause of some MSD symptoms experienced by PT. X workers, such as individual and psychological factors, the work environment, VDU, chair and the work patterns. This research was a cross-sectional study that used proportional stratified random sampling with 95 participants. The study found that most of the workers experienced MSD symptoms (78.6%), of which 70.52 percent were chronic complaints, 1.37 percent were acute complaints and 6.71 percent were a combination of both acute and chronic complaints. On the other hand, 16.84 percent of the respondents did not have any MSD complaints. Risk factors that were shown to be related to MSDs include high BMI (p = 0.031), work patterns period (p = 039), job stress perception (p = 0.005) and work posture (p = 0.036). Work posture relates to seat length (p = 0.041) and seat height (p = 0.005). Job stress perception is related to the details of assignments or work (p = 0.047), duration of work (p = 0.04), duration of rest (p = 0.000), work demands (p = 0.018) and job control (p = 0.009). Based on multivariate analysis, the most dominant risk factors associated with MSD complaints were the duration of rest, work posture and job stress perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited research on the effects of different types of rest-break interventions for visual display unit (VDU) operators on neck and shoulder postures. This study examined the effect of rest-break interventions on the neck and shoulder postures of symptomatic VDU operators during prolonged computer work. Thirty subjects were randomly and equally assigned to breaks with stretching, breaks with dynamic movement and passive breaks. Subjects performed the typing task for 60 min and received 3-min breaks after 20 min of work. The craniovertebral and forward shoulder angles were obtained from a 3D motion analysis system. Results showed that there were no significant differences in the craniovertebral and forward shoulder angles among any types of rest breaks. It can be concluded that the three types of rest-break interventions had positive effects on neck and shoulder posture during prolonged computer terminal work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can help small-cell base stations (SBSs) offload traffic via wireless backhaul to improve coverage and increase rate. However, the capacity of backhaul is limited. In this paper, UAV assisted secure transmission for scalable videos in hyper-dense networks via caching is studied. In the proposed scheme, UAVs can act as SBSs to provide videos to mobile users in some small cells. To reduce the pressure of wireless backhaul, UAVs and SBSs are both equipped with caches to store videos at off-peak time. To facilitate UAVs, a single antenna is equipped at each UAV and thus, only the precoding matrices of SBSs should be cooperatively designed to manage interference by exploiting the principle of interference alignment. On the other hand, the SBSs replaced by UAVs will be idle. Thus, in order to guarantee secure transmission, the idle SBSs can be further exploited to generate jamming signal to disrupt eavesdropping. The jamming signal is zero-forced at the legitimate users through the precoding of the idle SBSs, without affecting the legitimate transmission. The feasibility conditions of the proposed scheme are derived, and the secrecy performance is analyzed. Finally, simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A spectacular commodification of pure illusion, the modern magic of conjuring's golden age was also part of a loose assemblage of cultural industries – including colonial anthropology – involved in visualizing ethnic differences in ways that tended to naturalize imperialist models of globalization by denying coevalness to cultural others. Inspired by the work of scholars who emphasize multiple, alternative and indigenous forms of global modernity, I ask whether it might be possible to decenter modern magic as a category and genre, writing its history from geographical and cultural margins, and speaking in the plural about contemporaneous, but not necessarily contiguous, 'golden ages'. Shifting attention from the metropolitan theater as the iconic site of golden-age magic performance to other synchronic settings of visual display and cultural production more closely linked to colonial peripheries, I focus on the elaboration of intercultural magic performance as a form of tourist attraction and imperial spectacle in colonial contact zones. The resulting interpretation underscores the importance of power, conflict and resistance in magic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several crash reports have identified in-vehicle distraction to be a primary cause of emergency vehicle crashes especially in law enforcement. Furthermore, studies have found that mobile computer terminals (MCTs) are the most frequently used in-vehicle technology for police officers. Twenty police officers participated in a driving simulator-based assessment of visual behavior, performance, workload and situation awareness with current and enhanced MCT interface designs. In general, results revealed MCT use while driving to decrease officer visual attention to the roadway, but usability improvements can reduce the level of visual distraction and secondary-task completion time. Results also suggest that use of MCTs while driving significantly reduces perceived level of driving environment awareness for police officers and increases cognitive workload. These findings may be useful for MCT manufacturers in improving interface designs to increase police officer and civilian safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the general characteristics of video display terminal (VDT) workers with lower extremity pain, to identify the risk factors of work-related lower extremity pain, and to examine the relationship between work stress and health-related quality of life. Methods A questionnaire about the general characteristics of the survey group and the musculoskeletal symptom was used. A questionnaire about job stress used the Korean Occupational Stress Scale and medical outcome study 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) to assess health-related quality of life. Results There were 1,711 subjects in the lower extremity group and 2,208 subjects in the control group. Age, sex, hobbies, and feeling of loading affected lower extremity pain as determined in a crossover analysis of all variables with and without lower extremity pain. There were no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of job stress and SF-36 values of the pain and control groups. Conclusion Job stress in VDT workers was higher than average, and the quality of life decreased as the stress increased. Factors such as younger age, women, hobbies other than exercise, and feeling of loading influenced lower extremity pain of workers. Further long-term follow-up and supplementary studies are needed to identify risk factors for future lower extremity pain, taking into account ergonomic factors such as worker's posture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an offset compensation technique to enhance the performance of differential sensing circuits for capacitive touch screens. Accurate offset cancellation of differential circuits is regarded as a difficult problem, especially when the offset changes depending on the input signals. The proposed technique can improve the touch detection SNR by compensating both the input and output offset voltage of the differential integrator. It pre-stores the differential offset voltage and corrects both the positive and negative outputs by shifting them by the ½ of the pre-stored offset voltage. We implemented the proposed technique in a touch screen driving and sensing chip using 65 nm CMOS process. Experiments with three different sensing circuit techniques show that the proposed technique provides an SNR improvement of up to 11.17 dB over conventional sensing circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]