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BACKGROUND: Design for All or Universal Design is a relatively new domain in Ergonomics. With globally ageing populations, it has however recently gained significant interest. OBJECTIVE: This position paper summarizes the outcomes of a workshop held at the virtual 21st Triennial Congress of the International Ergonomics Association. The paper expands the horizon of traditional Ergonomics into a domain where people are differently abled and establishes a platform for the essential needs of future ergonomic standards which are required to inform inclusive design guidelines, or Design for All, extending the range of users. METHODS: The paper includes contributions from Asian, Australian, European and US workshop participants who are accessibility design experts in their respective geographic regions. The paper summarizes issues related to anthropometry in the Design for All, based on recent work in the US (Access board) and actual developments in various national and international accessibility standardization bodies, such as the Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand, the European Standardization Organization (EN 17210:2021; EN 17161:2019) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 21542:2021 and BS ISO 7176-5:2008). CONCLUSIONS: The paper concludes that despite the identification of a significant gap in knowledge of the anthropometry of people with disabilities as far back as 1990, work towards bridging the gap and enabling ergonomic standardization has not progressed since then globally. The lack of standardization in anthropometric data on people with a physical disability continues to complicate provision of data for mobility and accessibility design and hampers accessibility standardization efforts.

Background The lung Extracellular Matrix (ECM) contains a considerable part of the parenchymal cells. It contains three essential components: elastin and collagen within a proteoglycan (PG) viscoelastic network. Elastin provides the lung’s elasticity property, a necessity for normal breathing, while collagen prepares structural support and strength, and PGs give stability and cushioning within tissue loading. Bacterial and viral respiratory diseases are dependent on changes in the ECM ingredients, which result in an alteration of the lung tissue strength. Purpose In the present study, this variation was investigated by changing the volume ratio of the ECM ingredients in the viscoelastic model. Results As a result, the relaxation curves continuously declined by reducing the volume ratios of elastin, collagen, and PGs; subsequently, the lung stiffness decreased. Also, the Standard Linear Solid (SLS) model-based results demonstrated excellent accordance with empirical data with only minor deviations. The resting relaxation modulus and the creep modulus for the ECM tissue were 51 kPa and approximately 0.02 kPa, respectively, and the maximum total modulus of elasticity reached 121 kPa. Conclusions Moreover, this model demonstrates individual alveolar mechanical behaviours and adds another pathway to the generalized Kelvin-Voigt and Maxwell models in predicting the progress of lung diseases.

Automated driving (AD) is likely to encounter situations, when vehicle control is handed from the system to the human driver. Such situation may occur, e.g., when a steadfast obstacle is suddenly d...

Air pollution is the leading cause of different respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that commonly affect respiratory health. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been used to predict the airflow pattern and particle transport within human lungs under disease conditions like obstructed airways. Nevertheless, the combination of the obstructed airways and the aging impact on these diseases under the various flow rates and particle diameters, has not been considered in previous studies. This chapter provides a clear understanding of airflow characteristics and particle transport through obstructions and smaller airways due to aging based on an asymmetric lung model generating from the trachea to the fourth generation. Eight different lung models were used for the numerical simulation. The ANSYS Fluent 19.2 was employed to solve the problems under the finite volume discretization technique. Appropriate grid refinement has been performed for all cases. The results indicate that airflow pattern always changes at the stenosis area. The velocity significantly increases at stenosis area for the first two generations and the smallest diameter size. The maximum pressure drop was located at stenosis area for the first generation of right lung and the fourth generation for the smallest diameter case, whereas the highest pressure was found in the trachea for both conditions. Stenosis areas at first two generations significantly affect higher turbulence intensity while smaller diameters generate lower turbulent fluctuation. The deposition efficiency and deposition fraction were based on the airway volume, particle size, and flow rate. The results of this study enhance the knowledge of airflow characteristics and particle deposition within asymmetric human lungs with stenosis area and smaller diameters.

The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 causes significant respirational health problems, including high mortality rates worldwide. The deadly corona virus-containing aerosol enters the atmospheric air through sneezing, exhalation, or talking, assembling with the particulate matter, and subsequently transferring to the respiratory system. This recent outbreak illustrates that the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus-2 is deadlier for aged people than for other age groups. It is evident that the airway diameter reduces with age, and an accurate understanding of SARS aerosol transport through different elderly people's airways could potentially help the overall respiratory health assessment, which is currently lacking in the literature. This first-ever study investigates SARS COVID-2 aerosol transport in age-specific airway systems. A highly asymmetric age-specific airway model and fluent solver (ANSYS 19.2) are used for the investigation. The computational fluid dynamics measurement predicts higher SARS COVID-2 aerosol concentration in the airway wall for older adults than for younger people. The numerical study reports that the smaller SARS coronavirus-2 aerosol deposition rate in the right lung is higher than that in the left lung, and the opposite scenario occurs for the larger SARS coronavirus-2 aerosol rate. The numerical results show a fluctuating trend of pressure at different generations of the age-specific model. The findings of this study would improve the knowledge of SARS coronavirus-2 aerosol transportation to the upper airways which would thus ameliorate the targeted aerosol drug delivery system.

Industry 4.0 lends itself to an ecosystem of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) related new concepts, such as Mining 4.0, Safety 4.0, Operator 4.0 and Ergonomics 4.0 which we studied here. Industry 4.0 refers to system elements such as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR), connections through the Internet of Things (IoT) and storage on Cloud Platforms (CP) to facilitate Cognitive Computing (CC) analysis and knowledge extraction. While the Industry 4.0 concept is centred around data, it also provides a platform to integrate the human operator with other elements of a system. Industry 4.0 and Ergonomics thus appear integrated and suggest the development of an Ergonomics 4.0 concept. This study searched and reviewed publications focusing on the enablers of Ergonomics 4.0. We identified their main elements and relationships with a focus on Digital Human Modelling (DHM). We systemized, clustered and synthesized the reviewed information and generated a taxonomy of Ergonomics 4.0 under the lens of digital human modelling using semantic analysis. We conclude that Ergonomics 4.0 is an essential part of Industry 4.0 and that DHM is a key enabler for Ergonomics 4.0.

Three probabilistic analytical (“mathematical”) human-system-integration (HSI) models and their application in ergonomics engineering are addressed. The general concepts are illustrated by numerical examples. It is concluded that such models should always be considered, in addition to computer simulations, in every critical HSI effort.

A comprehensive understanding of airflow characteristics and particle transport in the human lung can be useful in modelling to inform clinical diagnosis, treatment, and management, including prescription medication and risk assessment for rehabilitation. One of the difficulties in clinical treatment of lung disorders lies in the patients’ variable physical lung characteristics caused by age, amongst other factors, such as different lung sizes. A precise understanding of the comparison between different age groups with various flow rates is missing in the literature, and this study aims to analyse the airflow and aerosol transport within the age-specific lung. ANSYS Fluent solver and the large-eddy simulation (LES) model were employed for the numerical simulation. The numerical model was validated with the available literature and the computational results showed airway size-reduction significantly affected airflow and particle transport in the upper airways. This study reports higher deposition at the mouth-throat region for larger diameter particles. The overall deposition efficiency (DE) increased with airway size reduction and flow rate. Lung aging effected the pressure distribution and a higher pressure drop was reported for the aged lung as compared to the younger lung. These findings could inform medical management through individualised simulation of drug-aerosol delivery processes for the patient-specific lung.

Air quality related to respiratory illness is examined in many settings, including populations that work or reside close to sources of pollution. Industry produced pollution from mining and metal manufacturing, natural environmental pollution as in the case of bushfires and large-scale dust storms are examples. We reviewed any available literature and data concerning the Queensland coal industry and its effect on respiratory health of miners, mining related workers and communities in proximity to coal mines. We searched various databases using keywords related to coal and respiratory diseases, using the five step criteria defined by Denyer and Tranfield. In the Queensland coal mining industry, the negative effect of mining on workers’ respiratory health has been known for many years and has received increased attention in the last five years both nationally and internationally due to the resurgence in Coal Mine Dust Lung Diseases and specifically Coal Worker’s Pneumoconiosis (CWP). A Queensland parliamentary review has prompted regulatory amendments for the permitted (occupational) exposure level (PEL; OEL) to coal dust and silica; amendments have also been enacted for better occupational respiratory health surveillance of Queensland coal miners, both surface and underground. Considering Queensland has a high proportion of Australian coal mines, the literature available on respiratory health in Queensland coal mines and surrounding communities is minimal. There is very limited research into, and possible underreporting of CMDLD amongst the coal mining workers in Queensland. Further studies are required to better understand air pollution and health effects in coal miners in Queensland.

In automated driving scenarios with semi-autonomous vehicles of today and the near future, a request for taking-over control may at any time be communicated to a human driver. Empirical studies exist of, e.g., the effects of different modalities used in this human-machine interaction, and of drowsiness of drivers involved, depending on manual or automated driving. However, there is no model available yet of how the decision-making time in the course of taking-over control from the automated vehicle depends on the driver’s drowsiness. Hence, we present a probabilistic model of the decision-making time as influenced by certain properties characterizing the driver’s drowsiness according to previous work.

Occupational exposure limits for respirable coal dust are based on exposure during working hours, but coal miners may experience additional community-based exposures during nonworking hours. We analyzed Australia National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) data for the years 2008&ndash, 2018 to estimate air pollutants (metals, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter &le, 10 micrometers (PM10) and &le, 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5)) originating from coal mines. PM10 levels from community-based air monitors in Queensland and New South Wales were also compared between mining and nonmining communities. Results indicated that tons of coal mined increased over the study period, and that levels of particulate matter, metals, and nitrogen oxides increased significantly over time as well. Coal mines accounted for 42.1% of national PM10 air emissions from NPI sites. PM2.5 from coal mines accounted for 19.5% of the national total, metals for 12.1%, and nitrogen oxides for 10.1%. Coal mining occurred in 57 different post codes, the 20 coal-mining post codes with the highest PM10 emissions were home to 160,037 people. Emissions of all studied pollutants were significantly higher from coal mining sites than from other types of NPI sites. Results from community-based air monitoring stations indicated significantly higher population PM10 exposure in coal mining communities than in nonmining communities. The health of the public at large is impacted by coal mining, but to the extent that miners also live near coal mining operations, their total exposure is underestimated by consideration of exposure only during working hours.

Airflow and particle transport in the human lung system is influenced by biological and other factors such as breathing pattern, particle properties, and deposition mechanisms. Most of the studies to date have analyzed airflow characterization and aerosol transport in idealized and realistic models. Precise airflow characterization for airway stenosis in a digital reference model is lacking in the literature. This study presents a numerical simulation of airflow and particle transport through a stenosis section of the airway. A realistic CT-scan-based mouth&ndash, throat and upper airway model was used for the numerical calculations. Three different models of a healthy lung and of airway stenosis of the left and right lung were used for the calculations. The ANSYS FLUENT solver, based on the finite volume discretization technique, was used as a numerical tool. Proper grid refinement and validation were performed. The numerical results show a complex-velocity flow field for airway stenosis, where airflow velocity magnitude at the stenosis section was found to be higher than that in healthy airways. Pressure drops at the mouth&ndash, throat and in the upper airways show a nonlinear trend. Comprehensive pressure analysis of stenosis airways would increase our knowledge of the safe mechanical ventilation of the lung. The turbulence intensities at the stenosis sections of the right and left lung were found to be different. Deposition efficiency (DE) increased with flow rate and particle size. The findings of the present study increase our understanding of airflow patterns in airway stenosis under various disease conditions. More comprehensive stenosis analysis is required to further improve knowledge of the field.

Automated driving (AD) specifications require that the human driver takes over, if an off-normal situation, such as a possible collision occurs. A critical problem is due in this case to the short time available to the driver to intervene and to take appropriate actions. It has been recently demonstrated, mostly in application to the aerospace domain, how Probabilistic Analytical Modeling (PAM) could effectively complement computer simulations in various Human-System-Integration (HSI) related missions and situations, when the system’s reliability and the human’s performance contribute jointly to the never-zero probability of failure. The convolution model is brought in application to a situation, when an obstacle is suddenly detected in front of the moving vehicle, and the only possible way to avoid collision is by using brakes to decelerate the vehicle. The role and significance of the driver’s trust towards the system are also addressed and briefly discussed.

Solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is the main environmental risk-factor for cancer of the skin. Sun-protective clothing provides a physical barrier that reduces the UVR dose reaching the skin and European and Australian standards for sun-protective clothing set minimum clothing coverage requirements. Body Surface Area Coverage by clothing (BSAC) is calculated by means of indirect or direct methods, which are laborious and do not support computer-based apparel design. To support the sun-safe specification and design of garments, parametric digital human models and protective clothing mesh covering the minimum Body Surface Area specified in AS/NZS 4399:2017, were created making use of MakeHuman v1.1.1 and Blender software. The Whole Body Surface Area (WBSA) and the BSAC were calculated employing code developed in Blender. Thus, different groups of subjects were analysed to explore BSAC. The method assists in the evaluation of exposed body areas in a wider spectrum of different occupations. Practitioner summary: Sun-protective clothing provides a physical barrier that reduces the UVR dose reaching the skin's surface. Body Surface Area Coverage (BSAC) by clothing is an important determinant of the sun protective capabilities of a garment. In this study, BSAC is calculated using parametric digital human modelling. Abbreviation: UVR: (Solar) ultraviolet radiation; DHM: digital human modeling; BSA: body surface area; BSAC: body surface area coverage (by clothing); BSANC: body surface area not covered (by clothing); WBSA: whole body surface area; BCC: basal cell carcinoma; SCC: squamous cell carcinoma; UPF: ultraviolet protection factor; GPF: garment protection factor.

Objective Misuse of child restraint systems is a widespread and long-standing problem impacting risk of injury and death in car crashes. Discomfort has been suggested as a causative factor for misuse, particularly in errors introduced by children while they use the restraints. However, the relationship between comfort and errors in use has never been studied. In this study we examine the reliability and sensitivity of a newly developed observational method for assessing comfort in children in vehicles. We then use this method to examine the relationship between comfort and errors in use of booster seats. Methods A novel method was developed for assessing comfort by counting fidgeting and postural adjustment behaviors to derive a Discomfort Avoidance Behavior (DAB) score. The sensitivity of the DAB score was examined by observing children in four different seating conditions designed as “comfortable” and “uncomfortable” (Part 1). Paired-samples t-tests were used to compare differences in DAB between seating conditions. The reliability of the DAB score was assessed by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between DAB scores recorded by different researchers. The association between comfort and correctness of use was examined by observing children using booster seats (Part 2). The association between DAB score and number of usage errors was tested using linear regression analysis. Participants were children ages 4–8 years. Fourteen children participated in Part 1 and 15 children in Part 2. Results The DAB score was sensitive to changes in seat condition (p < 0.01), and was repeatable between different researchers (ICC 0.98, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.954–0.991). Increases in DAB were associated with increases in the number of use errors among children using booster seats (errors in use = 3.89 × DAB − 2.18, p < 0.0001). Conclusion The DAB score is a reliable and valid measure of comfort of children in child restraints but could be improved by incorporating a measurement of postural positioning. Comfort, as characterized by fidgeting and postural adjustment behaviors, is associated with correct use of child restraints. The broader implication is that this confirms ergonomic design of child restraints as important for minimizing errors in use. There is a need for further study of the impact of specific restraint design features on comfort experienced by children.

Prior investigations on the associations of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) with fetal growth are mixed. Moreover, little research has accrued pertaining to the association between isomers of PFASs with gestational age and birth weight. To address this gap and present novel information, we conducted a study including 321 pairs of mothers and their infants recruited from Guangzhou, China. High performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was utilized to analyze isomers of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) along with other PFAS levels in cord serum samples. Mothers' and infants' characteristics were gathered from medical records. The resulting data revealed that higher PFOS, PFOA and isomers of PFOS were associated with lower birth weight. Per ln-unit (ng/mL) increase in cord serum total branched PFOS isomers was associated with a 126.3 g (95% CI: −195.9, −56.8) reduction in the weight of infants at birth, while an ln-unit (ng/mL) increase of serum linear PFOS isomers (n-PFOS) was associated with a 57.2 g (95% CI: −103.1, −11.3) reduction in the weight of infants at birth upon the subsequent adjustment for potential confounding variables. Notably, the association between cord PFAS level and birth weight was more pronounced in male infants. Furthermore, a positive association among branched PFOS isomers (1m-PFOS and 3 + 4 + 5m-PFOS) and gestational age was found. No associations could be found among other PFASs in conjunction with gestational age or birth weight. In conclusion, this investigation suggests that higher PFAS concentrations are associated with lower birth weight, and branched PFOS isomers show greater impact on infant birth weight than linear PFOS. Keywords: Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), Isomers, Birth weight, Gestational age

Background: Little information exists on whether gender or asthma status modifies the effects of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure on lung function. Objective: To evaluate whether gender or asthma status modifies the association of SHS exposure with lung function. Methods: A total of 6,740 children (average 11.6 years) were recruited from 24 districts of 7 cities in northeast China in 2012. SHS exposure included exposure to environmental and maternal smoking both in utero and during early childhood (postnatal). Lung function was measured using electronic spirometers. Two-step regressions were used to analyze the association between SHS and lung function. Results: In utero and postnatal exposure to SHS was independently associated with decreased lung function in both genders; however, this association was greater among males. For example, when exposed to maternal smoking during pregnancy, the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for decreased forced vital capacity (FVC) was 6.46 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.58-16.17) among males, while only 2.16 (95% CI: 0.96-4.88) among females. More positive associations between SHS exposure and decreased lung function were detected among nonasthmatic compared with asthmatic children. Nonasthmatics had significantly larger deficits from in utero exposure to maternal smoking, which concerned decreased lung FVC function (aOR = 2.58, 95% CI: 1.28-5.21) and decreased lung forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) function (aOR = 2.32, 95% CI: 1.01-5.33). A similar pattern was also observed for the associations between SHS exposure and continuous pulmonary function test measurements. Conclusions: SHS exposure was associated with decreased lung function. Males and nonasthmatics seem to be more susceptible than their respective counterparts.

[Extract:] Research into suitable digital instruments that provide support in assessing and monitoring the risk to human health from assuming a poor posture has long been a priority for those in charge of balancing the human-machine-environment system.

The first interactive user experience with a car is ingress, or entering the vehicle. The last interactive experience is egress, exiting and locking a vehicle. These simple and even obvious events have been sometimes underestimated from the ergonomic and design point of view, resulting in a poor design. Often esthetics rather than functionality and ergonomics has driven the design process. Experimental analysis and digital human modeling (DHM) have faced this important issue in the last 20 years with advanced technologies and methodologies to provide reference design solutions and methods for designing an accessible and comfortable doorway. Several human characteristic parameters and variables can influence this task: anthropometry, age, gender (and related factors, such as hairdo or garments), motor capabilities, temporary conditions (fatigue, vision etc.), and acquired personal preferences; moreover, a range of external factors directly influence this task. Therefore, its modeling and analysis results in a great variability and is thus difficult in principle. DHM is becoming an essential tool for proactive ergonomics, by providing comprehensive simulation and representation solutions to study how the different variables could affect a doorway design. This chapter aims at providing an overview of recent findings for analyzing car ingress–egress movements, the related methods and experimental setups, DHM experiences and tools, and the resulting recommendations for the design.

Open-source digital human modeling (DHM) software has emerged as an alternative to expensive and often complex industrial DHM systems. MakeHuman is an open-source software that has been used in ergonomic studies. Based on open-source Python code, the program creates realistic 3D virtual human body surfaces, primarily focusing on morphing details. An intuitive graphical user interface features normalized scales for the main parameters such as gender, age, muscle mass, weight, height, proportion, and ethnicity. These input parameters drive respective output values, which mostly remain normalized, with the exception of height and age on an interval scale. MakeHuman Blender tools connect the MakeHuman and Blender programs, allowing users to modify a base mesh shape, create clothes, apply static poses, or generate animations. In a recent DHM work, MakeHuman was engaged mostly to generate sets of virtual subjects. MakeHuman is a design (gaming)-focused, parametric virtual human modeling tool based on templates. A template model is transformed using scaling factors, resizing its segments and proportions, to generate a set of human bodies compatible with the original base mesh. Fuzzy logic rules form the ontology to process inputs, which are linked to membership functions of fuzzy sets. Providing a morphing target file for each extreme value, multifactorial input change is amalgamated through an inference engine that yields a diversity of human bodies. MakeHuman models can be imported and remeshed in Blender, which also supports the integration of kinematical models into the body mesh. At the end of the DHM generation process, an inverse kinematic dynamic body mesh model in Blender is driven by kinematic data from motion capture.

DHM and Posturography explores the body of knowledge and state-of-the-art in digital human modeling, along with its application in ergonomics and posturography. The book provides an industry first introductory and practitioner focused overview of human simulation tools, with detailed chapters describing elements of posture, postural interactions, and fields of application. Thus, DHM tools and a specific scientific/practical problem – the study of posture – are linked in a coherent framework. In addition, sections show how DHM interfaces with the most common physical devices for posture analysis. Case studies provide the applied knowledge necessary for practitioners to make informed decisions.

Digital human models (DHMs) can be used to simulate and analyze complex situations such as industrial tasks or ergonomic vehicle design. In contrast to real-world conditions, many assumptions are not sufficiently accurate because only biomechanical or anthropometrical or physical aspects are considered. A major challenge is that digital models do not relay to standards; therefore, the exchange of different parameters to get a comprehensive evaluation is hardly possible. Since the beginning of this decade, some research projects tried to establish data exchange between DHM systems to increase the amount of evaluation results in a comprehensive manner. In 2011, Paul and Lee created an interface between the DHM software JACK and AMS. In 2013, as a part of a research project, a data exchange between RAMSIS, CASIMIR, and AMS was established. Furthermore, in 2018, a research group developed an interface between AMS and EMA to expand ergonomic evaluation (Peters et al. 2018). Yet enhancing the data exchange between DHM systems creates new opportunities and can improve the predictions of ergonomic evaluations. This chapter will exemplify advantages and challenges in the field of data exchange and give an overview of the up-to-date research activities in this field.

Epidemiological studies have reported inconsistent and inconclusive associations between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and lung function in children from Europe and America, where air pollution levels were typically low. The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between air pollutants and lung function in children selected from heavily industrialized and polluted cities in northeastern China. During 2012, 6740 boys and girls aged 7–14 years were recruited in 24 districts of seven northeastern cities. Portable electronic spirometers were used to measure lung function. Four-year average concentrations of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) were measured at monitoring stations in the 24 districts. Two-staged regression models were used in the data analysis, controlling for covariates. Overall, for all subjects, the increased odds of lung function impairment associated with exposure to air pollutants, ranged from 5% (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01, 1.10) for FVC

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are a group of common chemicals that ubiquitously exist in wildlife and humans. Experimental data suggest that they may alter T-lymphocyte functioning in situ by preferentially enhancing the development of T-helper 2 (TH2)- and inhibiting TH1-lymphocyte development and might increase allergic inflammation, but few human studies have been conducted. To evaluate the association between serum PFAAs concentrations and T-lymphocyte-related immunological markers of asthma in children, and further to assess whether gender modified this association, 231 asthmatic children and 225 non-asthmatic control children from Northern Taiwan were recruited into the Genetic and Biomarker study for Childhood Asthma. Serum concentrations of ten PFAAs and levels of TH1 [interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-2] and TH2 (IL-4 and IL-5) cytokines were measured. The results showed that asthmatics had significantly higher serum PFAAs concentrations compared with the healthy controls. When stratified by gender, a greater number of significant associations between PFAAs and asthma outcomes were found in males than in females. Among males, adjusted odds ratios for asthma among those with the highest versus lowest quartile of PFAAs exposure ranged from 2.59 (95% CI: 1.14, 5.87) for the perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBS) to 4.38 (95% CI: 2.02, 9.50) for perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS); and serum PFAAs were associated positively with TH2 cytokines and inversely with TH1 cytokines among male asthmatics. Among females, no significant associations between PFAAs and TH2 cytokines could be detected. In conclusion, increased serum PFAAs levels may promote TH cell dysregulation and alter the availability of key TH1 and TH2 cytokines, ultimately contributing to the development of asthma that may differentially impact males to a greater degree than females. These results have potential relevance in asthma prevention.

Benchmarking was used to compare the Australian SIA’s (Safety Institute of Australia) OHS BoK with three different approaches to systemize the knowledge that should be taught by universities. The Australian Health and Safety Professionals Alliance (HaSPA) Core Body of Knowledge for Generalist OHS Professionals was benchmarked against three other international bodies of knowledge, the German Ergonomic Society’s Body of Knowledge Ergonomics – Core Definition, Object Catalogue and Research Domains, the IEEE Computer Society Software Engineering Body of Knowledge and the American ‘Association of Schools of Public Health’ Master’s Degree in Public Health Core Competency Model. It was found that quality, structure and content of the OHS BoK ranked lowest when compared with the other benchmarked documents. The HaSPA body of knowledge was ranked poorly when compared to the German Ergonomic Society’s Body of Knowledge for Ergonomics, IEEE Computer Society Software Engineering Body of Knowledge and the American Association of Schools of Public Health Core Competency Model. Analysis and discussion of the HaSPA BoK is important given its use as an audit tool for tertiary education in Australia. Furthermore the International Network of Safety & Health Practitioner Organisations (INSHPO) is apparently promoting the Australian SIA’s OHS BoK as the basis of an international standard.