The organizational context of human factors engineering

Human factors engineering concerns the design of equipment in accordance with the mental and physical characteristics of operators. Human factors engineers advise design engineers, but the organizational context limits their influence and restricts their perspective. The discussion of organizational context in this paper explains why military and industrial top management personnel are indifferent to good human factors design and shows how the social structure favors the choice of technologies that centralize authority and deskill operators and how it encourages unwarranted attributions of operator error. The role of equipment and system design in shaping cognitive maps and mental models is explored, and the technology-social structure paradigm is questioned.     

富士通:完全解决客户的问题

如今,消费者和供应方所面对的挑战,就是要找出更好的办法,来纠正实际使用过程中确实出现的问题,如缺陷产品(这些产品往往是由不同的组织各自设计的)、损坏或不相匹配等。所幸的是,精益方法能够使我们稳步迈向极少出问题的精益消费过程。其中关键的做法是,把对每一个“消费问题”的智能型反馈收集起来。这将使现有问题得到迅速而彻底的纠正,同时避免同类问题今后再度发生。真实的企业面对真实的客户真的能实施这样的智能型反馈吗?在研究中我们高兴地发现,欧洲最大的IT支持服务供应方之一的富士通服务公司(FujitsuServices),已经令人信服地…     

城市化与畜产品生产预测:健康与环境风险调整法

集约化农业生产所带来的环境影响和健康危害已经使人们逐渐认识到建立可持续农业发展途径的必要性.随着人们收入的增长,城市化的迅速发展成为消费模式转变的最为显见的驱动力.揭示在考虑到可持续发展的风险和不确定性的情况下对未来农业生产规划的预测,和在决策过程中恰当的风险指标,而这些内容的引入将极可能改变与畜产品设备配置和集约化程度相关的未来政策.以中国为例,研究主要目标为:(1)阐明如何将风险指标引入到决策过程中从而避免健康风险带来的负面结果;(2)阐明如何在农业生产规划中明确风险和不确定性,以达到可持续农业发展.     

独脚金—非洲农业的大敌

独脚金具有极大为害性,因为它的蔓延速度极快。针对这一杂草问题,最近热带农业国际研究所(IITA)、尼日利亚伊巴丹和加拿大国际开发研究中心(JDRC)、热带半干旱地区国际农作物研究所(ICRISAT)、以及印度海德拉巴联合在热带农业国际研究所组织召开了一次     

Toddler drowning prevention: teaching parents about water safety in conjunction with their child's in-water lessons

The primary objective of the study was to develop a parent education programme that addressed parental misconceptions of toddler water safety previously identified by the authors. Parents (n = 106) of 2-4-year-old toddlers enrolled in swim school lessons completed a self-directed questionnaire before and after a 10-week poolside water safety programme. Differences in pre- and post-programme knowledge and beliefs were measured by frequency and chi-square tested to identify significant changes in parental comprehension of toddler water safety after the programme. Statistically significant improvements in parental understanding were evident after the programme. More parents were aware of the family or friend's swimming pool as the primary site of toddler drowning (59% vs. 78%). More parents agreed that their toddler required more, not less, adult supervision after swimming lessons (85% vs. 97%) and more disagreed that swimming lessons were the best way to prevent toddler drowning (65% vs. 74%). Parental understanding of child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), however, did not improve after the programme. This study suggests that toddler lessons in swim schools provide a valuable opportunity to address parental misconceptions about toddler water safety. Further research is required to determine how parents whose toddlers do not attend swimming lessons might similarly benefit from such a programme.