No abstract

Apparel manufacturing is a labor‐intensive, assembly‐line process requiring significant amounts of repetitive, skilled manipulation. A survey of three typical plants in the southeastern United States identified relatively high frequencies of musculoskeletal discomfort among the sewing operators. Poorly designed and maladjusted workstations contributed to these reported problems. Subsequent research found that ergonomic interventions including redesign and proper adjustment of workstations, use of ergonomically designed seating, and training in low‐risk methods and postures substantially reduced these complaints. Other innovations in equipment, job, and organizational design, with potential to reduce ergonomic problems, are also discussed.

The present research examined visual and auditory monitoring of independent, concurrent sources. Subjects monitored from one to eight concurrent visual indicators for the occurrence of a “launch” event. Five between-groups conditions were studied: a visual-only group, plus four audiovisual groups that differed in the amount of information provided over the auditory channel. Accuracy scores were very high for all groups. Response times showed an overall increase with display density (number of concurrent sources). A significant group x density interaction revealed an advantage of one of the audiovisual conditions compared to the visual-only group at moderate density levels (5 or 6 concurrent sources), but not at lower or higher density levels. This finding probably indicates the value of an auditory signal to reduce visual search time.

Gonadectomy on the 1st day of life had no effect on the acquisition of DRL behavior by male rats. Together with other findings. the current results suggest that endogenous androgens are relatively unimportant in the development of sex differences in DRL performance during postnatal life.

This report describes the development and evaluation of auditory symbology for use in the Joint Advanced Strike Technology-Integrated Helmet Audio Visual System (JAST-IHAVS) program. The JAST-IHAVS program was a demonstration of an integrated visual helmet-mounted display (HMD) with advanced 3-D audio technology, headtracking, active noise reduction, and voice control for reduced pilot workload, enhanced target acquisition, and improved situation awareness. This effort developed and evaluated two sets of sixteen auditory symbols for representing four threat levels and four threat priorities. One set of auditory symbology was based on tones from a standard radar warning receiver (RWR) based on inputs from the IHAVS lead test pilot. The second set of auditory symbology was based on those developed in a previous research project at Georgia Tech.Each auditory symbology set was evaluated in a series of laboratory tasks for identifiability and localizability. Identification and localization tasks tested auditory symbologies presented alone and in combinations of up to four simultaneous threats. Overall, the auditory symbology based on the RWR tones was evaluated as satisfactory in terms of localization accuracy and identification of threat level. However, the auditory symbology based on RWR tones was unreliable and the perception of both threat and priority level was unreliable when heard in combination of two or more simultaneous threats. satisfactory on all counts.