This special issue of the International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (JOSE) reports the results from an extensive multinational and multidisciplinary collaborative investigation of the impacts on visual display terminal (VDT) work of musculoskeletal, visual, ergonomic, and psychosocial factors. For brevity, this effort has been referred to as the MEPS project (musculoskeletal--...

the effect of aging on surface anthropometry, articulation limits and physical strength for digital humans at joint level. By making use of an anthropometric database, physical characteristic database and prioritized Inverse Kinematics architecture, the developed simulation system could be a core engine for ergonomic analysis at the conceptual design stage of a product development cycle. The pr...

Product classification using anthropometric measurements leads to ergonomic product design and user satisfaction. We propose an effective artificial immune algorithm (AIA) to classify ergonomic products with multi-criteria anthropometric measurements and tune the AIA parameters with a full factorial experimental design approach. We demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of the proposed algo...

background and objectives: non-ergonomic computer work has emerged as a significant cause of musculoskeletal disorders among employees of health care organizations.  given the negative impact of such disorders on quality of work life, safety, and performance of hospital staff, there is a need to evaluate the exposure of this staff to the ergonomic risks associated with the computer-based jobs. ...

An approach for ergonomic evaluation of hospital service quality (EQUALHI) is proposed. It is based on a checklist tool using a neural networks-based evaluation model. This approach enables the determination of the most important ergonomic criteria and the generation of recommendations for improving the hospital service quality. EQUALHI is illustrated and validated by a study in 50 smalland med...

In this study, an investigation was conducted into the extent to which ergonomic requirements for work on computers are met in Greek office workstations. The ergonomic requirements considered were those included in Council Directive 90/270/EEC (1990) of the European Union and the ISO 9241 (1997) standard. 593 office workstations were assessed using an assessment tool consisting of 70 assessment...

UNLABELLED This study investigated the effectiveness of a workstation ergonomic intervention for work-related posture and low back pain (LBP) in Video Display Terminal (VDT) workers. 100 VDT workers were selected to receive the ergonomic intervention, whereas 100 were assigned to a control group. The two groups were then crossed-over after 30 months from baseline. Follow-ups were repeated at 5,...

The aim of the paper is to describe a possible direction of development and theoretical model for ergonomic research in the Virtual Reality (VR) field dedicated to psychotherapy applications. Through considerations on the strong points and limitations encountered during two different projects dedicated to the creation of virtual reality environments (VRE) for use in psychotherapy, it comments o...