Reported cases of allergic contact dermatitis caused by methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) have increased and thereby increased the need for adequate skin protection. Current standardized permeation and penetration test methods give information about efficacy of protective materials against individual components of the polyurethane systems. They do not give information of what kind of clothin...

Physical employment standards (PESs) exist for certain occupational groups that also require the use of protective clothing ensembles (PCEs) during their normal work. This review addresses whether these current PESs appropriately incorporate the physiological burden associated with wearing PCEs during respective tasks. Metabolic heat production increases because of wearing PCE; this increase is...

Humans represent and discriminate the objects in the same category using their properties, and an intelligent robot should be able to do the same. In this paper, we build a robot system that can autonomously perceive the object properties through touch. We work on the common object category of clothing. The robot moves under the guidance of an external Kinect sensor, and squeezes the clothes wi...

The present work is dedicated to the study of occupational cold environments in food distribution industrial units. Field measurements and a subjective assessment based on an individual questionnaire were considered. The survey was carried out in 5 Portuguese companies. The field measurements include 26 workplaces, while a sample of 160 responses was considered for the subjective assessment. In...

BACKGROUND Monitoring core body temperature to identify heat stress in first responders and in individuals participating in mass gatherings (e.g., marathons) is difficult. OBJECTIVE This study utilized high-sensitivity thermal imaging technology to predict the core temperature of human subjects at a distance while performing simulated field operations wearing thermal protective garments. ME...

BACKGROUND Repeated sprint performance is determined by explosive production of power, as well as rapid recovery between successive sprints, and there is evidence that compression garments and sports taping can improve both of these factors. METHODS In each of two sub-studies, female athletes performed two sets of 30 30-m sprints (one sprint per minute), one set wearing compression garment wi...

This study investigates the role of placebo expectations in individuals' perception of exertion during acute physical exercise. Building upon findings from placebo and marketing research, we examined how perceived exertion is affected by expectations regarding a) the effects of exercise and b) the effects of the exercise product worn during the exercise. We also investigated whether these effec...