There is a strong interest in the robotics community in learning how humans grasp and manipulate objects, partly because robots need to operate in human environments and partly because humans are currently much better in physical interaction tasks than robots. This thesis seeks to identify the human heuristics for grasping...
Cultural differences between designers and users is an important aspect to consider when designing products for other countries. However, many prominent authors in the human factors engineering field have failed to specifically address how to identify and utilize cultural differences in user interface (UI) design. This research evaluated if design...
Funk’s (1991) cockpit task management (CTM) theory is structurally consistent with cognitive multitasking models: it addresses managing multiple and concurrent tasks in three stages: situation awareness, response selection, and response execution. Based on CTM theory, Colvin, Funk and Braune (2005) hypothesized that the following six factors may affect task prioritization:...
An age-wave is upon us where many older adults are reaching retirement. Technically experienced older adults have skills that could be directly applied to free/open source software (FOSS) communities, such as project management, programming, and/or knowledge of a rapidly growing end-user population. FOSS is a widely popular, low-cost way to...
This research is an effort to explore the nature of good work, a concept that describes work that is beneficial to the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of its stakeholders, including and especially the worker. This effort is divided into four distinct parts. First, the construct of good work is...
BCL11B is a transcriptional regulatory protein that plays essential roles during mouse embryonic development. BCL11B is expressed and functions in the immune and nervous systems as well as within ectodermal organs. Multiple studies have characterized the roles of BCL11B in T cells, brain, and skin. However, very little is known...
The flightcrew of a modern airliner operates in a multi-tasking environment with
several tasks competing for the same attentional resources at the same time. Too many
tasks vying for the crew's attention concurrently imposes a heavy workload on the
flightcrew. This results in the satisfactory execution of some tasks at...
A significant number of aircraft incidents and accidents have been caused, in part, by flightcrew failure to properly manage cockpit activities, such as failure to initiate
activities at the appropriate time, misprioritization of activities, or the failure to
appropriately monitor activities and terminate them when required. To facilitate the
management...
Emergency stop controls are essential parts of industrial machinery because they
are designed to stop the operation in case of emergencies without risks to operators,
equipment, products, or facilities. Current guidelines for emergency stop controls have
been formulated based on experience but not on empirical studies.
The main objectives of...