Factors Contributing to Ladder Falls and Broader Impacts on Safety and Biomechanics

Ladder falls cause disabling injury and death in the workplace and at home. Numerous scenarios lead to ladder falls given the variation in ladder types and how they are used. Of the potential factors influencing ladder fall risk under these different scenarios, many have yet to be investigated. This dissertation used a multifaceted approach to determine ladder fall risk factors. Specifically, this dissertation tested younger and older adults, designed occupational and domestic based ladder experiments, and investigated factors that precede and follow a ladder falling event. Aim 1 of this dissertation identified individual factors associated with safe and effective domestic ladder use among older adults. Balance measured with clinical assessments was a primary predictor of safe and effective ladder use. Aim 2 of this dissertation determined individual, environmental and biomechanical factors that aid in arresting a falling event from a ladder. Ascending climbs, males, greater upper body strength, higher hand placement during recovery and reestablishing at least one foot back onto the ladder during recovery were associated with reduced ladder fall severity (i.e. better recovery). Surprisingly, glove condition was not found to contribute to ladder fall severity. Hand-rung forces were correlated with the severity of the falling event and not an individual’s ability to generate force, suggesting that these forces are dependent on the circumstances of the perturbation. Findings from this dissertation may guide fall interventions (e.g. screenings, improvements in safety standards, perturbation response training, ladder re-design). Therefore, this work is expected to have impact on the safety field by reducing ladder fall injuries. Furthermore, this work contributes new knowledge to the biomechanics of ladder use and fall recovery. As part of a larger strategy to improve safety for all populations, increased diversity is needed in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Aim 3 of this dissertation utilized biomechanics as a link to develop a student-interest based pedagogy to improve engagement of underrepresented groups in the STEM fields. This work found lectures tailored to student interests to increase student engagement. Long-term effects from this work can increase diversity in the STEM fields including safety

Gait Posture

Background:A plurality of fatal falls to lower levels involve ladders. After a slip/misstep on a ladder, climbers use their upper and lower limbs to reestablish contact with the ladder.Research question:This study investigates the impact of upper body strength, hand placement and foot placement on fall severity after a ladder climbing perturbation.Methods:Participants performed upper body strength tests (breakaway and grip strength) and climbed a vertical, fixed ladder while a misstep perturbation was applied under the foot. After the perturbation, three hand placement and two foot placement responses were generally observed. Common hand placement responses included the hand moving two rungs, one rung, or did not move to a different rung. Foot placement responses included at least one foot or no feet reestablished contact with the ladder rung(s). Fall severity was quantified by the peak harness force observed after the perturbation.Results:Increased strength, reestablishing at least one foot on the ladder, and ascending (compared with descending) the ladder was associated with a reduction in fall severity. An interaction effect indicated that the impact of hand placement was altered by climbing direction. Moving the hand one rung during ascent and moving the hand two rungs during descent was associated with an increased fall severity. Cases where the hand decoupled from the ladder was associated with higher fall severity. Upper body strength assessed using a portable grip dynamometer was sufficient to predict fall severity.Discussion:This study confirms the multifactor role of upper body strength, hand placement and foot placement in preventing falls from ladders. Furthermore, a portable dynamometer shows potential to screen for high-risk individuals. Results of this investigation may guide targeted interventions to prevent falls from ladders.20182020-02-01T00:00:00ZP20 GM109040/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United StatesR21 OH010038/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States30439684PMC6380680717

Dust control handbook for industrial minerals mining and processing

"This handbook was written by a task force of safety and health specialists, industrial hygienists, and engineers to provide information on proven and effective control technologies that lower workers' dust exposures during all stages of mineral processing. The handbook describes both dust-generating processes and the control strategies necessary to enable mine operators to reduce worker dust exposure. Implementation of the engineering controls discussed can assist operators, health specialists, and workers in reaching the ultimate goal of eliminating pneumoconiosis and other occupational diseases caused by dust exposure in the mining industry. Designed primarily for use by industrial minerals producers, this handbook contains detailed information on control technologies to address all stages of the minerals handling process, including drilling, crushing, screening, conveyance, bagging, loadout, and transport. The handbook's aim is to empower minerals industry personnel to apply state-of-the-art dust control technology to help reduce or eliminate mine and mill worker exposure to hazardous dust concentrations - a critical component in ensuring the health of our nation's mine workers." - NIOSHTIC-2NIOSHTIC no. 20055113Suggested citation: NIOSH [2019]. Dust control handbook for industrial minerals mining and processing. Second edition. By Cecala AB, O\u2019Brien AD, Schall J, Colinet JF, Franta RJ, Schultz MJ, Haas EJ, Robinson J, Patts J, Holen BM, Stein R, Weber J, Strebel M, Wilson L, and Ellis M. Pittsburgh PA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2019\u2013124, RI 9701. https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHPUB2019124201910.26616/NIOSHPUB2019124606

Storying with groundwater: why we cry

This PhD inquiry adopts a creative practice methodology to produce a novel-length manuscript 'Why We Cry' and an inter-connected dissertation, each of which interrogate the creative writer's approach toward the problem of how largely unseen matter, in this case groundwater, might find expression in climate fiction. Groundwater's potency and fragility in the Anthropocene, its scale and invisibility, its links to ecological and anthropogenic calamities, and that it cannot be directly experienced in the manner of flood, storm and tempest, puts it in need of narration. The contribution of this thesis towards knowledge production, through the enmeshment of artistic practice and material eco-critical analysis, illuminates the processes of `storying' the facts of groundwater in narrative long-form fiction. Through a contemporary setting, a realist fictional style and a critical engagement with science, it is proposed that climate fiction writers might employ the novel form to enable the significance of groundwater to be seen and felt in an accessible way by a wide range of readers. By `storying with groundwater' through climate fiction, this PhD draws attention to the social, cultural and political imperative for engagements with the `storied matter' of non-human actors (Iovino and Oppermann 2014), and aims to show how fiction writing might express the necessary urgency for action on climate change. The PhD proposes three modes of intervention for climate fiction writers and creative writing scholars to address the question: How might climate fiction give narrative expression to groundwater? Firstly, by establishing `ways of knowing' groundwater as matter; the thesis spells out how writing groundwater as a hyperobject (Morton 2013) enables its enmeshments with humans to be affirmed and performed through narrative. Secondly, merging the features of the novel form in fiction writing with a non-representational, posthuman viewpoint is argued as a way to address the problem of representing large-scale, unbounded and inter-relational matter, such as groundwater, within a contemporary fictional narrative. The thesis argues for a permeable exchange between the parameters of climate fiction and non-representational perspectives. Thirdly, the thesis proposes climate fiction's role to invoke affect as a means to avoid the problem of didacticism in narrative. Whether affects, such as threat, fear, passion and hope, might lead to readers' real world agency or political activism remains speculative. This PhD argues that by interweaving these three interventions, climate fiction writers and scholars might vitally elucidate and complicate their performances of the vulnerability and potency of inanimate entities such as groundwater under the effects of global warming

Space and re-entry systems - Development of advanced soil sampler technology, volume 1 Final report, 28 Jun. 1967 - 31 Jan. 1968

Development, and evaluation of sieve sampler, and rotating wire brush sampler for planetary soil probin

Conceptual free-form styling in virtual environments

This dissertation introduces the tools for designing complete models from scratch directly in a head-tracked, table-like virtual work environment. The models consist of free-form surfaces, and are constructed by drawing a network of curves directly in space. This is accomplished by using a tracked pen-like input device. Interactive deformation tools for curves and surfaces are proposed and are based on variational methods. By aligning the model with the left hand, editing is made possible with the right hand, corresponding to a natural distribution of tasks using both hands. Furthermore, in the emerging field of 3D interaction in virtual environments, particularly with regard to system control, this work uses novel methods to integrate system control tasks, such as selecting tools, and workflow of shape design. The aim of this work is to propose more suitable user interfaces to computersupported conceptual shape design applications. This would be beneficial since it is a field that lacks adequate support from standard desktop systems.Diese Dissertation beschreibtWerkzeuge zum Entwurf kompletter virtueller Modelle von Grund auf. Dies geschieht direkt in einer tischartigen, virtuellen Arbeitsumge-bung mit Hilfe von Tracking der Hände und der Kopfposition. Die Modelle sind aus Freiformlächen aufgebaut und werden als Netz von Kurven mit Hilfe eines getrack-ten, stiftartigen Eingabegerätes direkt im Raum gezeichnet. Es werden interaktive Deformationswerkzeuge für Kurven und Flächen vorgestellt, die auf Methoden des Variational Modeling basieren. Durch das Ausrichten des Modells mit der linken Hand wird das Editieren mit der rechten Hand erleichtert. Dies entspricht einer natürlichen Aufteilung von Aufgaben auf beide Hände. Zusätzlich stellt diese Arbeit neue Techniken für die 3D-Interaktion in virtuellen Umgebungen, insbesondere im Bereich Anwendungskontrolle, vor, die die Aufgabe der Werkzeugauswahl in den Arbeitsablauf der Formgestaltung integrieren. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, besser geeignete Schnittstellen für den computer-unterstützten, konzeptionellen Formentwurf zur Verfügung zu stellen; ein Gebiet, für das Standard-Desktop-Systeme wenig geeignete Unterstützung bieten

Morph ; Constructing identity : how the experience of cyberspace contributes to the emerging story of self in young people

PhD ThesisThis thesis develops from the belief that young people construct identities for themselves which inevitably surprise their parents, particularly where so much of their coming-of-age is influenced by hidden virtual experiences. The novel which explores this is Morph . Joey, the protagonist, is uneasy about her gender. She has a loving family, intelligence, a satisfying way of life, but loathes her body. She investigates alternative futures, initially online. Her closest friend also has a secret, revealed after a suicide attempt that Joey averts: sexual abuse by her father. Each has to discover how to live with the evolving sense of self. If Joey wishes to change gender her character may alter, too; she finds she can be violent when confronting the abusive father. The story is told through Joey’s eyes and activities in cyberspace, which she thinks of as a free place, parallel to the mountains over which she loves to run. She feels at ease in both places. Eventually she decides to live as both male and female (Other) because she does not have a ‘condition’ needing to be cured. Classification in the natural world allows for infinite variety, and she want similar opportunities for herself. The critical aspect of the thesis begins with those aspects of my experience which affect my conception of the narrative, including how, as a teacher, I drew upon insights from neuroscience about the malleability of the self. I analyse a series of interviews with young people about how they present themselves online. Since the trigger for the novel is online disclosure of gender variance, I explore what is available online, current medical attitudes and policies; I set the interview findings in the context of theoretical frameworks for personal and group identity. I conclude that where young people lack frameworks for interpreting virtual experience, the emerging sense of self may be destabilised, or even impaire

Conceptual free-form styling in virtual environments

This dissertation introduces the tools for designing complete models from scratch directly in a head-tracked, table-like virtual work environment. The models consist of free-form surfaces, and are constructed by drawing a network of curves directly in space. This is accomplished by using a tracked pen-like input device. Interactive deformation tools for curves and surfaces are proposed and are based on variational methods. By aligning the model with the left hand, editing is made possible with the right hand, corresponding to a natural distribution of tasks using both hands. Furthermore, in the emerging field of 3D interaction in virtual environments, particularly with regard to system control, this work uses novel methods to integrate system control tasks, such as selecting tools, and workflow of shape design. The aim of this work is to propose more suitable user interfaces to computersupported conceptual shape design applications. This would be beneficial since it is a field that lacks adequate support from standard desktop systems.Diese Dissertation beschreibtWerkzeuge zum Entwurf kompletter virtueller Modelle von Grund auf. Dies geschieht direkt in einer tischartigen, virtuellen Arbeitsumge-bung mit Hilfe von Tracking der Hände und der Kopfposition. Die Modelle sind aus Freiformlächen aufgebaut und werden als Netz von Kurven mit Hilfe eines getrack-ten, stiftartigen Eingabegerätes direkt im Raum gezeichnet. Es werden interaktive Deformationswerkzeuge für Kurven und Flächen vorgestellt, die auf Methoden des Variational Modeling basieren. Durch das Ausrichten des Modells mit der linken Hand wird das Editieren mit der rechten Hand erleichtert. Dies entspricht einer natürlichen Aufteilung von Aufgaben auf beide Hände. Zusätzlich stellt diese Arbeit neue Techniken für die 3D-Interaktion in virtuellen Umgebungen, insbesondere im Bereich Anwendungskontrolle, vor, die die Aufgabe der Werkzeugauswahl in den Arbeitsablauf der Formgestaltung integrieren. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, besser geeignete Schnittstellen für den computer-unterstützten, konzeptionellen Formentwurf zur Verfügung zu stellen; ein Gebiet, für das Standard-Desktop-Systeme wenig geeignete Unterstützung bieten

Recasting Genre in Tennessee Williams\u27s Apprentice Plays

This dissertation investigates Tennessee Williams’s earliest full-length plays, also known as the apprentice plays—Candles to the Sun, Fugitive Kind, Not About Nightingales, Spring Storm, and Stairs to the Roof—by comparing, contrasting and contextualizing them in relation to Daniel Chandler’s generic criteria of drama; namely, narrative, characterization, setting, topics, iconography, and staging techniques. The present study also draws upon an extensive body of scholarship pertaining to genre theory, Williams’s cultural contemporaries, and the historical and psychological backdrop of Depression-era America. In these early plays, Williams diverged sharply from the dramatic generic conventions of his day, manipulating them in new and unique ways, to create plays that reflect and embody authentic generic innovations. Their immense impact, not only on his own subsequent works but also on other playwrights, is widely acknowledged. While the initial rediscovery of these plays in 1998 led to their widespread appreciation, publication, and/or production, no study to date has analyzed their distinctive generic innovations. This analysis demonstrates how Williams reworks and exploits the contemporary repertoire of dramatic narratives, while situating their generic locales—the coal mine, the prison, the urban gangster milieu, Southern Gothic, and science fiction—within the overarching genres of protest and fantasy. These generic conventions often intertwine through both the major and minor narratives of a single play. Separate chapters introduce each play, discussing its specific formal organization and generic attributes, and noting its relation to contemporary dramatic and cinematic traditions. Williams’s reinterpretation and revision of his personal artistic philosophy is examined in light of formal and stylistic concerns bearing on his ingenious handling of a broad mixture of borrowings and innovations, and the following scrutiny of genres always situates the plays’ unconventionality within the cultural and theatrical context in which Williams was active