The workload of fishermen: a cross sectional survey among Danish commercial fishermen

Background: Fishery has always been perceived as a physically demanding industry of a manual character. In recent years the physical work environment has developed positively and consequently the current situation in not fully described in the existing literature. This study aims to describe the work environment of Danish fishermen with regard to their physical workload and ergonomic factors. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was performed on a random sample of active Danish commercial fishermen (response rate: 28%) by means of a questionnaire on demographic and self-reported occupational and health data. Questions covering the physical workload were related to seven different work situations and a score summing up the workload was developed for the analysis of the relative impact on different groups of fishermen. Results: Almost all fishermen (96.2%) were familiar to proper lifting techniques but only 55.4% used them in their daily work. Standing work was the most applied work position (81.8%), while repetitive hand and finger movements and twisting and bending in the back were other frequent work situations. Deckhands had higher workload scores than skippers, while crew on Danish seiners had higher workload scores than fishermen in other vessel types. Conclusions: Despite improved work environment in the Danish fishing industry, fishermen still experience high levels of workload and suboptimal ergonomic conditions, which are known to cause pain and impair musculoskeletal health. To address the specific areas of fishing with the highest workload, future investments in assistive devices to ease the demanding work and reduce the workload, should particularly address deckhands and less mechanized vessels.

Television town hall meetings: Publicity and democratic deliberation in the public sphere. A case study of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation\u27s 1996 Town Hall with the Prime Minister .

This thesis is a study of \u27television town hall meetings.\u27 The term television town hall meeting (TTM) refers to television programmes that feature political discussion between political leaders and a live studio audience of citizens. Public participation in this type of discursive forum appears to represent a democratization of the process of political media coverage and the process of public opinion formation itself. The purpose of this study is to investigate the television town hall meeting as a genre of public political interaction within the public sphere. Livingstone and Lunt (1994: 4) suggest that the mass media are attempting three roles with audience discussion programmes such as television town hall meetings. First, they can act as spokesmen for the people to both government and experts, conveying opinions, experiences, information and criticism upwards to the elite. Second, they can allow the public to hold politicians to account directly, rather than by proxy. Finally, they can provide a social space for communication among the lay public itself, both in the form of the audience and in its relation between studio and home audiences, and thus give everyday experiences and opinions a new and powerful legitimation. This study examines the contributions of television town hall meetings to deliberative democracy\u27 in the public sphere according to their ability to promote public advocacy, command political accountability, and provide an adequate social space of public communication.Dept. of Communication Studies. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1999 .B43. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0312. Adviser: Myles Ruggles. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1999

Experimental determination of ruthenium L-shell fluorescence yields and Coster-Kronig transition probabilities

The L-shell fluorescence yields and the Coster-Kronig factors of ruthenium (and the corresponding uncertainty) were determined for the first time experimentally by applying radiometrically calibrated instrumentation of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt. The resulting fluorescence yields ($\omega_{L_3}=0.0459(20)$, $\omega_{L_2}=0.0415(26)$, $\omega_{L_1}=0.0109(9)$) and the Coster-Kronig factors ($f_{23}=0.177(32)$, $f_{13}=0.528(90)$, $f_{12}=0.173(73)$) agree reasonable well with parts of the data from the literature

Characterization of sub-monolayer coatings as novel calibration samples for X-ray spectroscopy

With the advent of both modern X-ray fluorescence (XRF) methods and improved analytical reliability requirements the demand for suitable reference samples has increased. Especially in nanotechnology with the very low areal mass depositions, quantification becomes considerably more difficult. However, the availability of suited reference samples is drastically lower than the demand. Physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques have been enhanced significantly in the last decade driven by the need for extremely precise film parameters in multilayer production. We have applied those techniques for the development of layer-like reference samples with mass depositions in the ng-range and well below. Several types of reference samples were fabricated: multi-elemental layer and extremely low (sub-monolayer) samples for various applications in XRF and total-reflection XRF (TXRF) analysis. Those samples were characterized and compared at three different synchrotron radiation beamlines at the BESSY II electron storage ring employing the reference-free XRF approach based on physically calibrated instrumentation. In addition, the homogeneity of the multi-elemental coatings was checked at the P04 beamline at DESY. The measurements demonstrate the high precision achieved in the manufacturing process as well as the versatility of application fields for the presented reference samples

Grazing incidence X-ray fluorescence of periodic structures – a comparison between X-ray standing waves and geometrical optics calculations

Grazing incidence X-ray fluorescence spectra of nano-scaled periodic line structures were recorded at the four crystal monochromator beamline in the laboratory of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt at the synchrotron radiation facility BESSY II. For different tilt angles between the lines and the plane of incidence of the monochromatic synchrotron radiation, spectral features are observed which can be understood and explained with calculations of the emerging X-ray standing wave (XSW) field. On the other hand, there are structures, i.e., pronounced modulations above the substrate's critical angle of external total reflection, which are not included in the XSW concept. Novel geometrical optics calculations can reproduce these structures taking the sample's specific geometric conditions into account

The soundboard program: A case study investigating the design, creation and evaluation of an interactive computer-based training program.

The world\u27s knowledge base grows exponentially on a daily basis. Businesses and schools are obligated to provide the latest methodologies and information to their respective fields of expertise. However, shrinking fixed resources such as laboratory space and the scarcity of funds negatively pressure the goals of providing these latest innovations to learners. The Communication Studies Department at the University of Windsor presently experiences these problems. The researcher of this thesis authored an interactive computer-based training program to address these concerns. The program teaches signal routing concepts and the proper setting of line levels for equipment found in one of the University\u27s recording studios. Graphics, animations and text were used to create the program. Smith and Ragan\u27s (1993) Instructional Design Process Model guided the researcher from the front-end analysis of the problems, to the design and creation of the soundboard program. The use and application of instructional design theories and research into designing messages for the computer are also discussed. An evaluation was conducted to see whether the instruction teaches. Twenty-nine students with no prior knowledge of audio production evaluated the program. They were tested two days later on signal routing and setting fine levels. A combined average of 43% was recorded. The soundboard program succeeds in teaching tasks. However, participants who had some guidance by a teaching assistant fared better than participants who used the program on their own.Dept. of Communication Studies. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1998 .B43. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0343. Adviser: Richard Lewis. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1998

qualifying label components for effective biosensing using advanced high throughput seira methodology

The multiplexed SEIRA analysis of antibody-functionalized NP biolabels that can be exploited for specific assay platforms in view of high-performance readout