Object-oriented Modeling of Manufacturing Resources Using Work Study Inputs

Resources are the core of manufacturing models. They provide information about the people and equipment that perform activities on the shop floor. Comprehensive representations of equipment are common but human resources are often defined to a very limited extent. This paper presents how work study data can be applied as input to detailed modeling of human manufacturing resources. The purpose is to provide a valid representation of manual work tasks on a shop floor level. If implemented in manufacturing models the valid representation will contribute to improve planning, control and execution of production. It also facilitates and encourages production improvement initiatives

Conventional epidemiology underestimates the incidence of asthma and wheeze - a longitudinal population-based study among teenagers

BACKGROUND: Because of shifts in the gender ratio and incidence and remission rates of asthma during the teen ages, the methodology of incidence studies among teenagers is important, i.e. if the time intervals between surveys are too long, the incident cases might not be properly identified. The aim was to study the impact of study design on the incidence rates of asthma and wheeze during the teen ages. METHODS: In a study about asthma and allergic diseases within the OLIN studies (Obstructive Lung Disease in northern Sweden), a cohort of school children (n = 3,430) was followed annually by questionnaire from age 8 yrs. In the endpoint survey (age 18 yrs) 2,582 (75% of original responders) participated. Incident cases from age 12-18 yrs were identified by two methods: annual questionnaire reports (AR) and baseline-endpoint surveys only (BE). RESULTS: The cumulative incidence of asthma and wheeze was significantly higher based on AR compared to BE. Compared to the incidence rates based on all the annual surveys, the calculated average annual rates based on BE were in general lower both among the boys and among the girls. There were no differences between boys and girls in incidence rates of asthma or wheeze during the early teen years. However, from the age of 15 years, the annual incidence rates were significantly or borderline significantly higher among girls than boys. At onset, the additional cases of current asthma identified by AR had significantly less severe asthma than those identified in BE (p < 0.02). CONCLUSION: the size of the incidence of asthma and wheeze during the teen ages was influenced by study design. By using the conventional prospective study design with longer follow-up time, the incidence was underestimated

Interactional resistance between patients with atrial fibrillation and cardiologists in consultation on treatment with warfarin: the value of shared decision-making

Rationale: Atrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of stroke and it can be reduced by treatment with warfarin. Some patients consider that warfarin is a stressful treatment with undesired effects and the perceived barriers include unwillingness to take it. Knowledge of patients resisting warfarin treatment may be useful for the potential threat to maintaining shared decision-making in the consultation as a central tenet of person-centered medicine. Aims and objectives: To identify how patients resist treatment with warfarin and how cardiologists respond to patients’ resistance. The co-constructive perspective of this work analyses the consultations by emphasizing the clinical communication strategies of both patients and cardiologists. Method: Eleven videotaped consultations, in 4 different hospitals, were selected for analysis. Treatment interactions regarding warfarin between patients with AF and cardiologists were analysed, according to the methodology of conversation analysis. Results: There were 4 types of resistance from patients for accepting treatment with warfarin. These included “Giving reasons for their resistance”, “Suggestion of another treatment option by the patient”, “Stating a treatment preference” and “Questioning or challenging the cardiologist’s treatment recommendation”. The cardiologists’ responses to the patients’ resistance included “Repeating the treatment recommendation”, “Negotiation with the patient”, “Providing additional information on the recommended treatment” and “Extending the explanation for the purpose of taking the treatment”. Conclusions: By showing resistance, patients are thought to want to participate in their treatment decisions and an awareness of patients’ resistance to treatment enables cardiologists to address the patients’ experience-based views on their treatment and individual concerns as part of clinical strategies to increase the person-centeredness of medical intervention

Does Persuasive Technology Make Smartphones More Addictive? -- An Empirical Study of Chinese University Students

With the development of computer hardware, computers with persuasion have become more powerful and influential than ever. The latest trends show that Persuasive Technology integrates with cutting-edge technologies, such as Natural Language Processing, Big Data, and Machine Learning algorithms. As persuasion is becoming increasingly intelligent and subtle, it is urgent to reflect on the dark sides of Persuasive Technology. The study aims to investigate one of Persuasive Technology's accusations, making smartphones more addictive to its users. The study uses questionnaires and in-depth interviews to examine the impact of persuasive technologies on young smartphone users. The participants of the study are 18 to 26 years old Chinese university students. Ten interviewees were sampled randomly from the survey results. Eight interviewees shared their smartphone screen time for three consecutive weeks after the interview. Among the 183 participants, 84.70% (n=155) spend over (or equal to) four hours per day on their smartphone, 44.26% (n=81) indicate that smartphones negatively affect their studies or professional life. Ten interviewees evaluated that they could reduce screen time by 37% if they could avoid all persuasive functions. Five out of eight interviewees reduced their screen time by 16.72% three weeks after the interviews by voluntarily turning off some persuasive functions on their smartphones. This study provides empirical evidence to argue that persuasive technologies increase users' screen time and contribute to the addictive behaviours of young smartphone users. Some commonly used persuasive design principles could have negative long term impacts on users. To sum up, the ethical problems that Human-computer interaction (HCI) designers face and users' neglected rights of acknowledgement were discussed

Do persuasive designs make smartphones more addictive? -A mixed-methods study on Chinese university students

Persuasive designs have become prevalent for smartphones, and an increasing number of users report problematic smartphone use behaviours. Persuasive designs in smartphones might be accountable for the development and reinforcement of such problematic use. This paper uses a mixed-methods approach to study the relationship between persuasive designs and problematic smartphone use: (1) questionnaires (N=183) to investigate the proportion of participants with multiple problematic smartphone use behaviours and smartphone designs and applications (apps) that they perceived affecting their attitudes and behaviours, and (2) interviews (N=10) to deepen our understanding of users’ observations and evaluations of persuasive designs. 25% of the participants self-reported having multiple problematic smartphone use behaviours, with short video, social networking, game and learning apps perceived as the most attitude- and behaviour-affecting. Interviewees identified multiple persuasive designs in most of these apps and stated that persuasive designs prolonged their screen time, reinforced phone-checking habits, and caused distractions. Overall, this study provides evidence to argue that persuasive designs contribute to problematic smartphone use, potentially making smartphones more addictive. We end our study by discussing the ethical implications of persuasive designs that became salient in our study

Normal values for calprotectin in stool samples of infants from the population-based longitudinal born into life study

Faecal calprotectin is a protein used as a diagnostic marker for inflammatory bowel diseases. We determined upper limits for normal calprotectin values for neonatal, 6, 12 and 24 months old children using a turbidimetric immunoassay in a cohort of Swedish children. The advantage of the method is that opposite to previously used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method, it enables measuring single samples, and thus, shortens the analysis time significantly. There were 72 samples (41.7% female) collected neonatally, 63 samples (34.9% female) at 6 months, 60 samples (40.0% female) at 12 months and 51 samples (43.1% female) at 24 months. The upper limits for normal values were 233, 615, 136 and 57 microg mg(-1) for infants aged 0, 6, 12 and 24 months, respectively.The Swedish Research Council under Grants 2015-03477, 2010-15062-79050-11, 2015-02434; the Swedish Initiative for Research on Microdata in the Social And Medical Sciences (SIMSAM) framework under Grant 340-2013-5867Accepte