Beyond the Libet clock: modality variants for agency measurements

The Sense of Agency (SoA) refers to our capability to control our own actions and influence the world around us. Recent research in HCI has been exploring SoA to provide users an instinctive sense of “I did that” as opposed to “the system did that”. However, current agency measurements are limited. The Intentional Binding (IB) paradigm provides an implicit measure of the SoA. However, it is constrained by requiring high visual attention to a “Libet clock” onscreen. In this paper, we extend the timing stimulus through auditory and tactile cues. Our results demonstrate that audio timing through voice commands and haptic timing through tactile cues on the hand are alternative techniques to measure the SoA using the IB paradigm. They both address limitations of the traditional method (e.g., lack of engagement and visual demand). We discuss how our results can be applied to measure SoA in tasks involving different interactive scenarios common in HCI

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Ethnicity and sexuality

This paper explores the connections between ethnicity and sexuality. Racial, ethnic, and national boundaries are also sexual boundaries. The borderlands dividing racial, ethnic, and national identities and communities constitute ethnosexual frontiers, erotic intersections that are heavily patrolled, policed, and protected, yet regularly are penetrated by individuals forging sexual links with ethnic "others." Normative heterosexuality is a central component of racial, ethnic, and nationalist ideologies; both adherence to and deviation from approved sexual identities and behaviors define and reinforce racial, ethnic, and nationalist regimes. To illustrate the ethnicity/sexuality nexus and to show the utility of revealing this intimate bond for understanding ethnic relations, I review constructionist models of ethnicity and sexuality in the social sciences and humanities, and I discuss ethnosexual boundary processes in several historical and contemporary settings: the sexual policing of nationalism, sexual aspects of US-American Indian relations, and the sexualization of the black-white color line

Fatigue and Beyond: Patterns of and Motivations for Illicit Drug Use among Long-Haul Truck Drivers

Objectives. The present study aimed to investigate the illicit drug use patterns of long-distance truck drivers. This population is considered to be a special interest group in terms of drug-driving research and policy due to high rates of use, involvement of drugs in truck accidents, and the link between drug use and work-related fatigue. Methods. Qualitative interview data were conducted at truck stops and loading facilities in both metropolitan and regional sites throughout Queensland. Results. High rates of licit and illicit drug use (particularly amphetamines) were reported by the majority of the sample. However, unlike previous studies that focus on fatigue, this research found overlapping and changing motivations for drug use during individual lifetimes. Becker's model of a drug use "career" was utilized to reveal that some drivers begin illicit drug use before they commence truck driving. As well as fatigue, powerful motives such as peer pressure, wanting to fit the trucking "image," socialization, relaxation, and addiction were also reported as contributing factors to self-reported drug driving. Conclusions. The results indicate that these additional social factors may need to be considered and incorporated with fatigue factors when developing effective drug prevention or cessation policies for truck drivers

Sociotechnical attributes of safe and unsafe work systems

Theoretical and practical approaches to safety based on sociotechnical systems principles place heavy emphasis on the intersections between social–organisational and technical–work process factors. Within this perspective, work system design emphasises factors such as the joint optimisation of social and technical processes, a focus on reliable human–system performance and safety metrics as design and analysis criteria, the maintenance of a realistic and consistent set of safety objectives and policies, and regular access to the expertise and input of workers. We discuss three current approaches to the analysis and design of complex sociotechnical systems: human–systems integration, macroergonomics and safety climate. Each approach emphasises key sociotechnical systems themes, and each prescribes a more holistic perspective on work systems than do traditional theories and methods. We contrast these perspectives with historical precedents such as system safety and traditional human factors and ergonomics, and describe potential future directions for their application in research and practice

Disciplinary Distinction or Responsibility?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69117/2/10.1177_0893318996010001008.pd

Against Relative Timing Invariance in Movement Kinematics

The kinematics of stair climbing were examined to test the assertion that relative timing is an invariant feature of human gait. Six male and four female subjects were video-recorded (at 60 Hz) while they climbed a flight of stairs 10 times at each of three speeds. Each gait cycle was divided into three segments by the maximum and minimum angular displacement of the left knee and left foot contact. Gentner's (1987) analysis methods were applied to the individual subject data to determine whether the duration of the segments remained a fixed proportion of gait cycle duration across changes in stair-climbing speed. A similar analysis was performed using knee velocity maxima to partition the gait cycle. Regardless of how the gait cycle was divided, relative timing was not found to remain strictly invariant across changes in speed. This conclusion is contrary to previous studies of relative timing that involved less conservative analysis but is consistent with the wider gait literature. Strict invariant relative timing may not be a fundamental feature of movement kinematics