A computing task ergonomic risk assessment tool for assessing risk factors of work related musculoskeletal disorders

Observation method remains to be the most widely applied method in assessing exposure to risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) related to office works because it is inexpensive and applicable to wide range of office jobs. However, the existing research that applied this method was mainly focused to a limited range of office components and computer accessories such as seat pan, keyboards, mouse, monitor and telephone. In addition, further testing of reliability and validity of the observational method was less reported. This study was conducted to propose the new office ergonomic risk assessment (OFFERA) method to assess a wide range of office risk factors related to WMSDs, which include office components and office environment where this method covers both right and left side of the body part. The initial development of OFFERA method was divided into two stages, the development of OFFERA system components and psychometric properties of OFFERA method. In reliability testing, the results of inter and intra observer reliability recorded good (K=0.62-0.78) and very good (K=0.81-0.96) agreement among the observers. Meanwhile, in validity testing, the relationship of the final score of OFFERA to the musculoskeletal symptoms statistically shows a significant value for wrists/hands (χ²=7.942; p=0.047), lower back (χ²=13.478; p=0.000), knees (χ²=7.001; p=0.008), and ankle/leg (χ²=5.098; p=0.024). The usability testing shows that the OFFERA method was easy and quick to be used (mean 4.48 ± 0.821) and applicable for wide range of office working activities (mean 4.02 ± 0.952). Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that the OFFERA method was found to be practically reliable and applicable for wide range of office work-related activities

The Effects of Environment on Health

[abstract not provided]https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1916/thumbnail.jp

An examination of the ability of community health workers to effectively conduct community-based screening for cardiovascular disease in South Africa, Guatemala, and Mexico

BACKGROUND: This study explored training effectiveness for community health workers (CHWs) in a successful intervention in which they conducted primary screening for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in low resource settings. Implementation challenges related to scaling were explored with key informants. METHODS: A multiple methods assessment was conducted to: (1) quantitatively assess training effectiveness; (2) qualitatively capture the CHWs’ experience of training; (3) gather feedback from key stakeholders about factors anticipated to impact scaling the intervention to the population level. Change in knowledge levels at three different time points was determined through comparison of group means (ANOVA). The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) guided the qualitative data collection and analyses, using nVIVO® and Atlas.ti® software, combined with manual coding. RESULTS: Training was effective at increasing content knowledge of CVD and the effect persisted for 3-6 months after completion of field work. CHWs felt empowered by the training and the acquisition of new skills but some expressed their reservations about written tests being used to accurately capture their capabilities. Some supervisors (nurses) perceived CHW training as a threat to their own professional standing while also acknowledging the value CHWs added to health services through their expert community knowledge and connections. CHWs remained frustrated by inadequate and irregular compensation, disrespect from formally trained health professionals, lack of career development pathways, and failure to account for the influence environmental factors – safety, extreme weather, and infrastructure – in workload planning. Key informants raised additional concerns about the negative impact of ineffective government communication regarding CHW programs and policies to communities and key actors in the health care system, including failure to consult key stakeholders, lack of clear role definitions, setting standards for training and performance evaluation, and lack of supervisory mechanisms. The issue of financing for CHW programs was not raised by key informants. CONCLUSIONS: Scaling strategies for successful interventions using CHWs need to be guided by well-designed implementation plans that include proactive, multi-level engagement with communities and health systems, and appropriate evaluation measures tied to health outcomes. Training effectiveness should be evaluated and linked to well-defined outcome measures in CHW’s programs that involve task-shifting

An examination of the ability of community health workers to effectively conduct community-based screening for cardiovascular disease in South Africa, Guatemala, and Mexico

BACKGROUND: This study explored training effectiveness for community health workers (CHWs) in a successful intervention in which they conducted primary screening for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in low resource settings. Implementation challenges related to scaling were explored with key informants. METHODS: A multiple methods assessment was conducted to: (1) quantitatively assess training effectiveness; (2) qualitatively capture the CHWs’ experience of training; (3) gather feedback from key stakeholders about factors anticipated to impact scaling the intervention to the population level. Change in knowledge levels at three different time points was determined through comparison of group means (ANOVA). The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) guided the qualitative data collection and analyses, using nVIVO® and Atlas.ti® software, combined with manual coding. RESULTS: Training was effective at increasing content knowledge of CVD and the effect persisted for 3-6 months after completion of field work. CHWs felt empowered by the training and the acquisition of new skills but some expressed their reservations about written tests being used to accurately capture their capabilities. Some supervisors (nurses) perceived CHW training as a threat to their own professional standing while also acknowledging the value CHWs added to health services through their expert community knowledge and connections. CHWs remained frustrated by inadequate and irregular compensation, disrespect from formally trained health professionals, lack of career development pathways, and failure to account for the influence environmental factors – safety, extreme weather, and infrastructure – in workload planning. Key informants raised additional concerns about the negative impact of ineffective government communication regarding CHW programs and policies to communities and key actors in the health care system, including failure to consult key stakeholders, lack of clear role definitions, setting standards for training and performance evaluation, and lack of supervisory mechanisms. The issue of financing for CHW programs was not raised by key informants. CONCLUSIONS: Scaling strategies for successful interventions using CHWs need to be guided by well-designed implementation plans that include proactive, multi-level engagement with communities and health systems, and appropriate evaluation measures tied to health outcomes. Training effectiveness should be evaluated and linked to well-defined outcome measures in CHW’s programs that involve task-shifting

Protocols and Architecture for Privacy-preserving Authentication and Secure Message Dissemination in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

The rapid development in the automotive industry and wireless communication technologies have enhanced the popularity of Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Today, the automobile industry is developing sophisticated sensors that can provide a wide range of assistive features, including accident avoidance, automatic lane tracking, semi-autonomous driving, suggested lane changes, and more. VANETs can provide drivers a safer and more comfortable driving experience, as well as many other useful services by leveraging such technological advancements. Even though this networking technology enables smart and autonomous driving, it also introduces a plethora of attack vectors. However, the main issues to be sorted out and addressed for the widespread deployment/adoption of VANETs are privacy, authenticating users, and the distribution of secure messages. These issues have been addressed in this dissertation, and the contributions of this dissertation are summarized as follows: Secure and privacy-preserving authentication and message dissemination in VANETs: Attackers can compromise the messages disseminated within VANETs by tampering with the message content or sending malicious messages. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure the legitimacy of the vehicles participating in the VANETs as well as the integrity and authenticity of the messages transmitted in VANETs. In VANET communication, the vehicle uses pseudonyms instead of its real identity to protect its privacy. However, the real identity of a vehicle must be revealed when it is determined to be malicious. This dissertation presents a distributed and scalable privacy-preserving authentication and message dissemination scheme in VANET. Low overhead privacy-preserving authentication scheme in VANETs: The traditional pseudonym-based authentication scheme uses Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) to store the certificates of revoked and malicious entities in VANETs. However, the size of CRL increases significantly with the increased number of revoked entities. Therefore, the overhead involved in maintaining the revoked certificates is overwhelming in CRL-based solutions. This dissertation presents a lightweight privacy-preserving authentication scheme that reduces the overhead associated with maintaining CRLs in VANETs. Our scheme also provides an efficient look-up operation for CRLs. Efficient management of pseudonyms for privacy-preserving authentication in VANETs: In VANETs, vehicles change pseudonyms frequently to avoid the traceability of attackers. However, if only one vehicle out of 100 vehicles changes its pseudonym, an intruder can easily breach the privacy of the vehicle by linking the old and new pseudonym. This dissertation presents an efficient method for managing pseudonyms of vehicles. In our scheme, vehicles within the same region simultaneously change their pseudonyms to reduce the chance of linking two pseudonyms to the same vehicle

Factors Associated with Premenstrual Syndrome and its Different Symptom Domains among University Students in Lebanon

Objectives: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and examine the characteristics of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) among female university students. It also aimed to determine the factors associated with the affective and somatic domains of PMS. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among 2115 Lebanese female university students, who completed questionnaires on PMS symptoms and other factors. PMS was defined according to the “American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists” criteria. Bivariate and multivariable associations between PMS, PMS affective and somatic domains respectively and other covariates were conducted using logistic regression. Results: Almost 63% of participants reported having PMS with 42.5% having severe PMS. The most common affective and somatic symptoms were “angry outbursts” and “abdominal bloating” respectively. Obesity, having unemployed fathers, caffeine consumption (coffee/tea), and pain medication use, and sleeping pill use were significantly associated with PMS. Among these factors, caffeine consumption, and medication use for pain were associated with PMS affective domain while BMI, caffeine consumption, and medication use for pain were related to PMS somatic domain. Conclusion: The proportion of Lebanese females with PMS and affective and somatic symptoms are notably high. These findings highlight the importance of weight management to minimize PMS symptoms.York University Librarie

ANALISIS PENJADWALAN MATA PELAJARAN MENGGUNAKAN ALGORITMA WELCH-POWELL

At the beginning of each semester, subjects scheduling is always carried out by the curriculum representatives and academic staff. There were several problems that must be avoided in subjects scheduling, these problems were the schedule of teachers who teach one subject at the same time are scheduled in different classes, teachers who teach more than one subject are scheduled in the same class at the same time, teachers who are lack of scheduled for teaching. In the subject of graph theory, there is a concept of graph coloring, one of which is vertex coloring. In vertex coloring, there is a Welch-Powell Algorithm application which produces a color for each vertex. In subject scheduling, it is assumed that the vertex is the subject and the teacher, while the edge is the class. In vertex coloring, graph vertices are colored so that there's no two neighboring vertices have the same color. The aim of this research was to arrange a lesson schedule so that problems do not occur such as clashes between teachers, subjects, and teaching hours. The method used in arranging this lesson schedule used the Welch-Powell Algorithm. The results obtained were using the Welch-Powell Algorithm to produce a lesson schedule every day where if there are two classes that have the same subject, they can meet the same day requirements but come in different hours and get a lesson schedule that has no clash between teachers, subjects, and teaching hours

Secure and Efficient Privacy-preserving Authentication Scheme using Cuckoo Filter in Remote Patient Monitoring Network

With the ubiquitous advancement in smart medical devices and systems, the potential of Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) network is evolving in modern healthcare systems. The medical professionals (doctors, nurses, or medical experts) can access vitals and sensitive physiological information about the patients and provide proper treatment to improve the quality of life through the RPM network. However, the wireless nature of communication in the RPM network makes it challenging to design an efficient mechanism for secure communication. Many authentication schemes have been proposed in recent years to ensure the security of the RPM network. Pseudonym, digital signature, and Authenticated Key Exchange (AKE) protocols are used for the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) to develop secure authorization and privacy-preserving communication. However, traditional authentication protocols face overhead challenges due to maintaining a large set of key-pairs or pseudonyms results on the hospital cloud server. In this research work, we identify this research gap and propose a novel secure and efficient privacy-preserving authentication scheme using cuckoo filters for the RPM network. The use of cuckoo filters in our proposed scheme provides an efficient way for mutual anonymous authentication and a secret shared key establishment process between medical professionals and patients. Moreover, we identify the misbehaving sensor nodes using a correlation-based anomaly detection model to establish secure communication. The security analysis and formal security validation using SPAN and AVISPA tools show the robustness of our proposed scheme against message modification attacks, replay attacks, and man-in-the-middle attacks

Review on pen-and-paper-based observational methods for assessing ergonomic risk factors of computer work

Background: Computer works are associated with Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). There are several methods have been developed to assess computer work risk factor related to MSDs. Objective: This review aims to give an overview of current techniques available for pen-and-paper-based observational methods in assessing ergonomic risk factors of computer work. Methods: We searched an electronic database for materials from 1992 until 2015. The selected methods were focused on computer work, pen-and-paper observational methods, office risk factors and musculoskeletal disorders. This review was developed to assess the risk factors, reliability and validity of pen-and-paper observational method associated with computer work. Two evaluators independently carried out this review. Results: Seven observational methods used to assess exposure to office risk factor for work-related musculoskeletal disorders were identified. The risk factors involved in current techniques of pen and paper based observational tools were postures, office components, force and repetition. From the seven methods, only five methods had been tested for reliability. They were proven to be reliable and were rated as moderate to good. For the validity testing, from seven methods only four methods were tested and the results are moderate. Conclusion: Many observational tools already exist, but no single tool appears to cover all of the risk factors including working posture, office component, force, repetition and office environment at office workstations and computer work. Although the most important factor in developing tool is proper validation of exposure assessment techniques, the existing observational method did not test reliability and validity. Futhermore, this review could provide the researchers with ways on how to improve the pen-and-paper-based observational method for assessing ergonomic risk factors of computer work

ANALISIS DAMPAK EKONOMI KEGIATAN WISATA YOUTH CAMP DI TAMAN HUTAN RAYA WAN ABDUL RACHMAN (TAHURA WAR)

The main purposes of this research is to find out the characteristic of visitors, local workforces and business owners, the factors that affect the frequency of tourist visits, and to analyze the economic impact caused by the Youth Camp tourism activities. The location for the research is intentionally chosen Youth Camp in Taman Hutan Raya Wan Abdul Rachman. Contributing toward this research consists of 40 visitors, 10 people of local workforce, and 15 business owners. The data for the research were generated in December 2018 to February 2019 and analyzed using methods of descriptive qualitative and descriptive quantitative. The research findings showed that the Youth Camp visitors’ages range between 17-35 years old, originally came from Lampung Province, and on their final year in SMA or equivalent. Majority of them are students employed with income above IDR2,000,000.00, single and no liabilities responsibilities. The frequency of visitors who came to visit was mostly influenced by the distance, age and well known of the tourism place. The value impact obtained from the value of Keynesian Income Multiplier is 5.33, value of Ratio Income Multiplier Type I is 2.70, and value of Ratio Income Multiplier Type II is 3.83. Key words: economic impact, Keynesian multiplier, Youth Cam