The Relation Between Upper Limb Muscle and Brain Activity in Two Precision Levels of Repetitive Light Tasks

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of repetitive light tasks of low and high precision on upper limb muscles and brain activities. Surface electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography (EEG) were used to measure the muscle and brain activity of 10 subjects. The results show that the root-mean-square (RMS) and mean power frquency (MPF) of the muscle activity and the mean power of the EEG alpha bands were higher on the high-precision task than on the low-precision one. There was also a high and significant correlation between upper limb muscle and brain activity during the tasks. The longer the time and the more precise the task, the more the subjects become fatigued both physically and mentally. Thus, these results could be potentially useful in managing fatigue, especially fatique related to muscle and mental workload

Anthropometric Database for the Learning Environment of High School and University Students

This paper presents an anthropometric database of high school and university students from Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. Forty-one high school participants (21 males and 20 females), 13–17 years old, and 143 university students (74 males and 69 females) took part in the study. Twenty-one static body dimensions were measured. The greatest mean differences in the anthropometric data between male and female high school students were found in the sitting elbow height. In addition, a comparison of anthropometric data of male and female university students showed that data for males and females were significantly different, except for buttock–popliteal length, sitting elbow height and thigh clearance. The primary aim of this study was to develop an anthropometric database that could be used as a primary reference in designing products, devices and equipment for ergonomic learning environments

An Analysis of Injury Patterns for Drivers Based on Police Reported Frontal Crashes in Malaysia

Most Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia have a relatively high number of traffic fatalities involving occupants of 4-wheel vehicles. The frontal impact collisions have been identified as the cause of most passenger vehicle occupant deaths. Therefore, a better understanding of real-world frontal crashes is needed in support of decision-making processes for future frontal crash test programs. One of the important elements to examine is the occupant injury patterns based on real-world crashes. Furthermore, different frontal crash configurations may result in different levels of injury severity. The objective of this study is to analyze the driver injury and body part injury levels based on police-reported frontal crashes in Malaysia. Road crash cases from 2015 to 2019 were obtained from Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department (JSPT), Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM). 81% of the cases comprised frontal crashes (full width & offset) while the rest involved sideswipe cases. Most of the drivers sustained no injury (70.77%) whereas 11.11%, 8.77%, and 6.87% suffered fatal injury, injury, and severe injury, respectively. The most frequent fatal cases among drivers involved injuries to multiple body regions for both configurations. The chi-square test revealed a significant association between the frontal crash configuration and driver injury level. The average odds ratio for fatality in frontal crashes compared to sideswipe configurations was 6.29. The rate of driver fatality per one crash has also increased marginally over the years. The study findings provide some information to support the recommendation that a full-width configuration is considered in future ASEAN NCAP frontal crash tests. Further research is also needed to fully understand real-world frontal crash impacts in Malaysia

Injury Pattern among drivers involved in Single Frontal Crash based on the Police Reported Accident Data in Malaysia

More than 8.2 million police reported motor vehicles crashed, resulting in 67,882 fatalities and over 140,000 injured victims from 2009 to 2018 recorded by Ministry of Transport, Malaysia. Single-vehicle crash can cause more fatalities than multi vehicle crashes as reported in previous study. Therefore, a better understanding of real frontal crashes is needed to support the decision making for future frontal test program. One of the important part to discover is the injury pattern of occupants based on real accidents. Furthermore, different frontal crash configurations may result in different level of injury severity. The objective of this study is to analyse the injury severity category and body part injury of drivers based on police reported single frontal crashes in Malaysia. Reported accident cases from 2015 to 2018 were gathered from Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement (JSPT), Royal Malaysia Police. The single-vehicle crashes categorized under full-width and offset and sideswipe configurations were selected. 757 cases were meeting selection criteria. 81.9% of the cases involved in the full-width and offset type of crashes configuration, while the sideswipe crash configuration contributes to 19.1% of the cases. Most of the drivers were reported with no injury (64%), fatal (17.6%), slight injury (11.8%) and severe injury (6.6%) of categories in both crash configurations. The most frequent injury sustained by fatal drivers were head injury for full-width and offset configuration, and multiple body parts injury for sideswipe configuration. The chi-square test was used to study the association between the crashes configuration and injury severity category. The p-values are less than 0.05, hence there is a significant effect between frontal crash configuration and injury severity category. Based on calculated odd ratio, full-width and offset configuration is 6.88 more likely to be fatal than sideswipe

Use of the correlation coefficient in agricultural sciences: problems, pitfalls and how to deal with them

This paper discusses a number of aspects concerning the analysis, interpretation and reporting of correlations in agricultural sciences. Various problems that one might encounter with these aspects are identified, and suggestions of how to overcome these problems are proposed. Some of the examples presented show how mistaken and even misleading the interpretation of correlation can be when one ignores simple rules of analysis.<br>Este artigo discute uma série de aspectos relacionados a análise, interpretação e forma de relatar correlações em ciências Agrárias. São identificados vários problemas que podem ser encontrados, bem como feitas sugestões de como superá-los. Alguns dos exemplos apresentados mostram quão erradas e mesmo enganosas podem ser as interpretações de correlação quando regras simples de análise são ignoradas