Development of a stakeholder identification and analysis method for human factors integration in work system design interventions – Change Agent Infrastructure

In any work system design intervention—for example, a physical workplace re-design, a work process change, or an equipment upgrade—it is often emphasized how important it is to involve stakeholders in the process of analysis and design, to gain their perspectives as input to the development, and ensure their future acceptance of the solution. While the users of an artifact or workplace are most often regarded as being the most important stakeholders in a design intervention, in a work-system context there may be additional influential stakeholders who influence and negotiate the design intervention's outcomes, resource allocation, requirements, and implementation. Literature shows that it is uncommon for empirical ergonomics and human factors (EHF) research to apply and report the use of any structured stakeholder identification method at all, leading to ad-hoc selections of whom to consider important. Conversely, other research fields offer a plethora of stakeholder identification and analysis methods, few of which seem to have been adopted in the EHF context. This article presents the development of a structured method for identification, classification, and qualitative analysis of stakeholders in EHF-related work system design intervention. It describes the method's EHF-related theoretical underpinnings, lessons learned from four use cases, and the incremental development of the method that has resulted in the current method procedure and visualization aids. The method, called Change Agent Infrastructure (abbreviated CHAI), has a mainly macroergonomic purpose, set on increasing the understanding of sociotechnical interactions that create the conditions for work system design intervention, and facilitating participative efforts.     

西藏燕麦主要种植区灌溉定额空间分布及影响因素

燕麦为西藏自治区典型牧草之一,由于种植区地域辽阔,灌溉试验结果受限,西藏燕麦主要种植区的灌溉定额尚不明确。本文在西藏燕麦主要种植区内选取28个典型站点进行资料收集,遵循农业气候相似原则进行区域划分,基于水量平衡法揭示了西藏燕麦主要种植区灌溉定额的空间分布特征,并根据统计学原理分析了其影响因素。研究表明:燕麦主要种植区的灌溉定额呈由西藏中部至东部呈现先递增后递减的趋势,50%水文年下的燕麦灌溉定额在56~265 mm之间变化。降雨量是影响研究区内燕麦灌溉定额的主要因素(R²为0.515),ET₀次之(R²为0.152);其它气象因素中,日照时数对研究区燕麦灌溉定额影响较大(R²为0.462),且呈正相关关系;相对湿度对燕麦灌溉定额影响较小。西藏燕麦主要种植区的灌溉定额及其空间分布可为西藏自治区灌溉用水管理提供支撑。     

Ecological Planting Imperative: Functional Systems,Not Stylized Ecologies

The ability of landscape architectural projects to mitigate the worst effects of climate change will depend upon designed ecological systems. These systems will be built with plants. Despite the recognition of ecology as an essential driver of landscapes, the professionals of landscape architecture too often lack the knowledge and practical skills to create robust vegetative systems. New approaches and tools are required. This article outlines principles and methods for designing biodiverse plant systems for urban sites. Planting methods that increase species richness, functional diversity, and spatial complexity are emphasized as a way of developing more resilient plantings. Selecting species with similar evolutionary adaptions to stress, disturbance, and competition—as well as creating multi-layered compositions of diverse plant morphologies—allows designers to create compatible, long-lived plant mixes. To balance the increased visual complexity of diverse plant mixes, the article explores design techniques to make plantings more appealing to the public. The strategies explored here are based on the projects, experience, and research of Phyto Studio, a Washington, D.C. based studio. The methods build on work described in the author’s book, Planting in a Post-Wild World, an exploration of how to create designed plant communities.     

Dependence of grip strength on shoulder position and its implications for ergonomics practice

Grip strength (GS) variability due to positional changes in the upper extremity joints is of importance while designing workstations and work methods. This study was conducted to analyze the GS variations due to positional changes at shoulder joint when some important variables were under control. The GSs of dominant and nondominant hands were measured in eight shoulder (0°, 45°, 90°, and 135° of flexion and abduction) and standard test positions (STP). One hundred and thirteen subjects 20–30 years old completed the study. At the dominant side, no significant difference was observed in the pairwise comparisons between STP and the others. Maximum and minimum GSs were obtained in 0° abduction and 45° flexion and abduction, respectively. At the nondominant side, GSs were significantly lower (p < 0.001) in the corresponding test positions and demonstrated more variability. The findings of this study can contribute to the available knowledge to guide occupational ergonomists in their practices.     

区分站点状态的两级轮询控制系统

针对提高轮询控制模型工作效率和区分网络优先级的问题，提出了区分站点忙闲状态的完全-门限两级轮询控制模型（ETTPSS）。模型以两级优先级为基础，依据站点的忙闲状态采用并行处理方式只对忙站点进行信息分组发送服务。模型既能区分传输服务优先级又能避开对无信息分组的空闲站点的查询，从而提高了模型资源利用率和工作效率。运用概率母函数与马尔可夫链相结合的方法对该模型进行理论分析研究，精确解析了模型各个重要性能参数。仿真实验结果表明，仿真值与理论值近似相等，说明理论分析正确合理。与普通轮询模型相比，该模型性能大幅度提高。     

西藏水电开发是应对治理揠塞湖的重要举措

西藏区域地质构造发育,又属于高震区,在局部强降雨强降雪等恶劣小气候条件下,自然灾害频发,在高山深谷的江河上尤其容易发生堰塞湖。2018年10月17日凌晨5:00左右,西藏林芝加拉村下游约6km处(大峡谷核心区、无人区)雅鲁藏布江(以下简称“雅江”)左岸发生大规模泥石流,造成干流断流,形成影响很大的雅江加拉村堰塞湖。堰塞湖的治理一直是个世界难题,本文从2018年10月17日治理分析加拉堰塞湖的实践,阐述从水电开发角度,在灾害区上游建设高坝大库拦水调蓄,水库下游再采取截弯取直方式引走来水,作为防治雅江大峡谷河段今后可能出现大型堰塞湖重要治理手段,防止大型堰塞湖造成水淹城乡和溃堰水淹下游灾难的发生,从而达到既推进雅江水电开发,又较好治理了大峡谷河段自然灾害,实现把水电开发建成“功在当代,利在千秋”的减灾防灾工程。     

Outcome‐based ventilation: A framework for assessing performance,health, and energy impacts to inform office building ventilation decisions

This article presents an outcome‐based ventilation (OBV) framework, which combines competing ventilation impacts into a monetized loss function ($/occ/h) used to inform ventilation rate decisions. The OBV framework, developed for U.S. offices, considers six outcomes of increasing ventilation: profitable outcomes realized from improvements in occupant work performance and sick leave absenteeism; health outcomes from occupant exposure to outdoor fine particles and ozone; and energy outcomes from electricity and natural gas usage. We used the literature to set low, medium, and high reference values for OBV loss function parameters, and evaluated the framework and outcome‐based ventilation rates using a simulated U.S. office stock dataset and a case study in New York City. With parameters for all outcomes set at medium values derived from literature‐based central estimates, higher ventilation rates’ profitable benefits dominated negative health and energy impacts, and the OBV framework suggested ventilation should be ≥45 L/s/occ, much higher than the baseline ~8.5 L/s/occ rate prescribed by ASHRAE 62.1. Only when combining very low parameter estimates for profitable impacts with very high ones for health and energy impacts were all outcomes on the same order. Even then, however, outcome‐based ventilation rates were often twice the baseline rate or more.     

生态健康旅游袜产品的创意设计与开发

介绍生态健康旅游袜产品的创意设计思路及工艺设计,包括产品定位设计、功能设计、品质设计、外观设计、包装设计。阐述生态健康旅游袜产品的生产工艺流程,包括纤维生产工艺、短流程快速纺纱生产工艺、生态健康旅游袜生产工艺。详细分析生态健康旅游袜产品主体纤维材料的选择,并以生态健康旅途袜产品开发为例,介绍袜品研发过程,并对袜品进行性能测试。总结生态健康旅游袜的产品定位原则、创意设计思想及研发关键技术,对功能性袜品的设计开发具有借鉴意义。     

Seeing the bigger picture: Conditions that influence effective engagement of project executives with visuals

This exploratory study provides an influence diagram that shows the network of conditions that influence the use of visuals to effectively engage executives. The diagram was developed from the experiences of project managers and executives elicited through twenty-four semi-structured interviews. Twenty-nine conditions are found to influence the use of visuals to effectively engage executives. These are grouped into four categories: the executive's disposition to the use of visuals; the organisational conditions to create visuals; the project manager's understanding of the executive's information needs; and the executive's and project manager's appreciation of the benefits of using visuals. The study's results highlight that while the interviewed executives had a predisposition to the use of visuals as they are generally time-poor, capability to create visuals to support executive engagement was not widespread. Practical contributions include disclosing the criticality of organisational support for creating visuals and the vulnerability of executives in making project decisions.     

退火温度对冷轧DP980钢力学性能的影响

利用连续退火模拟机对DP980试验钢进行了连续退火试验,并通过扫描电镜、电子背散射衍射、透射电镜等研究了不同退火温度下(775、800、825和850 ℃),试验钢显微组织的演变规律和力学性能的变化趋势。结果表明:试验钢的屈服强度随着退火温度的升高而不断增大(从705 MPa增大到850 MPa),抗拉强度和断后伸长率则随着退火温度的升高而不断减小(抗拉强度从1150 MPa减小到1030 MPa;伸长率从8.9%减小到5.3%),这与试验钢的显微组织构成和形态分布密切相关。此外,不同退火温度下,试验钢的加工硬化率曲线均呈现单调下降的趋势。