How and why do subcontractors experience different safety on high-risk work sites?

In high-risk industries such as construction, mining and energy, subcontractors play an increasingly significant role. A typical arrangement is for the site owner to hire a principal contractor who in turn hires multiple subcontractors. This means that multiple subcontractors from multiple companies can be working on the same site at the same time. There is evidence that the use of subcontractors is not only increasing, but that the accident rates for subcontractor employees are higher than those of operator/site owner employees. Existing research on subcontractors, which focuses on the role of the prime contractor in selecting and managing subcontractors, fails to explain why subcontractors continue to experience higher rates of serious injury even where subcontractor management systems are in place. The purpose of this paper is to understand how and why employees of subcontractors’ experience safety differently from employees of principal contractors. The paper does so by extensively reviewing the applicable literature and reporting on a cross-industry focus group study.     

What does safety propaganda do for safety? A review

This article sets out to review research which has been carried out in the field of safety propaganda, with special reference to that for industry. Also included are the author's assessment of further research needs and recommendations for the optimum use of safety propaganda, bearing in mind the present state of knowledge regarding its value.     

Programmers' workbenches — practical experience

An architectural approach is needed for developing online, database systems. An architecture for transaction processing has been developed, called a programmers' workbench. This approach treats the development of an application as an application itself. There are two major components of the workbench: the execution system and a development system. The result of using the workbench is improved productivity in areas where fourth-generation languages may not work.     

Understanding flow experience from users’ requirements

This paper argues that the concept of flow can be useful in gaining a better understanding of information system users’ flow experience. This paper applies this concept in the requirements development phase of an Internet protocol television e-learning service development project. The findings show that flow experience can be visualised and measured, and that there are differences in how users see and perceive different features. Some features are driven by more experiential needs, whereas others are driven by more task-oriented goals. The findings indicate that the users’ perceived flow experiences can already be measured during the early phases of information systems (IS) development projects without having a working prototype of the IS for testing. This enables practitioners to design IS that better facilitate flow experience for the users, which in turn will potentially lead to shortened development time and cost savings for firms. This paper calls for further research in IS development and design methods that take into account the different ways of understanding user experiences, particularly their flow experiences.     

An old game,new experience: exploring the effect of players’ personal gameplay history on game experience

This experimental study explores how game experience differs between players with different gameplay histories within the same game universe. We are interested in how prolonged engagement with a game series affects the gameplay experience in relation to the most recent game version in the series. A total of 54 participants were divided into four groups depending on their gaming experience, namely non-gamers, new-gamers, old-gamers and core-gamers. They played the mobile version of Super Mario Run, and questionnaire data was collected after the gameplay session. The results of the study showed that not only the players’ personal gameplay history but also the length of experience or degree of familiarity with the game universe affected the experience of playing a new game in the same game universe. Additionally, familiarity with the game universe had a positive impact on the feeling of competence, immersion, emotions and flow.

     

Museum gives visitors a ‘smart’ experience

Smart card technology is being used in an Austrian museum to offer visitors individually-tailored and interactive ways of experiencing the exhibition.This is a short news story only. Visit www.compseconline.com for the latest computer security industry news.     

Guideline for verification and validation of safety related software — a report of a TC7 systems reliability,safety and security committee

This guideline assists the development of the Verification and Validation Plan in order to achieve the highest safety standards. It specifies the form and content but does not detail the specific techniques to be applied. It was developed by a committee of the European Workshop on Industrial Computer Systems (EWICS).     

The experience of enchantment in human–computer interaction

Improving user experience is becoming something of a rallying call in human–computer interaction but experience is not a unitary thing. There are varieties of experiences, good and bad, and we need to characterise these varieties if we are to improve user experience. In this paper we argue that enchantment is a useful concept to facilitate closer relationships between people and technology. But enchantment is a complex concept in need of some clarification. So we explore how enchantment has been used in the discussions of technology and examine experiences of film and cell phones to see how enchantment with technology is possible. Based on these cases, we identify the sensibilities that help designers design for enchantment, including the specific sensuousness of a thing, senses of play, paradox and openness, and the potential for transformation. We use these to analyse digital jewellery in order to suggest how it can be made more enchanting. We conclude by relating enchantment to varieties of experience.An earlier version of this paper was presented at Chi’2004 Fringe.     

Has the web transformed experience goods into search goods?

Klein (Journal of Business Research 41(3): 195–203, 1998) posited that the Web can transform experience goods into search goods (ES shifts). We examine her proposition in three ways. First, we critically assess the background of her proposition in light of the Web evolution in the past decade. Second, we conduct a comparison of past studies that measured the extent of search, experience, and credence (SEC) characteristics of goods. Third, we report the results of an exploratory survey on a set of commonly purchased products to benchmark possible ES shifts against the past studies. Their results indicate that SEC classification changes do not seem significant.     

User experience: does it matter in complex systems?

This paper explores the concept of user experience (UX) within complex systems in the domain of nuclear power production. The specific context is the development of main control room solutions. As UX has become a prevalent concept in human–computer interaction and related research fields, it is a valid question, whether the concept could bring something new to the research concerning complex safety–critical systems also. In this paper, we introduce the concept of UX as an indicator of the users’ subjective feeling of the appropriateness of the proposed tool for the activity. Based on activity theoretical contemplation, we presume that UX is grounded in the feelings and emotions evoked in the usage of the systems and which concern the status of the whole activity. In the paper, a theory-based characterization of UXs in the particular domain is developed based on three general functions of a tool: instrument, psychological, and communicative. We present the operationalization of UX and three studies in which UXs concerning different control room systems during a control room transformation process were followed. Based on the results of the three studies, we find that the significance of UX as an indicator of quality in use lies in the ability to bring the professional users’ experiences, which are embedded in the inner characteristics of the work and not always observable by external evaluators, to the process of designing new systems. Evidence to support the initial background assumption that UXs may concern instrumental aspects of tools was identified in the studies.     

LectureLounge – experience education beyond the borders of the classroom

Capturing presentations (lectures, seminars, etc.) on video is on the brink of becoming a normal event in educational environments. However, a breakthrough has yet to occur. Why is this so? First, it seems that capturing purely video is not enough to capture the whole educational experience [4]. Second, while equipment is relatively cheap, the amount and quality of manual work needed to operate capturing and publication systems is very high, and thus so are the costs. Third, systems that support the capturing process by including additional metadata tend to be intrusive on the presenter’s way of working.We would like to introduce LectureLounge [3], a presentation capturing, management, and publication system that shows that it does not have to be this way.     

Trailfinders—curating an interactive city promenade experience with mobile phones

Abstract

With a growing number of embedded digital experiences in arts and heritage settings, creating a broad global field, this article focuses on the use of mobile phones in the engagement of humans with the cultural heritage of public spaces, specifically those that require a promenade from one outdoor space to another. This article discusses findings from a recent promenade initiative, commissioned for a UK arts festival, along with a review of literature, to critically engage with growing evidence of the diverse ways in which technology is integrated at direct user level. Concepts of ‘hybrid spaces’ and ‘user agency’ are discussed, along with the ‘performativity’ of spaces. Central to the discussion is the function of narrative in engaging the participant to construct new perspectives, which are facilitated by the mediating role of personal media devices between subject, narrative, space and community.     

Overall availability and risk analysis of a general robot–safety device system

We analyse the availability of a general robot–safety device system characterised by the feature of cold standby and by an admissible risky state. In contrast to the previous literature, we allow a general failure-free time distribution for the robot and, as an example, we present computational results for Coxian failure and repair time distributions. In order to decide whether the risky state is admissible, we introduce a risk criterion based on the notion of rare events. The criterion is always satisfied in the case of fast repair.     

Effects of heel cushioning elements in safety shoes on muscle–physiological parameters

Safety shoe designs are primarily based on safety requirements. But all-day comfort should not be luxury: Heel strike associated impact loads on joints need to be compensated by active muscular effort and safety shoes should support this protective function of muscle activation. In 10 healthy men, 12 trunk and leg muscles were analyzed with surface electromyography. Subjects walked on a walkway while wearing different safety shoes with the test shoes being equipped with exchangeable cushioning heel inserts according to individuals' body weight. While wearing the optimally cushioned shoes the cumulative muscle activity per distance travelled dropped clearly compared to the regular safety shoes, demonstrating reduced muscular effort. Also, the heel strike associated amplitude peak of back muscles occurred earlier within the stride while wearing the test shoes. Thus weight-balanced cushioning heel inserts in safety shoes proved able to reduce muscle strain, logically delaying muscular fatigue and extending muscular joint protection.Relevance to industryAdjustable heel inserts in safety shoes are suited to improve the health status of employees by reducing muscular effort so that active joint protection can be prolonged.     

A novel method to enhance the touristic 360∘ promotional video experience

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Promotional 360° videos are now widely used to promote touristic sites, giving consumers a more immersive glimpse of what they can expect from those...     

Investigating Knowledge Management practices in software development organisations – An Australian experience

This study, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, investigates current practice of Knowledge Management (KM) in Software Engineering (SE) processes in two Australian companies on the basis that they both claimed to apply KM practices in their software development work. It also describes the KM activities and KM process used in SE practice, and examines the enablers of KM process for SE in terms of leadership, technology, culture, process and measurement.One of the main findings showed that software developers believe in the usefulness of knowledge sharing; however, their ability to utilise some of the KM systems was limited. The most commonly used systems included personal networks, informal networks, groupware and third-party knowledge. There is a need to formalise knowledge sharing of practices, while also supporting informal and ad-hoc knowledge sharing. While KM was considered to be important, the tools, techniques and methodologies currently employed for software development were inadequate to address effective management of knowledge in these organisations. In both organisations, a uniform model of the KM process did not exist. Among the four KM enablers, leadership was considered to be the most significant as top-down KM strategies were seemingly being pursued by management. Technology was also considered to be an obvious mechanism for KM, despite some of their current KM systems either being unsuitable or inaccessible. In addition, the crucial role that personal networks played in accessing tacit and implicit knowledge was seen as a key reason to foster a culture that encourages participants to share their knowledge with others.