A national cross-sectional study in the Danish wood and furniture industry on working postures and manual materials handling

Musculoskeletal disorders constitute a major problem in the wood and furniture industry and identification of risk factors is needed urgently. Therefore, exposures to different work tasks and variation in the job were recorded based on an observation survey in combination with an interview among 281 employees working in wood working and painting departments. A questionnaire survey confirmed high frequencies of symptoms from the musculoskeletal system: The one-year prevalence of symptoms from the low back was 42% and symptoms from the neck/shoulder was 40%. The exposure was evaluated based on: (1) classification of work tasks, (2) work cycle time, (3) manual materials handling, (4) working postures, and (5) variation in die job. Among the employees 47% performed feeding or clearing of machines, 35% performed wood working or painting materials, and 18% performed various other operations. Among the employees 20% had no variation in their job while 44% had little variation. Manual materials handling of 375 different burdens was observed, which most often occurred during feeding or clearing of machines. The weight of burdens lifted was 0·5-87·0 kg, where 2% had a weight of more than 50 kg. Among the lifting conditions 30% were evaluated as implying a risk of injury. An additional risk factor was the high total tonnage lifted per day, which was estimated to range from 132 kg to 58 800 kg. Working postures implied a risk of injury due to prolonged forward and lateral flexions of the neck, which was seen most frequently during wood working or painting materials. These data substantiate the finding that work tasks mainly during feeding or clearing of machines imply a risk of injury to the low back and a risk of injury to the neck and shoulder area mainly during wood working or painting materials. Optimal strategies for job redesign may be worked out by using these data in order to prevent occupational musculoskeletal disorders.     

A review of “ The Co-ordination and Regulation of Movements” By N. Bernstein. (Pergamon Press, 1967.) [ Pp. xii+ 196.] 505

Abstract

The complaints of workers in a noisy workshop were taken as the basis of recognition and attitude to noise. However, all the complaints based on noise exposure could not be attributed to neurotic responses. The distinctive character of homeostatic changes induced by noise exposure was attributable to the depression of the adreno-cortical function. The possibility was considered that the metabolism of the brain was disturbed by the noise exposure. It was concluded that the complaints of workers exposed to noise must be considered from the view-point that workers have a physical, mental and social existence.     

Mode III fracture of a magnetoelectroelastic layer: exact solution and discussion of the crack face electromagnetic boundary conditions

This paper develops a closed-form solution for anti-plane mechanical and in plane electric and magnetic fields in a magnetoelectroelastic layer of finite thickness. Explicit expressions for the stresses, electric fields, and magnetic fields, together with their intensity factors are obtained for the extreme cases for impermeable and permeable cracks. Solutions for some special cases, such as a magnetoelectroelastic layer with infinite thickness, are also obtained. Applicability of the crack face electromagnetic boundary conditions is discussed. It is found that the crack profile is important in obtaining the correct electromagnetic fields and their intensity factors. The stress intensity factor, however, does not depend on the crack face electromagnetic boundary condition assumptions.     

Meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method for continuously nonhomogeneous linear viscoelastic solids

A meshless method based on the local Petrov-Galerkin approach is proposed for the solution of quasi-static and transient dynamic problems in two-dimensional (2-D) nonhomogeneous linear viscoelastic media. A unit step function is used as the test functions in the local weak form. It is leading to local boundary integral equations (LBIEs) involving only a domain-integral in the case of transient dynamic problems. The correspondence principle is applied to such nonhomogeneous linear viscoelastic solids where relaxation moduli are separable in space and time variables. Then, the LBIEs are formulated for the Laplace-transformed viscoelastic problem. The analyzed domain is covered by small subdomains with a simple geometry such as circles in 2-D problems. The moving least squares (MLS) method is used for approximation of physical quantities in LBIEs.     

Base Pressure Measurements under a Scale Model Stockpile

The ability of a granular bulk material to transmit internal shear stress is a fundamental property that is often overlooked or underestimated, yet it is this ability that allows many observed physical phenomena to occur. One such area that continues to be a focus for numerical, theoreticals and experimental researchers is the pressure that a stockpile of granular material places on the supporting surface. While appearing to be a simple problem, the ability of granular materials to transmit shear stress makes this an extremely complex problem. This article presents high-quality data collected under a 2 m high stockpile and full details of the experimental facilities used in the collection of the data.

The work presented is of significant value, having a much greater scale than previous studies (Jotaki & Moriyama, 1979; Lee & Herington, 1971; Smid & Novosad, 1981), and the deliberate inclusion of a central reclaim channel offers insight into stress changes during gravity reclaim and refilling. The results of this work have shown that the so-called 'M' pressure does exist under larger stockpiles both with and without reclaim hoppers; of more significance is the reemergence of the M pressure upon refilling of an emptied stockpile. This clearly illustrates that the M pressure is a robust and natural pressure distribution for a conical stockpile.