Observed finger behaviour during computer mouse use

Two-button computer mouse users may exhibit sustained, static finger lifting behaviours to prevent inadvertent activations by avoiding finger pressure on the buttons, which leads to prolonged, static finger extensor muscle loading. One hundred graduate students were observed during normal computer work in a university computer facility to qualify and quantify the prevalence of lifted finger behaviours and extended finger postures, as well as wrist/forearm and grip behaviour, during specific mouse activities. The highest prevalences observed were 48% of the students lifted their middle finger during mouse drag activities, and 23% extended their middle finger while moving the mouse. In addition, 98% of the students rested their wrist and forearm (77%) or wrist only (21%) on the workstation surface, and 97% had an extended wrist posture (15 degrees -30 degrees ) when using the mouse. Potential applications of these findings include future computer input device designs to reduce finger lifting behaviour and exposures to risk factors of hand/forearm musculoskeletal pain.     

Optimal markdown policy of perishable food under the consumer price fairness perception

Markdown policies are widely used by retailers to sell perishable food. Consumers purchase food at different prices during different sales periods. Some consumers may compare their experience with others who purchase the same items. Price unfairness or inequity is perceived when different prices are quoted without reasonable explanations. This study develops an optimal markdown model for perishable food pricing to optimise the food retailer revenue and enable a maximum aggregated consumer utility considering individuals’ price fairness perception. The model serves as the first step in evaluating trade-offs between food retailer revenue and consumer utility. In addition, it enables consumer utility to be depicted through perceived price fairness by including the effects of food perishability and scarcity. Another innovative feature is the equalisation of the consumer average aggregated utility during different sales periods as a condition of intertemporal price fairness perception. The proposed model is compared with two benchmark models to justify the effectiveness and advantages in the example. Finally, a sensitive analysis based on the food deterioration rate, consumer food desire rate and consumer average reservation price is conducted to justify the manner in which these factors influence the optimal pricing policy, and managerial insights are suggested for food retailers.     

Online hot selling period and its impact on e-retailer’s pricing strategies

The express delivery industry is often overloaded in some hot online selling seasons, which causes consumers’ dissatisfaction. Under such a circumstance, the e-retailer can utilise two opposite strategies, i.e. to set-up either a low price with a pre-announced markdown pricing (PMDP) strategy, or a high price with a pre-announced markup pricing (PMUP) strategy for the hot selling period. As both the prices and the express service quality are different between the regular period and the hot selling period, consumers can strategically choose their purchase time, which will in turn influences the e-retailer’s pricing strategy. To investigate under what condition one pricing strategy will dominate the other, we propose a two period pricing model in which the selling season are divided into regular and hot selling period, and all consumers are assumed to be strategic. The e-retailer determines the prices over the two kinds of periods to maximise its profit. The comparison shows that a PMUP (resp. PMDP) strategy is preferred when the overloading degree in the hot selling period is slight (resp. heavy). Furthermore, we extend our model by incorporating the competition of traditional retailers.     

Testing Concrete E‐modulus at Very Early Ages Through Several Techniques: An Inter‐laboratory Comparison

The design of concrete structures is based on calculation rules, which often do not take into account the very early age behaviour of the material. However, during this period, structural concrete is subjected to strains due to the hydration process of cement. If these strains are restrained by concrete itself or surrounding boundaries, stresses start to build up that can lead to the formation of cracks. Among the parameters involved in the stress build up, the stiffness evolution is of major importance. This paper reports the use of eight different techniques aimed at stiffness evolution assessment, applied on the same concrete mix, in a round robin experimental test within three laboratories. The observations are compared after having expressed the results at the same equivalent age. Both the loading stress rate and amplitude are observed to have an effect of limited importance on the determination of the quasi‐static elastic modulus, which might be explained by very short term creep. Ultrasonic measurements provide values of E‐modulus that are higher than the values provided by the quasi‐static tests at the time of the concrete setting. Similar mechanisms associated to very short term creep could explain the difference between the quasi‐static and high‐frequency elastic modulus.     

The Design with Intent Method: A design tool for influencing user behaviour

Using product and system design to influence user behaviour offers potential for improving performance and reducing user error, yet little guidance is available at the concept generation stage for design teams briefed with influencing user behaviour. This article presents the Design with Intent Method, an innovation tool for designers working in this area, illustrated via application to an everyday human-technology interaction problem: reducing the likelihood of a customer leaving his or her card in an automatic teller machine. The example application results in a range of feasible design concepts which are comparable to existing developments in ATM design, demonstrating that the method has potential for development and application as part of a user-centred design process.     

旅游自然景区下的设计行为初探

自然景区越来越成为生活在城市中的居民所向往的圣洁之地。随着自然景区被人们广泛的接触从而导致了"天然景观人为化"的现象。本文通过对旅游自然景区下旅游行为归纳分析以达到对设计行为的认知,并根据对九寨沟和黄龙景区的考察及调查的相关资料,对旅游自然景区下的设计行为进行解析用以说明"设计"对自然景区内天然景观与人为景观的重要性,以及应用设计的手段来解决"天然景观人为化"的问题,保持人为景观与天然景观的平衡。为今后旅游自然景区的设计活动拓展思路,提供新的设计视角。     

Social signal processing: Survey of an emerging domain

The ability to understand and manage social signals of a person we are communicating with is the core of social intelligence. Social intelligence is a facet of human intelligence that has been argued to be indispensable and perhaps the most important for success in life. This paper argues that next-generation computing needs to include the essence of social intelligence – the ability to recognize human social signals and social behaviours like turn taking, politeness, and disagreement – in order to become more effective and more efficient. Although each one of us understands the importance of social signals in everyday life situations, and in spite of recent advances in machine analysis of relevant behavioural cues like blinks, smiles, crossed arms, laughter, and similar, design and development of automated systems for social signal processing (SSP) are rather difficult. This paper surveys the past efforts in solving these problems by a computer, it summarizes the relevant findings in social psychology, and it proposes a set of recommendations for enabling the development of the next generation of socially aware computing.     

The Internet’s impact on sexuality: A critical review of 15 years of research

The body of empirical research on Internet sexuality has grown steadily since 1993. The following paper provides an overview of the current state of research in this field in its full thematic breadth, addressing six areas of online sexuality: Pornography, sex shops, sex work, sex education, sex contacts, and sexual subcultures. Key research results are presented concerning Internet sexuality’s forms of manifestation, participant groups, opportunities, and risks. This paper shows that sexually related online activities have become routine in recent years for large segments of the population in the Western world. Internet sexuality also takes somewhat different forms based on the age, gender, and sexual orientation of the individual. Academic studies to date have focused overwhelmingly on the possible negative effects of Internet sexuality. By contrast, little research has been conducted on potential benefits. Consequently, a surprising number of gaps are evident in the scholarship on Internet sexuality.     

An observational comparison of the older and younger bus passenger experience in a developing world city

This study was an unobtrusive observational analysis of 333 older and younger bus passengers in Guadalajara, Mexico. A set of data were collected for each observed passenger, as well as more general observations related to driver behaviour, bus design and bus service characteristics. There were significant differences between older and younger passengers in terms of boarding and alighting times, use of handrails, seat location preferences, passenger stability and coping strategies in order to maintain postural stability. The conditions of travel are conducive to a poor passenger experience for the older passengers in particular. Although the problems may be attributed to bus design and driver behaviour typical of that in developing countries, they are also influenced by the wider transport infrastructure, and a lack of a regulatory regime which places drivers under time pressure and in direct competition with each other.

Practitioner Summary: Bus services must cater for all ages of passengers, including the elderly. This unobtrusive observational study investigated the passenger experience in a developing world city. Bus and wider service design were found to compromise the journey experience, with the older users being particularly negatively impacted. Design recommendations are provided.