The musculoskeletal system complaints of office workers at a vehicle production factory

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of and factors contributing to musculoskeletal system complaints (MSC) in office workers of a vehicle production factory and absenteeism due to these complaints. A total of 86.2% (n = 333) of the workers completed the survey. Of the workers, 73 (21.9%) were women, and 260 (78.1%) were men, and the mean age was 36.9 ± 8.75 years. The majority of the personnel had more than one symptom with a prevalence of 80.8%. The most frequently observed discomfort was tension and pain in the back muscles (58.6%) and in the neck muscles (58.3%), followed by low back pain (41%) and shoulder pain (30.3%). Pain in the shoulders, neck, and the back and pain and numbness in the fingers were statistically significantly more prevalent in employees who spent more than 5 hours per day performing desk work. Furthermore, all of the complaints, excluding pain in the elbows and knees, were statistically significantly more common in the women. When each complaint and the effects of contributing risk factors were analyzed by logistic regression analysis, pain in the shoulders, neck, and back; pain that spread to the arms; and pain in the fingers were correlated with longer work hours and the female gender (p < 0.05). The number of employees who had used sick leave within the past year due to MSCs was 11.7%. In conclusion, duration of work hours, frequency of breaks, and gender were determined as the most important risk factors in computer users regarding MSCs. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Calculations of the transmitted gamma photons through infinite slabs

The intensity and number of transmitted multiple scattered photons are calculated for 0.123, 0.320, 0.511,0.662, and 1.115 Me V gamma photons normally incident on slabs of carbon, aluminum, iron, copper, water, muscle,bone, and concrete with thicknesses varying from 1 to 10 mean free paths. The dependence of the transmission probability and energy distribution on the incident energy and material are examined. In general, the obtained results show good agreement with the other values calculated by the Monte Carlo method.     

One-pot two-step lipase-catalyzed synthesis of α,ω-thiophene-capped poly(ε-caprolactone) macromonomers and their use in electropolymerization

Macromonomers based on poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) with α,ω-thiophene functional end groups were prepared in bulk by enzymatic polymerization using immobilized Candida Antarctica lipase B (Novozym 435) as the catalyst. In the synthesis strategy, 3-thiophenemethanol was used to initiate the enzyme-assisted ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) to yield PCL with α-thiophene end group (initiation reaction, ThPCL) and then 3-thiopheneacetic acid was added to prepolymerized ε-CL to introduce ω-thiophene functionality in termination step (ThPCLTh). Macromonomers were characterized by ¹H and ¹³C NMR, FTIR, and GPC. Moreover, the obtained macromonomers were employed in electropolymerization experiments and copolymers with thiophene or pyrrole were synthesized through their end thiophene groups. These polymers were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), FTIR, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Conductivity measurements were carried out by the four-probe technique.     

FUAT – A fuzzy clustering analysis tool

As it is known, fuzzy clustering is a kind of soft clustering method and primarily based on idea of segmenting data by using membership degrees of cases which are computed for each cluster. However, most of the current fuzzy clustering modules packaged in both open source and commercial products have lack of enabling users to explore fuzzy clusters deeply and visually in terms of investigation of different relations among clusters. Furthermore, without a decision maker or an expert, it is hard to decide the number of clusters in fuzzy clustering studies. Therefore, in this study, a desktop software, namely FUAT, is developed to analyze, explore and visualize different aspects of obtained fuzzy clusters which are segmented by fuzzy c-means algorithm. Moreover, to obtain and inform possible natural cluster number, FUAT is equipped with Expectation Maximization algorithm.     

Synthesis and characterization of poly(N-(2-(thiophen-3-yl)methylcarbonyloxyethyl)maleimide) and its spectroelectrochemical properties

A new monomer; N-(2-(thiophen-3-yl)methylcarbonyloxyethyl) maleimide (NMT) was synthesized. The chemical structure of the monomer was characterized by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (¹H-NMR) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. Electrochemical polymerization of NMT was performed in acetonitrile (AN)/borontrifloride ethylether (BFEE) solvent mixture (1:1, v/v) where tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TBAFB) was utilized as the supporting electrolyte. The resulting conducting polymer was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, thermal analyses and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Electrical conductivity was measured by the four-probe technique. The spectroelectrochemical behavior and switching ability of P(NMT) film were investigated by UV–Vis spectrophotometry. P(NMT) revealed color changes between yellow and blue in the reduced and oxidized states respectively.