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In the medical world, statistical visualisation has largely been confined to the realm of relatively simple geographical applications. This remains the case, even though hospitals have been collecting spatial data relating to patients. In particular, hospitals have a wealth of back pain information, which includes pain drawings, usually detailing the spatial distribution and type of pain suffered by back‐pain patients. Proposes several technological solutions, which permit data within back‐pain datasets to be digitally linked to the pain drawings in order to provide methods of computer‐based data management and analysis. In particular, proposes the use of geographical information systems (GIS), up till now a tool used mainly in the geographic and cartographic domains, to provide novel and powerful ways of visualising and managing back‐pain data. A comparative evaluation of the proposed solutions shows that, although adding complexity and cost, the GIS‐based solution is the one most appropriate for visualisation and analysis of back‐pain datasets.

The purpose of this paper is to comparatively examine the personnel working in the clothing sector by examining them in three different methods in order to determine the working postures, identification of the stress factors of musculoskeletal system and the exposures depending on the working postures. Methods used in the study, REBA (Hignett and McAtamney, 2000), Ovako Working Posture Analyzing System (OWAS) (Karhu et al., 1977) and PLIBEL (Kemmlert, 1995) are the scientific observation-based methods. Within the scope of this study, the working stations and the working postures of the operators who work in the clothing sector were examined and their movements that could cause harm to the body were examined and in conclusion some suggestions were suggested to prevent these movements.

Due to the standard unit of times in clothing sector are short and the work done is very repetitive, 30 min recording was thought as enough for each operator examined. These recorded videos were then divided into 30 s photographs to obtain the poses of the operators’ working postures. In the scope of the research, first, the PLIBEL observation form was filled as the PLIBEL method is more general one. According to the working postures, the body regions which are damaged or can be damaged were identified and the PLIBEL form was filled in the consideration of the risk factors in the form (Malchaire 2011). In addition, the photographs were also analyzed with REBA and OWAS methods for having more quantitative and detailed results.

The working postures of the operators who work in the cutting, sewing, ironing, quality control and packaging departments of six clothing companies were examined in the scope of this research with PLIBEL, REBA and OWAS methods in terms of ergonomy. The results belonging to each department were given separately. REBA and OWAS methods have been applied in order to investigate the working postures in more detail due to the lack of providing numerical data of the PLIBEL method. The reliability of the study has been approved with obtaining the similar results from the REBA and OWAS methods. According to Table VIII, both of the methods show that all the departments in question need ergonomic arrangements. It was analyzed that the cutting department is in the first place which needs ergonomic arrangement immediately (REBA %90.58, OWAS %87.69).

This study is composed of 65 operators who have experience between 5 and 22 years and in the age range of 22–43 working in the cutting, sewing, ironing, quality control and packaging departments in eight different clothing companies. These 65 operators were recorded by video camera during their work. The recording time were selected randomly. The movements of operators during their own work have been taken into consideration.

This paper indicates the usability of the PLIBEL, OWAS and REBA methods in clothing sector. Using these methods in clothing sectors states the value and the originality of this paper.

Aircraft maintenance technician (AMT) is the most critical profession in the aircraft maintenance system. The tasks of a licensed AMT require expertise and involve repetitive physical tasks such as tightening or loosening aircraft parts, carrying or removing parts during long working hours under time pressure and day/night shifts. This study aims to attract attention to the difficult working conditions of AMTs and identify the body parts that are at risk of musculoskeletal disorder (MSD).

A questionnaire is developed by the authors to gather demographic information, use of hand tools, equipment, use of fall protection, manual material handling (lifting, pushing, pulling), load weight, environmental factors, and MSD discomfort level perceptions. The questionnaire is applied to 150 AMTs during six months period, and the obtained data are analyzed by sequential ordinal logistic regression (OLR) models.

The ORL results confirm that the use of equipment (lift platform, scissors lift), safety belt attached to the platform, manual material handling, environmental factors (humidity, vibration and illumination) and resting periods have a significant effect on MSD risks. On the contrary, age, experience level, use of small hand tools, temperature and noise are not identified as statistically significant.

The study is original for it considers the working conditions and perceived discomfort levels of AMTs. A questionnaire is introduced to assess the consequences of the use of tools, equipment, fall protection equipment, environmental conditions and work organization on various body parts (neck, shoulder, elbow, back, lower back, wrist-hand, hip, knee, and ankle-feet), and strain level is identified. The study contributes to the theoretical aircraft maintenance literature and managers in practice.

People working in the hot environment are constantly exposed to the overheating, that can lead to cardiovascular disorders and as a consequence result in occupational diseases. The purpose of this paper is to present developed personal liquid cooling system that is able to efficiently draw excess heat from the human organism, protecting against thermal stress.

The paper presents study concerning the assessment of effect of the coolant temperature in the developed liquid cooling garment (LCG) on physiological parameters of the subjects (heart rate, body temperature, skin temperature) and parameters of the undergarment microclimate, as well as subjective sensations reported by volunteers exercising in hot microclimate while wearing LCG and without LCG.

Obtained results of physiological parameters measurements, as well as undergarment physical parameters and volunteers subjective sensations, proved satisfactory level of thermal stress reduction while working in the aluminized protective clothing in hot environment by the developed personal liquid cooling system for the variant with coolant temperature 19°C and the flow rate 0.9 dm3/min.

This paper presents a new clothing construction intended for LCG that can efficiently support human thermoregulation processes while working in the hot environment.

Michael Holquist (1990), one of the commentators on Mikhail Bakhtin’s monumental work, stated flatly that “human existence is dialogue,” and Ivana Markova (2003) declared that “dialogism is the ontology of humanity.” Bakhtin (1985;1986) himself said that such dialogues are conducted by using “speech genres.” From another angle Kenneth Burke asked, “What is involved when we say what people are doing and why they are doing it?” and claimed – and showed – that this question can be best answered by using what he called the “grammar of motives,” which consisted of a hexad of terms: act, attitude, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. In this chapter, I examine, by using various examples, how the Burkean grammar is used in the construction of one speech genre or the other to achieve rhetorically effective dialogic communication.

This paper centers round outsourcing. The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to outsourcing in the public sector and focus on what could be special when considering outsourcing in such contexts. The authors try to portray the business activities in private and in public sector settings and identify some similarities and – more importantly – some significant differences.

The authors use two analytical tools, a classification system of various interfaces between a selling and buying firm and a two-fold scheme for strategic analyses of outsourcing or not as well as in what ways to outsource. These tools have been developed in studies of private sector outsourcing but are applicable, as tools, also in public sector contexts. Two empirical cases from public sector outsourcing are used to illustrate options and obstacles for outsourcing ventures in the public sector.

The analytical discussion aims at pointing out when and how outsourcing should be a straightforward choice in the public sector. The authors also point at situations when it is a much more complicated process and thus restricted.

This study gives strong support for the need to identify which theoretical model has been used by the involved organizations in their evaluation of the situation.

This research aimed to explore the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and related factors among subcontracted cleaners in a teaching hospital in Thailand.

A cross-sectional study was conducted of 393 subcontracted cleaners in a teaching hospital, from May to June 2020. Face-to-face interviews were carried out using a standard questionnaire, consisting of four parts: (1) participant characteristics, (2) stress test, (3) work characteristics and (4) standardized Nordic questionnaire, Thai version, for MSDs outcome. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the association between MSDs and related factors.

The prevalence of MSDs was 81.9%, involving mostly the lower back (57.7%), followed by the shoulder (52.6%). Factors significantly associated with MSDs were as follows: male gender (OR = 3.06, 95% CI [1.19, 7.87]), severe stress (OR = 2.72, 95% CI [1.13, 6.54]), history of injuries (OR = 4.37, 95% CI [1.27, 15.11]), mopping posture (OR = 2.81, 95% CI [1.43, 5.50]) and task duration (OR = 1.90, 95% CI [1.01, 3.57] for 2–4 h and OR = 3.39, 95% CI [1.17, 9.86] for more than 4 h). Sick leave due to MSDs was associated with history of injuries, Thai nationality and having another part-time job.

The study findings about MSDs in terms of prevalence and related factors contributed to limited pool of the knowledge among subcontracted hospital cleaners in Thailand and middle-income country settings. With growing popularity in outsourcing cleaning services among hospitals in these countries, the study findings could raise a concern and inform policymakers and hospital administrators the importance of the magnitude and risk factors for MSDs necessitating design of preventive strategies.

The comfort and fit of clothes are affected by fabric properties, dressed ease and environmental conditions, in which dressed ease is influenced by the interaction among complex shapes of human body, style design and fabric mechanical properties.

In this study, the dressed ease distribution at waist section, which is related to body surface convex angle, was investigated using 3D scanning. A series of surface convex angles on bust and back were formed after adjusting the mannequin. The mannequin was scanned by TC2 separately in garments with eight different ease allowances. Then the dressed ease distributions at waist under different convex angles of body surface have been acquired by calculating the distance between waist points and dressed surfaces along normal directions.

The results showed that the body surface convex angle was weakly related to the dressed ease when the garments’ bust ease allowance was below 4 cm. When the garments’ bust ease allowance was within 6–12 cm, the body convex angle had a great impact on the dressed waist ease distribution in the condition of 26º–33º bust convex angle and 13.96º–17.96º back slope angle. For slack garments with more than 16 cm ease allowance, the dressed waist ease distribution did not relate to the bust convex angle, while it strongly related to the bust convex angle between 13.96º and 17.96º. The regression model was statistically significant between the dressed ease value and the body surface convex angle.

According to the dressed waist ease distribution of different body surface convex angles, this paper gives an application of pattern modification in order to optimize the waist fit. The results can provide guidance for the optimization of different body shapes. At the same time, the application of gap data to 3D virtual fitting can greatly improve the authenticity of virtual simulation effect.