Parents' views of teen driving risks, the role of parents, and how they plan to manage the risks

PROBLEM: There is limited information about how parents view teen driving risks and intend to handle these risks during the licensing process, and how they will respond to graduated licensing provisions. METHODS: Parents in Connecticut were interviewed when their teens got their learner's permit. The survey was undertaken when the state did not have a midnight restriction or a passenger restriction. RESULTS: Generally, parents were well aware of teen driving risks, thought parents should be thoroughly involved in the licensing process, and plan to be active participants themselves. DISCUSSION: Parents were concerned about the risk of driving after midnight and already restrict that behavior. However, parents do not seem to see or understand the risks of having even one teen passenger in the vehicle. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The views and existing practices of parents need to be taken into account in deciding on the provisions of graduated licensing legislation and how to best ensure acceptance and compliance.     

Behavioural reactivation and subjective assessment of the state of vigilance--application to simulated car driving.

The frequency of some behaviour (such as self-centred gestures) increases during a task that leads to the occurrence of low-vigilance episodes. These gestures can be useful in stimulating oneself. A study carried out in 20 adults has enabled us to state that motor activity (recorded with an actimeter) increases with the duration of a monotonous driving task and sleep deprivation. The analysis of the scores recorded using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale has shown that drivers can assess the deterioration of their state of vigilance according to the actual sleep preceding the driving test. Finally, the joint analysis of the subjective and objective data revealed a co-variation of these two types of indices. We discuss the stimulatory function of the motor activity in a task leading to the occurrence of low-vigilance episodes by investigating, among other things, the use, conscious or not, of this type of activity.     

The interactive effects of conscientiousness,openness to experience,and political skill on job performance in complex jobs: The importance of context

Caveats concerning the ability of personality to predict job performance have been raised because of seemingly modest criterion‐related validity. The goal of the present research was to test whether narrowing the context via the type of job (i.e., jobs with complex task demands) and adding a social skill‐related moderator (i.e., political skill) would improve performance prediction. Further, along with political skill, the broad factor of personality demonstrated in prior research to have the strongest criterion validity (i.e., conscientiousness) was joined with a narrow construct closely related to openness to experience (i.e., learning approach) in a three‐way interactive prediction of supervisor‐rated task performance. With the employee–supervisor dyads among professionals, but not with the control group of non‐professional employees, task performance was predicted by the three‐way interaction, such that those high on all three received the highest performance ratings. Implications, strengths and limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Protective Gloves on Manual Dexterity in the Cold Environments

This article presents a study on the effect of different protective gloves (which are commercially available and commonly used in the cold) on manual dexterity in cold environments. The experiments compared statistically four different types of gloves and two different types of gloving (outer or double) at +19 °C and -10 °C. Performance was determined both objectively and subjectively using two manual dexterity tasks: bolt-nut and pick-up tasks. The response measured was the time of performing each task. Statistical analysis showed that all independent factors such as glove type, participant, object size, and temperature had significant effects on the hand cooling reaction. A significant difference in the performance between the gloves was found in the bolt-nut task. It was also found that outer-inner combination gloving may be an approach to use for precision tasks.     

Effect of Sweating on Insulation of Footwear

The study aimed to find out the influence of sweating on footwear insulation with a thermal foot model. Simultaneously, the influence of applied weight (35 kg), sock, and steel toe cap were studied. Water to 3 sweat glands was supplied with a pump at the rate of 10 g/hr in total. Four models of boots with steel toe caps were tested. The same models were manufactured also without steel toe. Sweating reduced footwear insulation 19–25% (30–37% in toes). During static conditions, only a minimal amount of sweat evaporated from boots. Weight affected sole insulation: Reduction depended on compressibility of sole material. The influence of steel toe varied with insulation. The method of thermal foot model appears to be a practical tool for footwear evaluation.     

Determination of Heat Loss from the Feet and Insulation of the Footwear

This study compared the methods of determining footwear insulation on human participants and a thermal foot model. Another purpose was to find the minimal number of measurement points on the human foot that is needed for insulation calculation. A bare foot was tested at 3 ambient temperatures on 6 participants. Three types of footwear were tested on 2 participants. The mean insulation for a bare foot obtained on the participant and model were similar. The insulation of warm footwear measured by the 2 methods was also similar. For thin footwear the insulation values from the participants were higher than those from the thermal model. The differences could be related to undefined physiological factors. Two points on the foot can be enough to measure the insulation of footwear on human participants (r = .98). However, due to the big individual differences of humans, and good repeatability and simplicity of thermal foot method, the latter should be preferred for testing.     

A Comparison of Two Methods of Determining Thermal Properties of Footwear

The present European Standard for footwear testing (Standard No. EN 344:1992; European Committee for Standardization [CEN], 1992) classifies footwear thermally by a temperature drop inside the footwear during 30 min at defined conditions. Today, other methods for footwear thermal testing are also available. The aim of this study was to compare EN 344:1992 with a thermal foot method. Six boots were tested according to both methods. Additional tests with modified standard tests were also carried out. The methods ranked the footwear in a similar way. However, the test according to standard EN 344:1992 is a pass-or-fail test, whereas data that is gained from the thermal foot method gives more information and allows further use in research and product development. A change of the present standard method is suggested.     

Validation of Methods for Determination of Metabolic Rate in the Edholm Scale and ISO 8996

The aim of this study was to validate the Edholm scale (Edholm, 1966) and the ISO 8996 standard (International Organization for Standardization [ISO], 1990) by comparing the metabolic rates estimated for both methods with the actual measured metabolic rate (M_Meas) in 6 manual material handling tasks simulated under laboratory conditions. The metabolic rate was calculated from oxygen consumption VO₂ (19 participants) according to Standard No. ISO 8996 (ISO, 1990). Additionally, the participants estimated perceived exertion using the Borg scale. The metabolic rates derived from the Edholm scale (M_Edh) overestimated 5 of 6 activities by 34-50% (α = .05). The metabolic rates derived from ISO 8996 (M_ISO) overestimated all activities by 7-38% (α =.05).     

Effectiveness of a Light-Weight Ice-Vest for Body Cooling While Wearing Fire Fighter’s Protective Clothing in the Heat

The aim of the study was to examine the effects of wearing an ice-vest (ca 1 kg) on physiological and subjective responses in fire fighters. The experiments were carried out on a treadmill in a hot-dry environment. The physical cooling effect of the ice-vest was measured with a thermal manikin. The ice-vest effectively reduced skin temperatures under the vest. On average, heart rate was 10 beats/min lower, the amount of sweating was reduced by 13%, and subjective sensations of effort and warmth were lower during work with the ice-vest compared to work without it. Thermal manikin tests indicated that the useful energy available from the vest for body cooling was rather high (58%). In conclusion, the ice-vest reduces physiological and subjective strain responses during heavy work in the heat, and may promote efficient work time by 10%.