Volume 2, No. 3 (2017)
Published online on 1 December 2017
Articles
Md. Asadujjaman1, Md Mashum Billal2, Md. Rasel Sarkar3, Md. Golam Rabbani4
Page 1 – 6 | Vol. 2 No. 3 (2017) | Available online on 1 December 2017
The prime concern of forensic anthropometry is to identify the individuals by analyzing the disintegrated human body parts. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between different human body measurements, and to estimate different body dimensions from stature. The study was carried out on 348 male volunteer participants; aged 19 to 25 years. Fourteen anthropometric parameters had been measured to conduct this study. After analyzing the data, it was found that there was a meaningful relation between the stature and other body dimensions (p< 0.001). Correlation coefficient (r) values of anthropometric data with stature were ranged from +0.22 to +0.83. The standard errors of estimation (SSE) values were varied from ±0.310 cm to ±3.899 cm. Regression equations derived in this paper can be used to estimate various body parts from stature for Bangladeshi male population. Finally, this study concluded that stature is a useful tool to estimate different human body dimensions. Consequently, this is such a novel study for the forensic department to identify persons in case of murders, accidents, natural disasters or war casualties.
Ummi Noor Nazahiah ABDULLAH, Norashiken OTHMAN, Atikah AWANG
Page 7 – 11 | Vol. 2 No. 3 (2017) | Available online on 1 December 2017
Inappropriate sitting working position among operators in syringe assembly inspection possibly contribute to the issue of several syringes passed the quality inspection and delivered to the clients even they contaminated with over amount of silicon lubricant. This inappropriate sitting posture in the inspection workstation could result the stress, fatigue, musculoskeletal disorder and mental workload issue among operators which influence the operators’ performance. This paper presents an investigation to identify the ergonomics and mental workload issues among the operators in the syringe assembly lines. A series of interview and observations were conducted using ergonomic risk analysis (ERA) checklist to investigate the ergonomics issues. NASA-Task Load Index (TLX) method also had been used as mental workload assessment tool. The results from this study show that there are issues in awkward postures, static and sustained work posture, repetition, lighting and noise. Besides, three out of four operators experience more than 50% score of workload during inspections with the high percentage of five index elements except one operator shows the different result. This study contributes to the study field by verifying the ergonomics and mental workload as significant factor to maintain the product quality and productivity. In future, advanced analysis will be conducted to investigate the identified issues in details and next propose the workstation design improvements.
Kama Azida KAMARULZAMAN1, Syazwan Syah ZULKIFLY2, Nor Halim HASAN2
Page 12 – 20 | Vol. 2 No. 3 (2017) | Available online on 1 December 2017
Hospital nurses receive enormous amounts of physical and mental workload which causes them to develop work-related stress. In this research, a cross-sectional study was carried out to identify the level of perceived stress, and also to investigate the relationship between occupational stressor and perceived stress level among one hundred and eighty two (n=182) nurses in a cancer hospital. Data collection was done using a self-administered questionnaire consists Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Based on the results obtained, majority of the nurses perceived high level of stress and six variables namely “workload”, “death and dying”, “inadequate preparation”, “lack of staff support”, “conflict with physician” and “conflict with other nurses” have relationship with occupational stress. The relationship between “uncertainty concerning treatment by physician” and “perceived stress” was found to be absent. NSS explained 19.7% of PSS and “inadequate preparation” as well as “conflict with physicians” the most influential factors towards perceived stress among nurses. For future research, this study is suggested to be expanded to a greater sample of nurses in other hospitals to obtain better conclusion and generalisation.
Mugilan Muralitharan1, Syed Ahmad Helmi1, 2 and Kamarulafizam bin Ismail1
Page 21 – 26 | Vol. 2 No. 3 (2017) | Available online on 1 December 2017
Aesthetic value of the automotive car seat has been one of the selling point of each car besides providing functions such as being safe, supportive as well provide comfort to the occupants. Criteria that have been considered besides the aesthetic element are cushion foam and self-adjustment factor. Ergonomics are not new issue to be brought up as most of the existing seat design today have already practiced. Existing car seat manufacturers have considered anthropometry data. The average upon 95th percentile of human measurement had been deliberated. However, issues such as time spent driving and seat design issue have arisen upon the search of comfort and rising of musculoskeletal disease such as back ache pain. As a solution, this study would propose an automotive car seat design of ergonomic evolution which would create comfort by manipulating the seat cushion foams. The proposed seat cushion foam would be replacing the existing polymers with bean bag foam. This has been inspired by the nature of bean bag, fitting up and providing comfort to the occupants of various body sizes and shapes. Malaysian anthropometry measurement required for design of car seat are obtained which are later compared with the existing seats of commercial vehicle….
Seri Rahayu KAMAT1, Eezsafauzia Azalin NORDIN1, Kalthom HUSAIN2, Sharifah Aznee SYED ALI3
Page 27 – 33 | Vol. 2 No. 3 (2017) | Available online on 1 December 2017
In commercial food services, the workers are exposed to various risks factors such as awkward postures, repetition of the body movement, heat stress, prolonged standing, poor lighting and vigorous vibration that are led to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of ergonomics risk factors on worker’s postures while performing kitchen daily activities. The method adopts qualitative method on the physical experience discomfort through the interview session, workplace observation and questionnaires survey to all workers. This project started with determining the physical discomfort which influenced worker working posture while performing daily kitchen activities. The result concluded that most of the respondents faced severe pain in their upper back and lower back. This is due to kitchen daily activities usually involving repetitive and forceful task where workers are required to perform the task in prolonged working hours hence lead to the development of muscle fatigue. The effect of risk factors on the working posture of UTeM’s Cafeteria workers while performing daily kitchen activities is determined by analysing the worker posture using RULA Analysis. Based on the result obtained, the total score for all working posture for current cooking area involving male and female workers are high and required immediate improvement.
Quinta Ewoh ENCHO1, Rozanah AB. RAHMAN2, Shamsul Bahri MOHD TAMRIN3, Vivien HOW3
Page 34 – 38 | Vol. 2 No. 3 (2017) | Available online on 1 December 2017
Occupational Safety and Health is somewhat existing and on the rise issue in Cameroon. Like most developing countries, little or nothing is being done to stop the ever-increasing rate of accidents and injuries occurred at work. In the transport sector, the rate of occupational accidents and injuries in Cameroon is nothing to ride home about. Every day, thousands of people lost their lives. What is also more disturbing is the fact that when it comes to public transportation companies, the workers are not the only ones involved; the customers or passengers are too. The human cost of poor occupational safety and health is huge. This article discusses the adequacy of the current legal framework in the transport sector in Anglophone Cameroon and proposes a strategic driver towards achieving a safe place of work for this industry.
Ahmad Taqiyuddin ABU HASSAN11, Ammar ADNAN1, Radin Zaid RADIN UMAR2, Siby SAMUEL3, Mohd Hanafi ANI1, Malek HAMID1, *
Page 39 – 45 | Vol. 2 No. 3 (2017) | Available online on 1 December 2017
Head check is a crucial action to anticipate potential hazards whenever a road user is about to merge onto traffic. Failing to anticipate the hazards may result a road crash. Besides road users’ riding individual behavior, there are several external contributing factors that may influence the head check performances. In this study, the length of the merging lanes of urban expressway was the focus. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of several ranges of merging lane length on motorcyclists’ head check performance during merging in urban expressways. 1200 motorcyclists were observed at twelve selected scenarios around Klang Valley Metropolitan area (n=100 for each scenario). The twelve scenarios were divided into four categories based on its length – (i) 0-100 feet; (ii) 101-200 feet; (iii) 201-300 feet; and (iv) above 300 feet. Dependent variable for this study was the percentage of head checks. If a motorcyclist turns his or her head over the shoulder towards the target zones (the area in which the potential hazard may emerge – the lanes on the expressway) while in the launch zone (the area that is two seconds before the merging nose), he or she was scored 1, else 0 (i.e. binary scoring)….
Ahmad Hanif AHMAD RAHMAN1, Ammar ADNAN1, Radin Zaid RADIN UMAR2, Siby SAMUEL3, Mohd Hanafi ANI1, Malek HAMID1, *
Page 46 – 51 | Vol. 2 No. 3 (2017) | Available online on 1 December 2017
Annually, more than 1 million teenagers and young adults died in road traffic crashes, and road traffic accident is one of the alarming causes of mortality rate in Malaysia. Motorcyclists are among the most vulnerable road users and this is mostly due to improper riding behavior. This study focuses on improper behavior – performance of the hazard anticipation – of motorcyclists when entering the roundabout. The objectives of this study were; (i) to evaluate the percentage of overall hazard anticipation behavior among motorcyclists during entering roundabouts; (ii) to compare the hazard anticipation behavior among motorcyclists during entering roundabouts with different road environment – on-campus vs. off-campus roundabouts.
A naturalistic observation was done at eight scenarios – four at on-campus roundabouts and four at off-campus roundabouts. Dependent variable for this study was the percentage of hazard anticipation among motorcyclists before entering the roundabouts. If a motorcyclist anticipated hazards towards the target zone (the area which the potential hazard may merge) while in the launch zone (the area of two second before merge onto the roundabout). On average, only 54.5% of the motorcyclists anticipated the hazards, while the other 45.5% did not anticipated the hazards…
Sharifah Aznee SYED ALI1, 2, Seri Rahayu KAMAT2
Page 52 – 56 | Vol. 2 No. 3 (2017) | Available online on 1 December 2017
Food production workstation is one of the workplace which manually handle by workers during production activities. The objective of this study is to identify the main factors contribute to slips and falls at food production industry. A qualitative method using survey through questionnaire and observation was utilized to identify the harmful working environment at food production workstation. A questionnaire survey was distributed among thirty workers at the selected food production industry. The findings from this study yielded that there are four main factors contribute to slips and falls accident at the food production and services. The factors are flooring (33.33%), footwear (20.00%), cleaning (13.33%), and environment (13.33%). The outcome can serve as a guideline for further study for better understand the association between lifting, fatigue issue in slip and fall factors at food production working area.