Habibnezhad, Mahmoud; Puckett, Jay; Jebelli, Houtan; Karji, Ali; Fardhosseini, Mohammad Sadra; Asadi, Somayeh. (2020). Neurophysiological Testing for Assessing Construction Workers’ Task Performance at Virtual Height. Automation In Construction, 113.
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Abstract
Falling from heights is the primary cause of death and injuries at construction sites. As loss of balance has a fundamental effect on falling, it is important to understand postural regulation behavior during construction tasks at heights, especially those that require precise focus in an upright standing position (therefore, a dual-task demand on focus). Previous studies examined body sway during a quiet stance and dual tasks to understand latent factors affecting postural balance. Despite the success of these studies in discovering underlying factors, they lack a comprehensive analysis of a task's simultaneous cognitive load, postural sway, and visual depth. To address this limitation, this paper aims to examine construction workers' postural stability and task performance during the execution of visual construction tasks while standing upright on elevated platforms. To that end, two non-intrusive neurophysiological tests, a hand-steadiness task (HST) and a pursuit task (PT), were developed for construction tasks in a virtual environment (VE) as performance-based means to assess the cognitive function of workers at height. Workers' postural stability was measured by recording the mapped position of the Center of Pressure (COP) of the body on a posturography force plate, and the postural sway metrics subsequently calculated. A laboratory experiment was designed to collect postural and task performance data from 18 subjects performing the two batteries of tests in the virtual environment. The results demonstrated a significant decrease in the Root-Mean Square (RMS) of COP along the anterior-posterior axis during the Randomized Pursuit Task (RPT) and maximum body sway of the center of pressure (COP) in the mediolateral direction during both tests. Also, subjects exposed to high elevation predominately exhibit higher accuracy for RPT (P-value = 0.02) and lower accuracy for HST (P-value = 0.05). The results show that the combination of elevation-related visual depth and low-complexity dual tasks impairs task performance due to the elevation-induced visual perturbations and anxiety-driven motor responses. On the other hand, in the absence of visual depth at height, high task complexity surprisingly improves the pursuit tracking performance. As expected, during both tasks, alterations in postural control were manifested in the form of a body sway decrement as a compensatory postural strategy for accomplishing tasks at high elevation.
Keywords
Task Performance; Construction Workers; Test Design; Cognitive Load; Standing Position; Sitting Position; Neurophysiological Test; Postural Stability; Virtual Reality; Workers' Safety At Height; Fall-risk; Reaction-time; Fear; Real; Acrophobia; Balance; Safety
Rhew, Isaac C.; Duckworth, Jennifer C.; Hurvitz, Philip M.; Lee, Christine M. (2020). Within- and Between-Person Associations of Neighborhood Poverty with Alcohol Use and Consequences: A Monthly Study of Young Adults. Drug & Alcohol Dependence, 212.
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Abstract
Background: Studies have shown associations between neighborhood disadvantage and alcohol misuse among adults. Less is known about the role of neighborhood context in young adults (YAs), who engage in more disordered forms of alcohol use compared to other age groups. Using data collected monthly, this study examined whether YAs reported more alcohol use and consequences when they were living in neighborhoods with greater concentration of poverty. Method: This study used data from 746 participants aged 18-23 years living in the Seattle, WA, region. Surveys were administered each month for 24 consecutive months. Measures included typical number of drinks per week and past month count of alcohol-related consequences. Residential addresses at each month were geocoded and linked to census-tract level percentage of households living at or below poverty threshold. Multilevel over-dispersed Poisson models were used to estimate associations between standardized monthly deviations in tract-level poverty from one's average and alcohol outcomes. Results: Across 14,247 monthly observations, the mean number of typical drinks per week was 4.8 (SD = 7.4) and the mean number of alcohol consequences was 2.1 (SD = 3.5). On months when they were living in neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty than their average, participants reported significantly higher levels of alcohol consequences (Count Ratio = 1.05; p = .045). Conclusion: YAs may engage in more problematic forms of drinking when they reside in neighborhoods with higher levels of disadvantage. During a time of frequent residential changes, YAs moving to more disadvantaged neighborhoods may benefit from additional supports.
Keywords
Alcohol Drinking; Young Adults; Neighborhoods; Age Groups; Poverty; Western Australia; Seattle (wash.); Alcohol; Neighborhood Context; Young Adulthood; Emergency-department Visits; Heavy Episodic Drinking; College-students; United-states; Substance Use; Use Disorders; Models; Health; Disorganization; Availability
Garg, Parveen K.; Platt, Jonathan M.; Hirsch, Jana A.; Hurvitz, Philip; Rundle, Andrew; Biggs, Mary Lou; Psaty, Bruce M.; Moore, Kari; Lovasi, Gina S. (2021). Association of Neighborhood Physical Activity Opportunities with Incident Cardiovascular Disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Health & Place, 70.
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Abstract
We determined associations of cumulative exposures to neighborhood physical activity opportunities with risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD). We included 3595 participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study recruited between 1989 and 1993 (mean age = 73; 60% women; 11% black). Neighborhood environment measures were calculated using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and annual information from the National Establishment Time Series database, including the density of (1) walking destinations and (2) physical activity/ recreational facilities in a 1- and 5-km radius around the respondent's home. Incident CVD was defined as the development of myocardial infarction, stroke, or cardiovascular death and associations with time to incident CVD were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. A total of 1986 incident CVD cases occurred over a median follow-up of 11.2 years. After adjusting for baseline and time-varying individual and neighborhood-level confounding, a one standard deviation increase in walking destinations and physical activity/recreational facilities within 5 km of home was associated with a respective 7% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.87-0.99) and 12% (95% CI = 0.73-1.0) decreased risk of incident CVD. No significant associations were noted within a 1-km radius. Efforts to improve the availability of physical activity resources in neighborhoods may be an important strategy for lowering CVD.
Keywords
Cardiovascular Diseases; Physical Activity; Proportional Hazards Models; Geographic Information Systems; Recreation Centers; Built Environment; Cardiovascular Disease; Coronary-heart-disease; Census Tract Data; Older-adults; Longitudinal Associations; Risk; Resources; Time; Atherosclerosis; Survival
Xiang, Wei-qi; Yang, Xiao-hua; Li, Yu-qi. (2021). A Set Pair Analysis Model for Suitability Evaluation of Human Settlement Environment. Thermal Science, 25(3B), 2109 – 2116.
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Abstract
The human settlement environment is a dynamic subsystem where people live and produce in the social system. This paper aims at evaluating comprehensively the suitability state of a given human settlement environment in a certain time and space and its evolutionary trend, the set pair analysis theory and its connection numbers are introduced into the suitability evaluation, and the set of human settlements is established. The set pair analysis model based on partial connection number is used to assess the suitability status and the development trend of human settlements in Guizhou Province from 2014 to 2017. The result shows that the set pair analysis model has the features of convenience, impersonality and good feasibility.
Keywords
Human Ecology; Human Settlements; Number Theory; Social Systems; Guizhou Sheng (china); Human Settlement Environment; Partial Connection Number; Set Pair Analysis; Suitability Evaluation
Launching the Inspire Fund: An early step for CBE’s Office of Research “For a small college, CBE has a broad range of research paradigms, from history and arts, to social science and engineering.” — Carrie Sturts Dossick, Associate Dean of Research Upon taking on the role of Associate Dean of Research, Carrie Sturts Dossick, professor in the Department of Construction Management, undertook listening sessions to learn about the research needs of faculty, staff and students across the College of Built…
The Population Health Initiative has announced the award of 11 Tier 1 pilot grants for the spring quarter of 2022. The grants are intended to encourage the development of new interdisciplinary collaborations among investigators – and with community-based partners – for projects that address critical challenges to population health. One of the funded projects, “Residential Segregation and Pediatric Injury and Violence in Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma” includes Rebecca Walter, Windermere Endowed Chair and Associate Professor, Runstad Department of Real Estate….
The Population Health Initiative has announced the award of eight Tier 2 pilot grants, which are intended to encourage the development of new interdisciplinary collaborations among investigators – and with community-based partners – for projects that address critical challenges to population health. One of the funded projects, “Assessing National Public Housing Authority Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery of Place-based Subsidized Housing Units,” includes Rebecca Walter, Windermere Endowed Chair and Associate Professor, Runstad Department of Real Estate. Walter serves as a…
In Making Healthy Places, Second Edition: Designing and Building for Well-Being, Equity, and Sustainability, planning and public health experts, Andy L. Dannenberg, Affiliate Professor of Urban Design & Planning, along with co-authors Nisha D. Botchwey and Howard Frumkin bring together scholars and practitioners from across the globe in fields ranging from public health, planning, and urban design, to sustainability, social work, and public policy. This updated and expanded edition explains how to design and build places that are beneficial to the…
The University of Washington Population Health Initiative announced the award of 11 Tier 1 pilot grants to teams representing researchers from nine different UW schools and colleges as well as UW Tacoma and numerous community-based partners. The collective value of these 11 awards was nearly $480,000, which included approximately $270,000 in funding from the initiative plus additional school, college and departmental matching funds. Among the award recipients was a project titled “Amazonian Green Cities: A Gardens Program for Health Ecology and…
In 2021 the College of Built Environments launched the CBE Inspire Fund, designed to support CBE research activities for which a relatively small amount of support can be transformative. The second year of awards have just been announced, supporting five projects across 4 departments within the college as they address topics such as food sovereignty, anti-displacement, affordable housing, and health & wellbeing. This year’s awardees include: Defining the New Diaspora: Where Seattle’s Black Church Congregants Are Moving and Why Rachel…