Thresholds for the detection of changes in temperature are used to indicate neuropathy, but a variety of different contact areas and contact locations are used. This study was designed to determine the effects of variations in contact area and contact location on both warm and cool thresholds at the fingertip. With 20 healthy subjects (10 females and 10 males aged 20-30 years), warm thresholds and cool thresholds were determined in two separate sessions using the method of limits. In the first part of each session, thresholds were determined around the centre of the whorl using circular contactors with five different diameters (3, 6, 9, 12, and 55 mm). In the second part of each session, thresholds were determined using two contactors (6- and 12-mm diameter) at three locations along the fingertip: (i) distal (5 mm from the nail), (ii) middle (centre of whorl), and (iii) proximal (3 mm from the distal interphalangeal joint). With increasing contact area, the warm thresholds decreased, the cool thresholds increased, and the inter-subject variability in both warm and cool thresholds decreased. Using the 6-mm diameter contactor, warm thresholds were independent of location but cool thresholds increased from distal to proximal locations. It is concluded that temperature sensitivity at the fingertip increases with increasing area of contact, with the variability in thresholds consistent with the existence of warm and cool "insensitive fields". The findings show that the influence of contact area and contact location should be considered when assessing thermotactile thresholds at the fingertip.
A series of experiments has investigated the transmission of roll and pitch seat vibration to the heads of seated subjects. Head motion was measured in all six axes using a light-weight bite-bar while seated subjects were exposed to random motion at frequencies of up to 5 Hz at 1.0 rad.s −2 r.m.s. Subjects sat on a rigid flat seat in two body postures: 'back-on' (back in contact with backrest) and 'back-off' (no backrest contact). The influence of the position of the centre of rotation was also investigated. Motion at the head occurred mostly in the lateral, roll and yaw axes during exposure to roll seat vibration and in the fore-and-aft, vertical and pitch axes during exposure to pitch seat vibration. A reduction in the magnitude of head motion occurred when the subjects sat in a 'back-off' posture compared with a 'back-on' posture. Varying the position of the centre of rotation along the lateral axis during roll seat vibration affected vertical and pitch head motion: least head motion occurred when the centre of rotation was in line with the subject's mid-sagittal plane. Varying the position of the centre of rotation along the vertical axis during roll seat vibration affected head motion in the mid-coronal plane: roll head motion decreased as the position of the centre of rotation was raised from below the seat surface to above the seat surface. Varying the centre of rotation (along the fore-and-aft and vertical axes) during pitch seat vibration altered head motion in the mid-sagittal plane. Head motion increased with increasing distance of the centre of rotation in front or behind the subject's ischial tuberosities and increased as the seat was raised from below the centre of rotation to above the centre of rotation.
The effect on finger blood flow of lower magnitude vibration in healthy female subjects was investigated. Twenty healthy female university students aged 18 to 30 years with no history of regular use of hand-held vibrating tools in occupational or leisure activities participated in the study. Finger blood flow (FBF) was measured in the middle fingers of both hands using plethysmography. The vibration was measured using an accelerometer in the VPM, and was monitored using a digital meter and oscilloscope. The medians and inter-quartile ranges of the FBF in the middle fingers of the exposed and unexposed hands during each of the seven 4-minute periods show that FBF did not differ between the exposed right hand and the unexposed left hand. There was no significant change in FBF between period (i) and period (ii) on either hand, indicating the 2-N force applied by the right hand did not change finger blood flow on either hand.
OBJECTIVES To estimate the number of workers in Great Britain with significant occupational exposure to whole body vibration (WBV) and to identify the common sources of exposure and the occupations and industries where such exposures arise. METHODS A postal questionnaire was posted to a random community sample of 22 194 men and women of working age. Among other things, the questionnaire asked about exposure to WBV in the past week, including occupational and common non-occupational sources. Responses were assessed by occupation and industry, and national prevalence estimates were derived from census information. Estimates were also made of the average estimated daily personal dose of vibration (eVDV). RESULTS From the 12 907 responses it was estimated that 7.2 million men and 1.8 million women in Great Britain are exposed to WBV at work in a 1 week period if the occupational use of cars, vans, buses, trains, and motor cycles is included within the definition of exposure. The eVDV of >374 000 men and 9000 women was estimated to exceed a proposed British Standard action level of 15 ms -1.75 . Occupations in which the estimated exposures most often exceeded 15 ms -1.75 included forklift truck and mechanical truck drivers, farm owners and managers, farm workers, and drivers of road goods vehicles. These occupations also contributed the largest estimated numbers of workers in Great Britain with such levels of exposure. The highest estimated median occupational eVDVs were found in forklift truck drivers, drivers of road goods vehicles, bus and coach drivers, and technical and wholesale sales representatives, among whom a greater contribution to total dose was received from occupational exposures than from non-occupational ones; but in many other occupations the reverse applied. The most common sources of occupational exposure to WBV are cars, vans, forklift trucks, lorries, tractors, buses, and loaders. CONCLUSIONS Exposure to whole body vibration is common, but only a small proportion of exposures exceed the action level proposed in British standards, and in many occupations, non-occupational sources are more important than those at work. The commonest occupational sources of WBV and occupations with particularly high exposures have been identified, providing a basis for targeting future control activities.
The current International Standard (ISO 2631, 1978) on whole-body vibration defines a complex relation between discomfort and duration of vibration exposure. There are doubts concerning the accuracy of this relation and there are difficulties and dangers in its application to some non-steady-state conditions. This paper compares the ISO time-dependency with those based on root mean square (rms) and root mean quad (rmq) averaging of levels over time. [The rmq averaging procedure is based on experimental studies reported by Griffin and Whitham (1980) J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 68, 1277–1284.] It is shown that although the rmq procedure was developed from studies involving only short duration vibration, it defines a time dependency which may be acceptable for much longer periods.
Measurements of vessel motion and consequent seasickness amongst passengers have been made on six ships, two hovercraft and a hydrofoil. Data are presented for 20 029 passengers surveyed on 114 voyages involving 370 hours of motion recordings. Vomiting incidence and illness rating were found to be linearly related to the root-mean-square magnitude of the vertical z-axis acceleration. Sickness increased with increasing duration of exposure and a measure of motion 'dose' is examined as a convenient way of combining the variables of stimulus magnitude and duration. High frequency motion in hovercraft at about 0·6 Hz was found to be less provoking of sickness than similar magnitudes at lower frequencies. Motion in axes other than the vertical correlated less highly with sickness, although there was some intercorrelation between axes. The results presented enable predictions to be made of seasickness occurrence in marine vessels and other forms of transport where low frequency vertical oscillations are encountered.
The dependence of biodynamic responses of the seated human body on the frequency, magnitude and waveform of vertical vibration has been studied in 20 males and 20 females. With sinusoidal vibration (13 frequencies from 1 to 16 Hz) at five magnitudes (0.1-1.6 ms(-2) r.m.s.) and with random vibration (1-16 Hz) at the same magnitudes, the apparent mass of the body was similar with random and sinusoidal vibration of the same overall magnitude. With increasing magnitude of vibration, the stiffness and damping of a model fitted to the apparent mass reduced and the resonance frequency decreased (from 6.5 to 4.5 Hz). Male and female subjects had similar apparent mass (after adjusting for subject weight) and a similar principal resonance frequency with both random and sinusoidal vibration. The change in biodynamic response with increasing vibration magnitude depends on the frequency of the vibration excitation, but is similar with sinusoidal and random excitation.
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