High-risk organizations operate technologies such as in rail transportation, aviation, or nuclear power, where failure/breakdown can initiate low-probability, high consequence events. The concept of High-Reliability Organizations (HROs) was developed to avoid or mitigate such events through proper management despite the inherent risk. The September 12, 2008, Chatsworth accident is an example of such events that HROs are designed to prevent. In that case a Metrolink commuter train and Union Pacific freight train collided when the Metrolink engineer failed to recognize and react to a stop signal as a result of texting, causing 25 deaths and 135 injuries. This incident directly resulted in the Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which mandated Positive Train Control (PTC) implementation on all Class 1 rail carriers, as well as intercity / commuter rail passenger transporters. Over the past 2 years, the USC team has observed PTC implementation at the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) / Metrolink. This paper examines how PTC can be an integral part in developing and promoting HRO principles within the rail industry based on those observations.
Abstract The quality of course design and organization often affects student success in the classroom as much as a student's ability to learn and apply course material. Students frequently must overcome poorly organized classes, including those organized within Learning Management Systems (LMSs) such as Blackboard. Ideally, instructors utilize LMSs and similar learning portals to optimize the amount of knowledge transfer, while minimizing the time students need to reach subject proficiency and the time instructors need to administer and to assess students. For example, searching for misleadingly labeled documents by navigating folders within folders can stress students and cause negative instructor reviews. We relate this to issues with "signal – to – noise ratio addressed in a previous work. Lamentably, while institutions of higher education regularly survey students for course feedback, a critical component most often missing is student user feedback on how well course design and organization contributed to the learning process. Based on a review of the literature, and previous experience, we developed multiple preliminary course structures that considered folder organization, the number of tabs to include, and kind of Blackboard features to use. We then recommend several easy to follow practices to help instructors improve their online course design to improve student learning and retention.
Healthcare services provided in U.S. is offered through a fragmented system that in majority of cases cannot provide patient population with access to care, high quality of care, or coordinated care, and cannot guarantee the safety of patients. To overcome these shortcomings there is a need to create a new model of care. This study suggests a systematic approach to implement an innovative package of system elements including patient safety interventions, high reliability principles, and care coordination which illustrates the role of human factors in improving health outcomes of our population, enhance their health status, and enrich their overall well-being. Human health in full spectrum is a balance between medical, oral, physical, and mental/behavioral health. In this study all four elements of health services are provided to patients and their health outcomes have been studied in conjunction with the health status of their family members. This research aims to assess and analyze the impact of the addition of the aforementioned system elements in relation with human factors on population's overall health status.
We examine how establishing a competitive Joint Rail Conference Grand Challenges Initiatives can harness the potential of college and possibly high school students to develop solutions or new insight into technical and safety problems plaguing the rail industry, including safety. The rail industry has tended to solve issues internally. However, solutions can often be found in other industries that are either similar or have faced similar concerns. For example, the immediate predecessor of Positive Train Control (PTC), the Advanced Railroad Electronics System (ARES), was conceived in the mid 1980’s by then Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) CEO Richard Bressler, who had read how flight safety and efficiency had been improved by air traffic control systems and avionics developed by Rockwell Collins for the Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft. The information age has further increased the potential for sparking innovation as ideas can spread literally overnight via the internet. Some of the most talented and creative problems solvers are college and high school students, who have been greatly enabled by the “democratization” of information that has given them access to knowledge and skills as never before. Teens can learn nearly any skill watching reputable online videos or even “attend” classes offered by top universities around the world simply using a smart phone or tablet. This has prompted educators like Michigan Tech’s Dr. Pasi Lautala and other to develop extensive online rail educational resources to spark interest in the industry. However, simply passing on information has its limitation, which is why initiatives like the Grand Challenges, and Engineers without Borders have been instrumental in harnessing students to examine key global challenges in engineering, energy, and health care. Moreover, these initiatives have encouraged many students to pursue careers in those fields, even in low- and medium-income countries. For example, in 2012, a high school sophomore developed a new method to detect pancreatic cancer that is quick to administer and detects the disease much more quickly than previous methods, allowing much better chances for successful treatment. We will examine how establishing a competitive JRC Grand Challenges Initiatives can harness the potential of college and possibly high school students to develop solutions or establish new insight into technical and safety problems plaguing the rail industry, including safety. In addition, it will look at how developing a dialog among the rail industry, including the Class 1 railroads, students, and academia can encourage a more top notch, talented students to consider careers in the rail industry.
Since the passage of ADA, the demand for paratransit service is steadily increasing. Paratransit companies are relying on computer automation to streamline dispatch operations, increase productivity and reduce operator stress and error. Little research has been performed to understand the task complexity of dispatchers interacting with their computer systems. This research was conducted to provide an in-depth understanding of the task complexities and requirements for paratransit dispatchers. To achieve this, we organized, modeled, and analyzed a complete paratransit dispatching task sequence for a Los Angeles area paratransit service provider. Extensive field observations, video recordings, and expert dispatcher interviews were conducted to sketch out a dispatcher’s task sequence model during a high workload period. Using Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA), this skeleton model was further refined into a comprehensive decision hierarchy (decision tree). The HTA was further extended to capture the sequence of activities between two dispatchers, a paratransit van dispatcher and a lead dispatcher, in the same operation room. The results of this analysis have shown that the dispatchers undergo intensive and complex cognitive processes. Their task performance seems to be heavily influenced by the type of software interface they use. We found HTA to be a useful tool to model these interactions. The sequential decision tree format of HTA also shows promise for training system design. In particular, we recommend the use of this model for part-task training for entry-level dispatchers. In addition to task modeling, we further analyzed the design of the software interfaces used in this operation from a human factors standpoint: a DOS-based screen design and a Windows-based graphical user interface design. The DOS-based design had the advantage of information simplicity. However, this design produced long information scanning and navigation time, potentially long learning curve and screen design inconsistency. The Windows-based system had the advantage of a more natural spatial and iconic representation, well-designed popup menus and cursor sensitive information display. The most significant disadvantage of this design was a very long system lag time (e.g., it sometimes took up to 30 seconds for the system to respond to an input). This problem alone was the reason why the dispatchers did not use this system during highdemand periods. Other disadvantages were high-density clutter at low zoom level, layout inconsistency between zooms, inappropriate color-coding and no direct (active) driver
SUMMARY Tangential motion on a finger pad is a promising method of transmitting directional tactile information to human users. This study examined the identification and discrimination of tangential force motion on an index finger pad. An experimental device was built to automatically and randomly move a small probe in eight radial directions (45° apart) and two distances (0.5 and 1.5 mm). Index fingers of 62 subjects were tested. The results showed that moving the probe at 1.5 mm was detected with more accuracy than the 0.5 mm one. And, the absolute direction was not a statistically significant variable affecting accuracy for 1.5 mm distance, but was a significant effect for 0.5 mm distance. Implications of these results are discussed and future developments are offered within the context of a proposed Braille design with tangential actuators.
'%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0v30h60V0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='6' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='4' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30' clip-path='url(%23b)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='10' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='6' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
