Who is responsible for automated driving? A macro-level insight into automated driving in the United Kingdom using the Risk Management Framework and Social Network Analysis.

To date, vehicle manufacturers have largely been left to their own initiatives when it comes to the design, development and implementation of automated driving features. Whilst this has enabled developments within the field to accelerate at a rapid pace, we are also now beginning to see the negative aspects of automated design (e.g., driver complacency, automation misuse and ethical dilemmas). It is therefore becoming increasingly important to identify systemic aspects that can address some of these Human Factors challenges. This paper applies the principles of the Risk Management Framework to explore the wider systemic issues associated with automated driving in the United Kingdom through the novel application of network metrics. The authors propose a number of recommendations targeted at each level of the Risk Management Framework that seek to shift the power of influence away from vehicle manufacturers and back into the hands of governing bodies.

Towards a sustainable world through human factors and ergonomics: it is all about values.

In this paper, we analyse two approaches that attempt to address how a human factors and ergonomics (HFE) perspective can contribute to the sustainability of the human race. We outline the principles, purposes and fields of application of ergoecology and green ergonomics, and thereafter deal with their context of emergence, and the overlaps in purpose, and principles. Shared values are deduced and related to socio-technical principles for systems' design. Social responsibility and environmental/ecospheric responsibility are the leading threads of ergoecology and green ergonomics, giving rise to the values of: respect for human rights, respect for the Earth, respect for ethical decision-making, appreciation of complexity, respect for transparency and openness, and respect for diversity. We discuss the consequences of considering these values in HFE theory and practice.

Ergonomics and sustainability: towards an embrace of complexity and emergence.

Technology offers a promising route to a sustainable future, and ergonomics can serve a vital role. The argument of this article is that the lasting success of sustainability initiatives in ergonomics hinges on an examination of ergonomics' own epistemology and ethics. The epistemology of ergonomics is fundamentally empiricist and positivist. This places practical constraints on its ability to address important issues such as sustainability, emergence and complexity. The implicit ethical position of ergonomics is one of neutrality, and its positivist epistemology generally puts value-laden questions outside the parameters of what it sees as scientific practice. We argue, by contrast, that a discipline that deals with both technology and human beings cannot avoid engaging with questions of complexity and emergence and seeking innovative ways of addressing these issues. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: Ergonomics has largely modelled its research on a reductive science, studying parts and problems to fix. In sustainability efforts, this can lead to mere local adaptations with a negative effect on global sustainability. Ergonomics must consider quality of life globally, appreciating complexity and emergent effects of local relationships.

Scientific reasons for including persons with disabilities in clinical and translational diabetes research.

Despite disparities in health problems and outcomes, people with disabilities are underrepresented in diabetes research. This results in a lack of evidence-based knowledge regarding best approaches in caring for this population. This article addresses the need for research that includes people with disabilities and describes the common reasons persons with disabilities are not included in research, including scientists' concerns regarding threats to a study's internal validity and cost. Arguments are provided as to how involving people with disabilities in research will improve our science and reduce disparities in this population. In addition to the ethical reasons for including persons with disabilities in research, the ability to generalize study findings to this population and thus speed our development and translation of this knowledge for use by clinicians is discussed. The bias in study conclusions that arise from study samples that do not include persons with disabilities and its possible effect on care delivery are presented. Two strategies that researchers can use to increase the inclusion of persons with disabilities in research are described: (1) Universal Design of Research and (2) intervention optimization study designs. Universal Design of Research includes research design processes such as the use of multisensory formats for recruiting participants, approaches to designing and presenting research instruments and interventions, and methods of data collection to promote the inclusion of participants with a wide range of abilities in research studies. Intervention optimization study designs offer an efficient way for scientists to rapidly build the most potent interventions for a wide range of people, including those with disabilities participating in mainstream research.

Ethical issues raised by the new orientations in ergonomics and living labs.

User Experience Theory (UXT) provides us with criteria for designing products and technical systems for everyday activities (playing, learning, working,…) so as to satisfy users. Living Labs (LL), are plateforms used for the design and evaluation of technical systems. As such, they constitute tools that bring to this process some constraints., However these constraints have to be articulated to the UXT. In other words, UXT should specify the place, the role and function LL should play in the design of new products, how it should contribute to satisfying UX, and how the methods and techniques should be conceived or borrowed from other disciplines. UXT also raises ethical issues: impartiality (independent, public, replicable) of research models in the context of economical constraints (dependant, private, secret prototypes) and of industrial pressure, the use of intrusive and persuasive techniques, even with the prior informed consent of participants, ergo-marketing, deontology codes, the use of specific participants, belonging of an UX innovative solution, confidentiality with ICT, and so on. Because the UX, as well as LL literature, have shown little concerns for ethical considerations, till now, we define LL-UX ethical issues as a new research topic, and we list a number of problems to be solved in order to have an ethical LL-UX methodology for open innovation.

Ergonomía del puesto de trabajo en radiología / Ergonomics of the workplace in radiology

La sustitución de la película convencional y los negatoscopios por monitores y ordenadores en los nuevos sistemas PACS ha cambiado por completo los puestos de trabajo en los servicios de radiodiagnóstico, suponiendo un avance claro en este campo. Estos sistemas ofrecen muchas ventajas como la mejora de la productividad de los radiólogos al reducir de forma global el tiempo necesario para la interpretación de imágenes. Por otro lado, su implantación ha provocado que factores como la posición de la silla y la mesa de trabajo, el ratón, el teclado, los monitores y el tipo de iluminación de la habitación cobren una especial relevancia para prevenir lesiones que puedan inhabilitar al radiólogo. La influencia de estos factores es habitualmente poco valorada a la hora de la planificación e implantación de los puestos de trabajo radiológico. El presente trabajo aporta recomendaciones para el correcto diseño de los mismos, basados en los datos aportados por la ergonomía, que es la ciencia que estudia su influencia en la actividad humana (AU)

The replacement of conventional films and view boxes with digital images and computer monitors managed by PACS has clearly improved the diagnostic imaging workplace. The new setup has many advantages, including increased productivity brought about by decreased overall time required for image interpretation. On the other hand, the implementation of the digital workplace has increased the importance of factors like background lighting and the position of the chair, work table, mouse, keyboard, and monitor to prevent lesions that can disable the radiologist. The influence of these factors is often undervalued in the design and implementation of the radiological workplace. This article provides recommendations for the design of the radiological workplace based on ergonomics, which is the science that studies interactions among humans and other elements of a system (AU)

Importance of a midterm time horizon for addressing ethical issues integral to nanobiotechnology.

There is a consensus emerging on the importance of upstream ethical engagement in nanobiotechnology. Such a preventive ethic would anticipate downstream concerns that might arise and mitigate them as part of the research and development process. However, there is an unappreciated tension between the time horizon of upstream ethics and that assumed by most bioethical research. Current standards of high-quality research on ethical issues biases the research in favor of near-term, science-based, results-oriented work. A near-term focus would miss many of the important ethical issues integral to nanobiotechnology and undermine the goals integral to upstream ethical engagement. However, if we move to a far-term time horizon, the ethical debates tend to get too speculative and are no longer disciplined by existing research trajectories. This paper addresses the link between the midterm time horizon necessary for upstream ethics and the form, content, and style of ethical reflection. New paradigm cases, standards, and criteria will be needed for high-quality upstream ethics work in the area of nanobiotechnology.

Ergonomics, patient safety, and engineering ethics: a case study and cautionary tale.

Poor ergonomic design of complex medical equipment can lead to patient morbidity and mortality while still operating correctly. For example, patient controlled analgesia (PCA) machines are used extensively for postoperative pain, and can be programmed to give intravenous morphine every time the patient pushes the demand button. Unfortunately, such devices sometimes have poorly designed user interfaces. As an example, ergonomic flaws in the design of the Abbott Lifecare 4100 PCA Plus II machine have been held to be ultimately responsible for a number of deaths. However, despite being notified of this problem, the manufacturer was unwilling to upgrade the unit to a safer design, claiming that there was no problem with the unit in the first place that could not be handled with proper user training. This case draws attention to two important points, namely, (i) ergonomic studies on medical equipment may be abandoned in favor of early market penetration, and (ii) even when potential improvements are developed, they may be ignored by manufacturers, who may sometimes take a completely amoral approach to business decision making, focusing entirely on what is legal and expedient rather than being driven by any particular moral or ethical principles.

Revolutions and shifting paradigms in human factors & ergonomics.

The "Revolution in Information Technology" has spawned a series of transformational revolutions in the nature and practice of human factors and ergonomics (HFE). "Generation 1" HFE evolved with a focus on adapting equipment, workplace and tasks to human capabilities and limitations. Generation 2, focused on cognitive systems integration, arose in response to the need to manage automation and dynamic function allocation. Generation 3 is focused on symbiotic technologies that can amplify human physical and cognitive capabilities. Generation 4 is emergent and is focused on biological enhancement of physical or cognitive capabilities. The shift from HFE Generations 1 and 2 to Generations 3 and 4 profoundly alters accepted boundary constraints on the adaptability of humans in complex systems design. Furthermore, it has opened an ethical divide between those that see cognitive and physical enhancement as a great benefit to society and those who perceive this as tampering with the fundamentals of human nature.

"Things that went well--no serious injuries or deaths": ethical reasoning in a normal engineering design process.

We argue that considering only a few 'big' ethical decisions in any engineering design process--both in education and practice--only reinforces the mistaken idea of engineering design as a series of independent sub-problems. Using data collected in engineering design organisations over a seven year period, we show how an ethical component to engineering decisions is much more pervasive. We distinguish three types of ethical justification for engineering decisions: (1) consequential, (2) deontological or non-consequential, and (3) virtue-based. We find that although there is some evidence for engineering designers as 'classic' consequentialists, a more egocentric consequentialism would appear more fitting. We also explain how the idea of a 'folk ethics'--a justification in the second category that consciously weighs one thing with another--fits with the idea of the engineering design process as social negotiation rather than as technological progress.

The aesthetic and the ethic dimensions of human factors and design.

This article discusses the relationship between aesthetics, ethics, and the traditional research issues in human factors, and argues that it is important and beneficial both to the human society and to the human factors profession that we incorporate the aesthetic and the ethic dimensions explicitly and consciously in human factors research and practice. These two dimensions can help us put the current human factors research in a larger context. We can see more clearly the limitations of current research and the needs and challenges for research in new areas. The two dimensions also offer some new perspectives from which we can examine the current work systems and products, explain the demise of old work systems and products, and predict the possible emergence of new work systems and products.