The concepts of comfort and discomfort in sitting are under debate. There is no widely accepted definition, although it is beyond dispute that comfort and discomfort are feelings or emotions that are subjective in nature. Yet, beside several subjective methodologies, several objective methods (e.g. posture analysis, pressure measurements, electromyography (EMG) are in use to assess sitting comf...

Musculoskeletal discomforts/pain-are common occupational problems in healthcare workers whose job tasks involve repetitive motion and assumption of awkward positions. They are major causes of disability worldwide often resulting in job modification and outright resignation by many healthcare practitioners. This work aimed to assess the prevalence and risk factors for musculoskeletal discomfort/...

One of the important functions of window is to admit natural lightto interior spaces of buildings. This natural lighting in buildings helps to displace the requirement for artificial lighting, and thus, helps to save energy. Though daylight has positive effects on visual comfort, but high window luminance or direct sunlight from a window may cause discomfort. Visual discomfort in a day-lit inte...

This paper lays the grounds for a new methodology for detecting thermal discomfort, which can potentially reduce the building energy usage while improving the comfort of its inhabitants. The paper describes our explorations in automatic human discomfort prediction using physiological signals directly collected from a buildings inhabitants. Using infrared thermography, as well as several other b...

Objective A neural networks approach has been proposed to handle various inputs such as postural, anthropometric and environmental variables in order estimate self-reported discomfort picking tasks. An input reduction method proposed, reducing the minimum data required with similar accuracy network fed all variables. Background Previous works have attempted explore relationship between several ...

BACKGROUND Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are common in patients with eating disorders. The aim of this study was to determine, using factor analysis, whether these GI symptom factors (clusters) in eating disorder patients hold true to the Rome II classification of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). METHODS Inpatients in a specialised eating disorder unit completed the Rome II que...