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PubMed1989

Unrelenting time.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adaptation, Biological↗
PubMed1997

The "nest"--neurological environment for safe therapeutics.

How to manage neurologically impaired patients is a challenge we all face. Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, B.C. successfully developed a padded environment for confused, restless, and agitated patients. The following article describes how patients are managed without restraints in a safe environment.

Environment Design↗
PubMed1998

Assistive technology and universal design in the workplace.

The terms assistive technology and universal design challenge designers, engineers, and technologists to consider the broadest possible use for the things they create, to make assistive technology as useful to nondisabled persons as to those with disabilities, and to make the products and environments we design as usable as possible for everyone, regardless of age or ability.

Aging↗
PubMed2005

Conservation of Mediterranean seascapes: analyses of existing protection schemes.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are aimed at managing and protecting marine environments. Their design, however, often disregards both a thorough knowledge of the distribution of habitats and assemblages and the use of proper experimental evaluations of the efficacy of MPAs by comparing protected vs. unprotected zones. About 200 MPAs have been recently instituted in the Mediterranean area, but the evidence of their efficacy is scant. The MPA of Torre Guaceto (Southern Adriatic Sea, Italy) is one of the rare cases of effective protection enforcement. The reserve was instituted more than 10 years ago, a period currently considered as sufficient to show responses by organisms to protection. The MPA is divided into a C zone, the general reserve, where many activities are permitted, a B zone, the partial reserve where restrictions increase and two A zones, the integral reserve where access is prohibited. The goals of the paper were to map the distribution of benthic assemblages to assess if they were properly represented in the differently protected zones, and to test the efficacy of protection by quantifying possible differences between the assemblages in two control areas and in the two A zones, where human impact is completely excluded. The analysis of habitat and assemblage distribution within the MPA showed that the zones with total protection do not include most valuable environmental types. Most of the considered variables (i.e. cover of substratum, number of taxa, and average abundance of the most common taxa) were not significantly different in and out of the A zones, at each time of sampling. Results, however, suggested a possible effect of protection in modifying patterns of abundance of sponges under Cystoseira canopy (more abundant in the fully protected zone). In the subtidal habitat, differences were found in the structure of the whole assemblage and in the abundance of encrusting coralline red algae (more abundant outside the fully protected area). Notwithstanding the correct general methodology employed in the study, a lack of statistical power could have a role in preventing the detection of ecologically relevant effects of protection. In some instances, data pooling allowed a discrimination between cases where there was clearly no effect of protection and cases where there might be. On this basis, the optimization of this experimental design should be considered in further studies. In any case, if the goals of MPAs have not been clearly stated, efficacy of protection might prove very difficult to test even with the use of sound experimental designs.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Seeking a just culture to design a safer hospital environment.

If a hospital employee makes a mistake and a patient is hurt, should that employee be punished, fired, or considered blame-free? With a "Just Culture" framework in place at a hospital, the answer in most instances should be "none of the above." According to David Marx, JD, the design of the health system and the behavior of the employee at the time of the incident--and not simply the incident itself--should come under review.

Organizational Culture↗
PubMed1988

Facilitating play in hospitalized handicapped children: the design of a therapeutic play environment.

The development of a play environment is described, including a play structure that was designed to facilitate symbolic play in hospitalized, handicapped children. The effect of the structure on play was tested on handicapped children aged 2 to 13 years who were verbal and able to use at least one hand. Twenty-five pretest and 25 posttest observations were conducted and data were coded into play and nonplay categories. Results indicated decline in aimless wandering and nonplay activities, with a concomitant increase in both partial and symbolic play. The implications for play among hospitalized, handicapped children are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed2003

Health, supportive environments, and the Reasonable Person Model.

The Reasonable Person Model is a conceptual framework that links environmental factors with human behavior. People are more reasonable, cooperative, helpful, and satisfied when the environment supports their basic informational needs. The same environmental supports are important factors in enhancing human health. We use this framework to identify the informational requirements common to various health-promoting factors that are realizable through well-designed physical environments. Environmental attractors, support of way-finding, and facilitation of social interaction all contribute to the health-relevant themes of community, crime, and mode of transportation. In addition, the nearby natural environment, although often neglected, can serve as a remarkably effective resource.

City Planning↗
PubMed1989

Environmental control unit utilization by high-level spinal cord injured patients.

The study was designed to evaluate the use of an environmental control unit (ECU) by high-level spinal cord injured patients. The technology is relatively new, and to the best of the authors' knowledge, no comprehensive study has been made of the utility of the ECU. Data were obtained from 29 high-level spinal cord injured persons who had been using ECUs for at least one year. The subjects had a mean age of 24.2 years; 89.7% were men; and 51.7% of the injuries resulted from vehicular accidents. Most (93%) of the subjects perceived the ECU as increasing their independence. Operation of the telephone was indicated as the most important function (61%); control of television sets were second (21%) in rank. Of the subjects who worked or went to school, only two used their ECUs for those purposes. Subjects felt comfortable for longer periods without attendant care when the ECU was available. Some of the subjects felt that they had received inadequate training (30%) and that their attendants lacked understanding of the ECU (36%). Steps should be taken to increase the employment potential of ECU users by providing units with additional features and by increasing the training of both users and their attendants. Design of units that are more "user friendly" is also needed.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2005

Towards more powerful learning environments through combining the perspectives of designers, teachers, and students.

In order to reach the main aims of modern education, powerful learning environments are designed. The characteristics of the design of PLEs are expected to have positive effects on student learning. Additionally, teachers' conceptions of learning and teaching do influence the implementation of a PLE. Moreover, students' perceptions of a learning environment affect their subsequent learning behaviour and the quality of the learning outcomes. The different perspectives of educational designers, teachers, and students are summarized in the Combination-of-perspectives (COOP) model. Combining these perspectives by mutual exchange of conceptions and perceptions is expected to have positive effects on the power of PLEs.

Child↗
PubMed1980

The introduction of ergonomics: A problem of industrial practice.

The problem of introducing ergonomics into a major chemical industry was tackled by a novel approach which allowed the industry concerned access to a wide range of ergonomics skills. This allowed appropriate expertise to be applied as necessary to the variety of problems arising in the design of a plant. The problems included equipment design and layout, thermal, auditory and visual environments, job design and training aids. The difficulties of identifying the benefits of such an introduction were dealt with by the use of a senior management seminar which employed a 'paired presentation' format to describe both the various contributions made by the ergonomists to the industry and the evaluation by the individual recipients of such contributions.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

From research to public policy: the prevention of motor vehicle injuries, childhood drownings, and firearm violence.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to review the development of the modern sciences of injury epidemiology and injury prevention and to illustrate the use of applied research in formulating effective public policy. SEARCH METHODS: MEDLINE searches were conducted from 1966 to 1990, and bibliographies of articles thus obtained were reviewed. Fugitive sources were identified by multiple means. MAJOR FINDINGS: Motor vehicle fatality rates on a per mile driven basis have been reduced by 50% over the past 25 years, largely through attention to the road environment and design of motor vehicles. Passive restraint systems such as air bags promise further reductions. Drowning has emerged as a leading cause of death among young children. Complete pool fencing is expected to prevent many of these events. Firearm violence, particularly among young people, is rapidly increasing. Firearms are hazardous consumer products but are not addressed as such by our current regulatory structure and intervention agenda. CONCLUSIONS: Epidemiologic and other applied research can make important contributions to the development of public policies designed to prevent injury. Such policies often address the design and performance of hazardous products and environments and consider individual behavior change as only a secondary objective.

Accident Prevention↗
PubMed2006

Aging, disability, and frailty: implications for universal design.

Throughout the world all populations are seeing burgeoning numbers of "elders", defined as persons aged 65 year and older. In many countries, including Japan, the United States, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, those aged over 65 are at or approaching 15% of the population. As their numbers have increased, so have their health care expenses, leading to extensive research on the health, well being, and life expectancy of these increasingly older elders. Today this group is further sub-divided: the young-old ages 65-74, the old-old ages 75-84, and the oldest-old ages 85+, for both health care and research purposes. However broad variation still characterizes even these groupings. Rates of frailty and disability increase with increasing age among these elders. For example, inabilities to complete at least one activity of daily living increased from about 5-7% at ages 65-69 years to about 28-36% at ages 85+ in 1987. Death rates continue to decline at all ages past 50 years and rates of disability seem to be doing the same. For the foreseeable future, we may expect increasing numbers of older, frail elders than in previous decades. Thus, people are not only living longer, they generally are healthier at advanced ages than were previous cohorts, thus "old age" disabilities of the 20th century will be put off to even older ages during the 21st century. As yet there is no clear way to assess senescent changes in humans, although activities of daily living, allostatic load, and frailty indices have all been suggested. One future need is greater development and use of universal and accessible design in all aspects of the built environment.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2004

Toward optimal healing environments in health care.

The 2nd American Samueli Institute symposium was held January 22-25, 2004. The focus of this meeting was an exposition of optimal healing environments (OHE) in American health care. Fifty-five (55) invited guests participated; most had written one of the papers in this Supplement. The conduct of the meeting revolved around small group discussions and two plenary sessions. The ensuing dialogue refined and organized the definitions, components, and research protocols associated with creating and implementing an OHE. This Supplement contains both the invited papers and an abstract of the plenary session discussions.

Environment Design↗