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Office Environments (office + environment)
Selected AbstractsEsthetic treatment modalities in men: psychologic aspects of male cosmetic patientsDERMATOLOGIC THERAPY, Issue 6 2007Richard G Fried ABSTRACT:, Male cosmetic patients represent a growing population of individuals who can substantially benefit from well-chosen esthetic interventions. Understanding some of the unique aspects of the male psyche can result in more effective recruitment of male cosmetic patients and aid the clinician in helping these patients to choose appropriate interventions. Specific recommendations for the physician, staff, and office environment are provided. Illustrations of emotional and functional benefits are provided that can be shared with patients to enhance expectations and satisfaction with outcomes. [source] Women's working wardrobes: a study using card sortsEXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 3 2005Sue Gerrard Abstract: Picture sorts were used to investigate perceptions of women's office clothes, with a sample of ten male and ten female subjects who normally worked in an office environment. The pictures on the cards were taken from catalogues, and showed women's outfits which might be worn in an office. The subjects sorted the cards repeatedly and generated criteria and categories of their own choice. Some of the criteria and categories had not been previously reported in the clothing research literature. Over half of the male subjects, but none of the female subjects, used ,married/unmarried woman' as a sorting criterion, although only one of the images sorted showed a wedding ring. A significantly higher proportion of male than of female subjects used dichotomous categorization (i.e. sorting the cards into two piles for one or more of the criteria). The reasons for this are obscure, but do not appear to be a simple outcome of males not knowing much about female clothing. Previous research into clothing has tended to involve researcher-centred approaches such as semiotics; the results from this study suggest that there would be advantages in wider use of subject-centred approaches such as card sorts, both in this domain and elsewhere. It was concluded that card sorts were a useful method and should be more widely used. [source] Thermal design of central office telecommunication equipmentBELL LABS TECHNICAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009Wei Ling Thermal design is in the critical path of all telecommunication equipment product development because of the steady, unabated increase in equipment power densities to satisfy the level of features, services, and performance demanded by customers. Proper thermal design contributes to the overall quality, functionality, and reliability of Alcatel-Lucent solutions and can provide a marketing advantage as a differentiator with respect to the competition. This paper describes in detail the thermal design process for a typical telecommunication equipment application in a central office environment. Experience is shared on the challenges, pitfalls, and common tools/approaches for both system-level and board-level (circuit pack) thermal design, as well as the thermal testing of prototypes. © 2009 Alcatel-Lucent. [source] Desktop video conferencing in virtual workgroups: anticipation, system evaluation and performanceINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2001Anthony M. Townsend Abstract. This study investigates the applicability of the technology acceptance model (TAM) to the process of adoption of desktop video conferencing (DTVC). In this study, we create virtual office environments using DTVC and then examine how our participants interact with each other using the DTVC medium. Specifically, we examine the effect of users' anticipated system utility on actual system satisfaction, and in turn, system satisfaction on their workgroup performance. As in other applications of the TAM model, we find that those participants that anticipated DTVC in a positive manner were more likely to evaluate it positively after using it and were more likely to perform well during their use of the system. [source] User preferences in the classification of electronic bookmarks: Implications for a shared systemJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 7 2001Lisa Gottlieb Using the financial industry as a context, the following study seeks to address the issue of the classification of electronic bookmarks in a multi-user system by investigating what factors influence how individuals develop categories for bookmarks and how they choose to classify bookmarks within those organizational categories. An experiment was conducted in which a sample of 15 participants was asked to bookmark and to categorize 60 web sites within Internet Browser folders of their own creation. Based on the data collected during this first component of the study, individual, customized questionnaires were composed for each participant. Whereas some of the questions within these surveys focused on particular classificatory decisions regarding specific bookmarks, others looked at how the participant defined, utilized, and structured the category folders that comprised his or her classification system. The results presented in this paper focus on issues investigated in Kwasnik's (Journal of Documentation, 1991, 47, 389,398) study of the factors that inform how individuals organize their personal, paper-based documents in office environments. Whereas classificatory attributes culled from questionnaire responses nominally resembled those identified by Kwasnik, it was found that a number of these factors assumed distinctive definitions in the electronic environment. The present study suggests that the application of individual instances of classificatory attributes and the distinction between Content and Context Attributes emphasized by Kwasnik play a minimal role in the development of a multi-user classification system for bookmarks. [source] Prevalence of building-related symptoms as an indicator of health and productivityAMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 10 2006Raimo Niemelä PhD Abstract Background The prevalence of building-related symptoms (BRS) is commonly used to characterize the indoor air quality in office buildings. To analyze the costs of building renovation and the improvement of the indoor environment, it is useful to quantitatively relate the prevalence or intensity of BRS to productivity. The intent of this study is to summarize the links between the BRS and productivity, and demonstrate this linkage in two case buildings. Material and Methods A literature was surveyed for studies that measured simultaneously the prevalence or intensity of BRS and subjectively reported or objectively measured productivity. Case studies in two office environments were performed. An association between the prevalence of BRS and productivity of workers in a call center and in an insurance office were investigated. In the first case study, the productivity was expressed using the direct productivity metrics, namely the number of telephone contacts during active working hours while in the second case, the productivity was assessed by using the data concerning sick leave rates. Results Employees who report more BRS also have more often absences which relate to indoor environment quality (IEQ). Their productivity is lower than those who have better IEQ in their offices. Despite uncertainties related to the data concerning recorded sick leave and self-reported productivity, the number of studies showing an association between BRS and productivity or sick leave suggests that such a relationship exists. The present case studies also demonstrated an association between the BRS and the direct productivity. Based on the data from the call center, a reduction of 10%-units in the prevalence of general symptoms (such as fatigue, headache, nausea, etc.) corresponded with a gain of 1.5% in performance. Based on the findings in the insurance company, a reduction of 10%-units in the prevalence of irritation symptoms corresponded with a decrease of 0.7% in the short-term absenteeism. Conclusions A review of 23 studies suggests that a linkage exists between typical BRS and productivity indicators such as task or work performance or absence from work. Quantitative associations between BRS and productivity were demonstrated in two office environments. Quantitative associations between BRS and economic metrics enable cost-benefits analysis. Am. J. Ind. Med. 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Background music as noise abatement in open-plan offices: A laboratory study on performance effects and subjective preferencesAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2009Sabine J. Schlittmeier Continuous noise is played in many open-plan offices to partially mask ambient sounds, in particular background speech. With this, the detrimental impact of background sounds on cognitive performance is intended to be reduced as well as subjectively perceived disturbance. Our experiments explored whether background music can achieve the same effects. Besides collecting subjective rating data, we tested cognitive performance using verbal serial recall. This is the standard task for exploring verbal short-term memory, which is central to human information processing. Either staccato music, legato music or continuous noise was superimposed on office noise. In Experiment 1 (N,=,30), only continuous noise reduced the detrimental impact of office noise significantly. Legato music did not qualify in this respect although it did not diminish cognitive performance when presented in isolation in Experiment 2 (N,=,20). Subjective ratings in both experiments revealed that most participants would prefer legato music to continuous noise in office environments. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||