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Carpal tunnel is a term that strikes fear into everyone that uses a computer, and we all know how much computers are used in laboratories and research in general. Everything from data entry to notation and protocol documentation to grant, article, and proposal writing is digital today. But repetitive motion and associated musculoskeltal disorders (MSD) are not limited to computer users.1 In this article, we will discuss the technical aspects of repetition/duration and force as it applies to ergonomic risk in lab and office settings. And we will offer solutions to get you through the days and weeks pain-free.

The definition of repetition is doing things over and over again. In repetitive work, the same motions are performed using the same parts of the body in the same way, time and time again. In activities such as typing, mousing, or entering data by referencing paper source documents, the affected muscles, tendons, and joints can be used thousands of times a day, week after week, year after year. The risk of injury is even greater when repetitious jobs involve awkward posture (e.g. bent or flexed wrists) or forceful exertions such as repetitive overreaching for the mouse (which can lead to shoulder and neck pain).

Our goal from an ergonomic standpoint is to, first and foremost, strive for neutral and balanced actions. Additionally, reducing the number of repetitions experienced by each set of muscles, tendons, and joints throughout the workday and allowing time for recovery is paramount. The body has great capacity to repair itself. Problems arise, however, when the amount of damage or stress accumulated over the course of time overtakes the bodys ability to repair. This is when we experience pain. If the cumulative damage continues without allowing time to recover and heal, there is the potential for serious injury.

In order to introduce healing time, short breaks in repetitive tasks bring significant benefit. Break up data entry with variations in activity such as filing, reading, using the copier, or any other task that uses different muscles and motions than computer use. It is also good to include micro-breaks of just a minute or two every half hour or so during long data entry periods. Research has shown it is often better to take many small breaks than one long work break during the day. Try using software that tracks keystrokes and mouse movement and alerts you when breaks are appropriate.

It is critical to examine and analyze the work being performed. Examine the job on a task-by-task basis. In many cases we have seen unnecessary repetitive work performed due to poor process design or evolution over time. When evaluating, ask yourself can parts of this process be automated? Can equipment be linked directly for data collection? Can steps be eliminated or modified to improve flow or actions? Investigate use of barcodes and readers to reduce data entry or entry readable/scanable forms or other types of information collection. It is always worth investing time to engineer a solution that will save significant time and effort in the long run.

Pain is often reported from mousing and usually attributed to over-use, and is often combined with poor mouse location. The conventional mouse requires a great amount of work tobe directed through one arm, shoulder, and hand. It is a good idea to try to distribute this work and share it between both sides. One approach is the use of keyboard commands. Most operating systems contain keyboard commands or shortcuts for common tasks. Taking the time to explore and use these can greatly reduce mouse use, and once you get familiar with them will actually speed up your work.

Related Infographic:Ergonomic Safety

Another remedy is to try one of the many alternative or ergonomic mice now offered. Some allow one to use both hands for mousing, sharing work between hands. Software programs allow you to automate common tasks (e.g. autofill) and develop scripts called macros to perform, reduce, or eliminate many actions. Their use can significantly decrease the amount of typing you need to do.

Force is the amount of muscular effort needed to perform work. Fatigue and injury track with the amount of force exerted. The more force required, the higher the risk of both.

Exertion force depends on many factors, including:

Goal number one is to always have a neutral and balanced posture. Goal two is to reduce the number of repetitions or duration of exertion experienced by each set of muscles, tendons, and joints throughout the workday. Number three is to reduce the force applied to perform the task. OSHA provides excellent help through their eTool on ergonomics.2 Strive to recognize and reduce all the risk factors both on and off the job to effectively reduce the potential for repetitive motion pain and injury.

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Ergonomics in the Lab - Lab Manager Magazine

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Global and Taiwanese Software Service Industry Year Book 2019" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global information services market value grew from US$877.5 billion in 2017 to US$113.9 billion in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.6%.

Thanks to the development of the IoT applications, the demand for various sensing devices and middleware of intelligent networks also heat up, and the growth continued to expand in scale. Therefore, global software market value grew from US$66.1 billion in 2017 to US$899.1 billion in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.9%.

This report provides an overview of the global IT software service market in the areas of system integration, data processing, information software, cloud service, and information security; a look into highlighted topics in AI, information security, and financial technology; examines the future outlook of the IT software service and market.

Key Topics Covered

1. Development of Global IT Software Service Market

1.1 System Integration

1.2 Data Processing

1.3 Information Software

1.4 Cloud Service

1.5 Information Security

2. Development of the Taiwanese IT Software Service Market

2.1 System Integration

2.2 Data Processing

2.3 Information Software

2.4 Cloud Service

2.5 Information Security

3. Highlighted Topics

3.1 Artificial intelligence

3.2 Information Security

3.3 Financial technology

4. Future Outlook

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4z13qp

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Global and Taiwanese Software Service Industry Year Book 2019 - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business Wire

Updated: 01 Dec 2019, 11:36 AM IST

Such apps support or replace natural speech in children with autism, and other developmental disorders, with the use of images, icons and symbols, stored category-wise in folders, as visual cues. These are early intervention apps and their content can be customised to individual needs.

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Sivaa has also become very attached to the app. The American voice of a young boy on the app has become his own voice and he is possessive about it. Once in school, his teacher used a classmates voice on the app and he threw away his iPad. To him it felt like giving his voice away to somebody else, Preetha says. She is discovering new things about her son, now that he has finally found his voice.

iStock

Hearing how words are pronounced by the app, Prateek is learning to speak new words. For example, when he wants to watch the Baby Shark video, he makes a do-dodo-do sound, like the refrain in the song. Making even simple sounds, or saying just the first syllable of a word is progress, says Disha, who lives in Hyderabad.

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We need to keep in mind that these resources are like a support system and need to be complemented by other ways of communication and interaction, says Uma Krishnan, a clinical psychologist who works with children with autism.

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He has used Proloquo2go, Bol and Avaz, but his mother Kalpana says they had the best results with Proloquo2go. It has a big display and is visually rich. Vidur learnt to say many things using it. Earlier, we used to use sign language and picture cards. But they are not enough and cant be carried everywhere. For example, now I can take my son to a restaurant and he can order what he wants to eat using his app. It can also be customised for better understanding of the language. For example, verbs can be in one colour and nouns in a different one, says Kalpana who is based in Delhi.

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Apps that are giving a voice to autistic kids - Making a difference - Economic Times

DOTA Underlords has just received a massive update that introduces the much faster-paced game mode Knockout to the Auto Chess-like strategy game.

Knockout gives you a crew of heroes automatically but only gives you four lives rather than the usual health bar. Four strikes and youre out.

Theres also a brand new character, Snapfire, which features the Ol Scatterblast weapon and Mortimer Kisses Dragon Ability.

Spirit is a brand new alliance that allows three spirits to enter a charged state when theyre together, allowing them to perform the Delta Slam technique.

The alliance also introduces four new characters, including the Void Spirit, Storm Spirit, Earth Spirit, and Ember Spirit. Only the Void Spirit is available right now though.

So head on over to Google Play right now to check out the latest update for DOTA Underlords.

More here:
DOTA Underlords Gets the Massive Outlanders Update, Featuring the Fast-paced Knockout Game Mode - DroidGamers

Former President Barack Obama recently made comments that have been interpreted as a warning that Democrats must not veer too far to the left for instance, by supporting presidential candidates like Senators Bernie Sander or Elizabeth Warren in 2020.

Specifically, Obama said that his party must recognize that the average American doesnt think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.

Considering that he headlined a recent Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiseron Nov. 21 in Silicon Valley, where ticket prices ranged from $10,000 to $355,000, one has to wonder just how many average Americans the former President crosses paths with.

In trying to tip the party towards moderation, Obama said Democrats ultimate goal is to defeat a president and a party that hastaken a sharp turn away from a lot of the core traditions and values and institutional commitments that built this country.

The problem with that analysis is that it fails to appreciate how that established order the one that former President Obama is so nostalgic for made Donald Trump possible. Under Obamas leadership and both Bushes, and Clintons, and Reagans the elites became disconnected from the circumstances of the vast majority of a country that was, and still is, in decline.

Obama also fails to account for the convergence of several troubling socio-economic and ecological trend lines that have grown even more problematic since he left the White House.

President Obamas decision to bail out Wall Street at the expense of the poor- and working-class had generational consequences. The destruction of trillions of dollars in family wealth accumulated over decades coincided with an ever-accelerating concentration of wealththat has only worsened under Trump.

Hence, some of the Rust Belt states that voted for President Obama twice flipped for Donald Trump. Likewise, Recession-era foreclosures resulted in a catastrophic loss of African American household wealth, meaning hundreds of thousands of Obama voters sat out 2016.

In a bitter irony, the historic victory of the first African American president to win the White House coincided with hundreds of thousands of African Americans losing theirs.

To this day, foreclosure continues to wreak havoc on families, particularly in communities of color like Newark, New Jersey, where activist Fredrica Bey has been working for years to get a foreclosure moratorium and hold banks like Wells Fargo accountable.

President Obama, whom I voted for twice, did more damage bailing out the banks and leaving us in the lurch, damage that will most likely hold for decades unless we elect someone like Elizabeth [Warren] or Bernie [Sanders], she told Salon over email.Thank God they are both in the top five, if not the top four.

She continued: Elizabeth Warren, [recently deceased Rep.] Elijah Cummings (God bless him), and [Rep.] Maxine Waters [D.-Calif.] are the only ones in the last two administrations that have done everything in their power to give much needed assistance and hold banks accountable.

Since the 1970s, American wage earners have been losing ground regardless of which party was in control. In place of gains in earnings, we were given access to ever-increasing levels of household debt.

Our citizens are shackled by $1.5 trillion in student debt, most of it held by the youngest two generations. The life experience of these young people is bookended by 9/11 and the Great Recession.

The level of wealth inequality has so stratified American society that no less an establishment figure than Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, warns that it is the nations most pressing economic challenge.

Hardly a Marxist, Powell has said that the United States is no longer the worlds leader in upward mobility providing the opportunity for those in poverty to raise themselves up into a better circumstance for themselves and their families. Thats certainly true statistically: studies have found that a number of nations, including Britain, France, Sweden, and even Italy,score far higher on indices of social mobility.

From our declining life expectancy to the spike in youth and teen suicides, weve been a nation on gradual decline badly in need of some kind of unifying social cohesion that might help us face big challenges.

Despite spending more on health care than any other country,the United States has seen increasing mortality and falling life expectancy for people age 25 to 64, who should be in the prime of their lives, reported the Washington Post. In contrast, other wealthy nations have generally experienced continued progress in extending longevity.

The planet is in full blown ecological crisis; prophetically, there is intense competition for firefighting planes that can dump water on wildfires.

Sorry to report, Mr. Obama, but 2020 just cant be another down-the-middle fence straddle. Politics as usual is how we got here.

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Obama pines for the political era that created Trump in the first place - Salon