Publication statistics
Pub. period:1992-2012
Pub. count:8
Number of co-authors:21
Co-authors
Number of publications with 3 favourite co-authors:
William S. Marras:7W. Gary Allread:3Gang Yang:3 Productive colleagues
Sue A. Ferguson's 3 most productive colleagues in number of publications:
William S. Marras:34Steven A. Lavender:17Mark S. Redfern:10
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-- Alfred North Whitehead
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Sue A. Ferguson
Publications by Sue A. Ferguson (bibliography)
Maikala, Rammohan V., Mehta, Ranjana K., Ferguson, Sue A., Parasuraman, R., Redfern, Mark S. and Chambers, April J. (2012): Application of Near-infrared Spectroscopy in Ergonomics and Human Factors: A Discussion Panel. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2012 Annual Meeting 2012. pp. 1155-1157.
“This panel presents near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) theory and its principles, and applicability of NIRS on a variety of muscle and cerebral regions during activities that demand considerable physical and mental effort. Five presentations will cover: (1) theoretical basis of NIRS; (2) NIRS-derived hemodynamic measurements in shoulder muscles during repetitive tasks; (3) development of NIRS for use in evaluating long term standing fatigue; (4) monitoring training-related changes in prefrontal cortex activation with functional NIRS; and (5) simultaneous evaluation of physical and mental work.”
© All rights reserved Maikala et al. and/or Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Ferguson, Sue A., Splittstoesser, Riley E. and Marras, William S. (2011): Differences between Physicians in Lumbar MRI Measures. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 55th Annual Meeting 2011. pp. 733-737.
“The purpose of this study was to quantify inter-rater reliability when measuring spinal structure dimensions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. A new open MRI machine was available that allowed patients be recumbent, sitting or standing during an MRI of the spine. A total of 39 low back pain patients were scanned for the study. Patients were scanned in seven postures including recumbent, sitting neutral, flexed, extended, standing neutral, flexed, and extended. Two medical professionals trained in neurosurgery were asked to make measurements on the lumbar spine scans. The scans included 22 axial slices and 14 sagittal view slices. At best the two physicians chose the same slice to evaluate on the MRI in 27 of 39 cases (69%). This study illustrates the differences between physicians when evaluating lumbar spine MRI as well as the subjective nature of medical decision making.”
© All rights reserved Ferguson et al. and/or HFES
Ferguson, Sue A., Allread, W. Gary, Le, Peter, Rose, Joseph D. and Marras, William S. (2011): Shoulder Muscle Oxygenation during Repetitive Tasks. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 55th Annual Meeting 2011. pp. 1039-1041.
“The purpose of this study was to quantify shoulder muscle oxygenation during repetitive shoulder exertions that were similar to motions found in automobile assembly tasks. Ten subjects participated in the study. There were three independent variables: 1) shoulder flexion angle; 2) frequency; and 3) force. The dependent measure was percentage change in muscle oxygenation for the anterior deltoid and trapezius. The results showed significant muscle oxygenation decreases for each of the main effects (shoulder flexion angle, frequency and force). The interaction of force and repetition was significant for the anterior deltoid, indicating that, as repetition increased the magnitude of the differences between the force levels increased. The interaction of repetition and shoulder angle was also significant. The results of this research illustrate that ergonomists need to consider the interaction of injury risk factors that may trigger musculoskeletal disorders of the shoulder.”
© All rights reserved Ferguson et al. and/or HFES
Ferguson, Sue A., Marras, William S., Allread, W. Gary, Knapik, Gregory G., Vandlen, Kimberly A., Splittstoesser, Riley and Yang, Gang (2009): Musculoskeletal Disorder Risk Associated with Auto Rotation Angle during an Assembly Task. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 53rd Annual Meeting 2009. pp. 874-878.
“The purpose of this study was to quantify how musculoskeletal disorder exposure risk changes in an auto assembly task as a function of car body rotation. Twelve subjects participated in the study. There were three car body angles including 1) zero or standard, 2) forty-five degrees and 3) ninety degrees from horizontal. Musculoskeletal exposure included spine loads, spine posture, shoulder posture, neck posture and wrist posture, as well as normalized electromyography of the shoulder and neck. The results showed that musculoskeletal disorder exposure risk decreased as the car was rotated to forty-five degrees and further decreased as the car was rotated to ninety degrees. Thus, rotating the car body reduces musculoskeletal exposure which in turn may reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. It should be noted that the results may vary with other assembly tasks.”
© All rights reserved Ferguson et al. and/or their publisher
Marras, William S., Lavender, Steven A., Ferguson, Sue A., Splittstoesser, Riley E. and Yang, Gang (2009): Dynamic Load Moment Exposure and Spine Function Impairment. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 53rd Annual Meeting 2009. pp. 879-881.
“A prospective study was performed in distribution center environments in order to determine which physical exposure measures related to a reduction in low back function. Workers in 50 distribution jobs employed in 21 distribution centers were monitored over at least a 6 month period for changes in spine function. Job exposures were monitored with a sonic-based exposure tracking system (laboratory in a backpack) that captured 197 physical exposure metrics per lift. Based upon the database containing over 60,000 lifts, a multivariate model was developed capable of predicting jobs characteristics associated with a decrement in spine function over time. The sensitivity and specificity of the”
© All rights reserved Marras et al. and/or their publisher
Lavender, Steven A., Marras, William S., Ferguson, Sue A., Splittstoesser, Riley E., Yang, Gang and Schabo, Pete (2009): Identifying Safe Load Moment Exposures for the Back. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 53rd Annual Meeting 2009. p. 883.
“Low back disorders continue to be the most common and significant work-related musculoskeletal disorders in the US. Identifying what constitutes a "safe" physical workload has been the biggest challenge facing injury prevention efforts. Prior low back injury risk models have focused on manufacturing activities where there is limited variability in the parameters used to describe the exposures to low back disorder risk factors. Lifting tasks in distribution centers can have considerably more variability in load and physical layout. The goal of this project was to identify and quantify measures that characterize the biomechanical risk factors, including measures of the load moment exposure, and measures that characterize the duty cycle that are predictive of low back disorders in distribution centers. Thus, our hypothesis was that we could define a relationship between moment exposure parameters and the low back disorder incidence rates. A cross-sectional study was designed to examine the mechanical risk factors responsible for reported low back injury in distributions centers. The physical exposure was measured on 195 workers on 50 jobs in 21 distribution centers using a sonic-based Moment Exposure Tracking System (METS). The METS measures load, force, load moment, torso kinematics, and temporal parameters of the job simultaneously. For each job, low back injury rates were collected retrospectively from the company's records over the prior 3-year period. The data were used to develop a risk model designed to predict back injury risk based upon direct measures of load and load moment exposure. The model incorporates biomechanical variables which include the load moment and horizontal sliding forces, as well as a temporal variable indicating the opportunity for micro-breaks during the work process. Overall, the”
© All rights reserved Lavender et al. and/or their publisher
Ferguson, Sue A., Fathallah, Fadi A., Granata, Kevin P., Kim, Jung Y. and Marras, William S. (1993): Coactivity Effects upon Carpal Tunnel Contact Forces. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 37th Annual Meeting 1993. pp. 705-709.
“Contact force on the carpal tunnel structures due to flexor tendon forces have been identified as an important contributor to the compression of the median nerve. Therefore, a pilot study was conducted to assess the increase ln carpal contact force due to the antagonistic coactivity of the finger extensor muscles. Surface EMG activities of the superficial finger flexor and extensor muscles of four subjects were measured during several isometric power grip exertions at seven different wrist angles. The results showed that a linear relation between EMG and muscle force holds under the prescribed isometric conditions. An EMG-assisted model was developed to predict tensile forces in an equivalent flexor tendon. For a given angle, the model predicts increased tensile force in the flexor tendon with increased extensor (antagonist) coactivity in response to isometric grip exertions. It was found that if one accounts for muscle coactivity, predisted force in the flexor tendons would be as much as 33% greater than force predicted by models which neglect coactivity. This increase would also be observed in carpal contact force since this force is linearly related to the flexor tendon force. Models that neglect coactivity severely underestimate flexor tendon forces and consequently contact forces in the carpal tunnel.”
© All rights reserved Ferguson et al. and/or Human Factors Society
Marras, William S., Lavender, Steven A., Leurgans, Sue E., Rajulu, Sudhakar L., Allread, W. Gary, Fathallah, Fadi A. and Ferguson, Sue A. (1992): Industrial Quantification of Occupationally-Related Low Back Disorder Risk Factors. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 36th Annual Meeting 1992. pp. 757-760.
“Few assessment techniques have attempted to define the role of occupational trunk motion in the risk of occupationally-related low back disorder (LBD) even though laboratory studles have indicated that motion significantly increases spine loading. An in-vivo study was performed to assess the contribution of three-dimensional dynamic trunk motions to the risk of LBD during occupational lifting in industry. Over 400 industrial lifting jobs were studied in 48 industries. Specific manual materials handling jobs historically identify as either high risk or low risk for LBD were identified. A tri-axial electrogoniometer was worn by workers and documented the three-dimensional trunk motion characteristics associated with these high risk or low risk jobs. Workplace characteristics such as load moment arm, load weight, etc. were also documented for each of the repetitive lifting tasks. A multiple logistic regression model indicated that a combination of five trunk motion and workplace factors (lifting frequency, load moment, trunk lateral velocity, trunk twisting velocity, and trunk sagittal angle) predicted occupational-related LBD risk well. The analyses have enabled us to determine the LBD risk associated with combined changes in the magnitudes of the five factors. This model could be used as a quantitative, objective measure to redesign the workplace so that the risk of occupationally-related LBD is minimized.”
© All rights reserved Marras et al. and/or Human Factors Society
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