Method for Stress Detection in Industrial Assemblers Using Smartwatch Sensors

Skill acquisition in the manufacturing industry is a crucial aspect of optimising performance, efficiency, and safety in complex work environments. Human factors play a significant role in skill acquisition, encompassing factors such as cognitive processes, perception, decision-making, and physical interactions within the work environment. Eye tracking data has emerged as a valuable tool for studying skill acquisition (Toker et al., 2014) in the manufacturing industry, offering insights into workers' visual attention, cognitive strategies, and task performance. Currently, in manufacturing settings, skill acquisition involves the mastery of various tasks, from operating machinery and assembly line processes to quality control and troubleshooting. Effective skill acquisition is essential for ensuring consistent product quality, minimising errors, and maximizing productivity. Human factors, including attentional processes, perception, and decision-making, influence how workers acquire and apply new skills in these dynamic and often high-pressure environments (Mark et al., 2020).The aim of the current research is to understand the duration required to acquire skills through procedural learning and the transition to routine development occurs when leaned behaviour becomes habitual and routine. Furthermore, the research also aims to understand how mental and physical fatigue impact their performance with manual quality control tasks. The study aims to showcase preliminary results regarding human factors and performance variations. Participants completed an inspection task that involved an industrial component (monitor) for their serial number, visual and tactile quality under a control condition: control (no manipulation) measuring physical demand and stress levels during each monitor inspection. Physiological measures were captured using a Empatica E4 wristband (capturing electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate, skin temperature) and eye tracking was performed with Tobii Glasses 3, as well as subjective measures of performance via NASA TLX. The results from the physiological data show that the initial 10 minutes of the task showed a positive significant correlation between EDA and NASA Performance score (Spearman rho = .675, p =.016), the second set of 10 minutes positively correlated EDA and NASA TLX temporal demands (Spearman rho = .757, p =.004), while final 10 minutes showed a positive correlation between EDA and NASA TLX physical demand (Spearman rho = .639, p =.025). Such results indicate that skill acquisition over time goes through several stages – individual's anxiety of their performance, then concerns for timely performance, and finally experiencing physical impact – as well as that EDA is good indicator of changing workload demands.The current study will present the findings of the stress and physical discomfort levels, physiological data and preliminary eye tracking data whereby results found that for the initial inspection of the first two components participants move between the instructions for the inspection and the actual inspection, however, analysis of the third component and further components revealed that attention is mainly focused on the component inspection with little fixations towards the instructions. There was also an increase in the development of skill acquisition whereby by participants displayed a decrease in error count (from 1 to 0 over the inspection of 10 monitors), instruction analysis and increase in time of task completions as the average time reduced from 6 minutes 07 seconds for the first component to 1 minute 51 seconds for the last component. (The results from the eye tracking data reveal participants’ gaze patterns during the experiment highlighting the time spent on task comprehension and completion suggesting the skill was acquired during the experimental task. In summary, the current study demonstrates the development of skills through a variety of measures showing temporal progression, mental demand and the physicality of manual handling tasks is a complex process influenced by various human factors, including attention, fatigue, and tactile knowledge. By leveraging physiological data, eye tracking and stress levels the research provides scope into how human skill acquisition is progressive through various factors that can reduce overtime to upkeep and maintain the skills of workers perform in the manufacturing industry.

Constraints are common in soccer training to develop physical, technical-tactical, and mental training concurrently. This study examined how different scoring systems influence physical, tactical, and mental demands during large-sided games in soccer. Eighteen youth-elite male (17.39 ± 1.04 y) soccer players completed three 8 vs. 8 large-sided games where the different score systems were i) official score system (OSS; i.e., 1 goal = 1 goal), ii) double the value of the goal—4 min (DVx4; i.e., 1 goal = 1 goal from 0.00 to 7.59 min, and 1 goal = 2 goals from 8.00 to 12.00 min), and iii) double the value of the goal—8 min (DVx8; i.e., 1 goal = 1 goal from 0.00 to 3.59 min, and 1 goal = 2 goals from 4.00 to 12.00 min). Physical demands and tactical behaviors were recorded during tasks using a global positioning system and video camera. Mental fatigue was recorded pre- and post-task using a visual analogue scale. Also, the ratio of perceived exertion and mental load were recorded after tasks were finished. Results reported the highest values of mental and physical demands in DVx4. Mental fatigue increased during all three large-sided games, although this increase was significantly higher in DVx4 compared with OSS (p = 0.006) and DVx8 (p = 0.027). Tactical behavior showed a trend towards more direct play during DVx4, which was less observed during DVx8, and not at all during OSS. In conclusion, changing the scoring system affects physical, tactical, and mental demands.

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS The findings from the current study illustrate the adverse effects of concurrent physical and mental demands on shoulder muscle activation. Furthermore, the results also suggest that the effects of concurrent physical and mental demands are more pronounced during static, as opposed to dynamic, exertions. As such, it is important to consider the interaction of said work parameters (i.e., force levels, mental demands, and type of exertion) when evaluating/designing tasks. Occupational tasks requiring concurrent physical and mental work should be redesigned to reduce static loading (by changing postures or providing frequent breaks). With tasks requiring static exertions, other physical parameters (such as force) should be reduced to minimize interference due to additional cognitive processing. To conclude, concurrent physical and mental demands affect muscle activation and impede worker performance; ergonomists should consider this interaction during task design/redesign, evaluations of injury risk, and potential causal models of injury development. TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Static work is considered an occupational risk factor in the development of injuries, thus there is an emphasis on employing dynamic exertions to work tasks. With workers experiencing concurrent physical and mental demands in their daily jobs, it is unclear whether these exertion types affect overall task demands differentially. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare exertion-dependent physiological responses due to concurrent physical and mental workload during intermittent shoulder exertion. Methods: Twelve young participants, balanced by gender, performed intermittent static and dynamic shoulder abduction for 3 minutes at three levels of physical workload (low, moderate, and high) in the absence and presence of a mental arithmetic task. Study measures included muscle activity, muscle oxygenation, motor and mental arithmetic task performance, and subjective responses (NASA-Task Load Index and Borg CR10 Scale). Results: Static exertions and higher physical demands adversely affected physiological responses (i.e., muscle activity and oxygenation) and performance measures, and they were associated with higher levels of perceived exertion and workload. Additional mental demands negatively affected muscle activity, mental task performance, and subjective workload measures. However, these results were more pronounced during static exertions at high physical demand levels. Conclusions: Results indicated that certain job parameters (static exertions and high physical demands) are more susceptible to interference with mental demands than others (dynamic exertions and low demands). When assessing overall demands placed on workers during concurrent physical and mental work, it is important to consider the interaction of work parameters, specifically physical demand levels and exertion type, with mental demands.

Mixed Reality (MR) is proven in the literature to support precise spatial dental drill positioning by superimposing 3D widgets. Despite this, the related knowledge about widget's visual design and interactive user feedback is still limited. Therefore, this study is contributed to by co-designed MR drill tool positioning widgets with two expert dentists and three MR experts. The results of co-design are two static widgets (SWs): a simple entry point, a target axis, and two dynamic widgets (DWs), variants of dynamic error visualization with and without a target axis (DWTA and DWEP). We evaluated the co-designed widgets in a virtual reality simulation supported by a realistic setup with a tracked phantom patient, a virtual magnifying loupe, and a dentist's foot pedal. The user study involved 35 dentists with various backgrounds and years of experience. The findings demonstrated significant results; DWs outperform SWs in positional and rotational precision, especially with younger generations and subjects with gaming experiences. The user preference remains for DWs (19) instead of SWs (16). However, findings indicated that the precision positively correlates with the time trade-off. The post-experience questionnaire (NASA-TLX) showed that DWs increase mental and physical demand, effort, and frustration more than SWs. Comparisons between DWEP and DWTA show that the DW's complexity level influences time, physical and mental demands. The DWs are extensible to diverse medical and industrial scenarios that demand precision.

Background: The nursing profession has high physical and mental demands that can interfere with nurses' ability to maintain work-life balance (WLB), thus potentially increasing work stress. This study aims to analyze the relationship between WLB determinants and work stress levels in inpatient nurses at Prof. Dr. Soekandar Mojosari Regional General Hospital. Method: The study design used a cross-sectional approach with 84 respondents selected through purposive sampling. Instruments included the WIPL, PLIW, PLEW, and WEPL questionnaires, and work stress questionnaires. The analysis used the Spearman correlation test. Results: WIPL had a significant negative relationship with work stress (p = 0.000; r = –0.499), and PLIW also showed a significant negative relationship (p = 0.021; r = –0.235). WEPL had a strong and significant negative correlation (p = 0.000; r = –0.557), indicating that the more work supports personal life, the lower the nurses' stress levels. However, PLEW did not show a significant relationship (p = 0.246; r = –0.117). This condition indicates that personal life support, such as family comfort or social environment, is not enough to offset the high work pressure, so it does not have a direct impact on stress reduction. Conclusion: This study confirms that the imbalance between work demands and personal life is an important factor affecting work stress. Hospitals need to strengthen strategies to improve WLB through flexible scheduling, adequate rest time, and psychological support to reduce nurses' work stress.

<h3>Objective</h3> It is well documented that both work stress and work motivation are key determinants of job satisfaction. The aim of this study was to examine levels of work stress and motivation and their contribution to job satisfaction among community health workers in Heilongjiang Province, China. <h3>Design</h3> Cross-sectional survey. <h3>Setting</h3> Heilongjiang Province, China. <h3>Participants</h3> The participants were 930 community health workers from six cities in Heilongjiang Province. <h3>Primary and secondary outcome measures</h3> Multistage sampling procedures were used to measure socioeconomic and demographic status, work stress, work motivation and job satisfaction. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess key determinants of job satisfaction. <h3>Results</h3> There were significant differences in some subscales of work stress and work motivation by some of the socioeconomic characteristics. Levels of overall stress perception and scores on all five work stress subscales were higher in dissatisfied workers relative to satisfied workers. However, levels of overall motivation perception and scores on the career development, responsibility and recognition motivation subscales were higher in satisfied respondents relative to dissatisfied respondents. The main determinants of job satisfaction were occupation; age; title; income; the career development, and wages and benefits subscales of work stress; and the recognition, responsibility and financial subscales of work motivation. <h3>Conclusions</h3> The findings indicated considerable room for improvement in job satisfaction among community health workers in Heilongjiang Province in China. Healthcare managers and policymakers should take both work stress and motivation into consideration, as two subscales of work stress and one subscale of work motivation negatively influenced job satisfaction and two subscales of work motivation positively influenced job satisfaction.

Health care is one of the leading sectors of the national economy in Latvia, where employees according to the official statistics make up 6.7% of all employees in the country. In 2022. Today, physical load and stress at work are an integral part of everyday life in various professions. It places a heavy burden on workers` mental and physical abilities. Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD`s) are the most common causes of occupational diseases, injuries, and disabilities for various professions, including staff in the operating block. When cognitive demands increase and are not balanced with employees' abilities, employees' health suffers (Bakker &amp;#38; Demerouti, 2007; Johnson &amp;#38; Hall, 1988; Karasek, 1979). The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction of physical and mental strain for surgeons and nurses in operating theater.Methods and materials. The research was performed at one of the hospitals in Latvia. Altogether participated 8 operating surgeons (7 males, 1 female) and 10 surgery nurses (2 males, 8 females). Interaction of mental and physical load was determined using subjective and multidimensional assessment tool: The NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) (Hart, 2006). This method is a multidimensional rating system for assessment of general or total workload based on results of the six sub scales: mental demands, physical demands, temporary demands, task performance, effort and frustration. Psychosocial aspects were considered when assessing mental strain, including working hours, work content, work team interrelations.ResultsThe results of NASA-TLX analysis show that highest degree of total workload considering mental and physical load interaction was identified for physicians  surgeons (75 points). Surgeons have a very high responsibility on the executable work, and they have been involved in responsible decision making, for example, saving the patient's life. Physical demands of the surgeons are mainly based in connection with postural load (prolonged standing on legs, forced working postures) and repetitive hand-arm movements. As work of surgery nurses is characterized with prolonged standing on legs and compulsive posture, load on upper limbs, the NASA-TLX analysis shows that physical load of surgery nurses is evaluated up to 78 points, but temporal load indicator for surgery nurses resulted in 83 points (highest degree), work performance conforms to 80 points, which indicates a high level of responsibility. Conclusion The interaction of a mental and physical load using NASA-TLX method allowed to estimate the total workload and compare the significance in percent (or weight scores) of different demands (stress at work, an effort, frustration, quality of performance, a.o.). The physical workload is higher for surgery nurses than for operating surgeons, as according to the NASA-TLX analysis psycho-emotional workload (responsibility for the patient's life, time pressure, decision making) is higher than physical workload for operating surgeons. Physical workload (frequent arm movements, standing, lifting and carrying) for surgery nurses significantly influences their total workload.Acknowledgment: This research has been supported by the project “Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders and Psychosocial Risks for Operating Room Health Care Staff”, Agreement No. LU-BA-PA-2024/1-0044, UL registration No. ESS2024/465.

The goal of modern organizational psychology is to recognize, anticipate and finally avoid stress situations. The aim of this study was to measure objectively the mental and physical demands during transnasal surgery with and without the aid of a navigation system. Forty endonasal surgeries (20 with and 20 without navigation, not blinded and not randomized) done by four different experienced rhinosurgeons (>250 FESS procedures done) were included. The heart rate, the heart rate variability, the respiratory frequency and the masseter tone were monitored as biometrical parameters by the surgeons during the whole surgery for the quantification of mental demand. Stress situations could be identified during the procedures by an increase in the heart rate and a decrease in the heart rate variability. Stress level in procedures with navigation did not significantly differ from procedures without navigation. Interestingly, in 10 % of the cases a navigation system would have been helpful, although the surgeon stated before the procedure that such a system would not be necessary. Other stressors could be identified like time pressure, students or colleagues speaking with the surgeon or chatting in the OR and system failure of medical devices, i.e. navigation, sinus drill, electrocautery or shaver. Surgical stressors blurred vision due to diffuse bleeding and drill out procedures in the sphenoid sinus. Calming situations were a quiet atmosphere in the OR (i.e. closed doors) and the participation of another experienced colleague, especially a neurosurgeon. Stress situations occur when complex medical devices like the navigation do not work. For their proper function it is important that the whole OR-team is trained with it. Unqualified or unmotivated OR personnel create stress for the surgeon and disharmony in the team, which then ends in inadequate behaviour.

A descriptive study of the multidisciplinary healthcare experiences of inpatient resuscitation events

Pediatric dental stress is a common barrier to effective treatment, often resulting in behavioral management challenges and long-term avoidance of dental care. Wearable technology, such as smart watches capable of measuring heart rate variability (HRV), may offer real-time, noninvasive tools to assess stress in clinical settings. This study aimed to evaluate physiological stress responses in children undergoing different dental procedures by analyzing HRV across treatment phases.Eighty children aged 5 to 10 years (mean age = 7.2 ± 1.6 years) were randomly assigned to four treatment groups: dental hygiene, dental restorations with anesthesia, restorations without anesthesia, and sealant application. Stress levels were measured using Garmin smart watches that analyze HRV and convert the data into a stress score from 0 to 100. Stress was recorded at three time points-beginning, during, and end of the procedure-for a total of nine measurements per patient. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to evaluate the effects of treatment type and phase, along with post hoc tests and linear regression to assess age-related stress variation.While the type of treatment alone did not significantly influence stress levels, stress varied significantly across treatment phases (p = 0.0249), with a strong interaction between treatment and phase (p = 0.0004). Post hoc analyses revealed that dental hygiene led to a significant reduction in stress over time (p < 0.05), whereas restorations with anesthesia caused a significant increase in stress during the procedure (p = 0.0011). No significant changes were observed for restorations without anesthesia and sealant application. Age was inversely correlated with stress (p = 0.0003), although it explained only a small proportion of variance (R 2 = 0.0527).The study confirms that pediatric dental stress is influenced by both the procedure type and the treatment phase. Smart watches represent a practical tool for monitoring stress in real time. These findings highlight the importance of tailoring behavior management strategies to the procedure and the patient's age, promoting individualized and stress-reducing approaches in pediatric dental care. From a clinical perspective, wearable stress monitoring can assist pediatric dentists in real-time identification of anxiety peaks, allowing timely behavioral adjustments and potentially improving treatment outcomes and patient cooperation.

Fitness Wearables

The quest to identify factors responsible for efficient and effective organisation behaviour has led to the growth of a body of literature known as leadership research, and a recurring theme of interest include that of leadership attributes. This study aims to make a contribution to this area of work by providing a profile on the cognitive disposition of "cognitive complexity" of a group of pre-service recreation managers. Garder (1986) made the distinction between "leader managers" and "routine managers" by asserting that the former possess qualities which allow them to exhibit what Bass (1985) calls "Transformational Leadership". For some years, leadership research has been trying to produce explanatory accounts for efficient and effective leadership behaviours and it appears that a more recent theory of its kind is the transformational leadership theory proposed by Bass (1985). Hater and Bass (1988) suggested that transformational leaders should exhibit superior performance ability in making judgement, decisions, and analysis. Kotter (1990) further added that the ability to "gather a broad range of data and look for patterns, relationships, and linkages that help explain things" (p. 104) is one important but basic element for becoming an exceptional leader. Given that these are the behavioural outcomes of "manager leaders", a question of interest would be to identify the cognitive dispositions responsible for these overt behaviours. Cognitive complexity, a cognitive disposition, has been defined as a person's "capacity to construe social behaviour in a multidimensional way" (Bieri, Atkins, Briar, Leaman, Miller, &amp; Tripodi, 1975, p. 185). This suggests that level of cognitive complexity may have a bearing on a person's ability to process multidimensional information such that a cognitively more complex person may have a more differentiated perception of a person, object, or situation than a cognitively less complex person. Within these premises, it could be argued that level of cognitive complexity, acting as a mediator in the input-output process of cognitive functions, may also influence an individual's cognitive outcomes. In fact, this contention finds support in previous studies such as those by Tripodi and Bieri (1964), Hale (1980) and Kishor (1990) which had identified a positive relationship between level of cognitive complexity and superior cognitive outcomes. In a more recent study, Spengler and Strohmer (1994) compared high and low scorers of a cognitive complexity test and found that individuals with lower cognitive complexity scores were more likely to form biased judgements. Given the influence of cognitive complexity in making judgements and appraisals and the administrative challenges faced by today's recreation managers, the need to preview the status of this cognitive disposition among future recreation leaders is tempting. For a practical and application viewpoint, information from this study might provide some insight into impending programme needs and directions for future foci. (Abstract taken from Introduction)

With advancements in surgical equipment and procedures, human-system interactions in operating rooms affect surgeon workload and performance. Workload was measured across surgical specialties using surveys to identify potential predictors of high workload for future performance improvement. Surgical instrumentation and technique advancements have implications for surgeon workload and human-systems interactions. To understand and improve the interaction of components in the work system, NASA-Task Load Index can measure workload across various fields. Baseline workload measurements provide a broad overview of the field and identify areas most in need of improvement. Surgeons were administered a modified NASA-Task Load Index survey (0 = low, 20 = high) following each procedure. Patient and procedural factors were retrieved retrospectively. Thirty-four surgeons (41% female) completed 662 surgery surveys (M = 14.85, SD = 7.94), of which 506 (76%) have associated patient and procedural data. Mental demand (M = 7.7, SD = 5.56), physical demand (M = 7.0, SD = 5.66), and effort (M = 7.8, SD = 5.77) were the highest rated workload subscales. Surgeons reported difficulty levels higher than expected for 22% of procedures, during which workload was significantly higher (P < 0.05) and procedural durations were significantly longer (P > 0.001). Surgeons reported poorer perceived performance during cases with unexpectedly high difficulty (P < 0.001). When procedural difficulty is greater than expected, there are negative implications for mental and physical demand that result in poorer perceived performance. Investigations are underway to identify patient and surgical variables associated with unexpected difficulty and high workload. Future efforts will focus on re-engineering the surgical planning process and procedural environment to optimize workload and performance for improved surgical care.

The context-aware service system (CASS) for smart home services has received considerable attention due to advances made in context-awareness technologies. In recent years, various context-aware consumer electronics for intelligent and personalized user-centric services have been introduced. However, the conventional CASS has architectural limitations, including low availability, low interoperability, and low scalability. For example, it is difficult to modify or update the context-aware service (CAS) infrastructure once it has been built. Therefore, this paper proposes a zone-aware service system (ZASS) for cost-effective pervasive infrastructure. The main component of the ZASS is a zone-aware service agent (ZASA) which utilizes the user’s nomadic resource as a sensor or gateway. The term ‘user’s nomadic resource’ refers to the user’s hand-held device, which has a sensing or networking capability, such as a smartphone, smart watch, and mobile sensor, etc. As the utilization of the user’s nomadic resource, the ZASS can be cost-effectively implemented compared with the conventional CASS. The performance of the proposed system is discussed via a simple smart home service scenario. The experimental result showed that the proposed system can reduce the power consumption of an air conditioner by 20.7%.

Final year undergraduates in Sri Lanka are more likely to experience high levels of stress due to the high competition in the education system. Living with high levels of stress has the possibility of putting a person’s entire well-being at a great risk. Today more and more students are suffering from various levels of stress. Too much stress will bring a variety of physical and psychological problems including anxiety, depression and even suicide to growing youths. Traditional face-to-face stress detection and relief methods do not work, confronted with undergraduates who are reluctant to express their negative emotions to the people in real life. In this paper, the authors present undergraduates-oriented intelligent chatting system which aims to act as a virtual friend to listen, understand, comfort, encourage, and guide stressful undergraduates to pour out their bad feelings and thus release the stress by suggesting stress coping mechanisms to follow and to be guided. Our user study demonstrates that this system is effective on sensing and coping with undergraduates stress.