The aim of this study was to clarify the basic relationship between the physique of subjects who sat in an experimental seat and the effect of cushions installed on the seat. The experimental seat was vibrated perpendicularly so that the subject could experience the same vibrational conditions as he/she would experience when riding in a car on an actual road. The cushions were rectangular parallelepiped in shape, so that the effect of the shape but not the thickness could be neglected in considering the basic relationship. The two male subjects selected for these experiments had different physiques: one had a large physique, while the other was thin. As a result, it was suggested that the cushions would increase the differences in the dynamical characteristics due to vibration between thin and solid-built subjects. The thin subject tended to be more affected by changes in the properties of the backrest than the large person.
Decorated beams in Japanese temples and shrines were investigated to identify relationships between the structural properties and the decorative patterns carved on the beams. The karakusa patterns that had been carved traditionally by professional carvers on kouryo, or decorated beams, were investigated to elucidate the relationships between the patterns and the stress distributions under normal gravity conditions of the decorated beams. A professional carver of the karakusa patterns was also interviewed to find out if a carver might be subconsciously influenced by the stress distributions when carving. The tangential directions of the carved patterns tended to be coincident with the directions of the contours of the stress distribution in the beams, and the karakusa patterns might be indirectly-but strongly-affected by the stress distributions, which cannot be sensed visually by the carvers.
The relationship between the properties of flexible polyurethane foam composing seat cushions for standard cars and the riding discomfort evaluated by subjects who sat on the seat were investigated. The properties of five kinds of polyurethane foam were measured using the DMA to define dynamical properties. Riding discomfort was subjectively evaluated by 17 subjects at four frequencies, and the correlation coefficients between the material properties and riding discomfort were analyzed. The results suggested that there were two relationships between material properties and riding discomfort, and that these relationships strongly relied on frequency, Furthermore, a digital human model was created to confirm the influence of frequency on these relationships, which suggested that the relationships affected sensitivity by the change in the vibration mode of the human body-seat vibration system.
The term packaging has become popular in several fields. In this case we pretend to concentrate in packages as a meaning of wrapping. As we see the social changes that had occured during the 19th and 20th century, we can approach to a better understanding of the development of packages. The advances in technological and service aspects have been deeply related to social changes and particularly to wars. The evolution of the user has leaded to a user that require even more convenience as their lives have been twisted by the lack of time. Time-saving solutions become a strong pillar of society and with that, the search of solutions to provide a more comfortable life. One-portion packages are increasingly found in the market to accompany the change on the family unit and life-style.
The purpose of this paper is to propose design guidelines for environmentally conscious products based on patterns in environmentally conscious bebaviors. First, consumers' buying attitudes and environmentally conscious behaviors were investigated using a questionnaire about eight products. According to different buying attitudes, consumers were classified into several groups using Factor and Cluster Analysis. Subsequently, the effect of consumer buying attitudes on environmentally conscious behaviors for each group was quantified by using the Structural Equation Model. The results showed a significant causal relationship between buying behaviors and environmentally conscious behaviors. Guidelines for the design of environmentally conscious products were proposed based on the above results.
Relationship between vibration discomfort and inter-subject variability of human seated in car seat was investigated. Subjects of 7 male and 3 female from 5 countries with diverse weight distribution participated in the experiment. Transmissibility to head, chest, abdomen, thigh and shank were measured for each subject at different discrete frequencies and the corresponding ride comfort evaluation was conducted. Total of 14 discrete frequencies of sinusoidal waveform in 2 to 15 Hz range were studied. The results, for subject of lightweight, ride comfort was found affected by mainly transmissibility in fore-and-aft direction. Investigation on the effect of phase lag found that lightweight subjects were more sensitive to head-related phase lag while heavyweight subjects were comparatively sensitive to chestrelated phase lag. Despite the various variabilities in each individual, it had been ascertained that transmissibility to chest in up-and-down direction displayed a significant indifference between subjects in the experiment. The main features of this study were the examination on the inter-subjects variabilities with regards to ride comfort, and the finding that similarities can be observed within individual variabilities.
Clothing reflects the status of the wearer. From the historical point of view, the appearance of clothing is dealing a lot with the textiles. Exquisite rich textures or woven with gold and silver threads for royalty and the rich. The functional and long-lasting fabrics were for the working class. In the post-modern era, the traditional clothing had reformed aggressively in the Malay culture. The strong influence and adaptation from Western had given them a different kind of social documentation in dressing the traditional clothes. Presented here is the attire that has stood the test of time- Baju Kurung and Baju Kebaya. Lately, young and old females wear these typed of clothes as daily wear. These researches were aimed to identify the common typed of traditional clothes worn among the females during working. It is also to identify females view on clothes as pleasurable state or desire state. These researches were evaluated by using various analyses such as demographic analysis and SD methods in order to obtain the results. They are two categories of clothes being identified as Traditional Typed and Neo- Traditional Typed. It showed the glimpse of both clothes were run across social borders of Malaysian doing their everyday things. Results demonstrated that females were tied with performing cultural identity and the transformation of clothing values for their fashion trends.
For children under age four, the options among prosthetic knees are less than ideal as all of the knees are made of metals being too heavy and/or large for toddlers. This study aimed at verifying the applicability of fine ceramics in pediatric prosthetic knee joint. A basic design was constructed and modified by CAD application to obtain a polycentric configuration. Four different combinations of materials-alumina/UHMW-HDPE, alumina/PCTFE, zirconia/UHMW-HDPE, and zirconia/PCTFE-were tested using FEM analysis. Results showed points of stress concentration. Therefore, a shock-absorption part made of elastomer, filled with CMC solution, and with discreet particles of PCTFE on its outside for low friction was introduced in the design and tested using the alumina/PCTFE combination. Models without particles and without shock-absorption part were also tested for comparison. Results demonstrated that the design using alumina/PCTFE plus the elastomer part with particles was the most successful, having the lowest rate of variation of stress, average and maximum stress.