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Flor-Unda O, Casa B, Fuentes M, Solorzano S, Narvaez-Espinoza F, Acosta-Vargas P. Exoskeletons: Contribution to Occupational Health and Safety. Bioengineering (Basel) 2023; 10:1039. [PMID: 37760141 PMCID: PMC10647659 DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering10091039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2023] [Revised: 08/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
This review aims to characterize the current landscape of exoskeletons designed to promote medical care and occupational safety in industrial settings. Extensive exploration of scientific databases spanning industries, health, and medicine informs the classification of exoskeletons according to their distinctive attributes and specific footholds on the human physique. Within the scope of this review, a comprehensive analysis is presented, contextualizing the integration of exoskeletons based on different work activities. The reviewers extracted the most relevant articles published between 2008 and 2023 from IEEE, Proquest, PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, and other databases. In this review, the PRISMA-ScR checklist was used, and a Cohen's kappa coefficient of 0.642 was applied, implying moderate agreement among the reviewers; 75 primary studies were extracted from a total of 344. The future of exoskeletons in contributing to occupational health and safety will depend on continued collaboration between researchers, designers, healthcare professionals, and industries. With the continued development of technologies and an increasing understanding of how these devices interact with the human body, exoskeletons will likely remain valuable for improving working conditions and safety in various work environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Omar Flor-Unda
- Ingeniería Industrial, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador;
| | - Bregith Casa
- Ingeniería en Diseño Industrial, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito 170125, Ecuador; (B.C.); (M.F.)
| | - Mauricio Fuentes
- Ingeniería en Diseño Industrial, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito 170125, Ecuador; (B.C.); (M.F.)
| | - Santiago Solorzano
- Unidad de Innovación Tecnológica, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador;
| | | | - Patricia Acosta-Vargas
- Ingeniería Industrial, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador;
- Intelligent and Interactive Systems Laboratory, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
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Acosta-Vargas P, Flor O, Salvador-Acosta B, Suárez-Carreño F, Santórum M, Solorzano S, Salvador-Ullauri L. Inertial Sensors for Hip Arthroplasty Rehabilitation: A Scoping Review. Sensors (Basel) 2023; 23:s23115048. [PMID: 37299775 DOI: 10.3390/s23115048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 04/08/2023] [Accepted: 05/23/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The objective of this scoping review is to characterize the current panorama of inertia sensors for the rehabilitation of hip arthroplasty. In this context, the most widely used sensors are IMUs, which combine accelerometers and gyroscopes to measure acceleration and angular velocity in three axes. We found that data collected by the IMU sensors are used to analyze and detect any deviation from the normal to measure the position and movement of the hip joint. The main functions of inertial sensors are to measure various aspects of training, such as speed, acceleration, and body orientation. The reviewers extracted the most relevant articles published between 2010 and 2023 in the ACM Digital Library, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science. In this scoping review, the PRISMA-ScR checklist was used, and a Cohen's kappa coefficient of 0.4866 was applied, implying moderate agreement between reviewers; 23 primary studies were extracted from a total of 681. In the future, it will be an excellent challenge for experts in inertial sensors with medical applications to provide access codes for other researchers, which will be one of the most critical trends in the advancement of applications of portable inertial sensors for biomechanics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia Acosta-Vargas
- Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
- Intelligent and Interactive Systems Laboratory, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
- Facultad de Tecnologías de Información, Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, San José 11501, Costa Rica
| | - Omar Flor
- Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
| | - Belén Salvador-Acosta
- Intelligent and Interactive Systems Laboratory, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
- Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
| | | | - Marco Santórum
- Departamento de Informática y Ciencias de la Computación, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito 170525, Ecuador
| | - Santiago Solorzano
- Intelligent and Interactive Systems Laboratory, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
| | - Luis Salvador-Ullauri
- Department of Software and Computing Systems, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
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Acosta-Vargas P, Novillo-Villegas S, Salvador-Acosta B, Calvopina M, Kyriakidis N, Ortiz-Prado E, Salvador-Ullauri L. Accessibility Analysis of Worldwide COVID-19-Related Information Portals. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022; 19:ijerph191912102. [PMID: 36231402 PMCID: PMC9566462 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191912102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Revised: 09/20/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, communication technology has demonstrated its usefulness in sharing and receiving health data and communicating with the public. This study evaluated the accessibility of 199 websites containing official COVID-19 information related to medical schools, governments, ministries, and medical associations, obtained from the Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research website. We used the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 to evaluate web accessibility, using a six-phase process with an automatic review tool. The study results reveal that the highest number of barriers encountered are concentrated in the perceivable principle with 6388 errors (77.8%), followed by operability with 1457 (17.7%), then robustness with 291 (3.5%), and finally understandability with 78 errors (0.9%). This study concludes that most COVID-19-related websites that provide information on the context of the pandemic do not have an adequate level of accessibility. This study can contribute as a guide for designing inclusive websites; web accessibility should be reviewed periodically due to technological advances and the need to adapt to these changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia Acosta-Vargas
- Intelligent and Interactive Systems Laboratory, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
- Carrera de Ingeniería en Producción Industrial, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
- Facultad de Tecnologías de Información, Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, San José 11501, Costa Rica
| | - Sylvia Novillo-Villegas
- Intelligent and Interactive Systems Laboratory, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
- Carrera de Ingeniería en Producción Industrial, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
- Facultad de Tecnologías de Información, Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, San José 11501, Costa Rica
| | | | - Manuel Calvopina
- One Health Research Group, Universidad de las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
| | - Nikolaos Kyriakidis
- One Health Research Group, Universidad de las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
| | - Esteban Ortiz-Prado
- One Health Research Group, Universidad de las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
| | - Luis Salvador-Ullauri
- Department of Software and Computing Systems, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
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Acosta-Vargas P, Salvador-Acosta B, Salvador-Ullauri L, Jadán-Guerrero J. Accessibility challenges of e-commerce websites. PeerJ Comput Sci 2022; 8:e891. [PMID: 35494830 PMCID: PMC9044289 DOI: 10.7717/peerj-cs.891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2021] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Today, there are many e-commerce websites, but not all of them are accessible. Accessibility is a crucial element that can make a difference and determine the success or failure of a digital business. The study was applied to 50 e-commerce sites in the top rankings according to the classification proposed by ecommerceDB. In evaluating the web accessibility of e-commerce sites, we applied an automatic review method based on a modification of Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0. To evaluate accessibility, we used Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE) with the extension for Google Chrome, which helps verify password-protected, locally stored, or highly dynamic pages. The study found that the correlation between the ranking of e-commerce websites and accessibility barriers is 0.329, indicating that the correlation is low positive according to Spearman's Rho. According to the WAVE analysis, the research results reveal that the top 10 most accessible websites are Sainsbury's Supermarkets, Walmart, Target Corporation, Macy's, IKEA, H&M Hennes, Chewy, Kroger, QVC, and Nike. The most significant number of accessibility barriers relate to contrast errors that must be corrected for e-commerce websites to reach an acceptable level of accessibility. The most neglected accessibility principle is perceivable, representing 83.1%, followed by operable with 13.7%, in third place is robust with 1.7% and finally understandable with 1.5%. Future work suggests constructing a software tool that includes artificial intelligence algorithms that help the software identify accessibility barriers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia Acosta-Vargas
- Intelligent and Interactive Systems Laboratory/FICA/Industrial Engineering, Universidad de Las Américas - Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
| | | | - Luis Salvador-Ullauri
- Department of Software and Computing Systems, University of Alicante, Alicante, España
| | - Janio Jadán-Guerrero
- Centro de Investigación en Mecatrónica y Sistemas Interactivos - MIST, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Quito, Ecuador
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Larrea-Araujo C, Ayala-Granja J, Vinueza-Cabezas A, Acosta-Vargas P. Ergonomic Risk Factors of Teleworking in Ecuador during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021; 18:ijerph18105063. [PMID: 34064780 PMCID: PMC8151790 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18105063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2021] [Revised: 05/05/2021] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, guidelines for people’s confinement have been implemented to prevent the disease’s spread. As a result of this, companies have implemented teleworking as an emerging way to work from home using information technology. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Ecuador, with a sample of 204 teleworkers in the city of Quito. The results show that the teleworkers rearranged their bedrooms to carry out their activities. The respondents in each age group stated they did not perceive more significant ailments than those experienced before beginning teleworking. The relationships between the variables were analyzed utilizing the Chi-Square test and Fisher’s exact test, finding a relationship between neck ailments and age of p = 0.031 * and between arm/forearm ailments of p = 0.032 *. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the ergonomic situation of the teleworkers and provides us with information to mitigate the ergonomic risks to which they are exposed.
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Affiliation(s)
- César Larrea-Araujo
- Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Carrera de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador; (C.L.-A.); (J.A.-G.)
| | - José Ayala-Granja
- Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Carrera de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador; (C.L.-A.); (J.A.-G.)
| | | | - Patricia Acosta-Vargas
- Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Carrera de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador; (C.L.-A.); (J.A.-G.)
- Intelligent and Interactive Systems Laboratory, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador
- Department of Software and Computing Systems, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
- Correspondence:
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Acosta-Vargas P, González M, Luján-Mora S. Dataset for evaluating the accessibility of the websites of selected Latin American universities. Data Brief 2020; 28:105013. [PMID: 31909113 PMCID: PMC6938809 DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.105013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2019] [Revised: 10/01/2019] [Accepted: 12/10/2019] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
This article presents the process of building a dataset for evaluation of the accessibility of 368 web pages, beginning with Webometrics rankings, the WAVE tool was used in the evaluation of the web pages. The dataset documents data on repeated errors with higher frequency, in such a way that they alert the web developers, supporting them in creating more inclusive and accessible websites for all types of people, including users with disabilities. The data show that university websites have frequent problems related to the lack of alternative text linked to images. Some of the university websites included in this dataset were found to violate web accessibility requirements based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and 2.1. Therefore, this data has been shared to allow replication of the experiment, and serve as an input to future studies related to web accessibility. The dataset is hosted, with public access, in the Mendeley Dataset Repository.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mario González
- SI2 Lab, Universidad de las Américas, 170125, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Sergio Luján-Mora
- Department of Software and Computing Systems, University of Alicante, 03690, Alicante, Spain
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