Office Tasks Research Articles

The adaptive thermal comfort of individual performance working at home

Eco-friendly architecture (EFA) is a design approach to produce healthy and comfortable buildings. In the pandemic era and in years to come when working from home is a trend, a healthy and comfortable home is crucial because people spend their time at home. Thermal comfort is considered the most significant comfort factor for building occupants, especially at home. This paper reports a study on the relationship between thermal comfort, individual performance, and productivity while working at home. Data was collected qualitatively through observation, heat transfer calculation, and in-depth interviews. This study concludes that a thermally comfortable house that follows the EFA concept is an aspect that influences performance and productivity. However, thermal comfort is not the only aspect related to comfort. Habits and adaptation of occupants to certain conditions also affect comfort, which leads to good performance and productivity. Occupants feel comfortable doing office and household tasks at home due to their adaptation to the surrounding thermal comfort based on their preferences.

Face Recognition Attendance System

Attendance taking is one of a tedious and important tasks in colleges, universities, organizations, schools, and offices, which must be done on a daily basis. The majority of the time, it is done manually, such as by calling by name or by roll number. The main goal of this project is to create a Face Recognition-based attendance system that will turn this manual process into an automated one. This project meets the requirements for bringing modernization to the way attendance is handled, as well as the criteria for time management. This device is installed in the classroom, where and student's information, such as name, roll number, class, sec, and photographs, is trained. The images are extracted using Open CV. Before the start of the corresponding class, the student can approach the machine, which will begin taking pictures and comparing them to the qualified dataset. Logitech C270 web camera and NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer kit were used in this project as the camera and processing board. The image is processed as follows: first, faces are identified using a Haarcascade classifier, then faces are recognized using the LBPH (Local Binary Pattern Histogram) Algorithm, histogram data is checked against an established dataset, and the device automatically labels attendance. An Excel sheet is developed, and it is updated every hour with the information from the respective class instructor.

SpaceGTN: A Time-Agnostic Graph Transformer Network for Handwritten Diagram Recognition and Segmentation

Online handwriting recognition is pivotal in domains like note-taking, education, healthcare, and office tasks. Existing diagram recognition algorithms mainly rely on the temporal information of strokes, resulting in a decline in recognition performance when dealing with notes that have been modified or have no temporal information. The current datasets are drawn based on templates and cannot reflect the real free-drawing situation. To address these challenges, we present SpaceGTN, a time-agnostic Graph Transformer Network, leveraging spatial integration and removing the need for temporal data. Extensive experiments on multiple datasets have demonstrated that our method consistently outperforms existing methods and achieves state-of-the-art performance. We also propose a pipeline that seamlessly connects offline and online handwritten diagrams. By integrating a stroke restoration technique with SpaceGTN, it enables intelligent editing of previously uneditable offline diagrams at the stroke level. In addition, we have also launched the first online handwritten diagram dataset, OHSD, which is collected using a free-drawing method and comes with modification annotations.

Computer and ICT Skills Level of Small-Scale Business Organization Employees: Basis for Company Intervention Program

An increasing number of businesses now rely on computer technology to complete tasks. For this reason, possessing computer skills has become increasingly crucial This study aimed to assess the computer and ICT skills of employees in small-scale business organizations. The researcher administered a survey questionnaire to a purposive sample of 28 employees from small-scale business organizations, and the quantitative data gathered was organized and processed using SPSS version 17.0. The explanatory design employed unstructured interviews with non-probability sampled respondents to collect qualitative data. Thematic analysis was used to establish themes arising from the qualitative responses. Findings revealed that employees in these organizations have a low level of competence in performing office tasks, such as basic computer operations, file management, word processing, database use, and network use. There are no significant differences in computer and ICT skill levels among employees in small-scale business organizations when grouped by educational attainment, length of service, and gender. Based on the interviewees' responses, common themes emerged, such as poor internet connectivity, an unreliable power supply, a lack of funds to purchase gadgets that can access the internet, a lack of knowledge and interest in learning, and a lack of time to attend a short program related to computers and ICT are the reasons for low levels of computer and ICT skills. Tutorials and self-study are common strategies employees use to accomplish assigned tasks in the office.

Automated office infrastructures and the valuation of work

Popular and academic analyses of automation in work predominantly focus on paid labour, sometimes forecasting how many jobs may be lost or investigating how new types of jobs are being created through such technological change. This article takes a different approach by considering what automation implies for the valuation of work. The starting point is that contemporary office automation is not exclusively aimed at working activities themselves but rather is increasingly directed at the infrastructure that allows work. Two infrastructural elements are identified where office automation is occurring: “tenant experience applications” that aid in the flexible occupation of office buildings, and “productivity tools” that support the organisation of office tasks regardless of location. This shift from automation targeting what work is done to how that work is done raises the question of work valuation. Plural regimes of valuation are at play in contemporary office automation, through which a myriad of interested actors emerge, extending beyond the employer and the worker. The value of flexibility thus occurs not singularly nor even primarily in the production process, but rather is achieved in the financial valuation of various aspects of office performance as well as in the social (re)definition of work.

ВИКОРИСТАННЯ RPA СИСТЕМ ДЛЯ РОБОТИЗАЦІЇ ОБЛІКОВИХ ПРОЦЕСІВ НА ПІДРИЄМСТВАХ

The article explores Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as a technological solution that enables end-users to program or train software robots to perform various operations such as data processing, system interaction, and office tasks. It identifies typical office operations that can be automated using RPA and emphasizes that accounting processes can be effectively automated using robotic software agents. Key areas of accounting process automation are identified, including period closing, reporting, accounts receivable and payable, cash management, general ledger management, inventory, and others. Implementation cases of RPA from various sectors such as technology, printing, and manufacturing have shown significant positive results, including reduced processing time, cost savings, and improved efficiency and accuracy of processes. It is highlighted that the most frequently chosen processes for RPA are purchasing and selling and internal reporting, characterized by routine nature and lack of need for complex decisions. Automating such processes leads to significant productivity and accuracy improvements in accounting. The automation of processing incoming tax invoices is discussed. The benefits of automating accounting are examined, including reduced error risk, increased efficiency, time and resource savings, accuracy and compliance assurance, enhanced analytics, improved process management, greater visibility of results, geographical and cultural independence, and positive impact on employees. Preconditions, challenges, and risks affecting the expected outcome of RPA automation are analyzed. Key aspects to consider when implementing RPA include process design, compatibility with existing IT infrastructure, data security and confidentiality, support and maintenance, as well as task limitations.

The “HeForshe” Approach Model to The Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children

The pandemic causes the risk of gender-based violence to increase, one of which is domestic violence. It is because many women as mothers are workers, so they also have to do waiting office tasks, as well as do household work which is frequently burdened by women. Based on data from the Online Information System for the Protection of Women and Children (understood as Sistem Informasi Online Perlindungan Perempuan dan Anak/SIMFONI PPA) in October 2022, 19,613 cases of violence occurred, with details of 3,164 male victims and 17,960 victims, specifically for NTT (East Nusa Tenggara) Province as many as 895 cases of violence. Percentage of Women Victims of Violence by Type of Violence in the Province of NTT of abuse 44.03%, humiliation 65.01%, harassment 7.12%, neglect 12.71%, and others 13.02%. Perpetrators 68.85% are parents and victims of violence against women 1.91% in rural areas and 2.23 in urban areas. The Research Objective is to identify the 'HeForShe'' Approach Model to the Involvement of Men in the Elimination of Violence against Women and Children in Kupang City and Kupang Regency, NTT Province in 2022. The research Method is a Mixed Method, Qualitative with Phenomenological Method and Quantitative Descriptive Survey Method. The population in the study were informants encompassing married men and women aged <55 years with the sample criteria being wife/husband status, and living together for more than 1 year. Female and male aged 18 years and unmarried, living with their parents. Religious leaders, midwives, teachers, and local government. Purposive sampling. Collecting data was performed by in-depth interviews and FGD in groups of 10-15 people, analysis was carried out descriptively, and a way ANOVA test to compare the three models. Research Results: From the 3 proposed models, it was discovered that 65 percent of respondents agreed with model 2, and the results of the one-way ANOVA test were obtained the p-value is 0.002 or smaller than alpha 5%, Conclusion: One model was obtained, namely the Network Coordination Model for the Office of Health, Education and Local Government in Empowering Youth in Primary Health Units and schools in Action to Prevent Violence against Women and Children. Recommended as one of the HeForShe models that is more appropriate to apply in the case of the Approach to the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children by involving teenagers.

Interdisciplinary approach to defining outdoor places of knowledge work: quantified photo analysis.

Working outdoors is an emerging, sparsely studied phenomenon in knowledge work. Office tasks have traditionally been considered to belong to indoor environments. The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has increased and changed attitudes toward multilocational working. The aim of this method study is 2-fold: first to define for interdisciplinary context outdoor environments when they are used as places of outdoor knowledge work and second to quantify the thematic photo analysis to support interdisciplinary understanding of the places of outdoor knowledge work. The review of literature has been one of the methods to support the interdisciplinary approach of this article. The photographs of outdoor knowledge workplaces and views from the workstations are studied through photo analysis customized from the existing press photograph analysis. First, we defined outdoor environments when used as places of outdoor knowledge work, as unconditioned outdoor or semi-outdoor places (opposite to closed indoor spaces with stable, conditioned indoor climate) providing favorable action possibilities as sources of comfort and mitigating unfavorable conditions, for example, by microclimatic solutions. Instead of defining all spaces as outdoor environments not fulfilling a stable indoor climate (conditioned) definition, adaptation to thermal and physical environments also brought semi-outdoor space into the definition. In this context, favorable latent action possibilities (affordance) in the built environment are often related to microclimate as a source of comfort. Second, we focussed on photo analysis. The proposed model is based on journalistic photo analysis PPSA and the pOKW model, which have been further developed in this study to pOKW2 model for analyzing mobile-based collected self-reported photographs by the occupants. In this pOKW2 model, the photographs would have time-location information enabling the combining of data from other datasets and thereby reducing the number of characteristics to be analyzed from the photograph. We proposed rating (in numeric form) to detect the favorable and unfavorable characteristics in the photographs most likely supporting or hindering conditions of outdoor knowledge work. This quantification would enable the use of machine vision analysis and would support handling large quantities of photographs and their combination with other datasets in interdisciplinary research. The quantification of the photo analysis (pOKW2) includes the readiness to combine the analysis results with other time-location-specific datasets in an interdisciplinary research collaboration to advance our understanding of latent action possibilities for outdoor knowledge work.

Gender moderates the effects of ambient bergamot scent on stress restoration in offices

We investigated the physiological (heart rate variability) and psychological (state of anxiety, pleasantness, and comfort) effects of ambient bergamot scent on the stress levels of office workers by exposing them to the scent while stressors persisted as the workers continued to work on the office tasks. Forty-eight young adults were randomly assigned to either a control or scent group. Our results show that the stress restoration effect of bergamot scent depends on gender. The change in heart rate variability revealed that bergamot scent increased stress among males but not for females. The reported pleasantness and comfort followed the same trend. Compared to the control groups, females in the scent group thought the office smelled pleasant and felt more comfortable, but males in the scent group reported the opposite. However, no gender effect was found in the level of state anxiety. Specifically, compared to the control groups, both males and females exposed to the bergamot scent self-reported decreasing stress levels. This inconsistency between self-reported stress and physiological measurements is not uncommon, especially among males who are socialized to downplay emotional experiences. Our data suggest that there is indeed a gender difference in the effectiveness of the bergamot scent for reducing stress in office workers.

Pelatihan Perakitan Komputer Untuk Meningkatkan Keterampilan Bagi Santri di Ponpes Al Mutmainnah

The role of computers in everyday life is increasingly important. Computers can be used as a tool for running a business and doing all office, industrial, construction and lecture tasks. Computers have many varieties of both types and types, ranging from standard types, medium to high-tech computers. With the large role of computers at this time, the Al Mutmainnah Islamic Boarding School in the Kediri sub-district, West Lombok Regency, collaborated with the community service team at Qamarul Huda Badaruddin University to provide computer assembly training to students. This training is intended to equip students to have special skills in computer assembly and later it is hoped that they will be able to open their own jobs from this computer assembly training. The material provided can be received, digested, and understood by the participants well. The large number of participants in proportion to the number of devotees made this training more conducive. The activity went smoothly, on time and as expected and the students were able to communicate well with the speakers and other students.

Altered functional connectivity of the hippocampus with the sensorimotor cortex induced by long-term experience of virtual hand illusion

Synchronizing the movement of a virtual hand with an unseen real hand in a virtual environment is an effective method to induce a sense of ownership of the virtual hand. Although several neuroimaging studies have revealed neural mechanisms related to the ongoing process of ownership illusion, the effect of the long-term experience of ownership illusion on brain activity remains to be investigated. Here, we developed an apparatus based on real-time image matting and virtual reality technology which allowed us to use the image of participants’ real hands as their virtual hands and synchronize the movement of the virtual hands with the unseen real hands in a virtual scene. Resting-state functional imaging data were acquired immediately after participants completed several light office tasks with the virtual hands in either the virtual environment (virtual hand condition) or real environment (real hand condition). Significant positive functional connectivity of the hippocampus with the primary somatosensory and motor cortex was only observed in the virtual hand condition. The results provided novel evidence for the involvement of hippocampal-sensorimotor connection in the long-term experience of virtual hand ownership. The functional connection reorganization of the hippocampus might promote multi-sensory information integration into memory and updated the sense of body ownership, which offered important insights into the neural network underlying the availability of long-term use of VR technology in healthcare and rehabilitation.

Knee Extension Exercise Effects on Physiological and Psychophysical Performance: Normal Weight Versus Obese Office Workers.

Knee extension exercise is useful and practical for obese and overweight people as this form of exercise is effective in minimizing body weight loading on joints and improving the body's physiological function. This study aimed to compare the physiological and psychophysical parameters of office workers while computer-based working in an active workstation equipped with an active footrest (AFR) prototype with a mechanism for performing knee extension exercises in a sitting position, and also to compare the physiological and psychophysical parameters among normal-weight and obese office workers. In this quasi-experimental study, the physiological parameters of heart rate (HR) and energy expenditure (EE) (measured with the Fitbit Charge HR smartwatch) were measured in two cross-over random sessions for 32 office workers (16 normal-weight and 16 obese) aged 28 to 50 years (M = 42.72, standard deviation [SD] = 4.37) while performing office tasks in sitting and active workstations (equipped with AFR). Perceived physical exertion, comfort, fatigue, and liking were also measured by rating the participants. Short-term activity of the participants with AFR performing computer tasks significantly improved physiological and psychophysical parameters compared with the participants in sitting workstations. However, there was no significant difference in the effect of AFR on physiological and psychophysical parameters between normal-weight and obese participants. Given the significant increase in EE and HR resulting from exercise with AFR compared with the conventional workstation, the use of AFR can help office workers achieve the minimum standard of physical activity at their workplace.

Use of Social Media as an Online Learning Media

Since early March 2020, the Coronavirus outbreak has begun to spread in several regions of Indonesia. The government is starting to be aware of the spread of the virus by tightening supervision of the movement of people from one place to another within local, national, and international areas to avoid transmission. The government also issued policies to maintain distance, wear masks, and wash hands to stop the spread. Many office tasks and teaching and learning processes are carried out from home. This requires teachers to be able to utilize internet-based media for their teaching, such as social media, which is popular in the community. Therefore, in this PKM, we provide additional benefits from social media to teachers at SMP Negeri 1 Sungai Ambawang who teach their students from home. PKM was held offline on Saturday, October 10, 2020, and was attended by 28 participants. This activity has provided enlightenment and alternatives for teachers in teaching
 

Digitalisasi Pelayanan Administrasi Kependudukan di Desa Taunbaen Timur Berbasis Website Menggunakan Metode Prototype

One of the main tasks of a village office is the population administration handling and permit paperwork service. The village population administration handling at East Tuanbaun Village, the sub-district of North Biboki, the District of North Central Timor up to the current time, is still implemented conventionally. The data processing management, such as letter of recommendations, document filing are still conventionally recorded in books. Such conditions are considered very ineffective and undeniably very time consuming, particularly when someone is trying to find data. Apart from that it is very lackadaisical and results in long queue whenever people come to get their paper work done. We, in this research, develop website-based information system for population administration service named SIADES. This website platform is chosen as it can be easily and freely accessed from any place at anytime. This application is developed using prototype method, providing the system development method can give access to the interaction between the user and the developer. The existence of this application can help the village officers and the society in handling letters of permit. People don't have to come to the village office to get their permit/recommendation letter since they can do it using online website service. On top of that, all the digitally saved data will remain safe and long-lasting.

Investigating the impact of demographic factors and working with computers on the hand grip and pinch strength of office workers

Introduction: In office tasks, pinch gripping of tools such as pen, paper, mouse, and keys are required during most working hours. This study aimed to determine the effect of demographic factors and working with a computer on office workers' hand grip and pinch strength.
 Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional analytical study, after recording the demographic characteristics, the hand grip and pinch strength of 174 employees of 20 offices of Birjand city with at least 3 hours of daily computer work was measured using a Jamar hand dynamometer and Saehan pinch gauge. The data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software version 16. In addition to descriptive statistics, ANOVA, independent t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used.
 Results: The mean and standard deviation related to the age of the subjects were 37.5 ± 7.15 and 13 ± 7.35 years. The relationship between the hand grip and pinch strength with the variables of sex, height, weight, and Handedness (except the tip of the males) was significant (P<0.05), but with the variables of BMI, work experience, and age (except palmar of the dominant hand) was not significant. Computer work duration significantly affected the dominant hand's grip strength and both hands' palmar and tip pinch (P<0.05).
 Conclusion: The results of this study show the effect of computer work duration on reducing office workers' hand grip and pinch strength. Therefore, it is recommended to apply ergonomic principles to maintain hand grip and pinch strength of computer users.

Perceived fit of different office activities – The contribution of office type and indoor environment

Office spaces are often examined using comfort-based measures. Another view is the need-supply fit, which emphasizes the fit of the space for different activities. Here the influence of office types and satisfaction with indoor environmental quality (IEQ) factors on different activities' perceived fit was examined with a large global dataset consisting of 82 315 respondents. The office types included private offices, assigned workstations in shared offices, assigned workstations in open-plan offices, team tables, and flex offices. The IEQ factors were estimations of satisfaction with thermal conditions, noise, air quality, natural light, and office lighting. The perceived fit was the estimation of workplaces’ support for different office tasks classified into eight activity types. The largest proportion of respondents were dissatisfied with thermal conditions (30.7%) and noise (27.9%). However, only dissatisfaction with noise was strongly related to the perceived fit and explained alone 17% of perceived fit for concentrated work. All office types supported office activities well. Satisfaction with IEQ factors explained the perceived fit better than the office types. Satisfaction with IEQ factors alone explained 16−24% of the perceived fit depending on the activity type. Private offices were considered the best fit, especially for concentrated and confidential work as well as remote contacts. The study shows that the need-supply fit approach offers a slightly different perspective on office functioning than comfort-based approaches. Satisfaction with IEQ factors is crucial for functioning in an office. Special care should be paid to noise control especially with activities needing concentration, confidentiality, or special material.

Rescue Strategy for Covid Heroes in Households: Reconstructing the Meaning of Hadith Ahkam in Sunan Abū Dāwud

Work from Home (WfH) and online schooling as a policy to reduce the risk of the spread of COVID 19 has an impact on increasing the risk of fatigue and stress for women. Especially for working women who are married and have children. While men can focus on completing office tasks at home, this is not the case for women. The economic movement of the family that slows down while domestic needs and responsibilities increase both in quantity and quality is a severe phenomenon that haunts the lives of women. Therefore, it is necessary to reconstruct the understanding of the meaning of the Prophet's hadith which contains the law as an argument which becomes the basic principle of the implementation of Islamic law. The method used in this research is the maudhui method, focusing on the hadith ahkam narrated by Abū Dāwud number 236 which explains the concept of partnership between men and women in household responsibilities. Content analysis is used as a data analysis technique. The hadith text is a basic legal reference for the principle of equality between men and women. Both have the same rights as human beings. The right to live with dignity, religion, politics, activities in the social, economic and educational spheres as well as the right and responsibility to take care of the household and obey the law. Not respecting women's rights means denying the law, which is the principle of equality in the hadith text. Taking care of the household is a job that can be learned and can also be done together. This is done as an effort to recognize and save women as household heroes from the increased risk of fatigue and stress, especially in difficult times.

Labor market changes and social inclusiveness across regions: evidence from the rise of the modern office

Could complex changes in the labor market reduce social inequalities across regions? We study the rise of office employment in the early twentieth century that was induced by innovations in office technology and organizational changes affecting the type of required office tasks. The new office jobs required little physical strength. We find that the regional employment share of industries that were strongly connected to the modern office, is positively linked to labor force participation of people with physical impairments. The positive employment effect is more visible for disabled men. In sum, the rise of the modern office that differed across regions started to lower labor market entry barriers and fostered social inclusiveness.

Using EEG signals to assess workload during memory retrieval in a real-world scenario

Objective. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is gaining popularity as a physiological measure for neuroergonomics in human factor studies because it is objective, less prone to bias, and capable of assessing the dynamics of cognitive states. This study investigated the associations between memory workload and EEG during participants’ typical office tasks on a single-monitor and dual-monitor arrangement. We expect a higher memory workload for the single-monitor arrangement. Approach. We designed an experiment that mimics the scenario of a subject performing some office work and examined whether the subjects experienced various levels of memory workload in two different office setups: (1) a single-monitor setup and (2) a dual-monitor setup. We used EEG band power, mutual information, and coherence as features to train machine learning models to classify high versus low memory workload states. Main results. The study results showed that these characteristics exhibited significant differences that were consistent across all participants. We also verified the robustness and consistency of these EEG signatures in a different data set collected during a Sternberg task in a prior study. Significance. The study found the EEG correlates of memory workload across individuals, demonstrating the effectiveness of using EEG analysis in conducting real-world neuroergonomic studies.

Exploring the relationships between perceived neighborhood boundaries and street network orientation

AbstractThe neighborhood is a core unit of analysis in urban research, planning, and policy‐making. However, perceptual and historical processes oftentimes result in neighborhoods that are not tied to sub‐urban jurisdictions. For instance, historic neighborhoods might lack official spatial definitions, hampering neighborhood‐based tasks in local offices. In this case, urban practitioners can benefit from readily available spatial proxies, such as the local street network. In this study, we conducted an exploratory analysis that combines neighborhood mapping and street network modeling. By retrieving participants' sketched boundaries and quantifying spatial orientations of sketched polygons and local network patterns, we were able to measure and compare the relationships between the urban fabric and the perceived extents of two historic neighborhoods in Lisbon, Portugal. The results provided insights for enhancing existing definitions of non‐official neighborhoods, outlining new urban districts as well as for discussions about the role of the urban form in shaping people's perceptions.