The Working Conditions Survey was designed and applied as a tool for assessing psychosocial components of job safety in a sample of 518 employees from different companies in the manufacturing sector of the Colombian Caribbean region. Reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis and principal components analysis with VARIMAX rotation were performed. Results show acceptable internal reliability of the scale (α = 0.793) and satisfactory adequacy of factorial matrix data (KMO = 0.785). The factorial structure was represented by 17 items staggered into five groups: physical load, thermal environment, noise, occupational hazards and safety at work. In conclusion confirms the instrument adequate reliability and structural stability useful for the analysis and design of programs in order to implement changes in working conditions to achieve employee satisfaction.@en

Chemical process and automation of data collection for industrial processes are known to result in auto-correlated data. The independence of observations is a basic assumption made by traditional tools that are used for the statistical monitoring of processes. If this is not adhered to then the number of false alarms and quality costs are increased. This research considers the use of variable parameters (VP) charts in the presence of autocorrelation. The objective is to determine the impact on the detection velocity and false alarms of different degrees of autocorrelation and their interaction with process conditions—the aim being to effectively select parameters. The VP chart showed improvements in its performance when detecting large average runs as the autocorrelation coefficient increased in contrast with the traditional variable sample interval (VSI) and x quality systems. This research demonstrates the superiority of variable parameters quality monitoring architectures over traditional statistical process monitoring tools.@en

The use of mobile phones while driving is increasing at an alarming rate despite the associated crash risks. A significant safety concern is that driving while distracted by a mobile phone is more prevalent among young drivers, a less experienced driving cohort with elevated crash risk. The objective of this study was to examine the gap acceptance behavior of distracted young drivers at roundabouts. The Center for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland Advanced Driving Simulator was used to test participants on a simulated gap acceptance scenario at roundabouts. Conflicting traffic approaching from the right of a four-legged roundabout was programmed to show a series of vehicles with the gaps between them proportionately increased from 2 s to 6 s. Thirty-Two licensed young drivers drove the simulator under three phone conditions: baseline (no phone conversation), a hands-free phone conversation, and a handheld phone conversation. Results show that distracted drivers started responding to the gap acceptance scenario when they were closer to the roundabout and they approached the roundabout at slower speeds. These drivers also decelerated at faster rates to reduce their speeds before gap acceptance compared with nondistracted drivers. Although accepted gap sizes were not significantly different across phone conditions, differences in the safety margin at various gap sizes-measured by postencroachment time (PET) between the driven vehicle and the conflicting vehicle-were statistically significant across phone conditions. PETs for distracted drivers were smaller across different gap sizes and suggest that a smaller safety margin was accepted by distracted drivers compared with nondistracted drivers.@en

Deficient work conditions have been linked with an epidemic of injury and illness in low and middle-income countries. A group of 22 companies from different sectors was selected in order to carry out a diagnosis related to work conditions in Colombia. To do so, an instrument was designed based on the International Labour Organization (ILO) standards. This information allowed identifying potential problems in work conditions such as work environments, physical load, noise and social welfare. Some low cost measures were discussed as suggestions to improve work conditions. Such measures are expected to generate both an increase in productivity and an enhancement in the employees' attitude.@en

This article describes the design and validation of a scale for evaluating reproductive and sexual health. 919 young females from 11 to 19 years in five Caribbean- Colombian cities were administered the questionnaire that assesses attitudes and subjective norms about the reproductive sexuality, based on the planned behavior theory (Ajzen & Fishbein, 2000). The reliability and validity of the instrument was analyzed through exploratory factorial analysis with principal components and VARIMAX rotation. The methodology includes two independent studies; in study 1 (pilot test) the first questionnaire consisted of 172 items and decreased to 78 in the final sample. For study 2, the attitude scale reported (Mean = 3.68, ED = 1.21) and Cronbach's alpha reliability was 0.91. Two factors were extracted and grouped into two dimensions that explain 67.10% of the variance. For the subjective norms scale (Mean = 3.8, ED = 1.1) Cronbach's alpha reliability was 0.97 and eleven factors were extracted and grouped into nine dimensions, which explain 75.89% of the variance. The scale showed good reliability and structural stability for the analysis and design of programs for sexual and reproductive health in adolescent girls.@en

Educational, economic, and labor-related causes of child labor are analyzed. A hierarchical segmentation analysis with a sample of 3259 families enrolled in an educational prevention program about child labor in the Colombian Caribbean Coast was conducted. The resulting model identified two child labor profiles. In families settled in a rural or suburban context, child labor is related to forced displacement in the last 5 years. In families living in the urban center, child labor is mainly associated to family income and maternal variables such as current employment status and educational level, and labor during her childhood.

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The increasing rate of pregnancies in teenagers and the high incident of the infections of sexual transmission (HIV/AIDS, for example), these are health related issues (and especially the sexual and reproductive health), which have received great attention on the part of investigators and of the public opinion in general. Recently, there has been evidenced that teenagers carry out very easily risk sexual behaviors, and those who have not presented the above mentioned behaviors also show high levels of intention to carry out them. There is the hypothesis that besides cognitive variables such as attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and intention, the personality of the young persons is an aspect that plays an important paper in their sexual and reproductive health. Significant correlations were found between the variales of the TPB and the personality traits; the results suggest that the direction of these correlations is associated with the specific type of behavior or situation that is assessed.@en

The purpose of this article is to show the applicability and benefits of the techniques of design of experiments as an optimization tool for discrete simulation models. The simulated systems are computational representations of real-life systems; its characteristics include a constant evolution that follows the occurrence of discrete events along the time. In this study, a production system, designed with the business philosophy JIT (Just in Time) is used, which seeks to achieve excellence in organizations through waste reduction in all the operational aspects. The most typical tool of JIT systems is the KANBAN production control that seeks to synchronize demand with flow of materials, minimize work in process, and define production metrics. Using experimental design techniques for stochastic optimization, the impact of the operational factors on the efficiency of the KANBAN / CONWIP simulation model is analyzed. The results show the effectiveness of the integration of experimental design techniques and discrete simulation models in the calculation of the operational parameters. Furthermore, the reliability of the methodologies found was improved with a new statistical consideration.@en

The contamination of electrical insulators is one of the major contributors to the risk of operation outages in electrical substations, especially in coastal zones with high salinity levels and atmospheric pollution. By using the measurement of leakage-currents, which is one of the main indicators of contamination in insulators, this work seeks to the determine the correlation with climatic variables, such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, solar irradiance, atmospheric pressure and wind speed and direction. The results obtained provide an input to the behaviour of the leakage current under atmospheric conditions that are particular to the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients and principal component analysis are utilised to determine the significant relationships among the different variables under consideration. The necessary information for the study was obtained via historical databases of both atmospheric variables and the leakage current measured in over a period of 1 year in a 220-kV potential transformer insulator. We identified the influencing factors of temperature, humidity, radiation, wind speed and direction on the magnitude of the leakage current as the most relevant.@en

This paper investigate the impact of Working Conditions on Quality of Working Life of human talent of manufacturing sector in the Colombian Caribbean region. To analyze this process interviewed 518 employees in the sector. The experimental design used was not descriptive cross type; each participant was applied an interview with the instrument of Working Conditions and Quality of Working Life Tool (Wage and Subjective Conditions). Data were analyzed using correlation analysis and logistic regression models. The results showed that the thermal environment and safety standard at work positively affects the Quality of Working Life. These results show that the relationship between working conditions and CVL is based on competition and far from linear or simple relationship relating to the consideration of the presence or absence of working conditions. This has implications when formulating policies, programs and interventions to prevent the negative effects of working conditions and enhance the industrial safety within industrial companies.@en

Pollution on electrical insulators is one of the greatest causes of failure of substations subjected to high levels of salinity and environmental pollution. Considering leakage current as the main indicator of pollution on insulators, this paper focuses on establishing the effect of the environmental conditions on the risk of failure due to pollution on insulators and determining the significant change in the magnitude of the pollution on the insulators during dry and humid periods. Hierarchical segmentation analysis was used to establish the effect of environmental conditions on the risk of failure due to pollution on insulators. The Kruskal-Wallis test was utilized to determine the significant changes in the magnitude of the pollution due to climate periods. An important result was the discovery that leakage current was more common on insulators during dry periods than humid ones. There was also a higher risk of failure due to pollution during dry periods. During the humid period, various temperatures and wind directions produced a small change in the risk of failure. As a technical result, operators of electrical substations can now identify the cause of an increase in risk of failure due to pollution in the area. The research provides a contribution towards the behaviour of the leakage current under conditions similar to those of the Colombian Caribbean coast and how they affect the risk of failure of the substation due to pollution.@en

This paper presents the construction and testing of the reliability of an instrument to assess attitudes and subjective norms sexual and reproductive behavior of young males. The scale was administered to 965 male students (From of 11 to 19 years) enrolled at school in the Colombian Caribbean region. This work includes two independent studies, in the Study 1 (pilot) the questionnaire consisted of 150 items and it was reduced to 78. In the protective attitude scale (Mean = 4.1 and SD = 1.07) was obtained Cronbach's alpha of 0.93 and for the abstinence/delay attitude (Mean = 3.6 and SD = 1.26) an alpha of 0.88 with high homogeneity. The total correlation item was greater than 0.6 for all the attitude scales. On the scale of beliefs represented by the subjective norms (Mean = 3.79 and SD = 1.08) the estimation of Cronbach's alpha was 0.98 with correlations above 0.66. In Study 2 (final stop), the construct validity assessment using factorial analysis and principal components analysis with VARIMAX rotation reported a satisfactory fit of the data to the array factor. In conclusion, the instrument has a reliable and stable structure for the measurement of attitudes and subjective norms for sexuality and reproductive health, and it is useful to help in the setting of programs.@en

Service industries have an important participation in the economies of developing countries and the advances achieved in their optimization are still incipient. This paper presents a new proposal for the life cycle of a service, having as starting point the dichotomy between a solution and the design. The results allowed to identify four macro-periods and within these, thirteen recurrent phases that permit to trace a generic service from its conception to the retirement, with the aim to open the possibility of implementing new support tools for its optimization and management. With this proposal it is possible to identify the items on which the efforts and controls should concentrate, so as to generate better services, more streamlined and of a higher value. This work is an effort to integrate the services to the global dynamics through a management model based on services.@en

Recent advances in the design of control charts have focused on variable parameters charts (VP) in which parameters are modified according to the last sample value. These charts have proved more effective in detecting assignable causes but more complexes for implementation in organizations. Although, there is a lot literature regarding the economic and/or statistical design of a VP chart, few authors focus their efforts on making them accessible to companies. In this paper a new procedure is proposed to reduce the complexity and enhance the benefits of an economic and an economic-statistical design of X charts with variable parameters.@en

There is a need to know the anthropometric parameters of each population to improve the ergonomic design of tools, workstations and personal protective equipment. In their regular work, humans use their hands to develop their activities, and the required equipment should match with the physical dimensions of the workers. The traditional manual method for measuring takes a long time because of the number of measures and the training of the measurer, who has to first learn how to take each measure, which is why the objective of the software is to diminish the time employed in the taking of the data by systemizing the process. This paper shows a compilation of 25 hand anthropometric measurements from a sample of 41 subjects from the Colombian Caribbean Coast. To take the measures, software was developed and validated with manually taken measures using the t-test for each dimension. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two methods, which proves the precision of the software. The gather of more data employing the software may represent a reliable normative data set of the hand measurements.@en

In this study, the effects of different variables of child labor on academic performance are investigated. To this end, 3302 children participating in the child labor eradication program "Edúcame Primero Colombia" were interviewed. The interview format used for the children's enrollment into the program was a template from which socioeconomic conditions, academic performance, and child labor variables were evaluated. The academic performance factor was determined using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The data were analyzed through a logistic regression model that took into account children who engaged in a type of labor (n= 921). The results showed that labor conditions, the number of weekly hours dedicated to work, and the presence of work scheduled in the morning negatively affected the academic performance of child laborers. These results show that the relationship between child labor and academic performance is based on the conflict between these two activities. These results do not indicate a linear and simple relationship associated with the recognition of the presence or absence of child labor. This study has implications for the formulation of policies, programs, and interventions for preventing, eradicating, and attenuating the negative effects of child labor on the social and educational development of children.@en

The collection of data in the process can be done much faster and easier as a result of industrial automation allowing large amount of data for analysis. Because production processes are directed in part by inertial elements, if the data is collected at a higher rate, the observations will be auto-correlated. The violation of the data independence assumption causes an increasing in the false alarms rate and the quality costs of the traditional process monitoring tools. To mitigate this problem, we propose an economic-statistical design of a variable parameters control chart, also known as fully adaptive. The results show the effectiveness of this approach for the statistical monitoring of these processes. The "fully adaptive control charts" have been fairly evaluated in these scenarios, and are proposed as an important tool for the process monitoring under this circumstances.@en

The study of 1777 male and female adolescent students of 11-19 years in the Colombian Caribbean had two objectives: development and validation of two reproductive health intention scales and analyze gender differences. The pilot of the scale consisted of 8 items and was reduced to 6, to check the reliability and validity using factor analysis and principal components with VARIMAX rotation yielded two factors: Intention and Intention Risk Protection, explained between 69.4% and 70% respectively. In the male Protection Intent (M = 3.87 and SD = 1.29) and risk (M = 2.56 and SD = 1.18) obtained an alpha between 0.74 and 0.86, and in Protection of Intent to female (M = 3.49 and SD = 1.35) and risk (M = 1.50 and SD = 0.89) ranged between 0.78 and 086. In conclusion, the reliability and structural stability are adequate and there are gender differences in the scales.@en

This research contributes to assess the learning process of fire extinguisher training; which is an important analysis for the accurate design of training plans in order to ensure appropriate actions for fire mitigation. The experiment was executed using a fire simulator, 32 subjects participated in the trials for a month. In the results analysis, the data for each type of fire were adjusted with the Wright's Learning Curve model. The subjects' performance in the fire extinguishing training seems improved with experience, and the Wright's Learning Curve demonstrated been an effective tool to describe the process from a time/outcome perspective for each type of fire. On the other hand, the type C fire tends to have a more challenging learning process in contrast with the A and B types. Moreover, the results show the inadequacy of one-time training programs for fire extinguisher handling. Some future research recommendations are given.@en

Objective: Propose a conceptual classification scheme (CCS) based on the content analysis method, in order to determine gaps in knowledge regarding to the working conditions variables that impact the Quality of Work Life. Materials and methods: We used an integral methodology that considers around 54 scientific papers of the period 1992-2012, from which, we structured different categories of classification like year of publication, title of the journal and a conceptual framework based on questions. Results:The amount of research related to the topic of study has increased over the past decade. The total increased from 6 articles reviewed in the period 1992-2001 to 48 in the period 2002-2012. Moreover, 76 % of the articles analyzed concludes that there is a close relationship between working conditions and the impact on physical and mental health workers; however, with a rate of 9 % different research present the relation between the favorable conditions of work and the increased of productivity. Conclusions: Advances in the field have induced to estimate new methodologies and / or tools, in order to evaluate the conditions that workers are exposed and thus involve not only achieve financial and operations objectives, but also, the benefits towards their personal and professional development.@en