Human Performance Optimization

The content of Human Performance Optimization is unique in terms of the focus, breadth, and scope of the individual chapter contributions. Moreover, this book was developed in response to a pressing need, first directed by the Chief of Staff of the Army, to examine current and future developments in behavioral, cognitive, and social neuroscience that may allow organizations to enhance individual worker and team performance. This volume captures a wide range of approaches, both with an eye to describing state of the art knowledge, and projecting what may become applicable in the near future. The variety of social, technological, and scientific issues make this book indispensable in our time. Organizations of all sorts, but especially those who operate in "in extremis" or high-stakes settings, are seeking to improve the performance of their workers. The chapters' breadth and accessibility will allow strategic leaders of organizations to evaluate breaking news in HPO, and will also serve as an up-to-date review of the field for scientists involved in human performance research.

Production ergonomics – the science and practice of designing industrial workplaces to optimize human well-being and system performance – is a complex challenge for a designer. Humans are a valuable and flexible resource in any system of creation, and as long as they stay healthy, alert and motivated, they perform well and also become more competent over time, which increases their value as a resource. However, if a system designer is not mindful or aware of the many threats to health and system performance that may emerge, the end result may include inefficiency, productivity losses, low working morale, injuries and sick-leave. To help budding system designers and production engineers tackle these design challenges holistically, this book offers a multi-faceted orientation in the prerequisites for healthy and effective human work. We will cover physical, cognitive and organizational aspects of ergonomics, and provide both the individual human perspective and that of groups and populations, ending up with a look at global challenges that require workplaces to become more socially and economically sustainable. This book is written to give you a warm welcome to the subject, and to provide a solid foundation for improving industrial workplaces to attract and retain healthy and productive staff in the long run.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction, IHCI 2017, held in Evry, France, in December 2017. The 15 papers presented together with three invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 25 submissions. The conference is forum for the presentation of technological advances and research results at the crossroads of human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, signal processing and computer vision. This book is open access under a CC BY license.

Today's dynamic organizations must achieve positive results in record time - a challenge that requires managers to avoid problems before they arise and to solve these issues quickly. Human Performance Improvement (HPI) is a powerful tool that can be used to help build intellectual capital, establish and maintain a 'high-performance workplace, enhance profitability, and encourage productivity' - as well as increase return on equity and improved safety. Written by a group of highly respected authors in the field, this book will show you how to:- - discover and analyze performance gaps - plan for future improvements in human performance - design and develop cost-effective interventions to close performance gaps.

Power and Performance: Software Analysis and Optimization is a guide to solving performance problems in modern Linux systems. Power-efficient chips are no help if the software those chips run on is inefficient. Starting with the necessary architectural background as a foundation, the book demonstrates the proper usage of performance analysis tools in order to pinpoint the cause of performance problems, and includes best practices for handling common performance issues those tools identify. Provides expert perspective from a key member of Intel’s optimization team on how processors and memory systems influence performance Presents ideas to improve architectures running mobile, desktop, or enterprise platforms Demonstrates best practices for designing experiments and benchmarking throughout the software lifecycle Explains the importance of profiling and measurement to determine the source of performance issues

The pursuit of human performance goes beyond sport. Whilst we might most readily associate sport with the quest to perform at the highest levels of competition, this is not exclusive to sports teams and athletes. Striving for excellence and dedication to continual improvement are hallmarks of high performing organisations, teams, and individuals across all realms. Following this logic, forward thinking individuals have started to explore processes and principles from elite sport and coaching, with the aim of applying high performance practices within their own domain. Just as there are traits that unite high performers across sectors, there are common themes and challenges shared by all those who aspire to excellence in performance. With 'Prepared' we use the lens of elite sport to illuminate universal truths and illustrate the key lessons that we can apply to our chosen domain (including sport): - the critical ingredients for a performance environment, - the dynamics of performance management at the level of the organisation, team, and individual, - the essentials of navigating the complexity of coaching humans, - the key principles and critical lessons from the process of preparing athletes for the crucible of competition, - and finally, the meta-abilities that will allow us to sustain the highest levels of performance, manage ourselves, and navigate the challenges we will inevitably face along the way. This is a book for all those who have an interest or involvement in human performance in the widest sense. Whilst the content remains highly relevant to those in sport, within the text we explore the parallels to other domains, and thereby derive unique insights for leaders, teams, and professionals in all sectors. Throughout the journey the reader is prompted to reflect and connect the dots at the culmination of each chapter to help relate the information presented to their own context.

In this book, leading experts employ an evidence-based approach to provide clear practical guidance on the important question of when and how to facilitate return to play after some of the most common injuries encountered in football. Detailed attention is paid to biomechanics, the female athlete, risk factors, injury prevention, current strategies and criteria for safe return to play, and future developments. Specific topics discussed in depth include concussion, anterior cruciate ligament and other knee injuries, back pathology, rotator cuff tears, shoulder instability, hip arthroscopy, and foot and ankle injuries. The chapter authors include renowned clinicians and scientists from across the world who work in the field of orthopaedics and sports medicine. Furthermore, experiences from team physicians involved in the Olympics, National Football League (NFL), Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) are shared with the reader. All who are involved in the care of injured footballers will find this book, published in cooperation with ESSKA, to be an invaluable, comprehensive, and up-to-date reference that casts light on a range of controversial issues.

The development of technologies to modify natural human physical and cognitive performance is one of increasing interest and concern, especially among military services that may be called on to defeat foreign powers with enhanced warfighter capabilities. Human performance modification (HPM) is a general term that can encompass actions ranging from the use of "natural" materials, such as caffeine or khat as a stimulant, to the application of nanotechnology as a drug delivery mechanism or in an invasive brain implant. Although the literature on HPM typically addresses methods that enhance performance, another possible focus is methods that degrade performance or negatively affect a military force's ability to fight. Advances in medicine, biology, electronics, and computation have enabled an increasingly sophisticated ability to modify the human body, and such innovations will undoubtedly be adopted by military forces, with potential consequences for both sides of the battle lines. Although some innovations may be developed for purely military applications, they are increasingly unlikely to remain exclusively in that sphere because of the globalization and internationalization of the commercial research base. Based on its review of the literature, the presentations it received and on its own expertise, the Committee on Assessing Foreign Technology Development in Human Performance Modification chose to focus on three general areas of HPM: human cognitive modification as a computational problem, human performance modification as a biological problem, and human performance modification as a function of the brain-computer interface. Human Performance Modification: Review of Worldwide Research with a View to the Future summarizes these findings.