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The current article gives an overview of methods used for the determination of updated recommended diversity factors for various office equipment. The update to the diversity factors was required because of the introduction of new types of office equipment, such as laptop docking stations, and both increased equipment performance as well as improved power management. The present study, in particular, investigates the effects of the number of tested pieces of equipment as well as the interval duration for data reduction. Analysis and results on the effect of the different number of tested pieces of equipment and averaging intervals on the diversity factor are presented. Load factors for various office types are calculated using heat gain and diversity factor values of various office equipment. These updated office load factor values are included in the 2017 edition of the ASHRAE Fundamentals Handbook are found to be 10% to 33% lower than those published in the previous ASHRAE Fundamentals Handbook (2013). The article also presents recommendations for minimum equipment count required to determine diversity factors for various office equipment in a typical office space. For most tested equipment, 8 to 9 pieces of equipment tested in parallel appears to give acceptable results, for example, ±6% of the predicted value for diversity factor within the predicted 95% confidence interval. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The main aim of this study is to understand the relevant variables underlying the mechanisms of office supply, office demand, and market equilibrium to support municipal decision-making processes. Public decisions, at the local level, are expected to ensure that office prices are kept under control, avoiding the speculative behaviour of real-estate agents and are able to prepare appropriate forms of intervention over supply and demand, in the short term as well as in the medium or long term. In order to reach these goals an identification of the most relevant variables that shape office supply and office demand and their respective elasticities is carried out, and ongoing supply, demand, and market equilibrium hedonic appraisal models are developed. These models allow for: (1) the computation of the influence of the identified variables on office prices (per m2); (2) the measurement of the price gaps between demand and supply according to location; and (3) the characterisation of market balances. Despite short-term adjustments between supply and demand functions, in search of market equilibrium, balances are ephemeral because they are modelled by different factors that change over time. However, these models can be adjusted and applied to different moments in time and extended to other urban contexts. As such they are able to support municipal decisions concerning land-use office location and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study used longitudinal data from an alternative keyboard intervention study to test pathways between physical, work organization/psychosocial, stress and musculoskeletal symptom factors postulated by Sauter and Swanson in their ecological model of musculoskeletal disorders in office work. Data on work organization, stress and musculoskeletal symptoms were collected from 189 office workers at baseline and 1 year later. After baseline, an alternative keyboard was provided to half of the participants, while the remaining participants continued using a conventional keyboard. Regression analyses on the Year 1–baseline difference scores revealed significant relationships for keyboard condition and musculoskeletal symptoms, keyboard condition and work organization and work organization and stress. However, the relationships between work organization and musculoskeletal symptoms, keyboard condition and stress and stress and musculoskeletal symptoms were not significant. Thus, the analyses provided partial support for the tested pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author, who was personally responsible for introducing dictating machines into the offices of a large firm, discusses their advantages and disadvantages from the point of view both of the dictator and the transcriber. He himself strongly favours the machine system, urging that its alleged disadvantages are not inherent, but are due mainly to dislike of novelty or to lack of suitable instruction in the use of the machine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]