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Background: Young students with skeletal immaturity report an increasing number of musculoskeletal symptoms associated with daily use of heavy backpacks. This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between heavy backpack use and reports of pain. Methods: Data were collected from 300 students aged 11 to 18 at the University of Toronto Schools. Results: Students, on average, carried 15.9% of their body weight. 54% of students reported physiological complaints, primarily back, shoulder, neck, and leg pain. Backpack weight as a % of body weight was strongly associated with pain complaints. Younger students and those with longer commutes were more likely to report heavy backpacks (50% compared to 22.6% of older students, p< .001) and pain. Conclusion: Carrying heavy backpacks could result in increased musculoskeletal complaints in young students. Findings suggest that even the upper bound of currently recommended guidelines (20% of body weight) may be too high, especially for younger children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS) have the potential to reduce occurrences and severity of collisions with Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). However, the nearly infinite number of possible VRU visual appearances (e.g., size, clothing, accessories) represent a technical challenge as systems need to correctly detect and identify VRUs to take adequate mitigation measures. The aim of this study was to determine, through track testing, which parameters affect systems' capabilities in detecting pedestrians. The standardized articulated adult male pedestrian (EPTa) and seven-year-old articulated child pedestrian (EPTc) targets were used as the control group. Evaluations on the track followed the Euro NCAP AEB-VRU test protocols, and derivatives thereof. An iterative test approach was used to benchmark the detection capabilities of systems with variations in target configuration and environmental conditions against the control group (baseline condition). Over 1,000 track tests using 24 configurations and 13 vehicles (model years 2019-2021) were conducted. The environmental conditions included nighttime and snow-covered roads. Pedestrians were dressed in winter clothing and/or equipped with accessories, including a hat, jackets of different colors, backpack, umbrella, and a scooter. Other scenarios involved parked vehicles as obstructions or using multiple pedestrian targets (to simulate a parent crossing the road with child or a crowd waiting at an intersection) to challenge the vehicles with realistic urban-like scenarios. This study illustrates how the variation of parameters outside the baseline condition can affect a vehicles' safety performance. Weather conditions and urban-like scenarios on the test track affected some systems more than others. The validity of these findings is however limited by the small vehicle sample size and number of tests performed per scenario. In Canada, vehicles are exposed to less-than-ideal road conditions and a wide range of pedestrian profiles. The vehicles tested demonstrated various levels of performance and capabilities when mitigating collisions with pedestrians. The research illustrates the safety risks associated with weather and types of VRUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Defence Research and Development Canada--Toronto managed a collaborative team of designers, biomechanists, ergonomists and military stakeholders in the development of a new personal load carriage (LC) system for the Canadian Forces. Ergonomics design principles using objective measurement tools and user-centred feedback from soldiers were considered essential to system development. The purpose of this study was to provide a detailed report of contributions by biomechanical testing to the final design of the final Canadian LC system. The Load Carriage Simulator and Compliance Tester were used to test design iterations of: three fragmentation vests, seven tactical vests and three iterations of the backpack. Test data were compared to a data pool of seventeen previously tested systems. Results indicated that the objective measures helped the design team by: (1) quantifying and understanding the consequences of various design changes; (2) predicting soldiers' responses to design changes in skin contact pressure, force and relative motion; (3) objectively comparing design iterations to other systems; and (4) providing information quickly so that ideas and recommendations could be incorporated into the next design iteration. It was concluded that objective assessments added valuable information not easily interpreted from human trials. However, objective assessments cannot replace human trials for feedback on functionality and features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]