For lower limb disabled driving a car, mechanical manual controllers are mainly used to control the brake and accelerator. However, the joystick is used chiefly to drive an airplane; is seldom used in driving a car. This study aimed to evaluate the usability of the joystick-style and mechanical manual controller for the lower-limb disabled driving vehicle. Twenty participants were divided into experimental and control groups (10 persons for each group). The experimental group was lower disabled the control group was the non-disabled. Each subject performed a driving simulator experiment with the two manual controllers. Driving performance, physiological load, and SUS score were collected during the investigation. From the statistical results of this study, it can be found that there are significant differences in the average completion time between the two manual controllers, and both groups spent less time with the joystick-type. For the SUS (System Usability Scale) results, the control group thinks the joystick-type is more suitable for use. Both groups had a significantly better driving performance with the joystick-type manual controller than the mechanical manual one. They also had a considerably lower physiological load (relative heart rate) with the joystick-type manual controller than the mechanical manual one. However, they had similar subjective assessments between the two tested controllers. This study provides an advanced investigation for applying a joystick in driving a car. But, further experiments should be conducted on the road to confirm safety and efficiency.

BackgroundIn Taiwan, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among people over the age of 20 years is as high as 19.7%. With the increase in age, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome is even higher, with the prevalence being more than 30 years among those aged 45–65 years. Notably, very limited follow-up studies have examined the incidence and risk factors of metabolic syndrome among workers of different job categories in Taiwan.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective follow-up study that included 6,284 Taiwanese subjects who had been working in the same job category for 5 years and who received periodic health checkups at a regional hospital from 2006 to 2017 to better understand the incidence rate and risk factors of metabolic syndrome in Taiwan. All participants’ demographic data and health examination data were then analyzed. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed according to the criteria proposd by the US National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Third Report of the Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (ATP III).ResultsAfter an average follow-up of 6.0 years, the incidence rate of metabolic syndrome among workers who had been working in the same job category for five years was 32.42 per 1000 person-years. Moreover, the largest number of cases with metabolic syndrome appeared in the transportation industry.ConclusionThe results of this study should help the employers of various industries to better plan health education and monitoring programs of their employees to ameliorate the incidence of metabolic syndrome.