The Impact of the Secular Trend of the Slovak Population on the Production of Wooden Beds and Seating Furniture

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript is focused on the investigation and evaluation of the development of selected anthropometric dimensions of the Slovak population on the production of furniture items (wooden beds and seating furniture). In general, the manuscript is very well-written, structured, and informative, but still needs some minor improvements. Please, see below my comments on your work:

In general, the title (lines 2-3), the abstract (lines 10 to 18), and the keywords (lines 19-20) are relevant to the scope of the manuscript. I would recommend adding more specific results obtained from your research in the abstract of the manuscript, now it is a bit general.

In the keywords, I’d recommend adding also “ergonomics”.

Line 52: the statement about the “perfect dimensional stability” of wood is not 100% true. In fact, along with the susceptibility to fungi and insect attacks, the dimensional stability, especially in a humid environment, as one of the main drawbacks of natural (untreated) wood. Please revise.

Line 53: The statement “…and does not emit toxic substances” is also only partially true. There are many tree species, which cause severe health problems, allergies, irritations, nausea, etc. Please revise.

Lines 57-58: the statement “The extent of these features can be influenced by several environmental factors.” needs further explanation, supported by relevant references, please revise.

In general, the Introduction part is well-written, informative, and provides a relevant background of the research.

Lines 66-67: the word “person” is used three times in this sentence, please revise in order to avoid this repetition.

Lines 89-94 and lines 101-113: please provide a relevant reference(s) to support the information about Somatometry.

Line 121: the numbers of men and women given in this line differ from the ones given in Table 1. Please explain/revise.

Overall, the Materials and Methods section is well written but should be further elaborated based on the comments above.

Line 151: This information has already been included in the Materials and methods section, no need to repeat it here.

Lines 155-156: this is general information related to the definition of ‘percentile’, which you have already provided in the previous section, please revise.

Figures 1-9: you have previously mentioned, that the period of your research is from 1993 to 2022. However, no data for 2022 can be seen in all the figures. Please explain or revise. In addition, there is a ‘gap’ in the research period from 1993 to 1998. Please explain this as well.

In general, the results of the study are informative and clearly presented in a graphical form.  They are also properly discussed in the next section of the manuscript with relevant research works.

Lines 301-302: “From an economic point of view, the mentioned changes can reach up to 50% of the current costs”. Please explain/justify this statement.

In general, the Conclusion part (lines 295-311) reflects the main findings of the manuscript.

The References cited are appropriate to the topic of the manuscript. Please also refer to the Instructions for Authors for the proper way of formatting your references.

Best regards!

 

 

Author Response

The manuscript is focused on the investigation and evaluation of the development of selected anthropometric dimensions of the Slovak population on the production of furniture items (wooden beds and seating furniture). In general, the manuscript is very well-written, structured, and informative, but still needs some minor improvements. Please, see below my comments on your work:

In general, the title (lines 2-3), the abstract (lines 10 to 18), and the keywords (lines 19-20) are relevant to the scope of the manuscript. I would recommend adding more specific results obtained from your research in the abstract of the manuscript, now it is a bit general.

Supplemented

In the keywords, I’d recommend adding also “ergonomics”.

accepted

Line 52: the statement about the “perfect dimensional stability” of wood is not 100% true. In fact, along with the susceptibility to fungi and insect attacks, the dimensional stability, especially in a humid environment, as one of the main drawbacks of natural (untreated) wood. Please revise.

Supplemented   .. with proper processing and care ...

 

Line 53: The statement “…and does not emit toxic substances” is also only partially true. There are many tree species, which cause severe health problems, allergies, irritations, nausea, etc. Please revise.

Explanation: in our case, it's just the production of furniture in a classic way from beech and spruce, which do not emit toxic substances

Lines 57-58: the statement “The extent of these features can be influenced by several environmental factors.” needs further explanation, supported by relevant references, please revise.

In general, the Introduction part is well-written, informative, and provides a relevant background of the research.

These environmental factors are discussed in detail and described in the cited literature no. 14 and 15.

Lines 66-67: the word “person” is used three times in this sentence, please revise in order to avoid this repetition.

corrected

Lines 89-94 and lines 101-113: please provide a relevant reference(s) to support the information about Somatometry.

Was supplemented

SKROTZKI, R. 2008. Hardware ergonomie. [online]. Bochum: Institut für Arbeitswissenschaft, Ruhr-Universität. [cit. 2022.16.09.]. https://www.imtm-iaw.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2011/08/hardware_ergonomie2011.pdf

Line 121: the numbers of men and women given in this line differ from the ones given in Table 1. Please explain/revise.

corrected

Overall, the Materials and Methods section is well written but should be further elaborated based on the comments above.

Line 151: This information has already been included in the Materials and methods section, no need to repeat it here.

deleted

Lines 155-156: this is general information related to the definition of ‘percentile’, which you have already provided in the previous section, please revise.

deleted

Figures 1-9: you have previously mentioned, that the period of your research is from 1993 to 2022. However, no data for 2022 can be seen in all the figures. Please explain or revise. In addition, there is a ‘gap’ in the research period from 1993 to 1998. Please explain this as well.

2022 – corrected

The gap in the years 1993-1998 arose due to the later acquisition of some anthropometric data

In general, the results of the study are informative and clearly presented in a graphical form.  They are also properly discussed in the next section of the manuscript with relevant research works.

Lines 301-302: “From an economic point of view, the mentioned changes can reach up to 50% of the current costs”. Please explain/justify this statement.

supplemented

In general, the Conclusion part (lines 295-311) reflects the main findings of the manuscript.

The References cited are appropriate to the topic of the manuscript. Please also refer to the Instructions for Authors for the proper way of formatting your references.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

I think this study is very usefull for the furnitrue design  in youe own country. However, some issues must be corrected. Please see attachment. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Reviewer 2

Thank you for your review. In the parts of the review where you only underlined the text in red, we don't know what modification you had in mind.

Line 51 In this paragraph, the importance of wood for furniture was emphasized. However, as known, the joint is critical important point for wooden furniture (doi: 10.15376/biores.17.2.2143-2156). So i recommended that you add this discussion in this paragraph.

In this section, we primarily evaluate wood as raw material and its suitability for constructing furniture, we do not analyze the critical properties of already manufactured wood furniture. However, we have supplemented the citation.

 

In this section. You wrote so many words to introduce the known information. However, it is difficult to obtain what is materials and method you used. Actually, this study is not a typical experimental research. You can change the title of the section as "Experimental design" or describe the materials and method you used in a concise way. In addition, most of words were concentrated on describing the anthropometric dimensions, too less on furniture.

The title of the section was changed

 Line 75 – 94 This paragraph is better placed in section of introduction.

The paragraph was replaced in to the introduction.

Lines 116-117 Use a diagram to indicate each dimension you measured.

The diagram was added in figure 1.

 

How did you get this data? Was this measured by yourself or just cited from other published document? The setup and measuring method should be presented by photo or diagram, which is more readable for readers.

The data were measured over several years and were conducted under the guidance of one of the authors of the article. The database was gradually supplemented and updated. Part of the database has already been used in other articles, but it has not been used in such a comprehensive way in any work. The method of measurement is described (with an anthropometer), which we have added to illustrate which dimensions were involved. The measurement procedure is precisely described in the works cited.

Line 132 Why not 50 % or 99%?

Since it was a question of visualizing the secular trend expressed using average values, this value was chosen as the most representative. For the given type of graphic output, statistics is also the default in the program. 95 % of this value represent the 95 % of population.

Line 149: The subjects you choose is university students ranging from 18-25. But you used it to represent the adult in your country, it obviously not reasonable. It only useful to instructing the furniture in University.

University students aged 18-25 were selected as a sample because students from all over the country study at the university, thus ensuring diversity and a representative sample of the entire population.

The age 18-25 was chosen purposefully because at this age the growth of a person is already finished

 

Line 150 The data listed in all figures only until to 2021.

Was corrected.

Table 1 Has these data been published in other place? In my memory, i saw relevant study previously.

Data from the complete database from 1993-2021 are published in such a comprehensive form for the first time. Likewise, the statistical parameters are calculated from them.

 

Figures If possible, all figures should be presented in a more nice-looking way.

The format of the images follows from the settings of the statistical software. In our opinion, they are sufficiently representative. It would be possible to change the colors of the lines or the background, but this would not fundamentally affect the informative value of the images.

 

Line 263 Literatures should be added for readers's reference.

Literature was added

 

Line 285 BMI Fully spell it.

Corrected

 

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors

The manuscript has been improved even though the figures were not unpdated. 

Author Response

The reviewer did not specify exactly how the images should be edited/improved. This is a standard graphic output from the STATISTICA software. Changing the colors of the lines or the background will not change the informative value of the images. We changed the contrast and brightness of the images for better clarity.