• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.183-196
• /
• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this research was to assess the agreement between job physical risk factor analysis by ergonomists using ergonomic methods and physical examinations made by occupational physicians on the presence of musculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremities. Background: Ergonomics is the systematic application of principles concerned with the design of devices and working conditions for enhancing human capabilities and optimizing working and living conditions. Proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent injuries and physical and emotional stress. The major types of ergonomic injuries and incidents are cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs), acute strains, sprains, and system failures. Minimization of use of excessive force and awkward postures can help to prevent such injuries Method: Initial data were collected as part of a larger study by the University of Utah Ergonomics and Safety program field data collection teams and medical data collection teams from the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (RMCOEH). Subjects included 173 male and female workers, 83 at Beehive Clothing (a clothing plant), 74 at Autoliv (a plant making air bags for vehicles), and 16 at Deseret Meat (a meat-processing plant). Posture and effort levels were analyzed using a software program developed at the University of Utah (Utah Ergonomic Analysis Tool). The Ergonomic Epicondylitis Model (EEM) was developed to assess the risk of epicondylitis from observable job physical factors. The model considers five job risk factors: (1) intensity of exertion, (2) forearm rotation, (3) wrist posture, (4) elbow compression, and (5) speed of work. Qualitative ratings of these physical factors were determined during video analysis. Personal variables were also investigated to study their relationship with epicondylitis. Logistic regression models were used to determine the association between risk factors and symptoms of epicondyle pain. Results: Results of this study indicate that gender, smoking status, and BMI do have an effect on the risk of epicondylitis but there is not a statistically significant relationship between EEM and epicondylitis. Conclusion: This research studied the relationship between an Ergonomic Epicondylitis Model (EEM) and the occurrence of epicondylitis. The model was not predictive for epicondylitis. However, it is clear that epicondylitis was associated with some individual risk factors such as smoking status, gender, and BMI. Based on the results, future research may discover risk factors that seem to increase the risk of epicondylitis. Application: Although this research used a combination of questionnaire, ergonomic job analysis, and medical job analysis to specifically verify risk factors related to epicondylitis, there are limitations. This research did not have a very large sample size because only 173 subjects were available for this study. Also, it was conducted in only 3 facilities, a plant making air bags for vehicles, a meat-processing plant, and a clothing plant in Utah. If working conditions in other kinds of facilities are considered, results may improve. Therefore, future research should perform analysis with additional subjects in different kinds of facilities. Repetition and duration of a task were not considered as risk factors in this research. These two factors could be associated with epicondylitis so it could be important to include these factors in future research. Psychosocial data and workplace conditions (e.g., low temperature) were also noted during data collection, and could be used to further study the prevalence of epicondylitis. Univariate analysis methods could be used for each variable of EEM. This research was performed using multivariate analysis. Therefore, it was difficult to recognize the different effect of each variable. Basically, the difference between univariate and multivariate analysis is that univariate analysis deals with one predictor variable at a time, whereas multivariate analysis deals with multiple predictor variables combined in a predetermined manner. The univariate analysis could show how each variable is associated with epicondyle pain. This may allow more appropriate weighting factors to be determined and therefore improve the performance of the EEM.

• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.249-269
• /
• 2020

Recently, as the online market has matured, it is facing many problems to prevent the growth. The most common problem is the homogenization of online products, which fails to increase the number of customers any more. Moreover, although the portion of the online market has increased significantly, it now becomes essential to expand offline for further development. In response, many online firms have recently sought to expand their businesses and marketing channels by securing offline spaces that can complement the limitations of online platforms, on top of their existing advantages of online channels. Based on their competitive advantage in terms of analyzing large volumes of customer data utilizing information technologies (e.g., big data and artificial intelligence), they are reinforcing their offline influence as well through this online for offline (O4O) business model. On the other hand, most of the existing research has primarily focused on online to offline (O2O) business model, and there is still a lack of research on O4O business models, which have been actively attempted in various industrial fields in recent years. Since a few of O4O-related studies have been conducted only in an experience marketing setting following a case study method, it is critical to conduct an empirical study on O4O selection attributes and their impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore, focusing on China's representative O4O business model, 'Fresh Hema,' this study attempts to identify some key selection attributes specialized for O4O services from the customers' viewpoint and examine the impact of these attributes on customer satisfaction and loyalty. The results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) with 300 O4O (Fresh Hema) experienced customers, reveal that, out of seven O4O selection attributes, four (mobile app quality, mobile payment, product quality, and store facilities) have an impact on customer satisfaction, which also leads to customer loyalty (reuse intention, recommendation intention, and brand attachment). This study would help managers in an O4O area well adapt to rapidly changing customer needs and provide them with some guidelines for enhancing both customer satisfaction and loyalty by allocating more resources to more significant selection attributes, rather than less significant ones.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.628-636
• /
• 2018

Because large buoys are mainly made of steel, they are heavy and vulnerable to corrosion by sea water. This makes buoy installation and maintenance difficult. Moreover, vessel collision accidents with buoys and damage to vessels due to the material of buoys (e.g., steel) are reported every year. Recently, light buoys adopting eco-friendly and lightweight materials have come into the spotlight in order to solve the previously-mentioned problems. In Korea, a new lightweight buoy with a 7-Nautical Mile lantern adopting expanded polypropylene (EPP) and aluminum to create a buoyant body and tower structure, respectively, was developed in 2017. When these light buoys are operated in the ocean, the visibility and angle of light from the lantern installed on the light buoys changes, which may cause them to function improperly. Therefore, research on the performance of light buoys is needed since the weight distribution and motion characteristics of these new buoys differ from conventional models. In this study, stability estimation and motion analyses for newly-developed buoys under various environmental conditions considering a mooring line were carried out using ANSYS AQWA. Numerical simulations for the estimation of wind and current loads were performed using commercial CFD software, Siemens STAR-CCM+, to increase the accuracy of motion analysis. By comparing the estimated maximum significant motions of the light buoys, it was found that waves and currents were more influential in the motion of the buoys. And, the estimated motions of the buoys became larger as the sea state became worser, which might be the reason that the peak frequencies of the wave spectra got closer to those of the buoys.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.851-870
• /
• 2000

The major goals of periodontal therapy is the functional regeneration of periodontal supporting structures already destructed by periodontal disease as well as the reduction of signs and symptoms of progressive periodontal disease. There have been many efforts to develop materials and therapeutic methods to promote periodontal wound healing. There have been increasing interest on the chitosan made by chitin. Chitin is second only to cellulose as the most abundant natural biopolymer. It is a structural component of the exoskeleton of invertebrates(e.g., shrimp, crabs, lobsters), of the cell wall of fungi, and of the cuticle of insects. Chitosan is a derivative of chitin made by deacetylation of side chains. Many experiments using chitosan in various animal models have proven its beneficial effects. The aim of this study is to evaluate the osteogenesis of chitosan on the calvarial critical size defect in Sprague Dawley rats. An 8 mm surgical defect was produced with a trephine bur in the area of the midsagittal suture. The rats were divided into two groups: Untreated control group versus experimental group with 50mg of soluble chitosan gel. The animals were sacrificed at 2, 4 and 8 weeks after surgical procedure. The specimens were examined by histologic, histomorphometric and radiodensitometric analyses. The results are as follows: 1. The length of newly formed bone in the defects was $102.91{\pm}25.46{\mu}m$, $219.46{\pm}97.81{\mu}m$ at the 2 weeks, $130.95{\pm}39.24{\mu}m$, $212.39{\pm}89.22{\mu}m$ at the 4 weeks, $181.53{\pm}76.35{\mu}m$ and $257.12{\pm}51.22{\mu}m$ at the 8 weeks in the control group and experimental group respectively. At all periods, the means of experimental group was greater than those of control group. But, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. 2. The area of newly formed bone in the defects was $2962.06{\pm}1284.48{\mu}m^2$, $5194.88{\pm}1247.88{\mu}m^2$ at the 2 weeks, $5103.25{\pm}1375.88{\mu}m^2$, $7751.43{\pm}2228.20{\mu}m^2$ at the 4 weeks and $8046.20{\pm}818.99{\mu}m^2$, $15578.57{\pm}5606.55{\mu}m^2$ at the 8 weeks in the control group and experimental group respectively. At all periods, the means of experimental group was greater than those of control group. The experimental group showed statistically significant difference to the control group at the 2 and 8 weeks. 3. The density of newly formed bone in the defects was $14.26{\pm}6.33%$, $27.91{\pm}6.65%$ at the 2 weeks, $20.06{\pm}9.07%$, $27.86{\pm}8.20%$ at the 4 weeks and $22.99{\pm}3.76%$, $32.17{\pm}6.38%$ at the 8 weeks in the control group and experimental group respectively. At all periods, the means of experimental group was greater than those of control group. The experimental group showed statistically significant difference to the control group at the 2 and 8 weeks. These results suggest that the use of chitosan on the calvarial defects in rats has significant effect on the regeneration of bone tissue in itself

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.163-192
• /
• 2009

Currently, our country operates gifted education only as a special curriculum, which results in many problems, e.g., there are few beneficiaries of gifted education, considerable time and effort are required to gifted students, and gifted students' educational needs are ignored during the operation of regular curriculum. In order to solve these problems, the present study formulates the following research questions, finding it advisable to conduct gifted education in elementary regular classrooms within the scope of the regular curriculum. A. To devise a teaching plan for the gifted students on mathematics in the elementary school regular classroom. B. To develop a learning program for the gifted students in the elementary school regular classroom. C. To apply an in-depth learning program to gifted students in mathematics and analyze the effectiveness of the program. In order to answer these questions, a teaching plan was provided for the gifted students in mathematics using a differentiating instruction type. This type was developed by researching literature reviews. Primarily, those on characteristics of gifted students in mathematics and teaching-learning models for gifted education. In order to instruct the gifted students on mathematics in the regular classrooms, an in-depth learning program was developed. The gifted students were selected through teachers' recommendation and an advanced placement test. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the gifted education in mathematics and the possibility of the differentiating teaching type in the regular classrooms were determined. The analysis was applied through an in-depth learning program of selected gifted students in mathematics. To this end, an in-depth learning program developed in the present study was applied to 6 gifted students in mathematics in one first grade class of D Elementary School located in Nowon-gu, Seoul through a 10-period instruction. Thereafter, learning outputs, math diaries, teacher's checklist, interviews, video tape recordings the instruction were collected and analyzed. Based on instruction research and data analysis stated above, the following results were obtained. First, it was possible to implement the gifted education in mathematics using a differentiating instruction type in the regular classrooms, without incurring any significant difficulty to the teachers, the gifted students, and the non-gifted students. Specifically, this instruction was effective for the gifted students in mathematics. Since the gifted students have self-directed learning capability, the teacher can teach lessons to the gifted students individually or in a group, while teaching lessons to the non-gifted students. The teacher can take time to check the learning state of the gifted students and advise them, while the non-gifted students are solving their problems. Second, an in-depth learning program connected with the regular curriculum, was developed for the gifted students, and greatly effective to their development of mathematical thinking skills and creativity. The in-depth learning program held the interest of the gifted students and stimulated their mathematical thinking. It led to the creative learning results, and positively changed their attitude toward mathematics. Third, the gifted students with the most favorable results who took both teacher's recommendation and advanced placement test were more self-directed capable and task committed. They also showed favorable results of the in-depth learning program. Based on the foregoing study results, the conclusions are as follows: First, gifted education using a differentiating instruction type can be conducted for gifted students on mathematics in the elementary regular classrooms. This type of instruction conforms to the characteristics of the gifted students in mathematics and is greatly effective. Since the gifted students in mathematics have self-directed learning capabilities and task-commitment, their mathematical thinking skills and creativity were enhanced during individual exploration and learning through an in-depth learning program in a differentiating instruction. Second, when a differentiating instruction type is implemented, beneficiaries of gifted education will be enhanced. Gifted students and their parents' satisfaction with what their children are learning at school will increase. Teachers will have a better understanding of gifted education. Third, an in-depth learning program for gifted students on mathematics in the regular classrooms, should conform with an instructing and learning model for gifted education. This program should include various and creative contents by deepening the regular curriculum. Fourth, if an in-depth learning program is applied to the gifted students on mathematics in the regular classrooms, it can enhance their gifted abilities, change their attitude toward mathematics positively, and increase their creativity.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.162-173
• /
• 2009

Information on the expected geographical shift of suitable zones for growing crops under future climate is a starting point of adaptation planning in agriculture and is attracting much concern from policy makers as well as researchers. Few practical schemes have been developed, however, because of the difficulty in implementing the site-selection concept at an analytical level. In this study, we suggest site-selection criteria for quality Fuji apple production and integrate geospatial data and information available in public domains (e.g., digital elevation model, digital soil maps, digital climate maps, and predictive models for agroclimate and fruit quality) to implement this concept on a GIS platform. Primary criterion for selecting sites suitable for Fuji apple production includes land cover, topography, and soil texture. When the primary criterion is satisfied, climatic conditions such as the length of frost free season, freezing risk during the overwintering period, and the late frost risk in spring are tested as the secondary criterion. Finally, the third criterion checks for fruit quality such as color and shape. Land attributes related to these factors in each criterion were implemented in ArcGIS environment as relevant raster layers for spatial analysis, and retrieval procedures were automated by writing programs compatible with ArcGIS. This scheme was applied to the A1B projected climates for South Korea in the future normal years (2011-2040, 2041-2070, and 2071-2100) as well as the current climate condition observed in 1971-2000 for selecting the sites suitable for quality Fuji apple production in each period. Results showed that this scheme can figure out the geographical shift of suitable zones at landscape scales as well as the latitudinal shift of northern limit for cultivation at national or regional scales.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.37 no.5_1
• /
• pp.903-916
• /
• 2021

An area's topography refers to the shape of the earth's surface, described by its elevation, slope, and aspect, among other features. The topographical conditions determine energy flowsthat move water and energy from higher to lower elevations, such as how much solar energy will be received and how much wind or rain will affect it. Another common factor, the topographic wetness index (TWI), is a calculation in digital elevation models of the tendency to accumulate water per slope and unit area, and is one of the most widely referenced hydrologic topographic factors, which helps explain the location of forest vegetation. Analyses of topographical factors can be calculated using a geographic information system (GIS) program based on digital elevation model (DEM) data. Recently, a large number of free open source software (FOSS) GIS programs are available and developed for researchers, industries, and governments. FOSS GIS programs provide opportunitiesfor flexible algorithms customized forspecific user needs. The majority of biodiversity in island areas exists at about 20% higher elevations than in land ecosystems, playing an important role in ecological processes and therefore of high ecological value. However, island areas are vulnerable to disturbances and damage, such as through climate change, environmental pollution, development, and human intervention, and lacks systematic investigation due to geographical limitations (e.g. remoteness; difficulty to access). More than 4,000 of Korea's islands are within a few hours of its coast, and 88% are uninhabited, with 52% of them forested. The forest ecosystems of islands have fewer encounters with human interaction than on land, and therefore most of the topographical conditions are formed naturally and affected more directly by weather conditions or the environment. Therefore, the analysis of forest topography in island areas can be done more precisely than on its land counterparts, and therefore has become a major focus of attention in Korea. This study is focused on calculating the performance of different topographical factors using FOSS GIS programs. The test area is the island forests in Korea's south and the DEM of the target area was processed with GRASS GIS and SAGA GIS. The final slopes and TWI maps were produced as comparisons of the differences between topographic factor calculations of each respective FOSS GIS program. Finally, the merits of each FOSS GIS program used to calculate the topographic factors is discussed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.85-96
• /
• 2019

Solar radiation is an important variable for estimation of energy balance and water cycle in natural and agricultural ecosystems. A deep neural network (DNN) model has been developed in order to estimate the daily global solar radiation. Temperature and precipitation, which would have wider availability from weather stations than other variables such as sunshine duration, were used as inputs to the DNN model. Five-fold cross-validation was applied to train and test the DNN models. Meteorological data at 15 weather stations were collected for a long term period, e.g., > 30 years in Korea. The DNN model obtained from the cross-validation had relatively small value of RMSE ($3.75MJ\;m^{-2}\;d^{-1}$) for estimates of the daily solar radiation at the weather station in Suwon. The DNN model explained about 68% of variation in observed solar radiation at the Suwon weather station. It was found that the measurements of solar radiation in 1985 and 1998 were considerably low for a small period of time compared with sunshine duration. This suggested that assessment of the quality for the observation data for solar radiation would be needed in further studies. When data for those years were excluded from the data analysis, the DNN model had slightly greater degree of agreement statistics. For example, the values of $R^2$ and RMSE were 0.72 and $3.55MJ\;m^{-2}\;d^{-1}$, respectively. Our results indicate that a DNN would be useful for the development a solar radiation estimation model using temperature and precipitation, which are usually available for downscaled scenario data for future climate conditions. Thus, such a DNN model would be useful for the impact assessment of climate change on crop production where solar radiation is used as a required input variable to a crop model.