• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2016

Essential tremor is a neurological disorder with a tremor of the arms and hands. It is well known that essential tremor is characterized by the postural tremor and the action tremor. There has been no report on the quantitative difference in the characteristics of two tremor types. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible difference in tremor characteristics of postural and action tremors. Seventeen patients with essential tremor ($68.9{\pm}7.9years$, 7 men, 10 women) participated in this study. Patients performed the tasks of postural maintenance (arms outstretched) and daily actions (spiral drawing). Three-axes (pitch, roll and yaw) gyro sensors were attached on index finger, back of hand and forearm, from which the segment and the joint angular velocities were calculated. Outcome measure was the tremor amplitude defined as the root-mean-square mean of the vector-sum angular velocity at segments and joints. Two-way ANOVA showed that task and joint had main factor on the tremor amplitude (p < 0.05). Post-hoc analysis revealed that tremor amplitude at the metacarpo-phalangeal joint was not affected by task (p > 0.05). However, tremor amplitude at the wrist joint differed among the tasks (p < 0.05), and it was greater in the action tasks than in postural task. Tremor was greater at finger segments than at hand and forearm and it increased in action tasks. The results of this study would be helpful for the understanding and task-specific treatments of the essential tremor.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.17-31
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• 2003

Many risk factors with the onset of Low Back Pain(LBP) have been identified, however, lifting out of Manual Material Handling(MMH) was the most important factor to the LBP. Injuries due to lifting took account for 34.0%(227,291) out of the total overexertion in MMH(668,084). The weight, vertical location, twist angle, lifting frequency, and lifting posture were reviewed in this study. Technical information for using the revised lifting equation to evaluate a variety of two - handled manual material handling tasks was suggested. To measure worker's fatigue in lifting task, Lifting Index Simulator(LIS) was create under the revised NIOSH(National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) lifting equation. For the implementation of the LIS, data was collected in A company manufactures various paints in Si-Wha industrial complex, Kyunggi-Do. The results of the Lifting Index(LI) were analyzed by MANOVA to find the relation with lifting variables collected. It was found that horizontal distance, vertical distance, travelling distance and frequency were significant at the 0.01 level and weight was significant at the 0.05 level. The purpose of this paper is to reduce the chronical low back pain for the manual material handlers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.352-360
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• 2017

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effects on musculoskeletal symptoms of both social demographic features and detailed characteristics of each task category of care workers who offer visiting home-help services. And to establish the measures that can reduce musculoskeletal symptoms among care workers. Methods: This study was conducted among 192 care workers from welfare centers C and K located in city P. After participants completed the task burden checklist regarding the scale of musculoskeletal symptoms and the details of their duties, the data collected were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 program. Results: According to the degree of observable musculoskeletal symptoms in care workers, the highest figures were observed for back and shoulder pain. Based on the results of assessing the effect of detailed task category characteristics on musculoskeletal symptoms, "helping patients eat, helping patients move, helping patients bath, and changing body positions" were found to have an effect from the physical care category, "providing physical therapy assistance, treating bedsores" from the health care category, and "cleaning and doing laundry" from the facility management category. Conclusions: Due to the high proportion of patients requiring burdensome physical labor from care workers such as moving patients who have trouble doing so on their own, helping them change positions, and so on, it is highly likely that pain will occur in the low back, which carries most of the physical weight. So, education on human epidemiological positions that can reduce overload on areas prone to pain such as the low back and shoulders is essential. Proper equipment and personnel support must be provided for dangerous tasks. Further, multidimensional social support is required consistently.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.43-50
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate applicability of NIOSH lifting equation(NLE) to analysis of workload for patient transferring. In principle, the NLE is not applied to analyzing workload of patient transferring, because 1) the task is generally performed by two or more persons; 2) unlike ordinary objects, human body of patients is basically unstable load with their location of the center of mass significantly varying during lifting activity; and 3) the task is done in a restricted work space. This study was conducted through comparison of NIOSH lifting indexes(LIs) and L5/S1 compressive forces by 3DSSPP for patient transferring tasks performed by 2~6 persons. The results showed that LIs are linearly correlated with L5/S1 compressive forces with correlation coefficient of 0.92, which resulted in a significant simple linear regression equation for LIs and L5/S1 compressive forces. Consequently, it was concluded that the NLE is applicable to transferring patient only with slight modification. Based on the results, instead of 1.0 originally used by NIOSH, the LI of 1.5 was proposed as a gauge to estimate whether or not the task needs corrective action to reduce risk for developing lifting-related low back pain.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.695-703
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• 2011

Objective: This study was to investigate the effects of coordinated upper-limb body postures on the subjective discomfort rating, heart rate, and muscle activities. Background: Although generally many checklists such as OWAS, RULA, and REBA were applied to evaluate various body postures, the body postures were might be overestimated or underestimated because each body part(i.e., back, shoulder, and elbow etc.) was evaluated separately, and then added all rates of individual body parts to assess an overall risk level for the body posture in these methodologies. Methods: A total of 20 participants maintained 14 postures which were combinations of back, shoulder, and elbow flexion angles and then muscle activities, subjective discomfort, and heart rates were collected every three minute during a sustained 15 minute and 0.5kg weight holding task. Four muscle groups were investigated: erector spine, anterior deltoid, upper trapezius, triceps brachii. Results: Results showed that subjective discomfort was the lowest when the angle of back and shoulder were both $0^{\circ}s$, while the body posture with $45^{\circ}$ of back angle and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder angle was rated as the most subjective discomfort posture. In general, the subjective discomfort ratings increased as back and shoulder flexion angles increased. It was noted that, however, the subjective discomfort of body posture with a $45^{\circ}$ back angle and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder flexion angle was lower than that of body posture with a $0^{\circ}$ back and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder flexion angle. The research findings of heart rates and muscle activities showed similar results for the analyses of subjective discomfort ratings. Conclusions: The possible limitations of the current ergonomics evaluation techniques which assessing a body posture with summing all body part score after individually analyzed in this study. Based on the analyses of subjective discomfort, heart rate, and muscle activities, it was recommended that a use of effects of coordinated upper-limb body postures would be considered when one evaluates work-load for various working postures. Application: These findings can be used for developing a more accurate assessment checklist for working posture as well as preventing musculoskeletal disorders of workers in workplaces.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2023

Background: Several factors contribute to shoulder pain, including abnormal neck posture, repeated use of the upper limbs, work involving raising the upper limbs above the head, and the effects of vibration. However, previous study has reported that constant vibration exposure could impact improvement of the stability on joints related with muscle recruitment and activation. For this difference reason, we need to verify for the complex study of relationship with repetitive upper limb movements, poor head posture, and constant vibration exposure. Objects: Our study was made to investigate the influence of vibration exposure on the shoulder muscle activity during forward-head and over-head tasks with isometric shoulder flexion. Methods: In a total of 22 healthy subjects, surface electromyography (EMG) data were collected from shoulder muscles (upper/lower trapezius, serratus anterior, and lumbar erector spinae) on tasks (neutral-head task [NHT], forward-head task [FHT], and over-head task [OHT]) with and without vibration exposure. Results: In all tasks, the EMG data of the upper trapezius and serratus anterior significantly increased with vibration exposure (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the EMG data of the lumbar erector spinae significantly increased with vibration exposure in the NHT and FHT (p < 0.05). Conclusion: We suggest that continuous vibration exposure during the use of hand-held tools in the tasks could be associated with harmful effects in the workplace. Lastly, we clinically need to examine the guidelines regarding the optimal posture and vibration exposure.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.345-352
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• 2012

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of Spine-Pelvis Monitor(SPM) that was developed to measure 3-dimensional motion of spine and pelvis using tilt sensor and gyro sensor. Background: The main cause of low back pain is very much associated with the task using the low back and pelvis, but no measurement technique can quantify the both spine and pelvis. Method: For testing the SPM, 125 angles from three anatomical planes were measured three times in order to evaluate the accuracy and reliability. The accuracy of SPM in measuring dynamic motion was evaluated using digital motion analysis system. The motion pattern captured by two measuring methods was compared with each other. In result, the percentage error and Cronbach coefficient alpha were calculated to evaluate the accuracy and reliability. Results: The percentage error was 0.35% in flexion-extension on sagittal plane, 0.43% in lateral bending on coronal plane, and 0.40% in twisting on transverse plane. The Cronbach coefficient alpha was 1.00, 0.99 and 0.99 in sagittal, coronal and transvers plane, respectively. Conclusion: The SPM showed less than 1% error for static measurement, and showed reasonably similar pattern with the digital motion system. Application: The results of this study showed that the SPM can be the measuring method of spine pelvis motion that enhances the kinematic analysis of low back dynamics.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.193-205
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• 2002

To evaluate farmers' workload during harvesting grapes in summer, this study investigated farmers' physiological, psychological responses, work postures and thermal environment around in the field. This field study was conducted in the Anseong County of Kyonggi Province at the end of August. Five career farmers (1 male, 4 females) volunteered as subjects. Three of them were over their sixties. During harvesting grapes in the field, physiological responses were monitored continuously. 1. Air temperature (T/sub a/), air humidity(H/sub a/), black globe temperature(T/sub g/), air velocity and WBGT around the grape field were 26.9℃, 77.7%RH, 32.8℃, 0.08㎧ and 26.3℃, respectively. Because farmers started the harvesting task in early morning, thermal environments weren't conditions to give farmers severe heat strain. 2. The percentage of the work postures was larger in order of standing, walking, and bending one's back posture. Particularly, the percentage of standing posture with raising both arms above shoulder of two farmers was up to 29% and 61% of the total work duration. 3. Rectal temperature (T/sub re/), mean skin temperature (T/sub sk/), clothing microclimate temperature (T/sub cl/) on the chest and the back, heart rate (HR) and energy expenditure (EE) were 37.2℃, 33.1℃, 32.0℃, 32.4℃, 88bpm and 1.3 Kca1/㎡/min respectively. In the point of these physiological results, we evaluated that the harvesting task was a moderate work. 4. All farmers expressed‘hard, hot, humid and slightly uncomfortable’ at the end of works for each subjective questionnaire. The grape harvesting tasks were not evaluated as a very hard work in the point of physiological work standards. But we considered 1) inappropriate work posture (standing posture with raising both arms above shoulder) and 2) farmers' age as burden factors. These findings suggest that adding adequate protective clothing/equipments for farmers may contribute to maintain their body temperature within the normal range, stabilize HR and decrease psychological strain.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.341-353
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate Job Satisfaction of Care Helpers. Method: Subjects included 306 Care Helpers. working at geriatric care facilities; these data were collected from May 4 to May 15, 2012. The SPSS WIN 12.0 program was used for statistical analysis of collected data, including actual number, percentage, average, standard deviation, t-test, one way ANOVA, and Cronbach alpha coefficient. Results: 1. The average Job satisfaction was 3.76 and the average of each job satisfaction was the task (3.83), co-worker (2.23), and job turn over (2.25). 2. The satisfaction of the job itself, depending on back ground, had a significantly effect on age, protective person for a day, duty pattern, contract pattern, and motive. 3. The job satisfaction of human relationships, depending on their back ground, had a significant effect on degree, care-giving experience, duty place, protective person for a day, duty pattern, contract pattern, and duty motive. 4. The Job satisfaction of job turn over, depending on back ground had an. effect on job satisfaction statistically: age, degree, duty place, protective person for a day, duty pattern, and motive. Conclusion: These results found showed to contribute to job satisfaction of care helpers.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.45-52
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• 2023

Previous studies have established a role for cognitive differences in explaining variability in speech processing across individuals. In the case of perceptual cue weighting in the context of a sound change, studies have produced conflicting results regarding the relationship between executive function and the use of redundant cues. The current study aimed to explore this relationship in acoustic cue weighting during speech production. Forty-one Korean-speaking children read a list of stop-initial words and completed two tests that assess executive function, i.e., Dimensional Change Card Sorting (DCCS) and digit n-back. Voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) were measured in each word, and analyses were carried out to determine the extent to which children's executive function predicted their use of both informative and less informative cues to the three pairs comprising the Korean three-way stop laryngeal contrast. No evidence was found for a relationship between cognitive ability and acoustic cue weighting in production, which is at odds with previous, albeit conflicting, results for speech perception. While this result may be due to the lack of task demands in the production task used here, it nevertheless expands the empirical ground upon which future work in this area may proceed.