• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2022

Background: On the basis of its role for the development of occupational health research, information, good practices, the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) launched the present survey to collect information on public health and prevention policies put in place by the governments of the countries in the world to contain the pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted through an online questionnaire focused on COVID-19 data, public health policies, prevention measures, support measures for economy, work, and education, personal protective equipment, intensive care units, contact tracing, return to work, and the role of ICOH against COVID-19. The questionnaire was administered to 113 ICOH National Secretaries and senior OSH experts. Collected data refer to the period ranging from the beginning of the pandemic in each country to June 30, 2020. Results: A total of 73 questionnaires from 73 countries around the world were considered valid, with a 64.6% response rate. Most of the respondents (71.2%) reported that the state of emergency was declared in their country, and 86.1% reported lockdown measures. Most of the respondents (66.7%) affirmed that the use of face masks was compulsory in their country. As for containment measures, 97.2% indicated that mass gatherings (meetings) were limited. Regarding workplace closing, the most affected sector was entertainment (90.1%). Conclusion: The results of this survey are useful to gain a global view on COVID-19 policy responses at country level.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.213-224
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• 2010

In this paper, we propose an algorithm both geometric correction using a grid point image and radiometric adaptive projection that dependent upon the luminance of the input image and that of the background. This method projects and captures the grid point image then calculates the geometrically corrected position by difference between the two images. Next, to compensate color, a corrected image is calculated by the ratio divided luminance of an input image by luminance of arbitrary surface. In addition, we found the scaling factor which controls the contrast to avoid clipping error. At this time, the scaling factor is dependent on mean image lightness when background is determined. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves good performance and is able to reduce the perceived color clipping and artifacts, better approximating the projection on a white screen.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.215-221
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• 2020

Background: The aim of this study is to illustrate the historical role of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) congresses as an arena where national and international occupational medicine can dialogue and as the first example of scientific transferability of the research and prevention results that have had such an impact on global public health. Methods: We used the ICOH Heritage Repository, in which ICOH congress proceedings (from the first congress in Milan in 1906 to the last congress, held in Dublin in 2018), are organised in an orderly way, updated and easily accessible according to open access logic. Results: We describe studies by three physicians who submitted significant scientific work to ICOH congresses, one on the battle against ancylostomiasis (Volante, 1906), the second (Quarelli, 1928) on carbon disulphide poisoning, and the third (Viola, 1969) on the carcinogenicity of vinyl chloride monomer. Priority is given to Italian cases, on account of the authors' obvious familiarity with the issues. Conclusion: The visibility offered in ICOH conferences and their published proceedings has boosted the international spread of their findings, contributing to the scientific transferability of the research results and influencing the development of policies and prevention interventions that have had a great impact on global public health.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.91-96
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• 2014

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important cause of occupational mortality in miners exposed to coal mine dust. Although the inflammatory mediators involved in COPD have not been defined, many studies have shown that inflammatory mediators such as reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are involved in orchestrating the complex inflammatory process in COPD. Methods: To investigate the relevance of exhaled biomarkers of oxidative and nitrosative stress in participants with COPD, we determined the levels of hydrogen peroxide, malondialdehyde (MDA), and 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) in 90 retired elderly coal miners (53 non-COPD and 37 COPD participants). Results: Mean levels of MDA (4.64 nMvs. 6.46 nM, p = 0.005) and 3-NT (3.51 nMvs. 5.50 nM, p = 0.039) in EBC were significantly higher in participants with COPD. The median level of MDA did show statistical difference among the COPD severities (p = 0.017), and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve forMDA (0.67) for the diagnostic discrimination of COPD indicated the biomarker. The optimal cutoff values were 5.34 nM (64.9% sensitivity and 64.2% specificity) and 5.58 nM (62.2% sensitivity and 62.3% specificity) forMDA and 3-NT, respectively. The results suggest that high levels ofMDA and 3-NT in EBC are associated with COPD in retired elderly miners. Conclusion: These results showed that the elevated levels of EBC MDA and EBC 3-NT in individuals with COPD are biomarkers of oxidative or nitrosative stress.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.2367-2374
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• 2014

This paper proposes a speech enhancement method which can be independently applied to different types of speech recognition systems. Feature compensation methods are well known to be effective as a front-end algorithm for robust speech recognition in noisy environments. The feature types and speech model employed by the feature compensation methods should be matched with ones of the speech recognition system for their effectiveness. However, they cannot be successfully employed by the speech recognition with "unknown" specification, such as a commercialized speech recognition engine. In this paper, a speech enhancement method is proposed, which is based on the PCGMM-based feature compensation method. The experimental results show that the proposed method significantly outperforms the conventional front-end algorithms for unknown speech recognition over various background noise conditions.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.51-55
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• 2019

This paper proposes a speech enhancement method utilizing the feature compensation gain for robust speech recognition performances in noisy environments. In this paper we propose a speech enhancement method utilizing the feature compensation gain which is obtained from the PCGMM (Parallel Combined Gaussian Mixture Model)-based feature compensation method employing variational model composition. The experimental results show that the proposed method significantly outperforms the conventional front-end algorithms and our previous research over various background noise types and SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) conditions in mismatched ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) system condition. The computation complexity is significantly reduced by employing the noise model selection technique with maintaining the speech recognition performance at a similar level.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.229-236
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• 2023

Background: In workers with moderate to severe work-related traumatic brain injury (wrTBI), this study aimed to investigate the effect of the timing of rehabilitation therapy initiation on the length of hospital stay and the factors that can influence this timing. Methods: We used data obtained from the Republic of Korea's nationwide Workers' Compensation Insurance. In the Republic of Korea, between the years 2010 and 2019, a total of 26,324 workers filed a claim for compensation for moderate to severe wrTBI. Multiple regression modeling was performed to compare the length of hospital stay according to the timing of rehabilitation therapy initiation following wrTBI. According to the timing of the initiation of rehabilitation therapy following TBI, the proportions of healthcare institutions that provided medical care during each admission step were compared. Results: The length of hospital stay for workers who started rehabilitation therapy within 90 days was significantly shorter than that for workers who started rehabilitationment were first admitted to tertiary hospitals. Approximately 39% of patients who received delayed rehabilitation treatment were first admitted to general hospitals, and 28.5% were first admitted to primary hospitals. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the importance of early rehabilitation initiation and that the type of healthcare institution that the patient is first admitted to after wrTBI may influence the timing of rehabilitation initiation. The results of this study also emphasize the need to establish a Worker's Compensation Insuranceespecialized rehabilitation healthcare delivery system.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.13-33
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• 1984

This study aims to get basic data for an objective searching examination into the value of household production through grasping the relation between homemaker's consciousness or attitude on it and the socio-economic related variables in today, the economic period of currency exchange. the approach of this study depends on the consultation of concerned references and social survey by questionnaire to explore the homemaker's consciousness. Homemakers with children over six years old were selected as object and stratified, considering each age of them and variety of socio-economic status. 450 homemakers among 600 selected with collecting the data. But only 353 samples are helpful for this analysis. They were calculated by frequency, percentage and the mean value for general characteristics of the families, and the noteworthy degree applied the Chi-square(x2) was measured to investigate the correlation between the related variables and each of items. The data was treated by the SPSS program of Computer Center, Korea Science Institute. The conclusions of this study are as follows; 1) The majority of homemakers have had affirmative consciousness on the household production as well as strong sense of responsibility in doing their duties. But the higher educational background or the standard of living are, the more want they to have a job also have a tendency to have leave the household production to others. 2)The reason that housemaker does not have a job is for being faithful to home life. But the higher educational background she have, the more weight is given to the management such as to husband or to children card, than to household affairs. 3) Homemaker's educational background and experiences in job affect on her spirit of inquiry for rationalization of the household production and social compensation mentality, by having more strong needs of learning for the household production or of socially proper compensation for casualty. 4) Homemakers mostly have affirmative consciousness on division of household affairs, that they think in need to feel the family as one body among themselves and to cultivate co-operative mind.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.5
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• pp.341-348
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• 2011

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate annual changes in pulmonary function in workers who were exposed to inorganic dust. Methods: The subjects were 2,922 male patients who had been diagnosed with pneumoconiosis more than twice during 6 years from 2005 to 2010. Results: Of the 2,922 cases, forced vital capacity (FVC) decreased by 54 mL in 1 year. In contrast, the annual change of forced expiratory volume in one second ($FEV_1$) decreased by 56 mL. Conclusion: This is the first study that has investigated the annual change in pulmonary function in workers exposed to inorganic dust. The results will help estimate the pulmonary condition of patients who are unable to perform a pulmonary function test due to age or a disorder.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.177-184
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• 2005

In this paper, we proposed a new hearing aid algorithm to improve SNR(signal to noise ratio) of noisy speech signal and speech perception. The proposed hearing aid algorithm is a multi-band loudness compensation based independent component analysis (ICA). The proposed algorithm was compared with a conventional spectral subtraction algorithm on behind-the-ear type hearing aid. The proposed algorithm successfully separated a target speech signal from background noise and from a mixture of the speech signals. The algorithms were compared each other by means of SNR. The average improvement of SNR by ICA based algorithm was 16.64dB, whereas spectral subtraction algorithm was 8.67dB. From the clinical tests, we concluded that our proposed algorithm would help hearing aid user to hear clearly a target speech in noisy conditions.