• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.248-259
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• 2021

BACKGROUND: Contaminated water was a major source of food-borne pathogens in various recent fresh produce-related outbreaks. This study was conducted to investigate the microbial contamination level and correlations between the level of sanitary indicator bacteria and the detection ratio of pathogens in agricultural water by logistic regression analysis. METHODS AND RESULTS: Agricultural water was collected from 457 sites including surface water (n=300 sites) and groundwater (n=157 sites) in South Korea from 2018 to 2020. Sanitary indicator bacteria (total coliform, fecal coliform, and Escherichia coli) and food-borne pathogens (pathogenic E. coli, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., and Listeria monocytogenes) were analyzed. In surface water, the coliform, fecal coliform, and E. coli were 3.27±0.89 log CFU/100 mL, 1.90±1.19 log CFU/100 mL, and 1.39±1.26 log CFU/100 mL, respectively. For groundwater, three kinds of sanitary indicators ranged in the level from 0.09 - 0.57 log CFU/100 mL. Pathogenic E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes were detected from 3%-site, 1.5%- site, and 0.6%-site water samples, respectively. According to the results of correlations between the level of sanitary indicator bacteria and the detection ratio of pathogens by logistic regression analysis, the probability of pathogen detection increased individually by 1.45 and 1.34 times as each total coliform and E. coli concentration increased by 1 log CFU/100mL. The accuracy of the model was 70.4%, and sensitivity and specificity were 81.5% and 51.7%, respectively. CONCLUSION(S): The results indicate the need to manage the microbial risk of agricultural water to enhance the safety of fresh produce. In addition, logistic regression analysis is useful to analyze the correlation between the level of sanitary indicator bacteria and the detection ratio of pathogens in agricultural water.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.281-289
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• 2021

Commercially used disposable cups undergo fragmentation in the environment and become microplastics (MPs). These MPs can be ingested by aquatic organisms and cause a range of adverse effects. We assessed the acute and chronic toxicity of disposable cup-derived MP fragments in Daphnia magna. MP fragments were identified as a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fragment with a size of 33.18 ± 7.76 ㎛. The presence of three additives including 1- Propanone. 1-phenyl-3-[2-(phenylmethoxy)phenyl]-, p-Xylene and ethylbenzene was analyzed from MP fragments. The 48 h acute toxicity revealed that 20 % of immobilization and mortality were found at the highest concentration of PET MP (200 mg L^-1). The 21 d chronic toxicity revealed that PET MP fragments significantly (p < 0.05) more reduced survival rate (31 %), total offspring (52 %) in D. magna compared with control group. The developmental abnormality of offspring (3.5%) by PET MP fragments was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than control groups (0.3%). These results are possibly induced by gut blocking by ingestion of MP fragments and their longer retention time. These findings indicate that the fragmentation of disposable cups (PET polymers) into small-sized MP fragments pose a significant ecological risk to aquatic organisms. Further studies are required to elucidate the underlying toxicity mechanisms.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.27-38
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• 2021

We devised the system to automatically shutdown the boiler and to fundamentally block the harmful gases, including carbon monoxide, into the indoor when the exhaust system swerves: (1) The discharge pressure of the exhaust gas decreases when the exhaust pipe is disconnected. The monitoring system of the exhaust pipe is implemented by measuring the output voltage of APS(Air Pressure Sensor) installed to control the amount of combustion air. (2) The operating software was modified so that when the system recognizes the fault condition of a flue pipe, the boiler control unit displays the fault status on the indoor regulator while shutting down the boiler. In accordance with the ventilation facility standards in the "Rules for Building Equipment Standards" by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, experiments were conducted to ventilate indoor air. When carbon monoxide leaked in worst-case scenario, it was possible to prevent poisoning accidents. However, since 2013, the number of indoor air exchange times has been mitigated from 0.7 to 0.5 times per hour. We observed the concentration exceeding TWA 30 ppm occasionally and thus recommend to reinforce this criterion. In conclusion, if the flue pipe fault detection and the indoor air ventilation system are introduced, carbon monoxide poisoning accidents are expected to decrease significantly. Also when the manufacturing and inspection steps, the correct installation and repair are supplemented with the user's attention in missing flue, it will be served to prevent human casualties from carbon monoxide poisoning.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.111-122
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• 2021

Objectives: There was a judgment of acquittal for the manufacturer SK Chemical and the vendor Aekyung regarding humidifier disinfectant (HD) containing 5-chloro-2-methylisothiazol-3(2H)-one/2-methylisothiazol-3(2H)-one (CMIT/MIT). The rationale used in this judgement is discussed here in the light of scientific consideration. Methods: The sentencing document for the judgements was obtained from the Korea Supreme Court Service. In particular, the judgements made by the court related to the risk of HD and external and internal exposure to CMIT/MIT are discussed based on scientific evidence. Results: Rendering a determination in a criminal trial of insufficient evidence of causation, the court dismissed the prosecution's motion that humidifier disinfectant-associated lung injuries (HDLI) and asthma were associated with the utilization of these products. However, CMIT/MIT, a strong sensitizing and corrosive substance, has been reported to be associated with brain toxicity, allergic contact dermatitis, and asthma. Furthermore, the judgment did not consider total consumption amounts or the cumulative dose of CMIT/MIT in the humidifier. Lastly, there are several cases supporting the fact that exposure to water-soluble substances including CMIT/MIT can cause lower respiratory tract diseases. In addition to cases of asthma among the workers exposed to CMIT/MIT, we identified lung injury victims who were exposed to HDs exclusively containing CMIT/MIT. Conclusions: We conclude that there is sufficient evidence supporting the assertion that HDs containing CMIT/MIT cause lung injuries, including asthma, contrary to the court's judgement.

• Korean Public Health Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.99-109
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• 2018

Objective : Health literacy (HL) is, defined as "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions." Being old is one of the main risk factors with limited health literacy. This study aims to adapt Chew's health literacy scale into the Korean language and validate the scale for the use of the elderly. Methods : Data were drawn from the '2016 Seoul Survey on Elderly Health and Functional Assessment, which includes a total of 725 people aged 60 to 79. The sample was randomly divided into two groups for reliability and validity tests of the modified Chew's scale of 8 items. The Korean version of the questionnaire was developed by group translation, expert reviews, and forward-backward translation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to assess and validate the factor structure of the scale. Results : Results suggest the two-factor structure ("Understanding" and "Applying" of HL) with 8 items. Exploratory factor analyses of the first sample (n=400) revealed that the internal reliability of the scale was high (Cronbach's ${\alpha}=.904$). Principal axis factoring extracted two factors ("Understanding" and "Applying" of HL) and explained 78.3% of total variance (KMO=.872, Bartlett's ${\chi}^2=2431.3$, df=28, p<.001). Confirmatory factor analysis of the second sample (n=325) was performed and the two-factor model was supported (GFI=.960, CFI=.979, TLI=.969, RMSEA=0.075). Conclusions : This study provides evidence for adequate criterion and validity of the health literacy scale for the community dwelling elderly in Korea.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.58-70
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• 2019

In the case of a pedestrian traffic accident, it has a large-scale danger directly connected by a fatal accident at the time of the accident. The domestic ITS is not used for intelligent risk classification because it is used only for collecting traffic information despite of the construction of good quality traffic infrastructure. The CNN based pedestrian detection classification model, which is a major component of the proposed system, is implemented on an embedded system assuming that it is installed and operated in a restricted environment. A new model was created by improving YOLO's artificial neural network, and the real-time detection speed result of average accuracy 86.29% and 21.1 fps was shown with 20,000 iterative learning. And we constructed a protocol interworking scenario and implementation of a system that can connect with the ITS. If a pedestrian accident prevention system connected with ITS will be implemented through this study, it will help to reduce the cost of constructing a new infrastructure and reduce the incidence of traffic accidents for pedestrians, and we can also reduce the cost for system monitoring.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.77-89
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• 2018

Objective : The purpose of this study was to analyze occupational therapy intervention on the community mobility for stroke patients, and to provide evidence of intervention in the clinical fields. Methods : A systematic review was executed according to the PRISMA checklist. The accessed database was PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library (CENTRAL), ProQuest Dissertations & thesis (PQDT), RISS, and KoreaMed. We included the articles published from 2005 to September 2018. RoBANS checklist was used to evaluate the quality of the articles. Included articles, totally eight, were categorized according to the type of intervention. Results : The study design of the literature was varied from two-group randomized trial, quasi-experimental study, case-control trial, one group pre-post comparison study, and cross-sectional study. In the evidence level, 6 articles were included in level II (75%). The percentage of low risk of bias in each article ranged from 52.5%~87.5%. Four studies (50%) provided intervention based on virtual reality or virtual environment. The three (37.5%) provided intervention based on the protocol, and the other (12.5%) did wheelchair training. All studies reported significant effects of the intervention. Conclusion : This systematic review provided evidences to use proper intervention in the clinical fields. Various type of studies should be conducted to prove the effect of occupational therapy intervention for community mobility.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.638-649
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of the cognitive function test tool in the clinical or multi-life environment for the elderly and high-risk demented subjects after the development of the non-clinical dementia early diagnosis test content(Co-Wis) based on the contents of the International Clinical Data Standard(CDISC TAUG-Alzheimer's v 2.0, SDTMIG v3.3) And to verify the validity and reliability of the data. To do this, after searching for dementia diagnosis process, we developed a non-clinical dementia diagnosis content(Co-Wis) that can supplement the shortcomings of the existing paper test. We selected 30 subjects from elders who were over 60 years old and verified the validity of test and the reliability of retest among cognitive domains of the Korean MMSE-K, Seoul Neuropsychological Test(SNSB-II) and non-medication dementia diagnosis content(Co-Wis). As a result, we showed high correlation and reliability in all cognitive domains. However, the limitations of insufficient subjects and regional distribution were identified. Based on the results of the study, we discussed the necessity of supplementing and expanding further studies such as various methods of verifying validity and reliability.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.73-85
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• 2019

Since the beginning of a new century, many Korean construction and engineering companies are facing a very dynamic and fast changing business environment which includes severe competition, higher risk, economic depression, declining revenues and profits, etc. In order to cope with these challenges, they need to secure special capabilities to actively adapt to the paradigm changes. One of those capabilities could be project management capability which allows us to manage organizational resources dynamically and integratively based on project portfolio management concept. The objective of this study is to investigate how the dynamic capability of a project-based organization to control the resource affects the firm performance and the competitive advantages. Data was collected from the construction and engineering companies in South Korea by using survey questionnaire, and analyzed for empirical tests by using statistical methods such as structural equation modelling and path analysis. The results showed that the organizational resources, if they had the VRIN characteristics, would have positive impacts on creating the dynamic capabilities for project organization. In turn, the dynamic capabilities of a project organization would have impacts on improving business performance and creating competitive advantages. Also, it was found that the organizational resources may have direct impact on business performance and competitive advantages. The academic contribution of this study is that it attempts to integrate resource based view and the dynamic capability theory about creating competitive advantages for project based organization. This study also provided practical implications to the companies in construction industry by showing how to use organizational resources strategically to create competitive advantages.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.114-125
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• 2019

The frequency of official injury of fire-fighting officers exposed to an extreme situation in disaster areas has been continuously increased. In spite of increase of injury, procedures of injury approval are complex, so the working environment of fire-fighting officers is very poor in terms of safety management. This study was, therefore, conducted to provide basic data for improvement of the injury management system for fire-fighting officers, by empirically analyzing the system for those in Busan city. The findings of the empirical analysis are as follows: first, the frequency of injury experienced by them is higher than that of other occupations; second, application for injury is not actively made; third, fire-fighting officers should bear the expense if injury is approved. On the basis of such an analysis on actual conditions, an analysis on policy factors for improving the injury management system shows; first, various high-risk matters should be considered in the review of application for injury, for improvement factors of the application for injury, while it is necessary to extend the benefit and support project for injured officers, for operation improvement factors of the injury management system, and the compensation act should be improved, for the improvement factors of the injury system. Second, it is urgent to develop damage prevention and coping education program for improving the injury management system. In addition, the simplification of administrative procedures of application for injury and the extension of benefit and support project for injured officers should be realized as soon as possible, moreover, the enhancement of directors' interest and support is also required.