• Spatial Information Research
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.33-41
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• 2013

Recently, the number of disasters has been seriously increasing. The total damages by the natural or man-made disasters during the past years resulted in tremendous fatalities and recovery costs. It is necessary to have efficient emergency evacuation management which is concerned with identifying evacuation route, and the estimation of evacuation and clearance times. An emergency evacuation model is important in identifying critical locations, and developing various evacuation strategies. In that existing evacuation models have focused on route analysis for indoor evacuation, there are only a few models for areawide emergency evacuation analysis. Therefore, we developed a mesoscopic model by using Cube Avenue and performed evacuation simulation, targeting road network in City of Fargo, North Dakota. Consequently, a mesoscopic model developed in this study is used to carry out dynamic analysis using network and input variable of existing travel demand model. The results of this study show that the model is an appropriate tool for areawide emergency evacuation analysis to save time and cost. Henceforth, the results of this study can be applied to develop a disaster evacuation model which can be used for a variety of disaster simulation and evaluation based on scenarios in the local metropolitan area.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.897-903
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• 2010

Used gas to the vehicle fuel are the problems of the 'survival' beyond the 'quality of life' improvements and revive a new paradigm of 'sustainable development' which pursues economic development in harmony with environmental conservation. However, the fatalities caused by explosions and fires increases every year with the increase in the use of LPG; gas accidents in large-scale storage facilities also cause severe damage to property. In this study, a suitable storage tank is designed in which the surface area of the fuel exposed to flames is minimized in order to prevent explosions; thus, the occurrences of explosions in underground storage tanks can be minimized. According to the optimum design of storage tank obtained in this study, underground containment space was minimized; the minimized diameter and length of a 20-ton storage tank was 3 m and 4.83 m, respectively. Thus, safety was ensured since surface area exposed to flames decreased by 89.4%, which is less than the exposed surface area in the currently used storage tanks.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2016

Purpose: Patients suffering from acute poisoning by different substances often visit the emergency department (ED) and receive various prognoses according to the toxic material and patients' condition. Hyperlactatemia, which is an increased blood lactate level that generally indicates tissue hypoperfusion, is commonly utilized as a prognostic marker in critically ill patients such as those with sepsis. This study was conducted to investigate the relationships between blood lactate and clinical prognosis in acute poisoned patients. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted from January 2013 to June 2014 at a single and regional-tertiary ED. We enrolled study patients who were examined for blood test with lactate among acute intoxicated patients. The toxic materials, patient demographics, laboratory data, and mortalities were also reviewed. Additionally, we analyzed variables including blood lactate to verify the correlation with patient mortality. Results: A total of 531 patients were enrolled, including 24 (4.5%) non-survivors. Patient age, Glasgow coma scale (GCS), serum creatinine (Cr), aspartate transaminase (AST), and serum lactate differed significantly between survivors and non-survivors in the binary logistic regression analysis. Among these variables, GCS, AST, and lactate differed significantly. The median serum lactate levels were 2.0 mmol/L among survivors and 6.9 mmol/L among non-survivors. The AUC with the ROC curve and odds ratio of the initial serum lactate were 0.881 and 3.06 (0.89-8.64), respectively. Conclusion: Serum lactate was correlated with fatalities of acute poisoning patients in the ED; therefore, it may be used as a clinical predictor to anticipate their prognoses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.132-146
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• 2017

Appropriate speed limits at a reasonable level in urban roads are highly important factors for efficient and safe movement. Thus, it is greatly necessary to develop the objective models or methodology based on engineering study considering factors such as traffic accident rates, roadside development levels, and roadway geometry characteristics etc. The purpose of this study is to develop the estimate model of appropriate speed limits at each road sections in urban roads using traffic information big data and field specific data and to review the effects of accident decrease. In this study, the estimate method of appropriate speed limits in directional two or more lanes of urban roads is reflecting features of actual variables in a form of adjustment factor on the basis of the maximum statutory speed limits. As a result of investigating and testing influential variables, the main variables to affect the operating speed are the function of road, the existence of median, the width of lane, the number of traffic entrance/exit path and the number of traffic signal or nonsignal at intersection and crosswalk. As a result of testing this model, when the differences are bigger between the real operating speed and the recommended speed limits using model developed in this study, the accident rate generally turns out to be higher. In case of using the model proposed in this study, it means accident rate can be lower. When the result of this study is applied, the speed limits of directional two or more lane roads in Seoul appears about 11km/h lower than the current speed limits. The decrease of average operating speed caused by the decrease of speed limits is 2.8km/h, and the decrease effect of whole accidents according to the decrease of speed is 18% at research road. In case that accident severity is considered, the accident decrease effects are expected to 17~24% in fatalities, 11~17% in seriously injured road user, 6~9% in slightly injured road user, 5~6% in property damage only accidents.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.96-110
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• 2020

Recently, due to global warming, it is easily exposed to various disasters such as fire, flood, and earthquake. In particular, large-scale disasters have continuously been occurring in crowded areas such as traditional markets, facilities for the elderly and children, and public facilities where various people stay. Purpose: This study aims to detect a fire occurred in crowded facilities early in the event to analyze and provide an optimal evacuation route using big data and advanced technology. Method: The researchers propose a new algorithm through context-aware 3D object model technology and A* algorithm optimization and propose a scenario-based optimal evacuation route selection technique. Result: Using the HPA* E algorithm, the evacuation simulation in the event of a fire was reproduced as a 3D model and the optimal evacuation route and evacuation time were calculated for each scenario. Conclusion: It is expected to reduce fatalities and injuries through the evacuation induction technique that enables evacuation of the building in the shortest path by analyzing in real-time via fire detection sensors that detects the temperature, flame, and smoke.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2012

While the number of crashes and fatalities has decreased for the last few decades, the proportion of elderly-involved crashes has continuously increased from 19.5% in 2001 to 29.6% in 2008. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of traffic safety education to seniors, which has been conducted for the purpose of providing more systematic knowledge such as safety regulations and making the elderly more aware of the risks of crashes, and eventually to reduce elderly-involved crashes. First, we investigated the levels of traffic safety knowledge of the elder people who attend senior community centers and social welfare centers in Seoul and provided traffic safety education. Then, the effectiveness of traffic safety education was evaluated by using the before-and-after analysis. We set up two different groups to improve the reliability of evaluation: one for control group and the other for comparison group. The results showed that the average scores of the control group after education were significantly improved at the 95% significance level compared to the average scores before education, whereas the comparison group did not show a significant differences in the average scores before and after education except for two questions. This indicates that the levels of traffic safety knowledge of the control group have been improved through education and therefore, the safety education seem to be effective to some extent.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2008

Seoul metropolitan government has introduced Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems in some major urban corridors on July 1st, 2004, and has reported that it was successful on the ground that bus speed has been increased in the corridors with BRT system and that it has also resulted in the increase of bus patrons. However, there comes a negative claim that BRT has increased the number of fatalities in the same corridors. This study first aims at developing safety evaluation indicators of pedestrian crossings, then compares values of those indicators from pedestrian crossings with and without BRT systems. The safety evaluation indicators of pedestrian crossing are developed as: the number (or ratio) of conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles, the number (or ratio) of vehicles violating pedestrian signals, the number (or ratio) of pedestrians remaining crossings at red signals, and the number (ratio) of pedestrians walking beyond crossing areas. When we compare values of these indicators for both pedestrian crossings with and without BRT system, it has turned out that crossings with BRT systems has more number of conflicts than the crossings without BRT systems, but it cannot be said that the ratio of conflicts will be different between two crossing types. It means that the number of conflict will increase as the number of pedestrians and vehicles in the crossings. When we note that BRT system intrinsically attract more number of pedestrians who get-in or get-off bus stops, we cannot said that BRT system will be safer for pedestrians.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.164-171
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• 2009

Purpose: The number of patients who take warfarin is growing and so is the number of complications. Hemorrhage is the major complication, but the clinical characteristics and outcomes have not been determined for Korean patients. Therefore, we tried to evaluate the characteristics of the patients with hemorrhagic complications after taking warfarin as anticoagulation therapy. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of the patients who visited the emergency room with bleeding complications after taking warfarin anticoagulation at the out-patient clinic for 1 year from 1 st January 2008. We compared between two groups (the major hemorrhage group vs. the minor hemorrhage group) according to the clinical criteria, the unstable vital signs that required blood transfusion, transfusion more than 2 units of blood, the need for further laboratory follow-up, the need for interventional treatment and the development of critical complications or death due to bleeding. Results: There were 150 patients who met the criteria and had acute hemorrhagic complications (the major group: 90 patients and the minor group: 60 patients). In the major hemorrhage group, the frequent sites of bleeding were the gastro-intestinal system (40 patients), lung (14 patients) and intracranium (7 patients). At the emergency room, the major group showed a higher initial INR of the activated prothrombin time than did the minor group (p=0.02). The bleeding sites of the fatal cases were the gastro-intestinal system (3 patients), lung (3 patients) and intracranium (3 patients), but the percentage of fatality was the highest for intracranium bleeding. Conclusion: In the major hemorrhage group, gastrointestinal bleeding was the most frequent complication and fatality was the highest for intracranium bleeding. An initially higher INR showed a greater risk of major bleeding, but not more fatalities.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.149-156
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• 2008

During maintenance or construction works in or at the tracks of railways, high risks for passengers and railway staff, especially for the workers on the construction site exist. The high risks result out of the movement of rail vehicles, like trains or construction vehicles, which must be faced by using any available technical and operational technologies for securing them against the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the level of protection continuously and to identify new and innovative methods and technologies for the protection of the gang (construction worker, machines and material). Especially on construction sites at line sections with two or more parallel tracks but also with single tracks, there are still a lot of incidents and accidents mostly with seriously injured persons or fatalities. These were mainly gang members that breach the railway-loading gage. By using proper warning or protection systems, the avoidance of such accidents must be achieved. The latest developments. in gang protection systems concern on the one hand fixed barriers in the middle between the construction site and the operated track and on the other hand construction vehicles equipped with automatic warning systems. The disadvantage of such protection methods is that the gang can be warned against an approaching train but a monitoring of the gang members cannot be performed. Only one part of a potential dangerous situation will be detected. If the gang members will overhear the acoustic warning signal of the security staff and the workers will not leave the danger zone in the track, the driver of the approaching train had no chance to react to the dangerous situation. An accident is often inevitable. While the detection of acoustic warning signals by the gang members working on a construction site is very difficult, the acoustical planning of an automatic warning system has to be designed for an acoustic short range level of one meter besides the construction vehicle. The decision about the use of today's technical warning system (fixed systems, automatic warning systems, etc.) must be geared to the technical feasibility and the level of safety which is needed. Criteria for decision guidance to block a track should be developed by danger estimation and economical variables. To realize the actual jurisdiction and to minimize the hazards of railway operations by the use of construction vehicles near the tracks further developments are needed. This means, that the warning systems have to be enhanced to systems for protection, which monitor the realization of the warning signal as a precondition for giving a movement authority to a train. This method can protect against accidents caused by predictable wrongdoing. The actual state of the art technique of using a collective warning combined with additional security staff is no longer acceptable. Therefore, the Institute of Transportation System of the German Aerospace Center in Braunschweig (Germany) will develop a gang warning and protection system based upon imaging methods, with optical sensors such as video in visible and invisible ranges, radar, laser, and other. The advantage of such a system based on the possibility to monitor both the gang itself and the railway-loading gauge either of the parallel track or of the same track still in use. By monitoring both situations, the system will be able to generate a warning message for the approaching train, that there are obstacles in the track, so that the train can be stopped to prevent an accident. And also the gang workers will be warned, while they breach their area.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.1785-1792
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• 2013

For patients suffering from spinal cord injuries, both of the possibility of having complications with the respiratory system and the related fatal rate are still high, while pneumonia is the most important cause of these fatalities. This research was carried out to find out what effects does a breathing exercise have on the respiratory functions and the improvement in the quality of life. The study was carried out for male patients suffering cervical spinal cord injuries for the purpose of inspiratory muscle strengthening. The objects of the study were 17 non-smoking-at-present male patients with C4 to C6 cervical spinal cord injuries. They had practiced inspiratory muscle strengthening training for three times a week for six weeks. The quality of life and the dyspnea (breathing difficulty) were self-measured before and after the training. As a result, the change in respiratory function was only significantly reduced (p<0.01) within the chronic group. In terms of the changes in the quality of life, the sub-acute group has only seen a significant improvement (p<0.05) for the VT(vitality), while the chronic group has seen significant improvements(p<0.05, p<0.01) in: GH(general health); BP(back pain); and VT(vitality). In this research, the inspiratory muscle strengthening has reduced the dyspnea (breathing difficulties) and improved the quality of life.