• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.106-111
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• 2014

Background: The manufacture of paint involves a variety of processes that present with medical hazards. Safety initiatives are hence introduced to limit hazard exposures and promote workplace safety. This aim of this study is to assess the use of available control measures/initiatives in selected paint factories in Lagos West Senatorial District, Nigeria. Methods: A total of 400 randomly selected paint factory workers were involved in the study. A well-structured World Health Organization standard questionnaire was designed and distributed to the workers to elicit information on awareness to occupational hazards, use of personal protective devices, and commonly experienced adverse symptoms. Urine samples were obtained from 50 workers randomly selected from these 400 participants, and the concentrations of the heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic, and chromium) were determined using atomic absorption spectroscopy. Results: The results show that 72.5% of the respondents are aware of the hazards associated with their jobs; 30% have had formal training on hazards and safety measures; 40% do not use personal protective devices, and 90% of the respondents reported symptoms relating to hazard exposure. There was a statistically significant (p < 0.05) increase in the mean heavy metal concentrations in the urine samples obtained from paint factory workers as compared with nonfactory workers. Conclusion: The need to develop effective frameworks that will initiate the integration and ensure implementation of safety regulations in paint factories is evident. Where these exist, there is a need to promote adherence to these practice guidelines.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.203-215
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• 2013

PURPOSES : This study deals with first traffic violations occurred by novice drivers, which may be associated with traffic accidents. The objective of this study is to identify what kinds of drivers' characteristics influence on duration till the first traffic violation. METHODS : For the study, Survival Analysis and Cox proportional hazard model, that are usually used in the medical field, were employed. Survival Analysis was conducted to investigate whether there exist differences in survival duration by each covariate, whereas Cox proportional hazard model was used to identify significant factors that affect survival duration till novice drivers violate traffic regulations for the first time after getting a driver license. RESULTS : The results of Survival Analysis indicate that female, age (less than 21), low-frequency examinee of written exam, and non-crash involved drivers have longer duration till the first violation compared to male, greater than 21 years old, high-frequency examinee of written exam, and crash involved drivers, respectively. For the Cox proportional hazard model, license class 1 acquisitor was found to increase the survival duration till the first traffic violation was made, while male, age of 21-24, age of 25-34, age of 45-54, and crash involved drivers were more likely to reduce the survival duration. CONCLUSIONS : Absolutely, traffic violation is closely related to traffic accidents and all of the drivers should keep the traffic regulations to enhance highway safety. The results of this study might provide some insights to construct safe road environments by controlling the factors that reduce the traffic violation duration of novice drivers.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.44 no.9
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• pp.647-657
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• 2021

As a pancreatic inflammatory marker, regenerating islet-derived protein 3A (Reg3A) plays a key role in inflammation-associated pancreatic carcinogenesis by promoting cell proliferation, inhibiting apoptosis, and regulating cancer cell migration and invasion. This study aimed to reveal a novel immuno-regulatory mechanism by which Reg3A modulates tumour-promoting responses during pancreatic cancer (PC) progression. In an in vitro Transwell system that allowed the direct co-culture of human peripheral blood-derived dendritic cells (DCs) and Reg3A-overexpressing/ silenced human PC cells, PC cell-derived Reg3A was found to downregulate CD80, CD83 and CD86 expression on educated DCs, increase DC endocytic function, inhibit DC-induced T lymphocyte proliferation, reduce IL-12p70 production, and enhance IL-23 production by DCs. The positive effect of tumour-derived Reg3A-educated human DCs on PC progression was demonstrated in vivo by intraperitoneally transferring them into PC-implanted severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice reconstituted with human T cells. A Reg3A-JAK2/STAT3 positive feedback loop was identified in DCs educated with Reg3A. In conclusion, as a tumour-derived factor, Reg3A acted to block the differentiation and maturation of the most important antigen-presenting cells, DCs, causing them to limit their potential anti-tumour responses, thus facilitating PC escape and progression.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.106-116
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the impact of obesity on the incidence of diabetes mellitus in adults with pre-diabetes. Methods: This study employed a longitudinal study design and utilized secondary data drawn from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study. This study used data from a sample of 3,693 adults with prediabetes who were followed every two years from 2001 to 2018. Statistical data analysis for frequency, number of cases per 1,000 person-years, log-rank test, Kaplan-Meier curve, and Cox's proportional hazards regression analysis was performed using IBM SPSS statistics version 26. Results: During the observation period, there were 1,309 (35.4%) patients with diabetes, and the total number of person-years was 35,342. The incidence of diabetes was higher in the obese group compared to the normal weight group (body mass index [BMI]: hazard ratio=1.57, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.40~1.77, waist: hazard ratio=1.55, 95% CI=1.38~1.76, waist to hip ratio [WHR]: hazard ratio=1.53, 95% CI=1.24~1.89, body fat [BF] (%): hazard ratio=1.42, 95% CI=1.27~1.61). Conclusion: An increase in BMI, waist circumference, and WHR, which are indicators of obesity, can exacerbate the risk factors for diabetes. Thus, a decrease in BMI, waist circumference, and WHR is necessary to prevent pre-diabetes. In particular, health care professionals should provide individualized weight management program interventions, including adult obesity programs and obesity counseling in partnership with local health departments, to reduce BMI and waist circumference in people at high risk for diabetes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.62-72
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• 2019

Due to the difficulties in forecasting the intensity and the source location of tsunami the countermeasures prepared based on the deterministic approach fail to work properly. Thus, there is an increasing demand of the tsunami hazard analyses that consider the uncertainties of tsunami behavior in probabilistic approach. In this paper a fundamental study is conducted to perform the probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis (PTHA) for the tsunamis that caused the disaster to the east coast of Korea. A logic tree approach is employed to consider the uncertainties of the initial free surface displacement and the tsunami height distribution along the coast. The branches of the logic tree are constructed by reflecting characteristics of tsunamis that have attacked the east coast of Korea. The computational time is nonlinearly increasing if the number of branches increases in the process of extracting the fractile curves. Thus, an improved method valid even for the case of a huge number of branches is proposed to save the computational time. The performance of the discrete weight distribution method proposed first in this study is compared with those of the conventional sorting method and the Monte Carlo method. The present method is comparable to the conventional methods in its accuracy, and is efficient in the sense of computational time when compared with the conventional sorting method. The Monte Carlo method, however, is more efficient than the other two methods if the number of branches and the number of fault segments increase significantly.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.4D
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• pp.351-360
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• 2010

In 2010, the number of registered vehicles reached almost at 17.48 millions in Korea. This dramatic increase of vehicles influenced to increase the number of traffic accidents which is one of the serious social problems and also to soar the personal and economic losses in Korea. Through this research, an enhanced intersection hazard prediction model by combining Genetic Algorithm and Artificial Neural Network will be developed in order to obtain the important data for developing the countermeasures of traffic accidents and eventually to reduce the traffic accidents in Korea. Firstly, this research has investigated the influencing factors of road geometric features on the traffic volume of each approaching for the intersections where traffic accidents and congestions frequently take place and, a linear regression model of traffic accidents and traffic conflicts were developed by examining the relationship between traffic accidents and traffic conflicts through the statistical significance tests. Secondly, this research also developed an intersection hazard prediction model by combining Genetic Algorithm and Artificial Neural Network through applying the intersection traffic volume, the road geometric features and the specific variables of traffic conflicts. Lastly, this research found out that the developed model is better than the existed forecasting models in terms of the reliability and accuracy by comparing the actual number of traffic accidents and the predicted number of accidents from the developed model. In conclusion, it is expect that the cost/effectiveness of any traffic safety improvement projects can be maximized if this developed intersection hazard prediction model by combining Genetic Algorithm and Artificial Neural Network use practically at field in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2010

Due to climate change and difficulty in construction of large dam, it is on the increase to use small hydraulic facilities such as washland for the flood control purpose. Since there can be many potential locations for washland in a basin, it is important for determination of optimal location to calculate flood reduction effect of washlands substantially and exactly. In this study, a new scheme to increase flood reduction effect of washlands is suggested. Suggested scheme uses sensitivity analysis of flood reduction effect depending on washland characteristics such as storage volume, spillway elevation and spillway width. The characteristics of the washland is determined by results of sensitivity analysis to maximize flood reduction effect at basin outlet and downstream of a washland. The methodology is applied to Anseong river basin to show its applicability and applied result is compared with those of another studies.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.47-56
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• 2015

PURPOSES: The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact of variable message signage (VMS) on traffic safety as a function of road curve radius using statistical methods. METHODS: In order to analyze the impact of VMS installations on traffic safety, travel speed, lateral distance, and geometric data relating to road curvature in each study area was acquired and analyzed for the impact of providing VMS information on driver performance and traffic safety using statistical methods including student t-test, Mann-Whitney test, and the Anderson-Darling test for estimating traffic safety hazard zone in each lane. RESULTS: As a result of analyzing driver performance characteristics before and after providing VMS information, it was determined that by providing VMS information, mean travel speed is deceased and vehicles are driven with increased precision, following the centerline in the first and second lanes. Also the results of analyzing traffic safety impacts of VMS indicate that traffic safety performance factors in the first lane of the Gapyeong section can, on average, increase in the left and right side of the lane by 19.22% and 68.98%, respectively, and in the case of the second lane, safety impacts, on average, can increase in both sides by 100%. For the Hongcheon section, traffic safety impacts in the first lane, on average, can increase along the left and right sides of the lane by 32.31% and 47.18%, and within the second lane, traffic safety can be increased along the left and right side of the lane by 10.97% and -0.01%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of this study, the impact on traffic safety obtained by providing VMS information for road sections with smaller curve radii is greater than can be obtained for road sections with larger curve radii.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.113-125
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• 2011

In this study, recent trends of the annual precipitation, the annual maximum precipitation of different durations and the rain days over several thresholds(i.e. 0, 10, 20, 40, 60 and 80 mm/day) according to the different local features were analyzed using daily precipitation data of 59 weather stations between 1973 and 2009. To analyze the variability according to the regional characteristics, 59 weather stations were classified by elevations, latitudes, longitudes, river basins, inland or shore(east sea, south sea, west sea) area and the level of urbanization. Results demonstrated that overall trend of variables increases except rain day. Results according to the regional characteristics showed that the increase trend becomes stronger with elevation increase. The increase trend of Han river basin is largest and that of Youngsan river basin is smallest. Also the increase trend becomes stronger with latitude increase and that of East coast is larger than that of South coast since it may be caused by the regional difference of elevation. The increase trend of urban area is larger than that of rural area. Overall trend showed that increase trend becomes stronger with elevation and latitude increase.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1223-1229
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• 2012

In this paper, we propose a generalized Kullback-Leibler (KL) information for measuring the distance between two distribution functions where the extension to the censored case is immediate. The generalized KL information has the nonnegativity and characterization properties, and its censored version has the additional property of monotonic increase. We also extend the discussion to the discrete case and propose a generalized censored measure which is comparable to Pearson's chi-square statistic.