• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.203-209
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• 2014

Background: Coal mining is of significant economic importance to the Australian economy. Despite this fact, the related workforce is subjected to a number of psychosocial risks and musculoskeletal injury, and various psychological disorders are common among this population group. Because only limited research has been conducted in this population group, we sought to examine the relationship between physical (pain) and psychological (distress) factors, as well as the effects of various demographic, lifestyle, and fatigue indicators on this relationship. Methods: Coal miners (N = 231) participated in a survey of musculoskeletal pain and distress on-site during their work shifts. Participants also provided demographic information (job type, age, experience in the industry, and body mass index) and responded to questions about exercise and sleep quality (on-and off-shift) as well as physical and mental tiredness after work. Results: A total of 177 workers (80.5%) reported experiencing pain in at least one region of their body. The majority of the sample population (61.9%) was classified as having low-level distress, 28.4% had scores indicating mild to moderate distress, and 9.6% had scores indicating high levels of distress. Both number of pain regions and job type (being an operator) significantly predicted distress. Higher distress score was also associated with greater absenteeism in workers who reported lower back pain. In addition, perceived sleep quality during work periods partially mediated the relationship between pain and distress. Conclusion: The study findings support the existence of widespread musculoskeletal pain among the coal-mining workforce, and this pain is associated with increased psychological distress. Operators (truck drivers) and workers reporting poor sleep quality during work periods are most likely to report increased distress, which highlights the importance of supporting the mining workforce for sustained productivity.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2010

This article describes a systematic roadmap master plan for advanced industrial safety and health policy in Korea, with an emphasis on. Since Korean industries had first emergence of industrial safety and health policy in 1953, enormous efforts have been made on upgrading the relevant laws in order to reflect real situation of industrial work environment in accordance with rapid changes of Korean and global business over three decades. Nevertheless, current policy has major defects; too much techniques-based articles, diverged contents in less organization, combined enforcement and punishments and finally enforcing regulations full of commands and control. These deficiencies have make it difficult to accommodate changes of social, industrial and employment environment in customized fashion. The approach to the solution must be generic at the level of paradigm-shift rather than local modifications and enhancement. The basic idea is to establish a new system integrated with a risk assessment scheme, which encourages employers to apply to their work environment under comprehensive responsibility. The risk assessment scheme is designed to enable to inspect employers' compliances afterwards. A project comprises four yearly phases based on applying zones; initially designating and operating a specified risk zone, gradually expanding the special zones during a period of 3 years (2010-2012) and the final zone expanded to entire nation. In each phase, the intermediate version of the system is updated through a process of precise and unbiased validation in terms of its operability, feasibility and sustainability with building relevant infrastructures as needed.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.922-933
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• 2019

The arm inductance (AI) of a modular multilevel converter (MMC) affects both the fault and circulating current magnitudes. In addition, it has an impact on the inverter efficiency and harmonic content. In this study, the AI of a three-phase MMC is optimized in a novel way in terms of DC voltage utilization, harmonics and efficiency. This MMC has 10 submodules (SM) per arm and the power circuit topology of the SM is a half-bridge. The optimum AI is adopted and verified in an MMC that has 100 SMs per arm. Then the phase shift (PS) and phase disposition (PD) pulse width modulation (PWM) methods are investigated for better DC voltage utilization, efficiency and harmonics. It is found that similar performances are obtained for both modulation techniques in terms of DC voltage utilization. However, the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the PS-PWM is found to be 0.02%, which is slightly lower than the THD of the PD-PWM at 0.16%. In efficiency calculations, the switching and conduction losses for all of the semiconductor are considered separately and the minimum efficiency of the 100-SM based MMC is found to be 99.62% for the PS-PWM and 99.64% for the PD-PWM with the optimal value of the AI. Simulation results are verified with an experimental prototype of a 6-SM based MMC.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.273-288
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• 2018

The protected horticulture sector was evaluated as achieving the highest level of agricultural industrialization, this study examined the structural changes in the field of Korea oriental melon farming, where cultivation under structure has advanced through its long history, with the focus on intensification and concentration of agriculture. From the 1970's, the oriental melon farming labor were replaced by capital due to the increase of dependence on input industries and the decrease in labor input, thus intensification improved the productivity. Through the development, Seongju-gun of Gyeongsangbuk-do, experienced faster growth of cultivation compared to other regions, and gained a competitive edge in productivity which led to the spatial concentration as well as the concentration of farms. In this restructuring process of oriental melon farming, spatial inequality intensified throughout the agricultural development as the existing farming spaces underwent a dynamic shift.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.2-14
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• 2018

Purpose: The objective of this study was to report the incidence of falls in hospitals and analyze the risk factors for falls. Methods: This study used data on 1,216 patients who experienced falls from 2015 to 2017 during their hospitalization. The data was collected from the falls incident reports and patient' electronic medical record of hospital. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics using Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and multiple Poisson regression analysis with the SAS 9.4 Results: The incidence of falls was 1.38 per 1,000 patients days (2015), 1.81 per 1,000patients days (2016) and 1.99 per 1,000patients days (2017). The incidence of injury caused by falls (level III~V) was 0.05 per 1,000patients days (2015), 0.04 per 1,000patients days (2016) and 0.06 per 1,000patients days (2017). The largest number of falls occurred during night shift (42.5%), specifically in the patients' room (70.8%), and medical unit (66.0%). Average age of fallers was 69.1 years and 61.7% of them were older than 71 years. CCI and the patient's department have statistically significant differences in injury or injury levels from falls, but the integrated nursing care services had no significant difference in injury or injury levels from falls. Conclusion: The result of this study can be used as a reference for establishing a fall prevention strategy for hospitalized patients by presenting index values such as the fall rate.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.124-131
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• 2021

In the 4th industrial revolution, Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data, Internet of Things (IoT) are already around us, making our society hyper-connected and blurring the lines between the digital and biological spheres. We witness drastic changes not only in the food industry, but also in economy, society and our life as a whole. Technologies bring industrial reorganization and greater changes at the system level and the food industry is not exceptional. Human demand for foods continues to grow and the very nature of the food industry remains unchanged, but its production, distribution and marketing face unprecedent innovations. Passing through the global pandemic, the food industry has been evolved into 'contact-free', as the safety become our top priority. Amid the gradual shift to technology-oriented society, the smarter food safety management skills and tools are being adopted in many countries exerting greater efforts to enhance traceability and to upgrade AI-powered safety management system.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.545-561
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• 2018

Over the North East Asia, extreme anomalous precipitation were observed in 2013 and 2014. During 2013 summer the precipitation was found to be higher (two standard deviation) than the climatological mean of the region; whereas during 2014, which was a borderline El Ni?o year, precipitation was found to be lower (one standard deviation). To understand the differences of these two anomalous years the Global/Regional Integrated Model system (GRIMs) has been used. The study found that low landsurface temperature and high sea-surface temperature over ocean caused a smaller land-sea contrast of surface temperature between East Asia and North West Pacific Ocean in 2014, which could have caused an eastward shift of mean monsoon circulation in that year compared to the circulation in 2013. Due to a change in the lower level circulation and wind field over East Asia the evaporation and moisture transport patterns became very different in those two years. In 2013, this study found high latent heat flux over Eastern China, which implies an increased surface evaporation over that region, and the moisture transported to the north by the mean monsoon circulation; whereas, there was no correlated transport of moisture to the North East Asia during 2014. The precipitable water over North East Asia has a stronger correlation with the latent heat flux over southern land region than that from Ocean region in the eastern side in both the years. A new approach is proposed to estimate the sub-grid scale hydrometeors from GRIMs, overestimated in the existing model.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2011

The IDS/IPS(Intrusion Detection/Prevention System) has been widely deployed to protect the internal network against internet attacks. Reducing the packet inspection time is one of the most important challenges of improving the performance of the IDS/IPS. Since the IDS/IPS needs to match multiple patterns for the incoming traffic, we may have to apply the multiple pattern matching schemes, some of which use finite automata, while the others use the shift table. In this paper, we first show that the performance of those schemes would degrade with various kinds of pattern sets and payload, and then propose a hybrid multiple pattern matching scheme which combines those two schemes. The proposed scheme is organized to guarantee an appropriate level of performance in any cases. The experimental results using real traffic show that the time required to do multiple pattern matching could be reduced effectively.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.322-331
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• 2021

Background: The present study employed National Health Insurance Data to explore complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) updated epidemiology in a Korean context. Methods: A CRPS cohort for the period 2009-2016 was created based on Korean Standard Classification of Diseases codes alongside the national registry. The general CRPS incidence rate and the yearly incidence rate trend for every CRPS type were respectively the primary and secondary outcomes. Among the analyzed risk factors were age, sex, region, and hospital level for the yearly trend of the incidence rate for every CRPS. Statistical analysis was performed via the chi-square test and the linear and logistic linear regression tests. Results: Over the research period, the number of registered patients was 122,210. The general CRPS incidence rate was 15.83 per 100,000, with 19.5 for type 1 and 12.1 for type 2. The condition exhibited a declining trend according to its overall occurrence, particularly in the case of type 2 (P < 0.001). On the other hand, registration was more pervasive among type 1 compared to type 2 patients (61.7% vs. 38.3%), while both types affected female individuals to a greater extent. Regarding age, individuals older than 60 years of age were associated with the highest prevalence in both types, regardless of sex (P < 0.001). Conclusions: CRPS displayed an overall incidence of 15.83 per 100,000 in Korea and a declining trend for every age group which showed a negative association with the aging shift phenomenon.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.62-71
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• 2021

The climate is changing rapidly, and this may pose a major threat to global biodiversity. One of the most distinctive consequences of climate change is the poleward and/or upward shift of species distribution ranges associated with increasing temperatures, resulting in a change of species composition and community structure in the forest ecosystems. The Baekdudaegan mountain range connects most forests from the lowland to the subalpine zone in South Korea and is therefore recognized as one of the most important biodiversity hotspots. This study was conducted to understand the distribution range of vascular plants along elevational gradients through field surveys in the six national parks of the Baekdudaegan mountain range. We identified the upper and lower distribution limits of a total of 873 taxa of vascular plants with 117 families, 418 genera, 793 species, 14 subspecies, 62 varieties, two forms, and two hybrids. A total of 12 conifers were recorded along the elevational gradient. The distribution ranges of Abies koreana, Picea jezoensis, Pinus pumila, and Thuja koraiensis were limited to over 1000 m above sea level. We also identified 21 broad-leaved trees in the subalpine zone. A total of 45 Korean endemic plant species were observed, and of these, 15 taxa (including Aconitum chiisanense and Hanabusaya asiatica) showed a narrow distribution range in the subalpine zone. Our study provides valuable information on the current elevational distribution ranges of vascular plants in the six national parks of South Korea, which could serve as a baseline for vertical shifts under future climate change.