• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.462-470
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• 2021

Background: Fatigue is pervasive, under-reported, and potentially deadly where flight operations are concerned. The aviation industry appears to lack a standardized, practical, and easily replicable protocol for fatigue risk assessment which can be consistently applied across operators. Aim: Our paper sought to present a framework, supported by real-world data with subjective and objective parameters, to monitor aircrew fatigue and performance, and to determine the safe crew configuration for commercial airline operations. Methods: Our protocol identified risk factors for fatigue-induced performance degradation as triggers for fatigue risk and performance assessment. Using both subjective and objective measurements of sleep, fatigue, and performance in the form of instruments such as the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, Samn-Perelli Crew Status Check, Psychomotor Vigilance Task, sleep logs, and a wearable actigraph for sleep log correlation and sleep duration and quality charting, a workflow flagging fatigue-prone flight operations for risk mitigation was developed and trialed. Results: In an operational study aimed at occupational assessment of fatigue and performance in airline pilots on a three-men crew versus a four-men crew for a long-haul flight, we affirmed the technical feasibility of our proposed framework and approach, the validity of the battery of assessment instruments, and the meaningful interpretation of fatigue and work performance indicators to enable the formulation of safe work recommendations. Conclusion: A standardized occupational assessment protocol like ours is useful to achieve consistency and objectivity in the occupational assessment of fatigue and work performance.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.533-538
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• 2024

The risk assessment under the Occupational Safety and Health Act was implemented in 2013, but since it is not mandatory, companies are operating it as a formality. Although legal obligations have been strengthened, such as the recent comprehensive revision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the enforcement of the Act on Punishment for Serious Accidents, the death rate has remained stagnant. Even if a risk assessment plan is properly established in order for employers to prevent industrial accidents through necessary measures, it is necessary to involve relevant workers so that they can understand and implement the contents of the risk assessment. In this regard, this study proposed applying efficient worker participation measures through on-site surveys to activate the participation of vulnerable workers in risk assessments. Key words : risk assessment, accident prevention, vulnerable class, worker participation

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.313-318
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• 2014

From 2008 to 2013, the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis were collected from a major area of mussel production (Changseon area), which is a designated shellfish-cultivating area for export, located on the southern coast of Korea. The samples were analyzed for mercury (Hg) using a direct Hg analyzer and for other metals, such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), chromium, copper, nickel, and zinc, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The concentrations and bioaccumulation of the heavy metals were determined, and a potential risk assessment was conducted to evaluate their hazards towards human consumption. The concentration and bioaccumulation ratio of Cd were the highest of the three hazardous metals (Cd, Pb, and Hg). The concentrations of hazardous metals in all samples were within the limits set by Korea and other countries. The estimated dietary intake (EDI) was compared to the provisional tolerable daily intake (PTDI) adopted by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EDIs of all heavy metals tested for mussel samples ranged from 0.01 to 4.99% of the PTDI; the highest value was measured for As. The hazard index (HI) can be used to assess the risk of heavy metal consumption associated with contaminated food. The HI for all samples was far less than 1.0, which indicates that the mussels produced in the Changseon area do not represent an appreciable hazard to humans and are fit for consumption.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2017

Modern society has been experiencing by population growth and urbanization that bring, a change of eating habits which has occurred a various types of waste in a large amount. Even though these wastes are required an immediate treatment with difficulties unsanitary handling and existing waste treatment method are by incineration, fermentation, drying and etc. however a bad smell occurs after the treatment that need's a lot of energy in processing organic wastes with high moisture contents and wasteful and inefficient problem. The strength assessment of the organic waste agitating vessel is required in terms of safety due to the differences of loading on the shaft that was treated by agitating the mixture of food waste. The damage of agitating axis is depended on steam pressure, temperature condition and the force moment that exerted by the food waste. Thus the strength assessment and stability evaluation are very important, especially to handle a hard waste. In this study the rotation capacity of agitation is about 5 tons considering general structural rolled steel pressure vessel strength and steam pressure. The purpose is to estimate the safety and strength evaluation for a agitator axis and impellers according to the rotating angle of the axis under the condition of the 3.2 ton capacity reactor.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.118-122
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• 2013

For safe evacuation in the fire disaster, the evacuees must find the exit and evacuate quickly. Especially, if the evacuees don't know the location of the exit, they have to depend on the evacuation guidance system. Because the more smoke spread, the less visibility is decreasing, it is difficult to find the way to the exit by the naked eye. For theses reasons, the evacuation guidance system is highly important. However, the evacuation guidance system without change of direction has the risk that introduce to the dangerous area. In the evacuation safety assessment scenario by the evacuation simulation has the same problem. Because the evacuee in the simulation evacuate by the shortest route to the exit, the simulation result is same like the evacuation without the evacuation guidance system. In this study, it was used with MAS (Multi Agent System)-based simulation program including the evacuation guidance system to implement the change of evacuation by fire. Using this method, confidence of evacuation safety assessment can be increase.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.9-15
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• 2023

As the first step of risk management, risk identification is inevitable to understand the degree of work safety. However, the safety requirements can be divided in necessary factors and additional factors. Thus, we propose a safety requirements assessment model using Kano model derived from Herzberg's two-factor theory, classifying safety requirements into ideal elements and must-be elements. The Kano model is usually applied to evaluate customer satisfaction divided into three major requirements in the fields of product development and marketing: attractive, must-be, and one-dimensional requirements. Among them, attractive requirement and must-be requirement are matched with ideal element and must-be element for safety requirement classification, respectively. The ideal element is defined as preventive safety elements to make systems more safe and the must-be element is referred to as fatal elements to be essentially eliminated in systems. Also, coefficients of safety measurement and safety prevention are developed to classify different class of safety requirements. The positioning map is finally visualized in terms of both coefficients to compare the different features. Consequently, the proposed model enables safety managers to make a decision between safety measurement and prevention.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2017

Objectives : This study aims to report the effectiveness and safety of Korean medicine with thread embedding acupuncture in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Methods : A 73-year-old man who had suffered from severe facial pain for one year and who had had a healthy tooth extracted due to the pain is reported. He could not eat or sleep due to the severe pain. Acupuncture, thread embedding acupuncture, cupping, herbal steam, and herbal medicines were used for the treatment. Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and adverse events were checked daily, and other outcomes (Baseline Evaluation, Visual Analogue Scale [VAS], Short Form Health Survey 36-Bodily Pain [SF-36 BP], and Patient Global Assessment [PGA]) were measured at hospital admission and discharge. During the follow-up examinations, his pain was evaluated roughly, without using any formal measurements, on the basis of a global assessment. Results : All measured parameters, including pain, quality of life, and patient satisfaction were noted to have improved at the time of discharge compared to admission: VAS from 10 to 1.5, NRS from 7-8 to 1-2, and SF-36 BP from 0 to 22.5, and the patient's global assessment was somewhat improved. He did not take any analgesics after discharge and noted only mild adverse events, like pain where the acupuncture and thread embedding acupuncture needles were inserted. His pain relief was maintained for 6 months. Conclusion : Korean medicine with thread embedding acupuncture might be a safe and effective treatment for TN. In the future, larger sample sizes and high quality randomized clinical trials are warranted to confirm its efficacy and safety.

• Water Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.215-234
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• 2002

Uncertainty in dam breach flood routing results was analyzed in order to provide the basis fer the investigation of their effects on the flood damage assessments and dam safety risk assessments. The Monte Carlo simulation based on Latin Hypercube Sampling technique was used to generate random values for two uncertain input parameters (i.e., dam breach parameters and Manning's n roughness coefficients) of a dam breach flood routing analysis model. The flood routing results without considering the uncertainty in two input parameters were compared with those with considering the uncertainty. This paper showed that dam breach flood routing results heavily depend on the two uncertain input parameters. This study indicated that the flood damage assessments in the downstream areas can be critical if uncertainty in dam breach flood routing results are considered in a reasonable manner.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.369-376
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• 2022

Accurately evaluating and predicting the performance of facilities is a key task in establishing a maintenance strategy for facilities. The importance of performance evaluation is becoming more pronounced, especially when the aging of facilities requires a huge budget. In this study, performance assessment models were developed for road and railway tunnels. Delphi analysis was performed to identify sub-elements necessary to evaluate the performance of a tunnel. The relative importance of the evaluation factors was derived from the AHP analysis. The correlation analysis was performed between each assessment factor and the final result to verify the significance of the model. For the correlation analysis, the survey data measured through precision safety diagnosis in tunnels in use was applied. The cost effectiveness analysis was also conducted according to the scenarios with different composition of performance factors in order to improve the practical applicability of the evaluation model developed in this study.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 2018

Health technology assessment (HTA) is defined as multidisciplinary policy analysis to look into the medical, economic, social, and ethical implications of the development, distribution, and use of health technology. Following the recent changes in the social environment, there are increasing needs to improve Korea's healthcare environment by, inter alia, assessing health technologies in an organized, timely manner in accordance with the government's strategies to ensure that citizens' medical expenses are kept at a stable level. Dedicated to HTA and research, the National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA) analyzes and provides grounds on the clinical safety, efficacy, and economic feasibility of health technologies. HTA offers the most suitable grounds for decision making not only by healthcare professionals but also by policy makers and citizens as seen in a case in 2009 where research revealed that glucosamine lacked preventive and treatment effects for osteoarthritis and glucosamine was subsequently excluded from the National Health Insurance's benefit list to stop the insurance scheme from suffering financial losses and citizens from paying unnecessary medical expenses. For the development of HTA in Korea, the NECA will continue exerting itself to accomplish its mission of providing policy support by health technology reassessment, promoting the establishment and use of big data and HTA platforms for public interest, and developing a new value-based HTA system.