• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.81-90
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• 2023

Climate change has resulted in increased frequency and intensity of heat waves, which poses a significant threat to the health and safety of construction workers, particularly those engaged in labor-intensive and heat-stress vulnerable working environments. To address this challenge, this study aimed to propose an interpretable machine learning approach for forecasting personal heat strain by considering the cumulative effect of heat exposure as a situational variable, which has not been taken into account in the existing approach. As a result, the proposed model, which incorporated the cumulative working time along with environmental and personal variables, was found to have superior forecast performance and explanatory power. Specifically, the proposed Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) model achieved a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.034 (℃) and an R-squared of 99.3% (0.933). Feature importance analysis revealed that the cumulative working time, as a situational variable, had the most significant impact on personal heat strain. These findings highlight the importance of systematic management of personal heat strain at construction sites by comprehensively considering the cumulative working time as a situational variable as well as environmental and personal variables. This study provided a valuable contribution to the construction industry by offering a reliable and accurate heat strain forecasting model, enhancing the health and safety of construction workers.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.138-148
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• 2016

A firefighting simulation was developed in order to assess the physical work capacity of firefighters. The simulation consisted of eight common firefighting tasks, including walking with radiant heat for 3 min while wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE). Nine professional firefighters performed the test a total of three times with a 5 min rest interval between each session. The entire series of tests took approximately 30 min to complete ($381{\pm}30s$). Rectal temperatures were found to increase from $37.4{\pm}0.3^{\circ}C$ to $38.5{\pm}0.4^{\circ}C$, while heart rates were found to increase from $92{\pm}18bpm$ to $185{\pm}13bpm$ during testing. Time to completion of the test drills and non-modified physical fitness values showed a significantly negative correlation (r = -0.728, p < 0.05). Firefighters who had longer periods of firefighting service had longer duration time and also recorded higher scores using an integrated scoring system of time to completion (TTC) and physiological strain index (PhSI). The results indicated that the determination of TTC alone can be a misrepresentation of capability, as it neglects to account for accumulated heat strain. The simulated firefighting test provided a useful insight into physical fitness level, but also the comprehensive work capacity of the firefighters when assessed based on TTC and PhSI.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.709-734
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• 2001

The aims of this experiment were to investigate the strain and temperature changes simultaneously within autopolymerzing acrylic resin specimens. A computerized data acquisition system with an electrical resistance strain gauge and a thermocouple was used over time periods up to 180 minutes. The overall strain kinetics, the effects of stress relaxation and additional heat supply during the polymerization were evaluated. Stone mold replicas with an inner butt-joint rectangular cavity ($40.0{\times}25.0mm$, 5.0mm in depth) were duplicated from a brass master mold. A strain gauge (AE-11-S50N-120-EC, CAS Inc., Korea) and a thermocouple were installed within the cavity, which had been connected to a personal computer and a precision signal conditioning amplifier (DA1600 Dynamic Strain Amplifier, CAS Inc., Korea) so that real-time recordings of both polymerization-induced strain and temperature changes were performed. After each of fresh resin mixture was poured into the mold replica, data recording was done up to 180 minutes with three-second interval. Each of two poly(methyl methacrylate) products (Duralay, Vertex) and a vinyl ethyl methacrylate product (Snap) was examined repeatedly ten times. Additionally, removal procedures were done after 15, 30 and 60 minutes from the start of mixing to evaluate the effect of stress relaxation after deflasking. Six specimens for each of nine conditions were examined. After removal from the mold, the specimen continued bench-curing up to 180 minutes. Using a waterbath (Hanau Junior Curing Unit, Model No.76-0, Teledyne Hanau, New York, U.S.A.) with its temperature control maintained at $50^{\circ}C$, heat-soaking procedures with two different durations (15 and 45 minutes) were done to evaluate the effect of additional heat supply on the strain and temperature changes within the specimen during the polymerization. Five specimens for each of six conditions were examined. Within the parameters of this study the following results were drawn: 1. The mean shrinkage strains reached $-3095{\mu}{\epsilon},\;-1796{\mu}{\epsilon}$ and $-2959{\mu}{\epsilon}$ for Duralay, Snap and Vertex, respectively. The mean maximum temperature rise reached $56.7^{\circ}C,\;41.3^{\circ}C$ and $56.1^{\circ}C$ for Duralay, Snap, and Vertex, respectively. A vinyl ethyl methacrylate product (Snap) showed significantly less polymerization shrinkage strain (p<0.01) and significantly lower maximum temperature rise (p<0.01) than the other two poly(methyl methacrylate) products (Duralay, Vertex). 2. Mean maximum shrinkage rate for each resin was calculated to $-31.8{\mu}{\epsilon}/sec,\;-15.9{\mu}{\epsilon}/sec$ and $-31.8{\mu}{\epsilon}/sec$ for Duralay, Snap and Vertex, respectively. Snap showed significantly lower maximum shrinkage rate than Duralay and Vertex (p<0.01). 3. From the second experiment, some expansion was observed immediately after removal of specimen from the mold, and the amount of expansion increased as the removal time was delayed. For each removal time, Snap showed significantly less strain changes than the other two poly(methyl methacrylate) products (p<0.05). 4. During the external heat supply for the resins, higher maximum temperature rises were found. Meanwhile, the maximum shrinkage rates were not different from those of room temperature polymerizations. 5. From the third experiment, the external heat supply for the resins during polymerization could temporarily decrease or even reverse shrinkage strains of each material. But, shrinkage re-occurred in the linear nature after completion of heat supply. 6. Linear thermal expansion coefficients obtained from the end of heat supply continuing for an additional 5 minutes, showed that Snap exhibited significantly lower values than the other two poly(methyl methacrylate) products (p<0.01). Moreover, little difference was found between the mean linear thermal expansion coefficients obtained from two different heating durations (p>0.05).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1672-1681
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• 2002

To evaluate the thermal environments and the workload of farmers in the rice field in summer, this study investigated rice farmers' physiological, psychological responses, work postures, work clothes, air temperature and air humidity during the spraying pesticide in the rice field. Five career farmers (3 males, 2 females) volunteered as the subjects. During the spraying pesticide in the rice field, physiological responses were monitored continuously. The results were as follows. l. Farmers wore only raincoats not pesticide-proof clothing. 2. The value of WBGT, rectal temperature($T_{re}$), mean skin temperature(${\={T}}_{sk}$) were $24.9∼28.9^{\circ}C,\;37.8({\pm}0.3)^{\circ}C\;and\;33.6({\pm}0.6)^{\circ}C$, respectively. Clothing microclimate temperature($T_{cl}$) on the chest and back were $32.5({\pm}2.6)^{\circ}C\;and\;33.6({\pm}2.6)^{\circ}C$, respectively(p<0.00l). Humidity inside of the clothing ($H_{cl}$) was over 80%RH and heart rate(HR) was 112(${\pm}27$)bpm. We evaluated that the spraying pesticide was 'heavy work' by the Tre and HR. To four subjective questionnaires, all farmers expressed 'hard, hot, humid and uncomfortable' without individual difference at the end of works. We suggested that 1) the spraying pesticide in the rice field was a heavy work, 2) because the workload of farmers in the raincoat/pesticide-proof clothing can't be evaluated by only WBGT, assessors should measure physiological, psychological responses as well as thermal environments, 3) to alleviate farmers' heat strain, clothing manufacturers must consider not only the improvement of textile materials and clothing weight but also the designing of personal cooling equipment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.1129-1136
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• 2008

The gaiter is one of the personal protective equipments worn in various industrial sites. This study was performed on humans to investigate the physiological strain of wearing gaiters and to compare control gaiters that are currently on the market and new gaiters that are developed for alleviating heat stress. Experiments were conducted in a climatic chamber of WBGT $30.0\pm0.7^{\circ}C$ under five differed experimental conditions: None, Control A, Control B, New A, New B. The results were as follows. The temperature inside gaiters was significantly lower in both New A and New B than in both Control A and Control B and the difference between news and controls was 1$^{\circ}C$ (p<.01). The humidity inside gaiters in both New A and New B were higher than that in Control A, and lower than that in Control B (p<.01). The outermost surface temperature of the gaiter was the lowest in None and it increased in the following order: New B < New A < Control A < Control B. Mean skin temperature was higher by 0.14$^{\circ}C$ in wearing gaiters than in no gaiters. Skin temperatures in lower body were lower in Control than in New and skin temperature in upper body were higher in Control than in New (p<.01). Local sweat rate, total weight loss and subjective sensations did not show a significant difference according to the gaiters. It was concluded that wearing gaiters affected distribution of skin temperature and local sweat rate.