• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.100-106
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• 2019

Background: In Korean medicine, carpal tunnel syndrome is treated by stimulating the acupoints around the wrist. Although a deep understanding of anatomy and guidance is needed to stimulate these acupoints to avoid undesirable side-effects, currently there are no published guidelines for acupotomy treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of fluoroscopy-guided acupotomy compared with conventional acupotomy treatment. Methods: This is a randomized, patient-assessor, patient blind, parallel clinical trial. A total of 30 patients will be enrolled at Wonkwang University Gwangju Hospital, and will be allocated to either an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group will be treated using fluoroscopy-guided acupotomy and the control group will be treated using the conventional acupotomy method. Results: The primary outcome measure will be identification of a cross-section area of the median nerve measured by ultrasonography, and the secondary outcome measure will be the alleviation of pain measured by the Visual Analogue Scale, improvement in the Nerve Conduction Study, Tinel test, Phalen's test, EuroQol 5-dimension scale, and Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire score. Safety components will be measured by monitoring vital signs, electrocardiographs, blood tests, general chemical tests, urine tests and pregnancy tests. In addition, observations for adverse effects will be performed during the trial. Conclusion: This study will provide a more effective, and less harmful way of treating carpal tunnel syndrome compared with conventional acupotomy. Fluoroscopy-guided acupotomy will help practitioners to be accurate in direction and depth of the needle for treating carpal tunnel syndrome.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.12-26
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• 2013

In concert with the development of new materials in the last decade, the need for toxicological studies of these materials has been increasing. These new materials include a group of rare earths (RE). The use of RE nanotechnology is being considered in some green applications, to increase their efficiency by using nano-sized RE compounds, and therefore hazard evaluation and risk assessment are highly recommended. This review was conducted through an extensive contemplation of the literatures in toxicology with in vitro and in vivo studies. Major aspects reviewed were the toxicological evaluations of these elements and metallic compounds at the molecular and cellular level, animal and human epidemiological studies and environmental and occupational health impacts on workers. We also discuss the future prospect of industries with appliances using RE together with the significance of preventive efforts for workers' health. To establish a safe and healthy working environment for RE industries, the use of biomarkers is increasing to provide sustainable measure, due to demand for information about the health risks from unfavorable exposures. Given the recent toxicological results on the exposure of cells, animals and workers to RE compounds, it is important to review the toxicological studies to improve the current understanding of the RE compounds in the field of occupational health. This will help to establish a sustainable, safe and healthy working environment for RE industries.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.73-92
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• 2020

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine occupational safety accidents of child care teacher and to suggest preventive measure in occupational safety health and safety for child-care teacher. Methods: We investigated laws, policy, and previous studies related occupational safety and health for child care teacher. Especially, we reviewed the legal definition of child-care teacher to identify whether Occupational Safety and Health acts cover child-care teacher. Also cross tabulation and a qualitative analysis were conducted for occupational accidents in child care centers from 2013-2018. Results: Safety and health related policies to protect child care centers have been carried out by child care Center Safety and Insurance Association and the Child Care Support Center, but it has mainly been functioned to protect children excluding child care teacher. The most occupational accidents occur in worker aged 40s. The most type of occupational accident were falling down on the floor and surface. Also we could find that there is a high risk of falls, and musculoskeletal disorders through qualitative analysis on occupational accidents cases of child-care teacher. Conclusion/Implications: We suggest to improve the system for protecting child care workers including strengthening occupational safety and health education for child care workers, expanding coverage of national project to prevent occupational accidents.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.103-109
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• 2018

This study was to measure the awareness of the patient safety culture of medical workers in various occupations working in hospitals and tried to be used as useful data. As a result of evaluating department (ward), hospital, immediate supervisor/manager, communication & procedures and frequency of accident reports, the patient safety accidents considered to be the most dangerous, technicians showed high results in the department(ward), nurses showed high results in the immediate supervisor/manager area. Radiological technologists and physical therapists recognized falls and clinical pathologists and nurses recognized before during after the test as the most dangerous patient safety accidents. To raise awareness of patient safety culture, executives and practitioners should create an atmosphere in which practitioners can prioritize patient safety, gain and manage appropriate personnel, manage cooperative systems between workers or departments.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.130-139
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• 2012

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the tire manufacturing work environments extensively and to identify workers' exposure to hazardous substances in various work processes. Methods: Personal air sampling was conducted to measure polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon disulfide, 1,3-butadiene, styrene, methyl isobutyl ketone, methylcyclohexane, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide, and rubber fume in tire manufacturing plants using the National Institute for Occupational Safety Health Manual of Analytical Methods. Noise, carbon monoxide, and heat stress exposure were evaluated using direct reading instruments. Past concentrations of rubber fume were assessed using regression analysis of total particulate data from 2003 to 2007, after identifying the correlation between the concentration of total particulate and rubber fume. Results: Workers were exposed to rubber fume that exceeded 0.6 mg/$m^3$, the maximum exposure limit of the UK, in curing and production management processes. Forty-seven percent of workers were exposed to noise levels exceeding 85 dBA. Workers in the production management process were exposed to $28.1^{\circ}C$ (wet bulb globe temperature value, WBGT value) even when the outdoor atmosphere was $2.7^{\circ}C$ (WBGT value). Exposures to other substances were below the limit of detection or under a tenth of the threshold limit values given by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. Conclusion: To better classify exposure groups and to improve work environments, examining closely at rubber fume components and temperature as risk indicators in tire manufacturing is recommended.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1679-1686
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• 2024

Graphite material plays an important role in nuclear reactors especially the high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) by its outstanding comprehensive nuclear properties. The structural integrity of graphite pebble fuel elements is the first barrier to core safety under any circumstances. The correct knowledge of the stiffness coefficient of the graphite pebble fuel element inside the reactor's core is significant to ensure the valid design and inherent safety. In this research, a vertical extrusion device was set up to measure the stiffness coefficient of the graphite pebble fuel element by the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) of Tsinghua University in China. The stiffness coefficient equations of graphite pebble fuel elements at different temperatures are given (in a helium atmosphere). The result first provides the data on the high-temperature stiffness coefficient of pebbles in helium gas. The result will be helpful for the engineering safety analysis of pebble-bed nuclear reactors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.25-34
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• 2003

Instroduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate safety education-related backgrounds and safety behaviors of elementary school children at a local area in Jeonbuk province. Methods: Study subjects were 308 5th and 6th graders from 6 schools located in J City and the data were collected from June 16-27, 2003. Research instrument to test safety behaviors was 4-points summated scale (Cronbach${\alpha}$= .94) composed of 54-items with three sub-categories school life safety (${\alpha}$= .88), traffic safety (${\alpha}$= .86), and daily life safety (${\alpha}$= .84), The data was analyzed by percentage, x2-test, t-test, ANOVA and Duncan test using SPSS/PC 10.0. Results: 1. Safety Education-related Characteristics: Safety education was mostly conducted during extracurricular hour as picnic (37%) and regular class (37.2%); and the instructors of safety education were school nurse (33.2%), classroom teacher (30.9%), and parents (23.4%) in order. About two third (71.0%) of the subjects have had many kinds of school event program such as essay writing, poster drawing, oratorical contest in the course of safety education According to gender, girl students was more favorable about school events as a effective safety education measure (x2=9.188, p= .010); and according to school location, nural school taught more at moming & closing session (x2=7.383, p= .025), by school nurse or classroom teacher (x2=36.574, p= .001), and had more frequent (x2=63.337, p= .001) safety education class. 2. Practice of safety behaviors: Mean scores of safety behaviors was $106.9{\pm}24.92$ out of 162 points. According gender, the scores of girl students (t=-3.296, p= .001) were significant higher than boy students. But there was not any significant difference according to school area According to safety education-related characteristics, the scores of safety behaviors was significantly higher in the group who thought that school event program was more effective on safety education (F=4.024, p= .019), and who were more interested in current safety education class (F= 10.203, p= .001) Conclusions: From the above findings, the authors concluded that school-based safety education was mainly conducted at extra-curricular and regular class, and by school nurse or classroom teacher in elementary school. Even though the mean scores of safety behaviors of elementary school children was in medium level, those. were significant higher in girl students and in rural school children. And extra-curricular activities and school event programs were suggested as more effective strategies for school-based safety education Based on the above findings, safety education class can be recommended in regular curricular basis; and various extracurricular activities and school event programs need to be developed for more effective school-based safety education. In addition, further study on gender-specific factors on safety behaviors and nationwide survey on school-based safety education should be needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.111-119
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• 2016

This study aimed to analyze postures that were frequently conducted in manufacturing industry. To find grip strength and muscle activities of each posture, Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC) and ElectroMyoGraphy (EMG) were measured. Based on the results of this study, the most appropriate posture could be suggested and used as a basic information for preventing musculoskeletal disorders. Most work-related musculoskeletal disorders have been occurred in the fields of manufacturing industry. According to previous studies, it was reported that the rate of musculoskeletal diseases of upper extremity was higher than that of other body parts. Accordingly, there were many studies about discomfort and grip strength of upper extremity. However, these studies dealt with single selection of wrist, elbow and shoulder. So, it was insufficient for comprehensive studies about upper extremity. And in order to improve the work posture, the physiological changes being generated by the combination of wrist, elbow and shoulder postures should be observed and analyzed. In order to conduct this study, thirty university students who had no records of MSDs involved were recruited. Independent variables were postures of wrist(pronation, neutral, supination), postures of elbow(flexion $45^{\circ}$, $90^{\circ}$) and postures of shoulder(flexion $0^{\circ}$, $90^{\circ}$). And dependent variables were MVC values and EMG values. Jamar dynamometer and TeleMyo 2400T G2 was used to measure MVC and EMG. MVC and EMG for 12 postures were measured for three second and for three times. Experiment was performed randomly. A 10 minutes rest period was provided after each t. To measure muscle load, the EMG signals of eight muscles (Biceps, Medial triceps, Lateral triceps, Brachioradialis, Extensor carpi ulnaris, Extensor carpi radialis, Flexor carpi ulnaris and Flexor carpi radialis) were evaluated. MVC values and EMG values were analyzed using Minitab ver. 14. The results showed that MVC value was the highest at shoulder $0^{\circ}$, elbow $45^{\circ}$ and wrist supination. In case of wrist postures, MVC of supination is the highest. In case of elbow and shoulder postures, MVC of flexion $45^{\circ}$ and $0^{\circ}$ was the highest. It was found that there were interaction between wrist and elbow posture under shoulder flexion and between shoulder and wrist under elbow flexion $45^{\circ}$. In case of the angle of shoulder $0^{\circ}$, elbow $45^{\circ}$ and wrist supination, the EMG values of four muscles(Medial Triceps, Extensor carpi ulnaris, Extensor carpi radialis, Flexor carpi ulnaris) were the highest. Based on this study, it is worth to note that the combination postures of upper extremity have a large impact on the MVC and EMG. The optimal condition upper extremity was shoulder flexion $0^{\circ}$, elbow flexion $45^{\circ}$ and wrist supination for preventing work-related musculoskeletal disease.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.361-366
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• 2018

Previous studies on fear of crime used survey and interview to measure fear of crime. However, though these methods can measure fear of crime in past events, they cannot measure real time fear of crime. In this paper, we use EEG to measure fear of crime in real time. We measure and analyze the EEG of subjects watching the video and confirm the difference between three groups classified according to the degree of fear of crime. As a result, about two times more beta waves are shown when a group of subjects with a high degree of fear of crime watches the images of fear of crime and 1.5 times more beta waves are shown among the other groups. Although watching videos related to the crime increased the beta waves, the police video showed little increase in beta waves because the subjects can sense safety in the video even if it is related to crime.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.145-152
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• 2016

Recently, we can find news about toxic and combustible gas accident. So, we have to develop gas detector that can measure gas at dangerous area for preventing gas accidents. In this paper, we calculate a approximation function from sensor's output using the linear regressiong. And we develop software algorithm using Neville's algorithm for measuring gas concentration. Finally, we compare our algorithm with combustible gas detectors that are already developed, by using standard gas samples manufactured Korea Gas Safety. As a result of this experiment, we confirm that performance of our algorithm is more improved than performance of already developed combustible gas detectors. In the future, we'll research how to improve reliability from using count, temperature and humidity. And we'll design hardware applied explosion proof for safety.