• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.437-442
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• 2013

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of drive-assisting system in a shower carrier on the upper body muscle activities of caregivers through drivability tests. Background: In care facilities, one of the major ADL (Activities of Daily Living) factors is bathing/showering. Recently, bath/shower-assisting equipment is actively being introduced in care facilities to reduce caregivers' muscle burden. In particular, it is desirable to utilize a shower carrier equipped with drive-assisting system to effectively care for the elderly. However, there were few systematic studies on the relationship between muscle activities and drive-assisting speeds. Method: For the drivability tests to study the effects on the muscle activities according to the drive-assisting speeds(corresponding drive-voltages: 0.0V, 2.0V, 2.1V, 2.3V), 6 females in their 40s($43{\pm}4yrs$, $157{\pm}5cm$, and $54.5{\pm}1.5kg$) were selected. To measure muscle activities of caregivers through drivability tests, 7 muscles in the upper body(TM/Trapezius Muscle, DM/Deltoid Muscle, BBM/Biceps Brachii Muscle, TBM/Triceps Brachii Muscle, ECRLM/Extensor Carpi Radialis Longus Muscle, FCUM/Flexor Carpi Ulnaris Muscle, and ESM/Erector Spinae Muscle) were selected. Results: In the TM, muscle activities were decreased as 21% compared to 0.0V, when drive-voltage 2.0V was applied, as 57% by 2.1V, and 62% by 2.3V(p<0.05), whereas 40%, 56%, and 69% of muscles activities were decreased respectively from the DM(p<0.05). Also, from the UL(BBM+TBM+ECRLM+FCUM), muscle activities were decreased by 17% with 2.0V as against 0.0V, by 47% with 2.1V, and 52% with 2.3V, whereas decreases in muscle activities from the ESM were found by 20%, 34%, and 42% respectively by 2.0V, 2.1V, and 2.3V(p<0.05). Conclusion: The muscle activities were decreased in the order of the DM, TM, ESM, and UL. As muscle activities were remarkably reduced as drive voltage were increased, it was expected to reduce the upper body muscle burden on the caregivers when using shower carriers equipped with driving-assist system. Applications: The results from this study can be applied for the development of a shower carrier including other equipment to possibly reduce the muscle burden of the caregivers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.423-429
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• 2017

The rapid progress of aging society gives rise to a variety of problems of the aged. In particular, the health issue among the elderly poses a socio-economic burden on our society. In a bid to promote the health of the elderly, development and application of various contents linked with the ICT technology to our daily life and ways to facilitate their use among the elderly should be sought. Korea has provided a variety of contents designed to promote or maintain health of people of various ages through the wide spread and use of smart phones since 2010 but there has been a severe lack in contents for the elderly in terms of their quantity and quality. Against this backdrop, this study aims to utilize dance characterized by physical movements and bodily expressions as part of developing ICT-based contents for health promotion of the elderly. This study has adopted a number of research methodologies, including analysis of preceding researches into elderly welfare based on the research topics and periods of from domestic academic journals and academic theses (master's, doctoral), ICT-based preceding researches into elderly affairs, preceding researches into dance programs for the elderly, based on which I intend to present a proposal on the development and use of dance contents.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.373-383
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• 2021

Our society is aging rapidly. In this super-aged society, the increase in healthcare costs are considered a national problem that undermines the sustainability of social security. Various services for healthcare for the elderly have been promoted to address this. However, most of them have focused on healthcare after the outbreak of chronic diseases and lack preventive healthcare. Most of the preventive healthcare projects are only pilots. In this paper, the current status of health care services for senior citizens at home and abroad was analyzed and based on this, the limitations and improvements were analyzed to propose the establishment of IoT-based Total Silver Care Center. IoT-based Total Silver Care Center may be conveniently monitored the health status of the elderly through various sensors, medical devices, and smart bands. And based on this, it can improve the quality of nursing services through time-saving and work efficiency of nursing providers. In addition, health care interventions may be provided in a timely manner if there is a change in the health status of users. And real-time imaging systems can help overcome mental difficulties.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.94-101
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• 2019

Most of the existing rail structures have undergone a lot of aging since a considerable period of time has passed from completion. In particular, among existing railway bridges, many of the plate girder bridges are older bridges that have lived 40 to 60 years or more. Since the treadmill is directly connected to the girder without the ballast, the running load of the vehicle is directly transmitted to the bridge. Therefore, the shock and noise applied to the bridge are larger than those of the ballast bridge, and the dynamic shock and vibration are also relatively large. Therefore, it is very urgent to develop appropriate maintenance, repair and reinforcement technology for existing steel plate bridge. In this study, the authors introduced the characteristics of embedded rail (ERS) developed for improving the performance of the existing plate girder bridge and the techniques solving the vibration and noise problems. In order to evaluate the vibration and noise reduction performance of ERS, a non-ballast plate girder bridge with 5m length of sleepers installed and a plate girder bridge with ERS were fabricated. And, then, the vibration response generated under the same excitation condition was measured and analyzed. Also, the radiated noise analysis was performed using the vibration response data obtained from the experiment as the input data of the acoustic analysis model. As a result of experiments and analyses, it was confirmed that the plate girder bridge's vibration using ERS was reduced by 15.0~18.8dB and the average noise was reduced by 7.7dB(A) more than the non-ballast bridge.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.301-308
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• 2021

It is important to develop a digital SOC (Social Overhead Capital) maintenance system for preemptive maintenance in response to the rapid aging of social infrastructures. Abnormal signals induced from structures can be detected quickly and optimal decisions can be made promptly using IoT sensors deployed on the structures. In this study, a digital SOC monitoring system incorporating a multimetric IoT sensor was developed for long-term monitoring, for use in cloud-computing server for automated and powerful data analysis, and for establishing databases to perform : (1) multimetric sensing, (2) long-term operation, and (3) LTE-based direct communication. The developed sensor had three axes of acceleration, and five axes of strain sensing channels for multimetric sensing, and had an event-driven power management system that activated the sensors only when vibration exceeded a predetermined limit, or the timer was triggered. The power management system could reduce power consumption, and an additional solar panel charging could enable long-term operation. Data from the sensors were transmitted to the server in real-time via low-power LTE-CAT M1 communication, which does not require an additional gateway device. Furthermore, the cloud server was developed to receive multi-variable data from the sensor, and perform a displacement fusion algorithm to obtain reference-free structural displacement for ambient structural assessment. The proposed digital SOC system was experimentally validated on a steel railroad and concrete girder bridge.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2022

Currently the population of rural areas in Korea continue to decline due to low birth rate, aging population, and migration. This phenomenon is accelerated over time. And as a result, there are some declining phenomenon in rural society. And it is same in the residential and basic living conditions of rural villages. The increase ratio of empty houses exacerbates the rural landscape, acts as a cause of crime and bring out various social and economic problems such as worsening settlement conditions and local slums. The study is carried out to prevent this phenomenon by investigating the architectural contents of empty houses in the village, surveyed residents and owners and finally analyzed and synthesized to make a plan to utilize empty houses in the village. This study was conducted from June to December 2021. The conclusions are followings: 1. The empty houses in Korea were 1,511 million in 2020, 8.2% of the total number of houses, whereas those in Jeollabuk-do were 95,412, 12.9% of those of houses, and those in Gimje-city, the subject of this study, were 5,944. It is up to 15.8%. In particular, empty houses in Hacheon village, the site of this study, accounted for the highest ratio, with 25% of the total number of houses. 2. To understand the utilization and improvement of empty houses, surveys and interviews were conducted to residents and owners of Hacheon village in Gimje, and most of the residents submit proposals that empty houses were not desirable in terms of village landscape and safety. The owners don't have intentions of selling or leasing them. They want to remodel them and rent for a specific period. 3. As the physical condition of the empty houses(9empty houses) 6 empty houses of them are good. 4 of them are in poor condition. 4. By synthesizing these contents, nine empty houses in Hacheon village will be remodeled as the space for those of rural start-up young people, smart farm area, community space and rental housings for rural returnees.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.405-412
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• 2022

This paper studies the method of estimating power loss and classifying the factors for improving the power generation efficiency through O&M. It is installed under various climatic conditions worldwide, operational and maintenance technologies suitable for the characteristics of the installation location are required. Existing studies related to solar power generation efficiency have been actively quantifying the impact on short-term losses by environmental factors such as high temperature, dust accumulation, precipitation, humidity, and wind speed, but analysis of the overall impact from a long-term operation perspective is limited. In this study, the potential for efficiency improvement was analyzed by re-establishing a loss classification system according to the power flow of solar power to derive a comprehensive efficiency model for long-term operation and estimating power loss through a case study for each region where climate conditions are classified. As a result of the analysis, the average annual potential for improving soiling loss was 26.9%, Death Valley 7.2%, and Seoul 3.8%. Aging losses was 6.6% in the 20th year as a cumulative. The average annual potential due to temperature loss was 2.9 % for Doha, 1.9% for Death Valley, and 0.2% for Seoul.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.42-49
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• 2024

In recent years, the construction industry has diligently focused on improving the quality and safety of buildings through smart technologies. However, there is a growing trend of leakage defects, especially in educational facilities, due to aging. The objective of this study is to analyze the causes of these defects in educational environments using the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) technique and propose preventive measures based on the findings. The FTA technique is explained through a review of domestic literature, and data from the Educational Support Center from 2019 to 2021 are examined to identify major defects. The construction of the Fault Tree (FT) for leakage defects resulted in the identification of 12 basic events. Subsequently, a comprehensive understanding of the causes of leakage is achieved through FTA analysis, leading to the identification of the primary causes of defects. Leakage defects accounted for 46.8% of all reported issues in educational facilities, with roof (ceiling) leaks being the most common problem. FTA analysis revealed that poor substrate treatment was the main cause of roof (ceiling) leaks, which could be attributed to cracks in the waterproof layer, joint cracks, and microvoids in the waterproof layer. The primary achievement of this research is to provide essential data for preventing leakage defects in educational facilities and developing preventive measures through the FTA technique. These results are expected to significantly enhance the management of educational facilities and the prevention of leakage issues.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2024

Through the development of construction technology, various construction projects such as redevelopment projects, undergrounding of roads, expansion of subways, and metro railways are being carried out. However, this has led to an increase in the number of construction projects in existing urban centers and neighborhoods, resulting in an increase in the number of damages and disputes between neighboring buildings and residents, as well as an increase in safety accidents due to the aging of existing buildings. In this study, digital data was applied to a graphics program to objectify the progress of cracks by comparing the creation of cracks and the increase in length and width through photographic images and presenting the degree of cracks numerically. Through the application of the program, the error caused by the subjective judgment of crack change, which was mentioned as a shortcoming of the existing field survey, was solved. It is expected that the program can be used universally in the building diagnosis process by improving its reliability if supplemented and improved in the process of use. As a follow-up study, it is necessary to apply the extraction algorithm of the digital graphic data program to calculate the length and width of the crack by itself without human intervention in the preprocessing work and to check the overall change of the building.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-34
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• 2019

The U-Healthcare era has evolved with the development of the Internet of things (IoT) in the early stages of being connected as a society. Already, many changes such as increased well-being and the extension of human life are becoming evident across cultures. Korea entered the growing group of aging societies in 2017, and its silver industry is expected to grow rapidly by adopting the IoT of a super-connected society. In particular, the senior shift phenomenon has resulted in increased interest in the promotion of the health and well-being of the emergent silver generation which, unlike the existing silver generation, is highly active and wields great economic power. This study conducted in-depth interviews to investigate the characteristics of the new silver generation, and to develop the design for a wearable serious game that intends to boost the interest of the elderly in exercise and fitness activities according to their personalized physical training regimes as prescribed by the U-Hospital service. The usage scenario of this wearable serious game for the 'U-silver generation' is derived from social necessity. Medical professionals can utilize this technology to conduct health examinations and to monitor the rehabilitation of senior patients. The elderly can also use this tool to request checkups or to interface with their healthcare providers. The wearable serious game is further aimed at mitigating concerns about the deterioration of the physical functions of the silver generation by applying personalized exercise prescriptions. The present investigation revealed that it is necessary to merge the on / off line community activities to meet the silver generation's daily needs for connection and friendship. Further, the sustainability of the serious game must be enhanced through the inculcation of a sense of accomplishment as a player rises through the levels of the game. The proposed wearable serious game is designed specifically for the silver generation that is inexperienced in using digital devices: simple game rules are applied to a familiar interface grounded on the gourmet travels preferred by the target players to increase usability.