• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.75-78
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• 2018

Background: To identify work sectors with high risk for work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in Korean men and women. Methods: We analyzed nationwide data to identify ergonomic risk factors in Korean employees. In particular, we analyzed data on exposure to five ergonomic risk factors (painful/tiring postures, lifting/moving heavy materials, standing/walking, repetitive hand/arm movements, and hand/arm vibration) according to employment sector, sex, and age, using the 2014 Fourth Korean Working Conditions Survey. We also used workers' compensation data on work-related MSDs in 2010, which is available by sex. Results: The different work sectors had different gender distributions. "Manufacturing" (27.7%) and "construction" (11.3%) were dominated by males, whereas "human health and social work activities" (12.4%), "hotel and restaurants" (11.7%), and "education" (10.4%) were dominated by females. However, "wholesale and retail trade" and "public administration and defense" employed large numbers of males and females. Furthermore, the work sectors with a greater proportion of work-related MSDs and with multiple ergonomic risk factors were different for men and women. For men, "construction" and "manufacturing" had the highest risk for work-related MSDs; for women, "hotel and restaurants" had the highest risk for work-related MSDs. Conclusion: Ergonomic interventions for workers should consider gender and should focus on work sectors with high risk for MSDs, with multiple ergonomic risk factors, and with the largest number of workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.88-94
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to find out the difference of foot pressure according to the firefighter's work postures for providing the basic information to prevent Musculoskeletal disorders. This study was conducted by 9 male firefighters. Work postures were selected for rescuee handling, fire hose and hydraulic rescue equipment work postures. These were divided into 3 position, "High", "Middle" and the postures of taking out and letting down hydraulic rescue equipment were analyzed as starting point and end point respectively. Foot Pressure was used to analyze contact area, peak pressure, and maximum force in terms of work postures, and compared between fire hose and hydraulic rescue equipment work postures. The results of foot pressure are as follows. According to the results of rescuee handling work postures, one person handling posture showed wide contact area and foot pressure showed the highest at right foot. Accoridng to the (High), (Middle), (Low) postures of fire hose, the results didn't show the difference among the contact area, peak pressure and maximum force. As the results of hydraulic rescue equipment work postures, (Low) postures showed the highest in terms of the right foot of contact area, peak pressure and maximum force and (High) postures showed the highest in left foot. The increase of foot pressure lead to be inconvenience of low extremity and muscle fatigue for maintaining postural control cause pain. Thus, it is necessary to design insole-equipped working shoe for reduce the impulse and effect of foot during the rescuee handling work which standing out as foot pressure.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.704-712
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• 2018

This study analyzed working postures using the Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS) to improve work clothes for construction workers. A video taken at a construction work site was stopped at regular intervals and the postures of relevant body parts proposed by OWAS was recorded. Additionally, based on analysis of the working postures code, the level of work action for each postures was classified from stage I to IV. General workers frequently straightened or bent forward at the waist, and used their legs to stand, bend, or walk. Wood workers moved extensively from the waist, keeping their legs relatively straight and their arms held below their shoulders, repeatedly tapping with a hammer weighing less than 10.0kg. Rebar bending workers mainly bent forward at the waist, with both legs bent or standing with one leg bent. Rebar transport and fixing workers walked with the waist straight, and occasionally one or both hands held above the shoulders. Their work also involved holding a hook, which weigh less than 10.0kg, in their hands, and the difficult task of lifting and placing long rebars, which weigh from 10.0 to 20.0kg or more. Concrete pouring workers bent or twisted their back to the side. Therefore, this study suggests that design goals should be different when developing workwear for each type of worker.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.155-159
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• 2008

In this work, we report synthesis of free-standing ZnO/Zn core-shell micro-polyhedrons using metal Zn pellets as a source material by the thermal chemical vapor deposition process. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy measurements were introduced to investigate morphologies and structural properties of as-grown ZnO/Zn core-shell micro-polyhedrons. It was found that micro-polyhedrons were composed of inner single-crystalline metal Zn surrounded by single-crystalline ZnO nanorod arrays. The inner single crystalline metal Zn with micro-scale diameter has a hexagonal crystal structure. Diameter and height of ZnO nanorods covering the metal Zn surface are below 10 nm and 100 nm, respectively. It was also confirmed that c-axis oriented ZnO nanorods are single crystalline with a hexagonal crystal structure.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.437-444
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to suggest appropriate human model for ergonomic evaluation considering working postures on 3D space. Background: Traditionally extreme design rules have been widely utilized at the stage of designing products. Body size of 5th percentile and 95th percentile in stature has been generally selected for controllability and clearance evaluation, respectively. However, these rules had limitations in reflecting working posture in ergonomic evaluation. Method: In order to define working posture on 3D space, not only sagittal plane but also lateral plane was considered. Kinematic linkage body model was utilized for representation of working posture. By utilizing the anthropometric data of 2,836 South Korean male populations, the point cloud for end points of linkage models was derived. The individuals who were lacking in certain controllability were selected as human models for the evaluation. Result: In case of standing posture it was found that conventional approach is proper for all controllability evaluations. Contrary to standing posture, tall people had less controllability on control location below shoulder point in sitting posture. Conclusion: From the derived proper range on controllability, ergonomic evaluation rule was suggested according to working posture especially in standing and sitting. Application: The results of the study are expected to aid in selection of appropriate human model for ergonomic evaluation and to improve the usability of products and work space.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.829-853
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• 2015

This is an experimental study to investigate the behaviour of piled raft system in different types of sandy soil. A small scale "prototype" model was tested in a sand box with load applied to the foundation through a compression jack and measured by means of load cell. The settlement was measured at the raft by means of dial gauges, three strain gauges were attached on piles to measure the strains and calculate the load carried by each pile in the group. Nine configurations of group ($1{\times}2$, $1{\times}3$, $1{\times}4$, $2{\times}2$, $2{\times}3$, $2{\times}4$, $3{\times}3$, $3{\times}4$ and $4{\times}4$) were tested in the laboratory as a free standing pile group (the raft not in contact with the soil) and as a piled raft (the raft in contact with the soil), in addition to tests for raft (unpiled) with different sizes. It is found that when the number of piles within the group is small (less than 4), there is no evident contribution of the raft to the load carrying capacity. The failure load for a piled raft consisting of 9 piles is approximately 100% greater than free standing pile group containing the same number of piles. This difference increases to about 4 times for 16 pile group. The piles work as settlement reducers effectively when the number of piles is greater than 6 than when the number of piles is less than 6. The settlement can be increased by about 8 times in ($1{\times}2$) free standing pile group compared to the piled raft of the same size. The effect of piled raft in reducing the settlement vanishes when the number of piles exceeds 6.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1774-1779
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• 2014

It is known that muscle strength of human body can alter or deteriorate as aging. In this study, we present an inverse dynamics simulation to investigate the effect of muscle strength on performing the daily activities. A 3D musculoskeletal model developed in this study includes several segments of whole body, long and short muscles, ligaments and disc stiffness. Five daily activities such as standing, flexion, finger tip to floor, standing lift close and lifting flexed were simulated with varying the maximum muscle force capacities (MFC) of each muscle fascicles from 30 to $90N/cm^2$ with an increment of $30N/cm^2$. In the result, no solution can be obtained for finger tip to floor and lifting flexed with $30N/cm^2$. Even though the solution was available for standing lift close activity in case of $30N/cm^2$ capacity, many of muscle fascicles hit the upper bound of muscle strength which means that it is not physiologically possible to perform the acvities in reality. For lifing flexed, even the case of $60N/cm^2$ capaciy, represents the moderate healthy people, was not able to find the solutions, showing that 18 muscles among 258 muscle fascicles reached 100% of muscle capacity. The estimated results imply that people who have low muscle strength such as elders or rehabilitation patients were required higher muscle work to perform and maintain the same daily activities than healthy one.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.197-204
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of high-heels (HH) modification on metatarsal stress in female workers. Method: Seven females who work in clothing stores ($heights=160.4{\pm}3.9cm$; $weights=47.4{\pm}4.1kg$; $age=31.3{\pm}11.1yrs$; $HH\;wear\;career=8{\pm}6.5yrs$) wore two types of HH (original and modified). The modified HH had been grooved with 1.5 cm radius and 0.2 cm depth around the first metatarsal area inside of the shoes using the modified shoe-last. Participants were asked to walk for 15 minutes on a treadmill and to stand for 10 minutes with original and modified HH, respectively. Kinetics data were collected by the F-scan in-shoe system. After each test, participants were asked to rate their perceived exertion using the Borg's 15-grade RPE scale and interviewed about their feeling of HH. Nonparametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test and effect size (Cohen's d) were used to determine the difference of the variables of interest between the original and modified HH. Results: In the present study, modified HH of the peak contact pressure of 1st metatarsal (PCP) left, PCP right, pressure time integral (PTI) left, peak pressure gradient (PPG) left during standing and PPG right during walking are greater than original HH. And even it didn't show statistically significant, the average in all pressure values of modified HH showed bigger than original HH. It surmised to be related to awkward with modified HH. Even though they said to feel the comfortable cause of big space inside of HH in the interview, they seemed to be not enough time to adapt with new HH. So their walking and standing postures were unstable. Conclusion: Modified the fore-medial part of HH can reduce the stress in the first metatarsal head and big toe area during standing and walking.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.73-81
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• 2013

This research proposes design and construction of Korean type SWC based on user oriented smart work system. To achieve this proposal, the research suggested improvements of related law, changes to working environment, and strengthening information security for users, stronger Korean ICT based; the study investigated for an efficient and suitable Korean type SWC by analyzing Korean government plans and foreign developed countries' cases. The user-oriented smart work service platform suggested in this study aims to offer a solution to national crisis and establish infrastructure to knowledge-industry and creative-industry by collaborative smart work environment of 'Context Awareness' and 'Tangible User Interface'. As a result, smart work suggests methods to produce creative work by IT workers and efficient work environment for better standing in world competition. In conclusion, Korean SWC system is proved to be superior in satisfaction rate at 75.41%, 20.18% higher than average score shown in 5 categories in 5 countries from USA, Japan, and EU's which was 55.23%.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.210-220
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• 2017

Objectives: This study was conducted to prepare fundamental data and prevention measures on health promotion and occupational disease, and to assess the effects of the working environment on subjective health status and absenteeism among workers using data from the third working environment survey in Korea. Methods: This study's subjects were composed of 29,711 wage workers from the 3rd working environment survey data. The dependent variables were several diseases, subjective health status and absences, and the independent variable was the working environment. The collected data were analyzed by One-Way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and stepwise multiple analysis using the IBM SPSS(ver. 20.0) statistical package program. Results: The effecting factors for cardiovascular disease were age, working shift and emotional state. The effecting factors for anxiety and depression were years of education, working condition, duties, and emotional state. The effecting factors of insomnia were duty and emotional state. The positive effecting factors for absent days were work standing, working shift, number of night shifts, autonomy, and duties. The positive effecting factors of subjective health status were age, work standing, working years, working shift, appropriateness of working hours, leadership of superiors, duties and emotional state. Conclusions: Based on the above results, the author considers that it is necessary to improve the working environment to reduce absent days, such as by reducing of number of night shifts and giving autonomy regarding duties, and to improve the working environment for subjective health status such as by controlling the appropriateness of working hours and stability of the emotional state. In addition, this study provides fundamental data on health promotion and occupational disease among workers.