• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.473-480
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• 2011

Objective: This paper presents the results of a literature review undertaken to analyze the types and risk factors of unsafe posture in accordance with the crops and the working position and to introduce various ergonomic intervention approaches. Background: There is clear and consistent evidence that agricultural work has been rated as one of the dangerous occupations in the world. A considerable number of adverse health conditions, including musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) are related to agricultural work. Method: An agricultural work requires squatting, kneeling, and bending(stooping) postures for significant periods of the work day which due to a wide variety of activities such as planting, cultivating and harvesting various agricultural products. Thus, each of these postures is analyzed in detail to recommend the improvement methods. Results: Various unsafe postures in agricultural works are revealed and analyzed. It is proven that ergonomics intervention has the potential benefits to reduce MSDs among agricultural workers. Two types of ergonomic intervention methods were discussed to improve unsafe working postures, engineering controls and administrative controls. Conclusion & Application: As a concluding remark, this article can be used as a reference manual for the agricultural workers and also used to raise the research community's awareness to the risk of unsafe working postures for workers in agriculture.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.223-230
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• 2011

Physiological signals such as body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure and heart rate variability and biomechanical workload for stress analysis were investigated during the cherry tomato harvesting work in a greenhouse. The skin temperatures raised $0.05^{\circ}C$/min, $0.03^{\circ}C$/ min, and $0.08^{\circ}C$/min in standing, stooping and squatting postures, respectively. Breath rate significantly increased from 18 to 28 breaths/min during the cherry tomato harvesting work. As the heart rate during the work ranged from about 72 to 110 beats/min (bpm), the cherry tomato harvesting work appeared to be a light intensity task of less than 110 bpm. The worker's average energy consumption rate in three positions during 43 min working time was 65.74 kcal (91 kcal/h in 70 kg). This was a light intensity of work, compared to 75 kcal/h in 70 kg of basic metabolic energy consumption rate of a worker with 70 kg weight; The maximum shear force on the disk (L5/ S1) due to static workload in the cherry tomato harvesting work was 446 N in the stooping posture, 321 N in the squatting posture and 287 N in the standing posture. Acute stress index expressed with the heart rate variability, increased parasympathetic activation up to about 70 while workers were doing most agricultural work in this study. This study provided a system to measure quantitatively workers' physiological change, kinematics and kinetic factors without any restrictions of space in the greenhouse works.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1169-1172
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• 2005

For elderly people, an advanced training machine that uses actuator and can adjust load according to muscle activity is proposed. The proposed machine allows users to have a safe and effective training through exercise close to ordinal motion appears in daily life such as stretching or stooping motion. A muscle activity sensor real-timely monitors the activation level of user's muscle during the exercise and the training load is adjusted based on the measured data. The training load is exerted and continuously controlled by electric/pneumatic actuator.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.743-754
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• 2014

Investigations of regular and chaotic vibrations of the autoparametric pendulum absorber suspended on a nonlinear coil spring and a magnetorheological damper are presented in the paper. Application of a semi-active damper allows controlling the dangerous motion without stooping of system and additionally gives new possibilities for designers. The investigations are curried out close to the main parametric resonance. Obtained numerical and experimental results show that the semi-active suspension may reduce dangerous motion and it also allows to maintain the pendulum at a given attractor or to jump to another one. Moreover, the results show that, for some parameters, MR damping may transit to chaotic motions.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.109-113
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• 2004

The present study attempted to consider the effects of cutting lines in the knee parts of slacks on the clothing pressure and comfort. The study compared and analyzed the pressure imposed to the body in a stooping position and the consequent sensations felt by the wearer according to the slack shapes. The conclusion was drawn as follows: The pressure imposed by the slacks to the body is greater on the two points slightly upper and lower from the knee point than on the knee point itself, regardless of the slack shapes. Clothing pressure was lower in the slacks with 10 cm-wide and 14 cm-wide cutting lines in the knee parts than those with 18 cm-wide cutting lines. Subjective sensations felt in the knee parts were analyzed according to slacks shapes. As a result, it was found that slacks without cutting lines on the knee parts or with sewing lines far from the knee points were more comfortable. In slacks construction, the use of cutting lines in the knee parts can decrease pressure imposed to the knee area or improve the comfort of the slacks. When designing slacks, however, overall appearance should be considered and the weakness of cutting line that makes legs look shorter should also be complemented.