• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.81-90
• /
• 2006

The Strain Index(SI) has been commonly used to evaluate the musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) of upper extremities. Recently, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists(ACGIH) adopted the Threshold Limit Value for hand activity level (HAL TLV) focused on the hand, wrist, and forearm. The MSDs risks of 37 repetitive works conducted at an automobile climate control system manufacturing factory were evaluated using both the HAL TLV and the SI, and the results by two methods were compared. Also, measured repetitive frequencies of upper limbs joint were mesured using electromyogram and electrogoniometer. The evaluation results of the HAL were related with the repetitive frequency data of upper limbs joint by electrogoniometer, and the NPF was related with %MVC of ECU. The evaluation result of HAL TLV was highly related with the SI score(r=0.66, p<0.01). Of total 37 tasks, 25 tasks(67.6%) were exceeded the TLV and 34 tasks(91.9%) exceeded the SI limit. Although there was a high relationship between the HAL TLV and SI score, the HAL TLV underestimated the risk in comparison with the SI. The correlation coefficients(r) between the HAL TLV data and the repetitive frequency of upper limbs joint were 0.45~0.55(p<0.01). The MSD symptoms was significantly different between high risk groups and low risk groups evaluated by HAL TLV(p<0.01), but was not different between two groups by SI. In conclusion, the HAL TLV is a proper tool for repetitive works.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.68-72
• /
• 1991

The present investigation studied the welding fumes produced during the arc welding process at a shipyard. The air at the shipyard was sampled (between February and May, 1990) to determine the total welding fume concentration, its heavy metal content and the concentrations of different sized particles of the welding fumes. The results were as follows : 1. Forty-four out of 50 samples showed welding fume concentrations which exceeding the threshold limit value of $5mg/m^3$. The geometric mean of welding fume concentration was $9.73mg/m^3$ ($2.14-24.86mg/m^3$), and the nighest level was found at the dock assembly shop ($12.0mg/m^3$). 2. The welding fume concentration measured with personal air sampler was 4.2 times greater than that measured with area sampler. 3. Of the heavy metals analyzed, Fe was found to be the most concentrated at $1.29mg/m^3$ ; it constitued 13.3% of the total welding fume concentration. 4. Of the different sized particles that make up the welding fumes, there was a tendency for the smaller particles to be more concentrated. Particles that measured $7{\mu}$ or less in diameter constituted 85.8% of the total welding fume concentration.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.738-742
• /
• 2003

The monitoring was carried out for one year on 20 farms of Mediterranean buffalo situated in central Italy. The milk yield, the somatic cell count, the coagulating properties and some components were determined. The average value of somatic cells was $21.28n{\times}10^3/ml$. Milk production decreased when somatic cell numbers increased. The rennet clotting time increased significantly when somatic cells were higher than $300.00n{\times}10^3/ml$, the curd firming time was significantly higher when somatic cells were more than $1,000.00n{\times}10^3/ml$ and the curd firmness increased up to $200.00n{\times}10^3$/ml, then gradually decreased. Protein and casein decreased when somatic cells increased and the same trend was shown by casein/protein ratio. Both for these components and the coagulating properties the threshold limit of somatic cells to obtain better results was $200.00n{\times}10^3/ml$. The somatic cell number did not show a trend which was strictly influenced by the lactation stage, contrary to what happened in the other species.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.457-473
• /
• 2008

Yielding of the internal steel reinforcement is an important mechanism that influences the Intermediate Crack-induced debonding (IC debonding) behavior in FRP-strengthened RC members since the FRP is required to carry additional forces beyond the condition of steel yielding. However, rational design practice dictates an appropriate limit state is defined when steel yielding is assured prior to FRP debonding. This paper proposes a criterion which correlates the occurrence of IC debonding to the formulation of a critical steel yielding length. Once this length is exceeded the average bond stress in the FRP/concrete interface exceeds its threshold value, which proves to correlate with the average bond resistance in an FRP/concrete joint under simple shear loading. This proposed IC debonding concept is based on traditional sections analysis which is conventionally applied in design practice. Hence complex bond stress-slip analyses are avoided. Furthermore, the proposed model incorporates not only the bond properties of FRP/concrete interface but also the beam geometry, and properties of steel and FRP reinforcement in the analysis of IC debonding strength. Based upon a solid database, the validity of the proposed simple IC debonding criterion is demonstrated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.105-114
• /
• 1998

In this study, 108 thinners were analyzed to identify their composition. The purposes of this study were to provide the data for MSDS and worker exposure levels. Thinners were collected from manufacturing industries, distributors and users. Wide ranges of thinner components were found ; Toluene, xylene, and ethyl benzene were most often found. Next, MIBK, cellosolve acetate, butyl cellosolve, and butyl acetate were found in 20-40 thinners. Others, such as acetone, n-hexane, cyclohexane, heptane, methylcyciohexane, octane and nonane were also found. There were about 5-6 components in each thinner. In the view point of Industrial Hygiene, Benzene was the most important component of thinners, which procures leukemia. Benzene was found from 8 kinds of thinners out of the total 108 surveyed. Thus, Content of benzene in thinners must be evaluated when industrial hygiene surveys are performed. Aromatic hydrocarbons were identified from 71 kinds of thinners out of total 108 and their contents were 10-87%. Alkanes were not contained in automobile painting, spraying, degreasing, urethane and epoxy thinners but lacquer, enamel and coating thinners.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.176-182
• /
• 2005

American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) adopted the Lifting Threshold Limit Values ($TLVs^{(R)}$) in 2005 as a guideline for protecting the workers from work-related low back and shoulder disorders associated with repetitive lifting tasks. The TLVs consist of three tables with recommended weight limits for lifting tasks and their determination procedures are simple. The TLVs sans the material weight/the recommended values (LITLVs) were obtained from 45 lifting tasks in ship engine manufacturing factories. These values were compared and correlated with the Recommended Weight Limits (RWLs) and lifting indices (LIs) determined by the Revised Lifting Equation (LE) of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The average ratio, LITLVs/LIs, was 0.8 (LITLVs: $1.3{\pm}0.8$, LIs: $1.6{\pm}0.7$). Thus, the TLVs underestimated the risk than the LE. The LITLVs were highly correlated with LIs (r=0.82). The predicted value of LITLVs when LIs=1 wa 0.76. Using the predicted TLVs the higher risk ones of a large number of tasks can be screened to be further investigated.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.199-208
• /
• 2023

Taguchi method is one of the most popular approaches for design optimization such that performance characteristics become robust to uncontrollable noise variables. However, most previous Taguchi method applications have addressed a single-characteristic problem. Problems with multiple characteristics are more common in practice. The multi-criteria decision making(MCDM) problem is to select the optimal one among multiple alternatives by integrating a number of criteria that may conflict with each other. Representative MCDM methods include TOPSIS(Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), GRA(Grey Relational Analysis), PCA(Principal Component Analysis), fuzzy logic system, and so on. Therefore, numerous approaches have been conducted to deal with the multi-characteristic design problem by combining original Taguchi method and MCDM methods. In the MCDM problem, multiple criteria generally have different measurement units, which means that there may be a large difference in the physical value of the criteria and ultimately makes it difficult to integrate the measurements for the criteria. Therefore, the normalization technique is usually utilized to convert different units of criteria into one identical unit. There are four normalization techniques commonly used in MCDM problems, including vector normalization, linear scale transformation(max-min, max, or sum). However, the normalization techniques have several shortcomings and do not adequately incorporate the practical matters. For example, if certain alternative has maximum value of data for certain criterion, this alternative is considered as the solution in original process. However, if the maximum value of data does not satisfy the required degree of fulfillment of designer or customer, the alternative may not be considered as the solution. To solve this problem, this paper employs the desirability function that has been proposed in our previous research. The desirability function uses upper limit and lower limit in normalization process. The threshold points for establishing upper or lower limits let us know what degree of fulfillment of designer or customer is. This paper proposes a new design optimization technique for multi-characteristic design problem by integrating the Taguchi method and our desirability functions. Finally, the proposed technique is able to obtain the optimal solution that is robust to multi-characteristic performances.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
• /
• v.48 no.5
• /
• pp.42-48
• /
• 2011

Agent acts for specification purpose, which is common element of CGF (Computer Generated Forces). When basic agent acts as planned, the advanced intelligence agent can do more than this. It can follow predefined actions along appointed script to achieve purpose or lay another plans when it is difficult to achieve. In other words, it can amend plan again or make new plan in order to achieve goals. When plan fails, agent amends oneself, possibly decreases target level to achieve easily. In doing so, the agent calculates a quantitative value for changing plans in realtime, and choose appropriate alternative plans when the threshold value reaches an limit. In this paper, we propose an military system in which the planned action can be modified according to the level of achievement and alternative plans can be generated accordingly.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.9-16
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study is to examine the algorithm of ship collision avoidance system and to improve its performance. The study on the algorithm of ship collision avoidance system have been carried out by many researchers. We can divide the study according to the adopted theory into two category such as 'collision risk calculation method' and 'risk area method'. It is not so difficult to find heir merit and demerit in the respective method. This study suggested newly modified model, which can overcome a limit in the two method. The suggested model is based on collision risk calculation method and suggests how to solve the threshold value problem, that is, one of the unsolved issues in collision risk calculation method. To solve that problem this study proposed new system under which the users can select appropriate threshold value according to environments such as traffic situations and weathers conditions. Simulation results of new model is schematized using 'risk area method'to examine the relationships between the two method. In addition, in case of 'collision risk method', when TCPA and DCPA are used to determine collision risk, a problem happens, that is, two ships become too close in their stem area, therefore, partial function of 'risk area method'is adopted to solve the problem in suggested model.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.293-302
• /
• 2008

Lead chromate is made by sodium dichromate and lead acetate, and has being used widely in the part of pigment, paints, inks, plastics and so on. Even though lead chromate has health hazards which like both lead and chromium, there are a few study about pigment workplaces using lead chromate in Korea. The purpose of this study is to evaluate workers' exposure levels and airborne lead and chromium concentration in the pigment workplaces using lead chromate. There are 20 workers in the total 5 workplaces. 10 workers(50%) have been exposed to lead and 3 workers(15%) have been exposed to chromium, which exceeded the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists(ACGIH) Threshold Limit Value (Pb: $0.05\;mg/m^3$, Cr: $0.012\;mg/m^3$) and Korean Ministry of Labor's Standard. Geometric mean (GM) of airborne lead was highest in pigment ($0.0421\;mg/m^3$), paint ($0.0020\;mg/m^3$) and PVC coloring ($0.0007\;mg/m^3$), respectively(p<0.05). The result of airborne chromium concentration was paint ($0.0033\;mg/m^3$), paint ($0.0004\;mg/m^3$) and PVC coloring ($0.0003\;mg/m^3$). Also the lead and chromium concentration in the manual process is each 30 times and 10 times higher than the value in automatic process(p<0.01). In the classified process by detail, the concentration of airborne lead was $0.0638\;mg/m^3$ in grinding & packaging, mixture & after-measuring ($0.0436\;mg/m^3$), filtration & drying ($0.0402\;mg/m^3$), lead nitrate & dissolution($0.0129\;mg/m^3$), pigment commitment & mixture ($0.0013\;mg/m^3$) and dispersion & grinding ($0.0010\;mg/m^3$) (p<0.05). Moreover the concentration of a sample in weighting & packaging was $0.0023\;mg/m^3$. The concentration of lead in workers' blood was pigment (15.12 ug/dl), paint (4.74 ug/dl) and PVC coloring (2.50 ug/dl), and some samples have exceeded biological exposure limit. In conclusion, the depending on their work industry and process, workers have been exposed to the high lead chromate.