• Title/Summary/Keyword: Work Environment Monitoring

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Air Quality Deterioration in a Pristine Area due to a Petroleum Refinery and Associated Activities

  • Handique, Devolakshi;Bhattacharyya, Krishna G.
    • Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.254-269
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    • 2017
  • The work describes an assessment of the major air pollutants, $NO_2$, $SO_2$, CO, $O_3$, $NH_3$, coarse and fine particulate matter ($PM_{10}$, $PM_{2.5}$) in ambient air in and around a 3 million tonne Petroleum Refinery and the possible impacts on a pristine area marked by the presence of the world-famous Kajiranga National Park, a world heritage site and habitat for the most number of one-horned rhinos in the world. The Refinery is at an aerial distance of 20-25 km from the wildlife habitat. The assessment is based on regular monitoring at four stations around the Refinery and one station near the National Park. Heavy rains during June to August influence the pollutant concentrations while at other times of the year, large traffic volume adds to the pollutant concentrations that peak during November to March, the dry months of the year. Correlation analysis by scatter technique is utilised to obtain the enhancement ratios to predict the variations in the concentrations of the pollutants and their spatial distribution. Computation of air quality index (AQI) indicates that the coarse and the fine particulates in the ambient air could be a major hazard to wildlife in the area.

A Retrieval of Vertically-Resolved Asian Dust Concentration from Quartz Channel Measurements of Raman Lidar (라만 라이다의 석영 채널을 이용한 고도별 황사 농도 산출)

  • Noh, Young-Min;Lee, Kwon-Ho;Lee, Han-Lim
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.27 no.3
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    • pp.326-336
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    • 2011
  • The Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) observation provides a specific knowledge of the temporal and vertical distribution and the optical properties of the aerosols. Unlike typical Mie scattering Lidars, which can measure backscattering and depolarization, the Raman Lidar can measure the quartz signal at the ultra violet (360 nm) and the visible (546 nm) wavelengths. In this work, we developed a method for estimating mineral quartz concentration immersed in Asian dust using Raman scattering of quartz (silicon dioxide, silica). During the Asian dust period of March 15, 16, and 21 in 2010, Raman lidar measurements detected the presence of quartz, and successfully showed the vertical profile of the dust concentrations. The satellite observations such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) confirmed spatial distribution of Asian dust. This approach will be useful for characterizing the quartz dominated in the atmospheric aerosols and the investigations of mineral dust. It will be especially applicable for distinguishing the dust and non-dust aerosols in studies on the mixing state of Asian aerosols. Additionally, the presented method combined with satellite observations is enable qualitative and quantitative monitoring for Asian dust.

A Personalized Healthcare Analysis System in Ubiquitous Environment

  • Sain, Mangal;Chung, Wan-Young;Lee, Hoon-Jae
    • Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.235-243
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    • 2011
  • With the recent trends and the adaptation of further advancement in personal healthcare system leads to develop some application which can work independent and user can operate that application without much interference of physician or any specialist user. To meet these needs, this paper proposes and implements a progressive architecture for the personal healthcare information system. This new architecture will not only play the role of middleware but also provide a analysis tool to process that different sensor data which is collected from different sensors implemented on patient body and environment. After collecting that data, with the help of various developed applications this data can be convert into useful information which will be stored in application server for further use and research. These features can be enabled by simple and effortless interactions of normal users and act autonomously to support their activities. This proposed personal healthcare architecture will also provide analysis report to the doctors and patient or various users for further instructions. The analysis report consists of healthcare data analysis results and history of patients. We are considering healthcare data like ECG, which is an important aspect for basic healthcare need.

Effects of alloys and flow velocity on welded pipeline wall thinning in simulated secondary environment for nuclear power plants (원전 2차계통수 모사 환경에서 용접배관 감육 특성에 미치는 재료 및 유속의 영향)

  • Kim, Kyung Mo;Choeng, Yong-Moo;Lee, Eun Hee;Lee, Jong Yeon;Oh, Se-Beom;Kim, Dong-Jin
    • Corrosion Science and Technology
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    • v.15 no.5
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    • pp.245-252
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    • 2016
  • The pipelines and equipments are degraded by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC), and a large-scale test facility was constructed for simulate the FAC phenomena in secondary coolant environment of PWR type nuclear power plants. Using this facility, FAC test was performed on weld pipe (carbon steel and low alloy steel) at the conditions of high velocity flow (> 10 m/s). Wall thickness was measured by high temperature ultrasonic monitoring systems (four-channel buffer rod type and waveguide type) during test period and room temperature manual ultrasonic method before and after test period. This work deals with the complex effects of flow velocity on the wall thinning in weld pipe and the test results showed that the higher flow velocity induced different increasement of wall thinning rate for the carbon steel and low alloy steel pipe.

Effect of Gamma-ray Treatment on Toxicity of Textile and Pigment Wastewaters (감마선 처리가 섬유와 안료폐수의 생물독성에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Eun-Ae;Jo, Hun-Je;Park, Eun-Joo;Kim, Hyo-Jin;Kim, Jeong-Gyu;Jung, Jinho
    • Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.145-149
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    • 2006
  • Textile and pigment wastewater samples collected from an industrial complex showed toxic effect on Daphnia magna. For textile wastewater, 48 h acute toxicity of effluent was not detected while toxic unit (TU) of influent was 1.79. The toxicity of influent was completely disappeared by gamma-ray treatment at 10 kGy or by suspended solids (SS) removal. In case of pigment wastewater, both influent and effluent were toxic to D. magna though the effluent satisfied current water quality standards. Gamma-ray treatment had little effect on the toxicity reduction of pigment wastewater since the toxicity was mainly caused by metal ions, in particular, Cr(VI). This work suggests the bioassay technique for monitoring adverse effects of wastewater should be introduced, and also shows the usefulness of gamma-rays as an advanced treatment technique for textile wastewater.

The Influencing Factors on Infection Management Behavior of Health Worker in Long Term Care Facilities (장기요양시설 요양보호사의 감염관리 수행에 영향을 미치는 요인)

  • Kim, Kyoung Ja;Park, Sung Won
    • Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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    • v.23 no.2
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    • pp.155-165
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    • 2016
  • Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing health workers' infection management behavior in long-term care facilities. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted with 180 health workers who are employed in long-term care facilities. The data were collected from April, 25 until July, in 2016. Results: Infection management behavior positively correlated with the perceived importance of infection management (r=.77, p<.001), but role conflict negatively correlated with infection management behavior (r=.28, p<.001). The hierarchical regression model with general characteristics (first step) and perceived importance of infection management, work environment, and role conflict (second step) against infection management behavior was statistically significant (F=31.93, p<.001). This model could explain 62.8% of infection management behavior ($R^2=.62$, ${\Delta}R^2=.39$). Particularly, perceived importance of infection management was identified as factors influencing infection management behavior(${\beta}=.70$, p<.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study imply that systemic education about infection control and monitoring should be considered, so as to encourage proper infection management behaviors among health workers in long-term care facilities.

Aqua-Aware: Underwater Optical Wirelesss Communication enabled Compact Sensor Node, Temperature and Pressure Monitoring for Small Moblie Platforms

  • Maaz Salman;Javad Balboli;Ramavath Prasad Naik;Wan-Young Chung;Jong-Jin Kim
    • Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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    • v.23 no.2
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    • pp.50-61
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    • 2022
  • This work demonstrates the design and evaluation of Aqua-Aware, a lightweight miniaturized light emitting diode (LED) based underwater compact sensor node which is used to obtain different characteristics of the underwater environment. Two optical sensor nodes have been designed, developed, and evaluated for a short and medium link range called as Aqua-Aware short range (AASR) and Aqua-Aware medium range (AAMR), respectively. The hardware and software implementation of proposed sensor node, algorithms, and trade-offs have been discussed in this paper. The underwater environment is emulated by introducing different turbulence effects such as air bubbles, waves and turbidity in a 4-m water tank. In clear water, the Aqua-Aware achieved a data rate of 0.2 Mbps at communication link up to 2-m. The Aqua-Aware was able to achieve 0.2 Mbps in a turbid water of 64 NTU in the presence of moderate water waves and air bubbles within the communication link range of 1.7-m. We have evaluated the luminous intensity, packet success rate and bit error rate performance of the proposed system obtained by varying the various medium characteristics.

Working Environment and Risk Assessment of Biphenyl in Workplace (Biphenyl 취급사업장의 작업환경 및 유해성 평가)

  • Kim, Hyeon-Yeong
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.55-61
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    • 2014
  • In this study, we evaluated the measurement of working environment, the amount of exposure, the hazards and risks of biphenyl, that was registered as 2A in IARC. Based on the exposure scenario, it was calculated that the exposure amounts are $1.0{\times}10^{-2}$, $4.2{\times}10^{-4}$, $7.0{\times}10^{-6}mg/m^3$, respectively, and the $RfC_{work}$ is 0.21, 2.13, 0.53 $0.31mg/m^3$ as carcinogenicity, target toxicity (oral), target toxicity (inhalation), developmental toxicity, respectively. According to these hazards evaluation and risk assessments, it was estimated that 0.57, 0.39 as carcinogenicity and non-carcinogenicity (developmental toxicity), respectively. It was also estimated relatively lower risks below 1. But since biphenyl is hazardous used much amounts, and could be exposed to workers directly, it was determined to require exposure monitoring to protect workers' health.

Exposure Assessment of Crystalline Silica in Diatomite Powder Handling Workplace with Acute Silicosis (급성 규폐증이 발생한 규조토 분말 취급 작업장의 결정형 실리카 노출평가: 역학조사 사례)

  • Kim, Boowook;Kim, Daeho;Kim, Hyoung-Ryoul;Choi, Byung-Soon
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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    • v.29 no.3
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    • pp.271-277
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    • 2019
  • Objectives: A 46-year-old woman who had worked on cleaning stainless steel containers with Initially unknown powders died from acute silicosis. To determine whether the acute silicosis was related to his work environment, we conducted exposure assessment the level of exposure to respirable crystalline silica(RCS) during cleaning stainless steel containers with unknown powders. Methods: The exposure assessment of RCS were undertaken according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH) method 7500. The components of the unknown powder were analyzed using X-ray Diffraction. Results: The unknown powder was found to be natural diatomaceous earth, which contained 12% and 9% quartz and cristobalite, respectively, crystalline silica. In the case of cleaning stainless steel containers with diatomaceous earth powder, the primary measurement resulted in 1.3 times higher occupational exposure limit of MOEL(in sum of quartz and cristobalite concentration) and 3.9 times higher in secondary measurement. The workbench was equipped with a local exhaust system, but because there was no hood at the end of the duct, the wind speed at the opening of the duct was 12 m/sec, whereas the controlled wind speed at the working position was only 0.3 m/sec below the legal standard. Conclusions: There is an urgent need to install the hood, conduct safety and health education for employers and workers, and periodically monitoring and manage the working environment.

Evaluation of Denitrification Efficiency and Functional Gene Change According to Carbon(Fumarate) Concentration and Addition of Nitrate Contaminated-soil in Batch System (회분식반응조 실험을 통한 탄소원(Fumarate) 주입조건에 따른 지하수 중 탈질율 및 탈질 관련 기능성 유전자 분석)

  • Park, Sunhwa;Kim, Hyun-Koo;Kim, Moon-su;Lee, Gyeong-Mi;Jeon, Sang-Ho;Song, Dahee;Kim, Deok-hyun;Kim, Young;Kim, Tae-seung
    • Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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    • v.20 no.7
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    • pp.80-89
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    • 2015
  • Nitrate is on the most seriou pollutant encountered in shallow groundwater aquifer in agricultural area. There are various remediation technologies such as ion exchange, reverse osmosis, and biological denitrification to recover from nitrate contamination. Biological denitrification by indigenous microorganism of the technologies has been reviewed and applied on nitrate contaminated groundwater. In this work, we selected the site where the annual nitrate (NO3) concentration is over 105 mg/L and evaluated denitrification process with sampled soil and groundwater from 3 monitoring wells (MW4, 5, 6). In the results, the nitrate degradation rate in each well (MW 4, 5, and 6) was 25 NO3 mg/L/day, 6 NO3 mg/L/day, and 3.4 NO3 mg/L/day, respectively. Nitrate degradation rate was higher in batch system treated with 2 times higher fumarate as carbon source than control batch system (0.42M fumrate/1M NO3), comparing with batch system with soil sample. This result indicates that increase of carbon source is more efficient to enhance denitrification rate than addition of soil sample to increase microbial dynamics. In this work, we also confirmed that monitoring method of functional genes (nirK and nosZ) involved in denitrification process can be applied to evaluated denitrifcation process possibility before application of field process such as in-situ denitrification by push-pull test.