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Recent Progress in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Research -A Review of Papers Published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering in 2000 and 2001- (공기조화, 냉동 분야의 최근 연구 동향 -2000년 및 2001년 학회지 논문에 대한 종합적 고찰 -)

  • 강신형;한화택;조금남;이승복;조형희;김민수
    • Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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    • v.14 no.12
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    • pp.1102-1139
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    • 2002
  • A review on the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineering in 2000 and 2001 has been done. Focus has been put on current status of research in the aspect of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation and building environment. The conclusions are as follows. (1) Most of fundamental studies on fluid flow were related with heat transportation of facilities. Drop formation and rivulet flow on solid surfaces were interesting topics related with condensation augmentation. Research on micro environment considering flow, heat, humidity was also interesting for comfortable living environment. It can be extended considering biological aspects. Development of fans and blowers of high performance and low noise were continuing topics. Well developed CFD technologies were widely applied for developing facilities and their systems. (2) Most of papers related with heat transfer analysis and heat exchanger shows dealt with convection, evaporation, and channel flow for the design application of heat exchanger. The numerical heat transfer simulation studies have been peformed and reported to show heat transfer characteristics. Experimental as well as numerical studies on heat exchanger were reported, while not many papers are available for the system analysis including heat exchanger. (3) A review of the recent studies on heat pump system shows that performance analysis and control of heat pump have been peformed by various simulations and experiments. The research papers on multi-type heat pump system increased significantly. The studies on heat pipe have been examined experimently for change of working characteristics and strut lure. Research on the phase change has been carried out steadily and operation strategies of encapsulated ice storage tank are reported experimentally in several papers. (4) A review of recent studies on refrigeration/air conditioning system have focused on the system performance and efficiency for new alternative refrigerants. Evaporation and condensation heat transfer characteristics are investigated for tube shapes and new alternative refrigerants. Studies on components of refrigeration/air conditioning system are carried to examine efficiency for various compressors and performance of new expansion devices. In addition to thermophysical properties of refrigerant mixtures, studies on new refrigerants are also carried out, however research works on two-phase flow seemed to be insufficient. (5) A review of the recent studies on absorption cooling system indicates that heat and mass transfer phenomena have been investigated to improve absorber performance. Various experimental data have been presented and several simulation models have been proposed. A review of the recent studies on duct and ventilation shows that ventilation indices have been proposed to quantify the ventilation performance in buildings and tunnels. Main efforts have been focused on the applications of ventilation effectiveness in practice, either numerically using computational fluid dynamics or experimentally using tracer gas techniques. (6) Based on a review of recent studies on indoor thermal environment and building service systems, research issues have mainly focused on many innovative ideas such as underfloor air-conditioning system, personal environmental modules, radiant floor cooling and etc. Also, the new approaches for minimizing energy consumption as well as improving indoor environmental conditions through predictive control of HVAC systems, various activities of building energy management and cost-benefit analysis for economic evaluation were highlighted.

Relationships between Insensible Perspiration and Thermo Physiological Factors during Wearing Seasonal Clothing Ensembles in Comfort (쾌적한 상태에서 계절별 의복을 착용하고 있는 동안 불감증설과 온열 생리 요소들 간의 관련성)

  • Lee, Joo-Young;Choi, Jeong-Wha;Park, Joon-Hee
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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    • v.31 no.12
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    • pp.1700-1709
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    • 2007
  • The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between thermo-physiological factors and the insensible loss of body weight(IL) of resting women wearing seasonal comfortable clothing. Air temperature was maintained at a mean of 22.5, 24.7, and 16.8 for spring/fall, summer and winter, respectively. We selected a total of 26 clothing ensembles(8 ensembles for spring/fall, 7 ensembles for summer, and 11 ensembles for winter). The results showed that 1) IL was $19{\pm}5g{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr$ for spring/fall environment, $21{\pm}5g{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr$ for summer, $18{\pm}6{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr$ for winter(p<.001). 2) Insensible water loss through respiratory passage(IWR) showed the reverse tendency to IL. IWR was $6{\pm}1g{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr$ for winter and $5{\pm}1g{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}hr$ for summer. This difference was significant(p<.001). 3) The proportion of IWR out of whole insensible water loss(IW), had a mean of the mean 28% for summer and 38% for winter(p<.001). 4) In comfort, the heat loss by IW out of heat production had a mean of 25% for spring/fall, 27% for summer, and 23% for winter. 5) There was a weak negative correlation between It and clothing insulation/body surface area covered by clothing. 6) There were significant correlations between IL and air temperature$(T_a)$, air humidity$(H_a)$, energy metabolism, ventilation, mean skin temperature $\={T}_{sk})$ and clothing microclimate humidity$(H_{clo})$. However, the coefficients were less than 0.5. In conclusion, there were weak relationships between the IL and thermo-physiological factors. However, when subjects rested in thermal comfort, the IL was maintained in a narrow range even though the clothing insulation and air temperature were diverse.

Needs of Patients and their Families in Hospice Care Unit (일 호스피스 병동 입원 환자와 가족의 요구도)

  • Kim, Hyung-Chul;Kim, Eun-Sook;Park, Kwang-He
    • Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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    • v.10 no.3
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    • pp.137-144
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    • 2007
  • Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and assess the needs of the cancer patients and their families and provide basic data to meet with their needs. Methods: This is a descriptive study using questionnaire method. Questionnaire were collected by mail from 76 discharged patients from a hospice ward from May until the end of October, 2004, and data were analyzed by SPSS 10.0. Results: Admitted patients had needs of pain control (85.5%), non-pain symptoms (63.2%) such as vomiting, dyspnea, ascites, etc, and emotional and spiritual problem solving (28.9%, 14.5%). Interests of patients were health care of himself/herself (65.8%), concern for their spouses left alone (32.9%), and future of their children (15.8%). In families' needs of care of 5 areas, "information on patient's status and treatment/nursing care" was shown most high score ($3.48{\pm}0.62$). In detailed questions, they request most 'to inform the prognosis of patients' and the next is 'to inform the reasons that nursing care was required'. The next highest score was to 'inform family roles' ($3.39{\pm}0.64$), and next was spiritual support ($3.11{\pm}0.79$), and emotional support ($3.08{\pm}0.72$). Expectations of family on the treatment were comfortable dying (73.4%) scored the highest. Patients' families were satisfied with volunteer service most in service area (97.4%). The next was pain control (89.5%) and nursing service (77.6%). Conclusion: Health care staff should identify the actual needs of families caring cancer patients and they should operate realistic programme which can give continuous and assistance by reflecting individual needs and characteristics. With these srategies, the quality of life of patients and families can be improved. And then the intervention programme should be developed to measure subjective nursing care needs of terminally ill cancer patients and their families.

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An Awareness of Welfare Facility for the Elderly and It's Related Factors of College Students (노인복지시설(老人福祉施設)에 대한 대학생(大學生)의 의식(意識)과 관련요인(關聯要因))

  • Jowa Yooun-Teak;Nam Chul-Hyun;Park Chun-Man
    • Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.87-111
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    • 1998
  • For the newly approach of policy with the old aged era at hand, the result which examines the 1,200 students attending professional colleges and upward in three small-to-medium sized cities, for two months, from October 1, 1996 to November 30, in order to know the change of consciousness of the growing modern young intellectual age group is as follows. 1. The objects of survey consist of 72.1% of women, 40.4% of 20 to 21 age, 49.1% of atheists, and people from big cities and fishing and agrarian village occupy equally 40.2%. Concerning the long-termed residents, 49% of them dwell in big cities. In case of the parents' age is more than 55, 31.5% in fathers, and 10.9% in mothers. 2. The types of housing in which they desire to reside in their getting older are : 72.8% of them hope to live in individual houses, 16.6% in apartments or villas, and 3.4% in social welfare facilities. Out of respondents, compared with other groups, man rather than woman, those who are 20 to 21 age group and from fishing and agrarian villages and have over 7 family members and live with their parents have a higher preference for independent houses. 3. The districts in which they hope to live when they are old are : 41.6% of them, with the highest percent, hope to live in farming villages, the older they are, the more they hope to live in agricultural district, and women of 21 years and upward hope to live in big cities. On the other hand, the preferable degree for social welfare facilities is higher each in people who are 24 years and upward, buddhists, self-boarding students, and the more poorly they are off, the higher the percent is. 4. The types of preferable welfare facilities for the elderly are : 58.2% of them think silver towns desirable, 28.4% think the charged (or free) elderly welfare facilities. Compared with other groups, the percentage which prefer silver towns is higher in women, people from big cities, residents of main family, long-termed city residents, people with higher income, people having grandparents alive, and people who had experience of taking lectures on hygienics or social welfare. 5. 50.3% of the respondents insist that provision of living expenses against old age should be insured by social security system, and 42.8% by the elderly themselves. The percentage of the former shows higher in people of 21 years and upward, women, residents of fishing and agrarian villages, christians, people in more needy circumstances and people who have experience of using a medical institution. 6. Compared with other nations, 54.5% of the respondents have an opinion that elderly welfare and welfare work in Korea stays in insufficient level and most of them are women, people from farming village, residents of head family, people having younger parents and people being worse health condition, and they have a more positive attitude about the elderly welfare work. 7. 92.3% of the respondents answered that a national budget for the elderly welfare is scarce, and the percentage is higher in people who are older, residents of big cities, people in lower living condition and people in worse health condition. 8. 35.2% of the respondents answered that the proper cost of their old age must be over 220mi11ion. The more a family's total income is, the higher the percentage is. 9. The factors which have an effect on the preference of silver towns are sex(p<0.01, the type of the present residence(p<0.05), and a family's total income(p<0.05). 10. From the survey result of the above, we comes to the conclusion that, for the sake of welfare of the increasing elderly population, government authorities and parties concerned must exert their utmost for the elderly welfare by increasing a budget of it and establishing a number of facilities of the elderly welfare and silver towns located in fresh and comfortable villages. In addition, they have to set up a course of hygienics in all the colleges and instruct the contexts on hygienic welfare as well.

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Resolution Method of Hazard Factor for Life Safety in Rental Housing Complex (임대주택단지의 생활안전 위해요인 해소방안)

  • Sohn, Jeong-Rak;Cho, Gun-Hee;Kim, Jin-Won;Song, Sang-Hoon
    • Land and Housing Review
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.1-11
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    • 2017
  • The government has been constructing and supplying public rental housing to ordinary people in order to stabilize housing since 1989. However, the public rental houses initially supplied to ordinary people are at high risk for safety accidents due to the deterioration of the facilities. Therefore, this study is aimed to propose a solution to solve the life safety hazards of the old rental housing complex as a follow-up study of Analysis of Accident Patterns and Hazard Factor for Life Safety in Rental Housing Complex. Types of life safety accidents that occur in public rental housing complexes are sliding, falling, crash, falling objects, breakage, fire accidents, traffic accidents and criminal accidents. The types of safety accidents that occur in rental housing complexes analyzed in this study are sliding, crashes, falling objects, and fire accidents. Although the incidence of safety accidents such as falling, breakage, traffic accidents and crime accidents in public rental housing complexes is low, these types are likely to cause safety accidents. The method of this study utilized interviews and seminar results, and it suggested ways to solve the life safety hazards in rental housing complexes. Interviews were conducted with residents and managers of rental housing complexes. Seminars were conducted twice with experts in construction, maintenance, asset management, housing welfare and safety. Through interviews and seminars, this study categorizes the life safety hazards that occur in rental housing complexes by types of accidents and suggests ways to resolve them as follows. (1) sliding ; use of flooring materials with high friction coefficient, installation of safety devices such as safety handles, implementation of maintenance, safety inspections and safety education, etc. (2) falling ; supplementation of safety facilities, Improvement of the design method of the falling parts, Safety education, etc. (3) crash ; increase the effective width of the elevator door, increase the effective width of the lamp, improve the lamp type (U type ${\rightarrow}$ I type), etc. (4) falling objects and breakage ; design of furniture considering the usability of residents, replacement of old facilities, enhancement of safety consciousness of residents, safety education, etc. (5) fire accidents ; installation of fire safety equipment, improvement by emergency evacuation, safety inspection and safety education, etc. (6) traffic accidents ; securing parking spaces, installing safety facilities, conducting safety education, etc. (7) criminal accidents; improvement of CCTV pixels, installation of street lights, removal of blind spots in the complex, securing of security, etc. The roles of suppliers, administrators and users of public rental housing proposed in this study are summarized as follows. Suppliers of rental housing should take into consideration the risk factors that may arise not only in the design and construction but also in the maintenance phase and should consider the possibility of easily repairing old facilities considering the life cycle of rental housing. Next, Administrators of rental housing should consider the safety of the users of the rental housing, conduct safety checks from time to time, and immediately remove any hazardous elements within the apartment complex. Finally, the users of the rental housing needs to form a sense of ownership of all the facilities in the rental housing complex, and efforts should be made not to cause safety accidents caused by the user's carelessness. The results of this study can provide the necessary information to enable residents of rental housing complexes to live a safe and comfortable residential life. It is also expected that this information will be used to reduce the incidence of safety accidents in rental housing complexes.

Empirical Analysis of Consumer Behavior on the Internet Shopping Mall Choice from the Schema Perspective: Comparison Between Bricks & Clicks and Pure-Player Shopping Mall (스키마 관점에서 살펴본 인터넷 쇼핑몰 선택에 대한 소비자행동의 이해: Bricks & Clicks와 Pure-Player 인터넷 쇼핑몰 비교를 중심으로)

  • Chung, Nam-Ho;Lee, Kun-Chang
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.165-186
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    • 2007
  • With the advent of a wide variety of Internet shopping malls, consumers can choose a best appealing shopping mall from among the Bricks-and-Clicks and Pure-Player malls. Pure-Players launched their operation grandiosely with the early stage of Internet use in 1995. However, after the burst of Dot-com company bubbles in 1997, Pure-Players introduce various types of business models to meet potential needs of consumers. While Pure-Players suffer skeptical views from market analysts as well as consumers, traditional offline companies learned important lessons from Dot-com companies collapse phenomena, and expanded their business channels into online in the name of Bricks-and-Clicks. Nowadays, Bricks-and-Clicks successfully establish in the market as one of reliable business partners among consumers. Therefore, it is no surprise that recent competitions between Bricks-and Clicks and Pure-Players become fiercer than ever to attract potential customers to their websites. In this situation, consumers can choose a shopping mall to their best satisfaction. Consumers can enjoy both offline and online options for shopping because Bricks-and Clicks provide both offline and online channels to consumers, which is compared with Pure-Players offering only online channel. Offline channel is unique in providing consumers with chances to touch and feel target products and services. Meanwhile, online channel is considered very viable and convenient shopping options for consumers. In this respect, it is easily assumed that consumers will show different online shopping behavior when they have to choose either Bricks-and-Clicks mall or Pure-Player mall for the sake of shopping. Remaining research issue in this case is how much consumers' schema would influence online shopping behavior between Bricks-and-Clicks and Pure-Players. Basically, schema is a framework for synthetic information recognition that individual consumers have and is very characteristic in that it focuses not on fragmentary facts but on the combination of various causes affecting results. Consumers' schema is closely represented by trust, structural assurance, and perceived relative advantage towards a specific type of shopping mall. In literature, there exist a lot of studies comparing Bricks-and-Clicks and Pure-Players. However, there is no study to pursue the analysis of consumer behaviors comparing Bricks-and Clicks and Pure-Players from the schema perspective. Therefore, this study aims to investigate this research gap. Empirical analysis is adopted by garnering valid questionnaires from 514 Internet shopping mall users. 237 were mainly using Bricks-and-Clicks for shopping, while 277 were found to visit Pure-Players for shopping. PLS was applied to analyze the survey data to verify the proposed research hypotheses. Findings from the empirical test results are as follows. First, consumers perceive more trust and relative advantage in Pure-Players, comparing with Bricks-and-Clicks. This result is against widely-accepted perception that Bricks-and-Clicks would be perceived by consumers as more trustworthy and relatively advantageous because they have offline reputation and stores. Therefore, it becomes more obvious that Internet is becoming daily necessaries, and consumers increasingly feel very comfortable in using the Internet for their own personal purposes. Second, consumers have firm faith in transaction safety, regardless Bricks-and-Clicks and Pure-Players. This seems due to the fact that most of shopping malls showing dubious transaction safety have no place in the market. In a nutshell, empirical results tell us that Pure-Players will grow very much in the future, to the extent that consumers perceive no difference in comparison with Bricks-and-Clicks. Besides, consumers' schema accumulated through trust and perceived relative advantage plays crucial role in determining consumer behavior.

Image and Visual Preference of the Median Bus Stops;Focusing on Seoul City (중앙부 버스 정류장의 이미지와 시각적 선호에 관한 연구;서울시를 중심으로)

  • Kwon, Ni-A;Im, Seung-Bin
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.36 no.3
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    • pp.85-95
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    • 2008
  • The City of Seoul enforces the 'Median reserved bus lane', a revised public transportation system, in order to achieve both a faster and more convenient transit system. This study examines the visual image and preference of the median bus stops in accordance with the operation of the median reserved bus lanes. In order to evaluate and clarify the distinct landscape of each bus stop in a different environment, our team selected 3 representative bus stops with different environments on main roads and conducted landscape simulations so as to evaluate visual preference. The sites were on a narrow range road, wide width road in the downtown area and wide width road on the outskirts of the city. The preference degree for each selected bus-stop environment was compared. The comparison conditions were a median bus stop with preexisting landscape, a median bus stop with planted trees, and a landscape without a median bus stop. The results of the study can be Summarized as follows: First, the visual influence on median bus stops depends on the visual complexity of the environment where they are located. People had an affinity for the median bus stop in which the visual complexity was low, while the preference degree of median bus stop was low in a highly complex area. Secondly, regardless of regional environment where median bus stops are located, research showed that it is more "impressive" to have a median bus-stop with planted trees than landscape without a median bus stop. Thirdly, the median bus stop with plants highly preferred over one without moreover, the landscape with planted trees would provide a comfortable mind for people. This study reveals that planting-oriented design concepts in median bus stops exhibit significant differences in the preference assessment factors. Thus, for further median bus stop construction, planting is desirable to create an impressive streetscape and better scenic quality.

A Study of Improvement of School Health in Korea (학교보건(學校保健)의 개선방안(改善方案) 연구(硏究))

  • Lee, Soo Hee
    • Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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    • v.1 no.2
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    • pp.118-135
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    • 1988
  • This study is designed to analyze the problems of health education in schools and explore the ways of enhancing health education from a historical perspective. It also shed light on the managerial aspect of health education (including medical-check-up for students disease management. school feeding and the health education law and its organization) as well as its educational aspect (including curriculum, teaching & learning, and wishes of teachers). At the same time it attempted to present the ways of resolving the problems in health education as identified her. Its major findings are as follows; I. Colculsion and Summary 1. Despite the importance of health education, the area remains relatively undeveloped. Students spend a greater part of their time in schools. Hence the government should develop a keener awareness of the importance of health education and invest more in it to ensure a healthy, comfortable life for students. 2. At the moment the outcomes of medical-check-up for students, which constitutes the mainstay of health education, are used only as statistical data to report to the relevant authorities. Needless to say they should be used to help improve the wellbeing of students. Specifically, nurse-teachers and home-room teachers should share the outcomes of medical-check-up to help the students wit shortcomings in growth or development or other physical handicaps more clearly recognize their problems and correct them if possible. 3. In the area of disease management, 62.6, 30.3 and 23.0 percent of primary, middle, and highschool students, respectively, were found to suffer from dental ailments. By contrast 2.2, 7.8, and 11.5 percent of primary, middle and highschool students suffered from visual disorders. The incidence of dental ailments decreases while that of visual impairments increases as students grow up. This signifies that students are under tremendous physical strain in their efforts to be admitted by schools of higher grade. Accordingly the relevant authorities should revise the current admission system as well as improve lighting system in classrooms. 4. Budget restraints have often been cited as a major bottleneck to the expansion of school feeding. Nevertheless it should be extended at least, to all primary schools even at the expense of parents to ensure the sound growth of children by improving their diet. 5. The existing health education law should be revised in such a way as to better meet the needs of schools. Also the manpower for health education should be strengthened. 6. Proper curriculum is essential to the effective implementation of health education. Hence it is necessary to remove those parts in the current health education curriculum that overlaps with other subjects. It is also necessary to make health education a compulsory course in teachers' college at the same time the teachers in charge of health education should be given an in-service training. 7. Currently health education is being taught as part of physical education, science, home economics or other courses. However these subjects tend to be overshadowed by English, mathematics, and other subjects which carry heavier weight in admission test. It is necessary among other things, to develop an educational plan specifying the course hours and teaching materials. 8. Health education is carried out by nurse-teachers or home-room teachers. In connection with health education, they expressed the hope that health education will be normalized with newly-developed teaching material, expanded opportunity for in-service training and increased budget, facilities and supply of manpower. These are the mainpoints that the decision-makers should take into account in the formation of future policy for health education. II. Recommendations for the Improvement of Health Education 1. Regular medical check-up for students, which now is the mainstay of health education, should be used as educational data in an appropriate manner. For instance the records of medical check-up could be transferred between schools. 2. School feeding should be expanded at least in primary schools at the expense of the government or even parents. It will help improve the physical wellbeing of youths and the diet for the people. 3. At the moment the health education law is only nominal. Hence the law should be revised in such a way as to ensure the physical wellbeing of students and faculty. 4. Health education should be made a compulsory course in teachers' college. Also the teachers in service should be offered training in health education. 5. The curriculum of health education should be revised. Also the course hours should be extended or readjusted to better meet the needs of students. 6. In the meantime the course hours should be strictly observed, while educational materials should be revised in no time. 7. The government should expand its investment in facilities, budget and personnel for health education in schools at all levels.

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Characteristics of Low Density Fiberboards Bonded with Different Adhesives for Thermal Insulation (II) - Formaldehyde·Total Volatile Organic Compounds Emission Properties and Combustion Shapes - (다양한 접착제로 제조한 단열재용 저밀도섬유판의 특성(II) - 폼알데하이드·총휘발성유기화합물 방출 특성 및 연소 형상 -)

  • Jang, Jae-Hyuk;Lee, Min;Kang, Eun-Chang;Lee, Sang-Min
    • Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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    • v.45 no.5
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    • pp.580-587
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    • 2017
  • Woodfiber insulation board can be considered as a one of the key material for low energy consumption, comfortable and safety construction of residential space because of its eco-friendly and high thermal insulation performance. This study was carried out to investigate the formaldehyde (HCHO) total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) emission properties and combustion shapes by flame test of low density fiberboards (LDFs) prepared with different adhesives. HCHO TVOC emission and combustion properties of LDFs prepared by melamine urea formaldehyde (MUF), phenol formaldehyde (PF), emulsified methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (eMDI) and latex resin adhesives were measured by desiccator method, 20 L chamber method, and flame test, respectively. As results, LDFs manufactured by MUF, eMDI and latex resin adhesives satisfied the Super $E_0$ grade of HCHO emission performance except PF resin. Furthermore, TVOC emission of all LDFs were satisfied the Korean indoor air quality standard (below $400{\mu}g/m^2{\cdot}h$). Especially, LDF with eMDI resin adhesive showed the lowest HCHO and TVOC emissivity, that $0.14mg/{\ell}$, $12{\mu}g/m^2{\cdot}h$, respectively. However, eMDI emitted the small amount ($3{\mu}g/m^2{\cdot}h$) of toluene in VOC components. In the flame test, LDF with MUF resin adhesives showed the most favorable shape after flame test compare to LDFs prepared other adhesives. Based on HCHO and TVOC emission, and combustion shapes, MUF resin adhesive may be recommended to prepare LDF for insulation purpose.

Implementation of Man-made Tongue Immobilization Devices in Treating Head and Neck Cancer Patients (두 경부 암 환자의 방사선치료 시 자체 제작한 고정 기구 유용성의 고찰)

  • Baek, Jong-Geal;Kim, Joo-Ho;Lee, Sang-Kyu;Lee, Won-Joo;Yoon, Jong-Won;Cho, Jeong-Hee
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.1-9
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    • 2008
  • Purpose: For head and neck cancer patients treated with radiation therapy, proper immobilization of intra-oral structures is crucial in reproducing treatment positions and optimizing dose distribution. We produced a man-made tongue immobilization device for each patient subjected to this study. Reproducibility of treatment positions and dose distributions at air-and-tissue interface were compared using man-made tongue immobilization devices and conventional tongue-bites. Materials and Methods: Dental alginate and putty were used in producing man-made tongue immobilization devices. In order to evaluate reproducibility of treatment positions, all patients were CT-simulated, and linac-gram was repeated 5 times with each patient in the treatment position. An acrylic phantom was devised in order to evaluate safety of man-made tongue immobilization devices. Air, water, alginate and putty were placed in the phantom and dose distributions at air-and-tissue interface were calculated using Pinnacle (version 7.6c, Phillips, USA) and measured with EBT film. Two different field sizes (3$\times$3 cm and 5$\times$5 cm) were used for comparison. Results: Evaluation of linac grams showed reproducibility of a treatment position was 4 times more accurate with man-made tongue immobilization devices compared with conventional tongue bites. Patients felt more comfortable using customized tongue immobilization devices during radiation treatment. Air-and-tissue interface dose distributions calculated using Pinnacle were 7.78% and 0.56% for 3$\times$3 cm field and 5$\times$5 cm field respectively. Dose distributions measured with EBT (international specialty products, USA) film were 36.5% and 11.8% for 3$\times$3 cm field and 5$\times$5 cm field respectively. Values from EBT film were higher. Conclusion: Using man-made tongue immobilization devices made of dental alginate and putty in treatment of head and neck cancer patients showed higher reproducibility of treatment position compared with using conventional mouth pieces. Man-made immobilization devices can help optimizing air-and-tissue interface dose distributions and compensating limited accuracy of radiotherapy planning systems in calculating air-tissue interface dose distributions.

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