• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.71-78
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• 2021

There are regularly planned overhaul periods in thermal power plants, which involve the maintenance of the boiler of the power plants. However, thermal power plants workers are always exposed to risk during overhaul periods owing to the narrow space and significant dust inside the boiler. Therefore, it is essential to develop a safety monitoring system that is suitable for operating in this type of environment. In this study, we developed not only a worker three-dimensional (3D)-location monitoring system that can monitor and record the entry/exit of workers, their 3D-location, and fall accidents but also a method to secure the working environment and operation efficiency. This system comprises of a worker tag, which was equipped with an inertial measurement unit, a barometric pressure sensor, and a Bluetooth low energy (BLE), and the tags were given to each worker. In addition, the location of workers inside the boiler was measured using a pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) method and BLE beacons. The location data of the workers tag were transmitted to the integrated database (DB) server through a gateway, and to the administrator monitoring system. The performance of the system was demonstrated inside an actual thermal power plant boiler, and the accuracy and reliability of the system were verified through a number of repeated tests. These results provide insights on designing a new system for monitoring enclosed spaces.

• Journal of Urban Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2021

The number of old buildings older than 30 years in Korea continues to increase from 29.9% in 2005 to 38.8% in 2020. Considering the growing urban regeneration projects, urban maintenance projects, the suppression of urban expansion, and the lack of idle land in the city, the dismantling of old buildings is expected to increase further in the future. As major accidents at building dismantling sites continue to occur, related agencies are also strengthening safety management of building dismantling works. While physical safety management such as collapse and fall is strengthened, there is a relative lack of interest in the health of workers at dismantling sites due to environmental hazards. Since relevant laws stipulate that construction waste should be separated and discharged, old buildings need to be considered for environmental hazards such as fine dust, floating bacteria, and floating molds when dismantling. In this study, we intend to find important safety management elements in the management of building dismantling sites, measure environmental factors harmful to dismantling workers, and present basic data for the management of dismantling sites in the future. "Safety management" was the highest priority, followed by "dust," "vibration," "noise," "bacteria," and "smell." The perception of the importance of "physical damage prevention" with workers working on dismantling and managers managing the site came out similar, but the perception of "work efficiency" and "health disorder prevention" through environmental hazard management showed different priorities. In the process of dismantling, floating bacteria and floating mold were collected, cultured, and measured the concentration in the indoor air. The measurement was measured by dividing it into pre-dismantling and during dismantling.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.353-360
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• 2022

Due to the dense and complicated working environment, the construction industry is susceptible to many accidents. Worker's fall is a severe problem at the construction site, including falling into holes or openings because of the inadequate coverings as per the safety rules. During the construction or demolition of a building, openings and holes are formed in the floors and roofs. Many workers neglect to cover openings for ease of work while being aware of the risks of holes, openings, and gaps at heights. However, there are safety rules for worker safety; the holes and openings must be covered to prevent falls. The safety inspector typically examines it by visiting the construction site, which is time-consuming and requires safety manager efforts. Therefore, this study presented a worker-driven approach (the worker is involved in the reporting process) to facilitate safety managers by developing integrated computer vision and inertia sensors-based mobile applications to identify openings. The TensorFlow framework is used to design Convolutional Neural Network (CNN); the designed CNN is trained on a custom dataset for binary class openings and covered and deployed on an android smartphone. When an application captures an image, the device also extracts the accelerometer values to determine the inclination in parallel with the classification task of the device to predict the final output as floor (openings/ covered), wall (openings/covered), and roof (openings / covered). The proposed worker-driven approach will be extended with other case scenarios at the construction site.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.1242-1242
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• 2022

Annually, several construction workers fall ill, are injured, or die due to heat-related exposure. The prevalence of work-related heat illness may rise and become an issue for workers operating in temperate climates, given the increase in frequency and intensity of heatwaves in the US. An increase in temperature negatively impacts physical exertion levels and mental state, thereby increasing the potential of accidents on the job site. To reduce the impact of heat stress on workers, it is critical to develop and implement measures for monitoring physical exertion levels and mental state in hot conditions. For this, limited studies have evaluated the utility of wearable biosensors in measuring physical exertion and mental workload in hot conditions. In addition, most studies focus solely on male participants, with little to no reference to female workers who may be exposed to greater heat stress risk. Therefore, this study aims to develop a process for objective and continuous assessment of worker physical exertion and mental workload using wearable biosensors. Physiological data were collected from eight (four male and four female) participants performing a simulated drilling task at 92oF and about 50% humidity level. After removing signal artifacts from the data using multiple filtering processes, the data was compared to a perceived muscle exertion scale and mental workload scale. Results indicate that biosensors' features can effectively detect the change in worker physical and mental state in hot conditions. Therefore, wearable biosensors provide a feasible and effective opportunity to continuously assess worker physical exertion and mental workload.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2023

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has had a major impact worldwide. Several countries have implemented restrictions on social interaction ("social distancing"). Several studies have reported that the epidemiology of trauma patients, such as those with facial bone fractures, has changed after COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to further explore these specific changes. Methods This was a retrospective study of patients who presented to a single institution with facial bone fractures between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2020. Baseline patient demographics, clinical information, type of fracture, etiology, and operative management were compared before and after COVID-19. Results Of all cases, 3,409 occurred before COVID-19, and 602 occurred after COVID-19. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the number of patients with facial fractures has not decreased significantly. A significant increase was noted in fractures that occurred outdoors (p < 0.001). However, a decrease was observed in operative management between the groups (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the proportion of assault, fall-down, industrial accident, or roll-down. In contrast, the proportion of traffic accidents and slip-down categories increased significantly (p < 0.05). Moreover, a significant decrease was found in the proportion of the sports category (p = 0.001) Conclusions It was confirmed through this study that COVID-19 pandemic also affected epidemiology of facial fractures. Focusing on these changes, it is necessary to develop safety measures to reduce facial fractures.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.459-464
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to design a toilet lifting seat to prevent falls accidents in the elderly while using the toilet. Prior to design, laws and national standards related to restroom use were investigated and the available space for the assistive devices to be installed was determined. In additions, considering the body size and operating range of the elderly, the optimal final position of the toilet seat is set so that users can use it more safely and conveniently without external help. Moreover, in order to provide an effective standing assistance function, a complex 4-bar link structure was applied to enable simultaneous seat elevation and angle adjustment when operating the device, and the appropriate link shape and dimensions were determined using a linkage program and UG NX. FEA analysis using ANSYS Workbench is performed to ensure the robustness of the stretched linkage and the feasibility of the lifting seat is verified through fabrication.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.166-175
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• 1977

The author have performed an epidemiological study on the accidental deaths at industry from 1970 to 1975, in order to seek for the preventive measures of industrial accident with the under-standing of its cause and characteristics of the accidental deaths. The obtained results were as follows; 1. Total number of deaths for 6 years were 361 (350 males, 11 females). and the mean death rate was 33.8 per 100,000 industrial workers during 6 years. By the highest as 52.9 was in 1974 and the lowest as 13.7 in 1970. By the industry group, the death rate of Electricity, Gas and Water was 149.3, Construction 83.9 and the lowest was Manufacturing as 18.3. 2. Standardized mortality rate of the cases by the age group showed that 20-29 years old group was 43.0, 40-49 years old group 38.1, 30-39 years old group 32.0, and the lowest as 17.9 was under 19 years old group. 3. The cumulative percentage of the cases by years of service showed that under 6 months was 60.4%, under 1 year 72.9%, under 2 years 83.1%. 4. By the month of occurrence, the highest was 15.8% which occurred in August and the lowest was 5.8% in February. The highest as 19.1% was on Friday and the lowest as 11.9% on Monday by the day of a week. 5. By the causes of accident, car accidents was 28.3%, fall accidents 19.1%, accidents by a crash 9.1% in that order. By the location of injury, head was 44.6%, multiple injuries 33.0%, chest 10.5%, and back was the lowest as 1.9%. The distribution of the cases by nature of injury shelved that cerebral contusion and hemorrhage was 39.4%, fracture and dislocation 33.2%, asphyxia 8.0% in that order. 6. The cumulative percentage of the cases by the duration from injury to death showed that the injuried day was 74.2%, within 3 days after injury 88.5%, within 7 days 96.1%. Therefore most of the cases were occurred within 7 days after injury. 7. Byythe daily mean wages, most of the cases as 91.7% were under 2,000 won, and more 4,000 won was 1.6% merely.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.174-184
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• 1991

To determine the incidence rate of accidents and its associated factors, a prospective survey was carried out in a rural area of a total of 1,360 residents for 1 year from January 1 to December 31, 1988 in Shin-am Ri, Jungdong Myun, Sangju Kun, Kyungpook Province. Data for accidents were collected by the community health practitioner who is working at Primary Health Post in Shin-am Ri. A total number of accident cases was 85 among 1,360 persons during one year study period, and annual incidence rate was 62.5 per 1,000 persons. The highest incidence rate of accident was observed in the age group of 30-39 was 179.8. The incidence rate of accident in male was 86.5 which was about 2 times that in female. In male, the highest incidence rate was seen in 30-39 age group and in female, 60-69 age group. The highest incidence rate of accident was observed in spring(29.4%) and summer(29.4%), and the lowest in fall(17.7%). The highest incidence rate of accident was observed in Friday(24.5%) by day of week, and between 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. by time zone. The most frequent use of medical facilities was Primary Health Post(51.8%) and the next was clinic(38.8%). Mean duration of treatment was 9.8 days. The accident occured in the room and kitchen(23.5%), in the yard and barn(23.5%), on the road(22.4%). and in the rice field and dry field(20.0%). The causes of accident were motor vehicle accident(20.0%), piercing or cutting(20.0%), collision or fighting(12.9%), and poisoning(11.8%) in order of frequency. The most common type of injury was open wound which was 43.5%. The most common tool of accident was farm machine which was 23.5%. The most common injuried part of body was extremity(55.3%).

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.367-371
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• 2014

When the crew or passengers fall into the water due to marine accident of vessel, it is very important to rescue them quickly. In the case of marine accidents, most people in distress have been wearing a lifejacket, so if the GPS and Cospas-Sarsat communication module will be integrated within the lifejacket, it is easy to rescue them. In this paper, development of the dual band lifejacket-integrated antenna for GPS and Cospas-Sarsat communication is discussed. The antenna with the FR-4 substrate of 0.2mm thickness for flexibility was designed that it can be fitted close to the shoulder of the life jacket and operate at 1.575GHz and 406MHz. The GPS communication antenna was implemented with a ring-slot antenna having a circular polarized characteristic and a meander type linear polarized antenna is used as Cospas-Sarsat communication. The two antennas are fed by a single microstrip line and an open stub is used to minimize the mutual interference between the two antennas. The performance of the fabricated antenna attached to the life vest is confirmed by the measurement of the return loss at GPS and Cospas-Sarsat frequency bands.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.84-92
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• 2010

Objectives: To investigate the patterns of unintentional home injuries in Korea. Methods: The study population was 12,382,088 people who utilized National Health Insurance services due to injuries (main diagnosis codes S00 to T28) during 2006. Stratified samples(n=459,501) were randomly selected by sex, age group and severity of injury. A questionnaire was developed based on the International Classification of External Causes of Injury and 18,000 cases surveyed by telephone were analyzed after being projected into population proportionately according to the response rates of their strata. Domestic injury cases were finally included. Results: Domestic injuries (n=3,804) comprised 21.1% of total daily life injuries during 2006. Women were vulnerable to home injuries, with the elderly and those of lower income (medical-aid users) tending to suffer more severe injuries. Injury occurred most often due to a slipping fall (33.9%), overexertion (15.3%), falling (9.5%) and stumbling (9.4%), with severe injury most often resulting from slipping falls, falls and stumbles. Increasing age correlated with domestic injury-related disability. Conclusions: The present findings provide basic information for development of home injury prevention strategies, with focus on the elderly.