• Title/Summary/Keyword: human performance

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An Efficient Estimation of Place Brand Image Power Based on Text Mining Technology (텍스트마이닝 기반의 효율적인 장소 브랜드 이미지 강도 측정 방법)

  • Choi, Sukjae;Jeon, Jongshik;Subrata, Biswas;Kwon, Ohbyung
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.113-129
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    • 2015
  • Location branding is a very important income making activity, by giving special meanings to a specific location while producing identity and communal value which are based around the understanding of a place's location branding concept methodology. Many other areas, such as marketing, architecture, and city construction, exert an influence creating an impressive brand image. A place brand which shows great recognition to both native people of S. Korea and foreigners creates significant economic effects. There has been research on creating a strategically and detailed place brand image, and the representative research has been carried out by Anholt who surveyed two million people from 50 different countries. However, the investigation, including survey research, required a great deal of effort from the workforce and required significant expense. As a result, there is a need to make more affordable, objective and effective research methods. The purpose of this paper is to find a way to measure the intensity of the image of the brand objective and at a low cost through text mining purposes. The proposed method extracts the keyword and the factors constructing the location brand image from the related web documents. In this way, we can measure the brand image intensity of the specific location. The performance of the proposed methodology was verified through comparison with Anholt's 50 city image consistency index ranking around the world. Four methods are applied to the test. First, RNADOM method artificially ranks the cities included in the experiment. HUMAN method firstly makes a questionnaire and selects 9 volunteers who are well acquainted with brand management and at the same time cities to evaluate. Then they are requested to rank the cities and compared with the Anholt's evaluation results. TM method applies the proposed method to evaluate the cities with all evaluation criteria. TM-LEARN, which is the extended method of TM, selects significant evaluation items from the items in every criterion. Then the method evaluates the cities with all selected evaluation criteria. RMSE is used to as a metric to compare the evaluation results. Experimental results suggested by this paper's methodology are as follows: Firstly, compared to the evaluation method that targets ordinary people, this method appeared to be more accurate. Secondly, compared to the traditional survey method, the time and the cost are much less because in this research we used automated means. Thirdly, this proposed methodology is very timely because it can be evaluated from time to time. Fourthly, compared to Anholt's method which evaluated only for an already specified city, this proposed methodology is applicable to any location. Finally, this proposed methodology has a relatively high objectivity because our research was conducted based on open source data. As a result, our city image evaluation text mining approach has found validity in terms of accuracy, cost-effectiveness, timeliness, scalability, and reliability. The proposed method provides managers with clear guidelines regarding brand management in public and private sectors. As public sectors such as local officers, the proposed method could be used to formulate strategies and enhance the image of their places in an efficient manner. Rather than conducting heavy questionnaires, the local officers could monitor the current place image very shortly a priori, than may make decisions to go over the formal place image test only if the evaluation results from the proposed method are not ordinary no matter what the results indicate opportunity or threat to the place. Moreover, with co-using the morphological analysis, extracting meaningful facets of place brand from text, sentiment analysis and more with the proposed method, marketing strategy planners or civil engineering professionals may obtain deeper and more abundant insights for better place rand images. In the future, a prototype system will be implemented to show the feasibility of the idea proposed in this paper.

The Effect of Vision Sharing at Social Enterprise on Organizational Socialization - Focusing on Mediation Effects of Organizational Health - (사회적기업 종사자의 비전공유가 조직사회화에 미치는 영향 -조직건강을 매개로-)

  • Cheon, Han-Seul;Cho, Young-Bohk;Lee, Na-Young
    • Management & Information Systems Review
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    • v.37 no.1
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    • pp.75-101
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    • 2018
  • Social enterprise in Korea has faced with many problems such as small size, management capability, lack of technology and weak ability to obtain resources despite its quantitative growth, raising concern over sustainability of social enterprises. Despite such tough environment, unique feature of social enterprise, differentiated from commercial enterprise is that it has clear social mission. In addition, social enterprise has the organizational feature in that vulnerable social group of workers coexists with ordinary workers, and plays a role of helping independence of vulnerable social group. Due to this feature, successful organizational socialization of members in social enterprise is a very important feature. Based on assumption that social mission of social enterprise can be utilized as the unique competitiveness of social enterprise through vision-sharing in the organization, and may give positive effects on successful organizational socialization of organization members, this study aims to conduct empirical research on relationship between vision-sharing and organizational socialization and to explore mediation effects of organizational health as organizational environmental element in relationship between vision sharing and organizational socialization. This study was conducted on 156 employees working at social enterprises. As a result of study, first, vision sharing is found to have positive effects on organizational socialization at social enterprises. Second, vision sharing in social enterprise has positive effects on organizational health. Third, vitality and community-oriented in social enterprise are found to have mediation effects among lower elements of organizational health in relationship between vision sharing and organizational socialization. In conclusion, it is confirmed that the more visions of organization are shared, the more members recognize their organization healthy, resulting in successful organizational socialization. This study is meaningful in that it presents the plans for successful organizational socialization of members of social enterprise including vulnerable groups and that it is the empirical study on plans of social enterprise on human resource management.

Neuronal Cell Protective Effect of Dendropanax morbifera Extract against High Glucose-Induced Oxidative Stress (High Glucose로 유도된 산화 스트레스에 대한 황칠나무 잎 추출물의 뇌신경세포 보호 효과)

  • Kim, Jong Min;Park, Seon Kyeong;Guo, Tian Jiao;Kang, Jin Yong;Ha, Jeong Su;Lee, Du Sang;Kwon, O-Jun;Lee, Uk;Heo, Ho Jin
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.45 no.7
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    • pp.938-947
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    • 2016
  • Antioxidant activities and neuroprotective effects of ethyl acetate fraction from Dendropanax morbifera (EFDM) against high glucose-induced oxidative stress and neurotoxicity were investigated to confirm their physiological activities. An 80% ethanolic extract of D. morbifera showed the highest contents of total phenolic compounds as well as 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activities. The extract was fractionated using several solvents, and the ethyl acetate fraction showed the highest activities in ferric reducing/antioxidant power and malondialdehyde inhibitory assays. To evaluate the neuroprotective effect based on antioxidant activities, cell viability was assessed using PC12 and MC-IXC cells in $H_2O_2$- and high glucose-induced cytotoxic assays, respectively. EFDM evidently showed neuroprotective effects in all cells (neuron-like PC12 cells and human brain-originated neuroblastoma MC-IXC cells). Inhibitory effect of the extract on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as an acetylcholine-hydrolyzing enzyme was performed to examine the effect on cognitive function. EFDM presented an AChE inhibitory effect. Finally, high-performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that the major phenolic compound of EFDM is probably a rutin.

Organizational Factors Facilitating the Internationalization of Korean Franchising Companies (해외진출 국내 프랜차이즈기업의 조직특성)

  • Lim, Young-Kun;Lee, Dong-Whuy;Kim, Hee-Jung
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.40-52
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    • 2009
  • Franchising is one of the fastest growing types of business. It is already popular and well-known in the U.S., and has been growing in many other countries including Korea. Furthermore, many Korean franchising companies have expanded their business overseas actively. According to the data by the Ministry of Industry and Resource, 82 companies out of a sample of 500 franchising companies are already operating in many foreign countries and 48% of them have started their foreign business since 2006. This clearly indicates the fast growing current trend of foreign operation by Korean franchising companies. In spite of the fast growing trend of foreign expansion in the industry, academic research on internationalization of franchising companies is extremely difficult to find. Accordingly, academic research on the issue is necessary and urgent in Korea. Among the various research questions on internationalization of franchising business, this study intends to investigate the difference in organizational factors between the franchising companies doing foreign operation and those doing business only domestically. More specifically, this research has the following purposes. First, considering the lack of theoretical basis of previous studies, resource-based theory and agency theory are employed as the theoretical bases. Second, this study explains the difference in internationalization based on organizational factors such as company size, history and growth rate. Third, the five hypotheses regarding the difference in organizational factors are presented and tested empirically, which is the first attempt in the area of this topic. Finally, the study attempts to clarify the conflicting implications among theories regarding some organizational factos such as growth rate. As the theoretical background, resource-based theory and agency theory are discussed. According to resource-based theory, a firm can grow continuously when it has competence and resource, and also the ability to develop them. The competence and resource can include capital, human resource, management skill, market information, ability to manage risk, etc. Meanwhile, agency theory views the relationship between franchisor and franchisee as an agency relationship. In agency theory, bonding capability and monitoring capability are the two key factors which promote internationalization of franchising companies. Based on the two theories, a conceptual model is designed. The model consists of two groups of variables. One is organizational factors including size, history, growth rate, price bonding and geographic dispersion. The other is whether a franchising company is operating overseas or not. We developed the following five research hypotheses basically describing the relationship between organizational factors and internationalization of franchising companies. H1: The size of franchising companies operating overseas is larger than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H2: The history of franchising companies operating overseas is longer than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H3: The growth rate of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H4: The price bonding of franchising companies operating overseas is higher than that of franchising companies operating domestically. H5: The geographic dispersion of franchising companies operating overseas is wider than that of franchising companies operating domestically. Data for the analyses are obtained from 2005 Korea Franchise Survey data co-generated by Ministry of Industry and Resource, GS1 Korea, and Korea Franchise Association. Out of 2,804 population companies, 2,489 companies are excluded for various reasons and 315 companies are selected as the final sample. Prior to hypotheses tests, validity and reliability of the measures of size, history, growth rate and price bonding are examined for further analyses. Geographic dispersion is not validated since it is measured using nominal data. A series of independent sample T-tests is used to find out whether there exists any significant difference between the companies internationalized and those operating only domestically for each organizational factor. Among the five factors, size and geographic dispersion show significant difference, growth rate and price bonding do not reveal any difference and, finally, history factor shows conflicting results in the difference depending on how to measure it.

    shows the summary statistics for hypotheses testing. In conclusion, the results show that the size and history, which are the key variables in resource-based theory, have a significant relationship with internationalization and that geographic area, which belongs to agency theory, also has a strong relationship with internationalization. The results support the findings of extant research and, therefore, prove the usefulness of resource-based theory and agency theory in explaining internationalization of franchising companies. However, growth rate and price-bonding do not show a clear difference between the two types of companies. Accordingly, these two factors need further attention in the future research. Although this study shows meaningful findings theoretically and practically, it has several limitations. First, only organizational factors are considered even if there are various environmental factors influencing franchising firm's internationalization. Second, only being internationalized or not is considered. That is, modes of entry and the size of foreign operations are not included in the study. Third, internationalization strategy is often determined based on the desire for business expansion and higher profitability and egoistical reasons of the CEOs. However, this type of factors belonging to behavioral science is not discussed in the study. Finally, organizational ecology perspective is usefully applicable in explaining the survival and performance of internationally operating companies. Accordingly, research propositions based on this perspective need to be developed and tested.

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  • The Current Status and Problems of Tobacco Control Programs of Public Health Centers in Korea (보건소 금연사업의 현황과 문제점 분석을 통한 개선방안)

    • Park, Soon-Woo;Lee, Ju-Yul
      • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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      • v.34 no.1
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      • pp.87-100
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      • 2009
    • Objectives: This study was conducted to suggest the way to improve the tobacco control program of public health centers in Korea. Methods: A survey with a self-administered questionnaire was conducted among 246 persons in charge of tobacco control work in public health centers nationwide in December, 2006. Frequency analysis was performed with a final sample of 212 respondents with SPSS 12.0 for Windows. Results: The duration of engagement in tobacco control work was less than 3 years among 86.7% of respondents, and 87.3% of respondents had other duties besides tobacco control. Almost all public health centers conducted a campaign with posters or leaflets, and smoking prevention education among adolescents. The actual priority for programs was based on the community diagnosis in only 33.5% of the cases. Only 1.9% of respondents complained lack of budget, on the other hand, 44.7% of respondents appealed insufficient number of personnel. The route of knowledge and skill was largely dependent on self-learning or information from colleague. Collaboration with other related department was done well in 39.5% of the cases. The majority of respondents was satisfied with the general support from central government. Conclusions: To improve the tobacco control program of public health centers, it is needed the reinforcement of capacity and specialty among personnel, priority setting and performance of programs based on the scientific evidence, induction of community participation, utilization of community human resources, development of education and training course for practical skill, effective networking among departments.

    The Effects of Psychological Contract Violation on OS User's Betrayal Behaviors: Window XP Technical Support Ending Case (심리적 계약 위반이 OS이용자의 배신 행동에 미치는 영향: 윈도우 XP 기술적 지원서비스 중단 사례)

    • Lee, Un-Kon
      • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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      • v.24 no.3
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      • pp.325-344
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      • 2014
    • Technical support of Window XP ended in March, 8, 2014, and it makes OS(Operating System) users fall in a state of confusion. Sudden decision making of OS upgrade and replacement is not a simple problem. Firms need to change the long term capacity plan in enterprise IS management, but they are pressed for time and cost to complete it. Individuals can not help selecting the second best plan, because the following OSs of Window XP are below expectations in performances, new PC sales as the opportunities of OS upgrade decrease, and the potential risk of OS technical support ending had not announced to OS users at the point of purchase. Microsoft as the OS vendors had not presented precaution or remedy for this confusion. Rather, Microsoft announced that the technical support of the other following OSs of Wndow XP such as Window 7 would ended in two years. This conflict between OS vendor and OS users could not happen in one time, but could recur in recent future. Although studies on the ways of OS user protection policy would be needed to escape from this conflict, few prior studies had conducted this issue. This study had challenge to cautiously investigate in such OS user's reactions as the confirmation with OS user's expectation in the point of purchase, three types of justice perception on the treatment of OS vendor, psychological contract violation, satisfaction and the other betrayal behavioral intention in the case of Window XP technical support ending. By adopting the justice perception on this research, and by empirically validating the impact on OS user's reactions, I could suggest the direction of establishing OS user protection policy of OS vendor. Based on the expectation-confirmation theory, the theory of justice, literatures about psychological contract violation, and studies about consumer betrayal behaviors in the perspective of Herzberg(1968)'s dual factor theory, I developed the research model and hypothesis. Expectation-confirmation theory explain that consumers had expectation on the performance of product in the point of sale, and they could satisfied with their purchase behaviors, when the expectation could have confirmed in the point of consumption. The theory of justice in social exchange argues that treatee could be willing to accept the treatment by treater when the three types of justice as distributive, procedural, and interactional justice could be established in treatment. Literatures about psychological contract violation in human behaviors explains that contracter in a side could have the implied contract (also called 'psychological contract') which the contracter in the other side would sincerely execute the contract, and that they are willing to do vengeance behaviors when their contract had unfairly been broken. When the psychological contract of consumers had been broken, consumers feel distrust with the vendors and are willing to decrease such beneficial attitude and behavior as satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intention. At the same time, consumers feel betrayal and are willing to increase such retributive attitude and behavior as negative word-of-mouth, complain to the vendors, complain to the third parties for consumer protection. We conducted a scenario survey in order to validate our research model at March, 2013, when is the point of news released firstly and when is the point of one year before the acture Window XP technical support ending. We collected the valid data from 238 voluntary participants who are the OS users but had not yet exposed the news of Window OSs technical support ending schedule. The subject had been allocated into two groups and one of two groups had been exposed this news. The data had been analyzed by the MANOVA and PLS. MANOVA results indicate that the OSs technical support ending could significantly decrease all three types of justice perception. PLS results indicated that it could significantly increase psychological contract violation and that this increased psychological contract violation could significantly reduce the trust and increase the perceived betrayal. Then, it could significantly reduce satisfaction, loyalty, and repurchase intention, and it also could significantly increase negative word-of-month intention, complain to the vendor intention, and complain to the third party intention. All hypothesis had been significantly approved. Consequently, OS users feel that the OSs technical support ending is not natural value added service ending, but the violation of the core OS purchase contract, that it could be the posteriori prohibition of OS user's OS usage right, and that it could induce the psychological contract violation of OS users. This study would contributions to introduce the psychological contract violation of the OS users from the OSs technical support ending in IS field, to introduce three types of justice as the antecedents of psychological contract violation, and to empirically validate the impact of psychological contract violation both on the beneficial and retributive behavioral intentions of OS users. For practice, the results of this study could contribute to make more comprehensive OS user protection policy and consumer relationship management practices of OS vendor.

    A Study on Singapore Startup Ecosystem using Regional Transformation of Isenberg(2010) (싱가포르 창업생태계 연구: Isenberg(2010) 프레임워크의 지역적 변용을 통한 질적 연구를 중심으로)

    • Kim, Soyeon;Cho, Minhyung;Rhee, Mooweon
      • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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      • v.15 no.2
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      • pp.47-65
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      • 2020
    • With the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in sight, innovative business models utilizing new technologies are emerging, and startups are enjoying an abundance of opportunities based on the agility to respond to disruptive innovations and the opening to new technologies. However, what is most important in creating a sustainable start-up ecosystem is not the start-up itself, but the process of research-start-investment-investment-the leap to listing and big business-in order to build a virtuous circle of startups that leads to re-investment. To this end, the environment created in the hub area where start-ups were conducted is important, and these material and non-material environmental factors are described as being inclusive by the word "entrepreneurial ecosystem." This study aims to provide implications for Korea's entrepreneurial ecosystem through the study of the interaction of the elements that make up the start-up ecosystem and the relationship of ecosystem participants in Singapore. Singapore has been consistently mentioned as the top two Asian countries in assessing the start-up environment and business environment. In this process, six elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem presented by Isenberg(2010)-policies, finance, culture, support, human resources, and market-are the best frameworks for analyzing entrepreneurial ecosystems in terms of well encompassing prior studies related to entrepreneurial ecosystem elements, and a model of regional transformation is formed focusing on some elements to suit Singapore, the target area of study. By considering that Singapore's political nature would inevitably have a huge impact on finance, Smart Nation policy was having an impact on university education related to entrepreneurship, and that the entrepreneurial networks and global connectivity formed within Singapore's start-up infrastructure had a significant impact on Singapore's start-up's performance, researches needed to look more at the factors of policy, culture and market. In addition, qualitative research of participants in the entrepreneurial ecosystem was essential to understand the internal interaction of the elements of the start-up ecosystem, so the semi-structured survey was conducted by visiting the site. As such, this study examined the status of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem based on qualitative research focused on policies, culture and market elements of Singapore's start-up ecosystem, and intended to provide implications for regulations related to start-ups, the role of universities and start-up infrastructure through comparison with Korea. This could contribute not only to the future research of the start-up ecosystem, but also to the creation of a start-up infrastructure, boosting the start-up ecosystem, and the establishment of the orientation of the start-up education in universities.

    Genome-Wide Analysis of DNA Methylation before- and after Exercise in the Thoroughbred Horse with MeDIP-Seq

    • Gim, Jeong-An;Hong, Chang Pyo;Kim, Dae-Soo;Moon, Jae-Woo;Choi, Yuri;Eo, Jungwoo;Kwon, Yun-Jeong;Lee, Ja-Rang;Jung, Yi-Deun;Bae, Jin-Han;Choi, Bong-Hwan;Ko, Junsu;Song, Sanghoon;Ahn, Kung;Ha, Hong-Seok;Yang, Young Mok;Lee, Hak-Kyo;Park, Kyung-Do;Do, Kyoung-Tag;Han, Kyudong;Yi, Joo Mi;Cha, Hee-Jae;Ayarpadikannan, Selvam;Cho, Byung-Wook;Bhak, Jong;Kim, Heui-Soo
      • Molecules and Cells
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      • v.38 no.3
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      • pp.210-220
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      • 2015
    • Athletic performance is an important criteria used for the selection of superior horses. However, little is known about exercise-related epigenetic processes in the horse. DNA methylation is a key mechanism for regulating gene expression in response to environmental changes. We carried out comparative genomic analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation profiles in the blood samples of two different thoroughbred horses before and after exercise by methylated-DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeDIP-Seq). Differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in the pre-and post-exercise blood samples of superior and inferior horses were identified. Exercise altered the methylation patterns. After 30 min of exercise, 596 genes were hypomethy-lated and 715 genes were hypermethylated in the superior horse, whereas in the inferior horse, 868 genes were hypomethylated and 794 genes were hypermethylated. These genes were analyzed based on gene ontology (GO) annotations and the exercise-related pathway patterns in the two horses were compared. After exercise, gene regions related to cell division and adhesion were hypermethylated in the superior horse, whereas regions related to cell signaling and transport were hypermethylated in the inferior horse. Analysis of the distribution of methylated CpG islands confirmed the hypomethylation in the gene-body methylation regions after exercise. The methylation patterns of transposable elements also changed after exercise. Long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs) showed abundance of DMRs. Collectively, our results serve as a basis to study exercise-based reprogramming of epigenetic traits.

    The Development of a Ship Firefighting Drill Simulator (선박소화훈련 시뮬레이터 개발에 관한 연구)

    • Kim, Won-Ouk;Kim, Dae-Hee
      • Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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      • v.22 no.5
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      • pp.410-416
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      • 2016
    • After the Sewol Ferry accident, the importance of maritime safety has been emphasized in Korea. In particular, educational and experience training are not only being conducted for maritime personnel but also in schools and at maritime-related organizations in order to broadly instill maritime safety awareness. Based on SOLAS regulations, safety education for sailors conducted every 10 days passenger boats, and fire-fighting drills and abandon-ship training should be conducted once a month on merchant ships. After the Sewol Ferry accident, the maximum number of trainees was reduced from 40 to 20 in order to improve the effectiveness of these training sessions by requiring all trainees to participate in the actual training. The current training process consists of two steps: textbook-based theoretical training and actual practice. Current training environment provides limited capability from human and facility recourses which limit the numbers of trainee participated and system operation time. By introducing the simulation training, it will improve the trainee skill and performance prior to the on-site training and allow the more effective and rapid progress on actual practice. Therefore, it will be proposed the three-step training method in order to improve the effectiveness on fire-fighting drill in Maritime Safety Education on this study. This study suggests a three step training method that would increase the efficiency of maritime safety education. An image-training step to enhance individual task awareness and equipment usage via simulation techniques after theoretical training has been added. To implement this simulation, a virtual training session will be conducted before actual training, based on knowledge obtained from theoretical training, which is expected to increase the speed with which trainees can adapt during the practical training session. In addition, due to the characteristics of the simulation, repeated training is possible for reaction drills in emergency circumstances and other various scenarios that are difficult to replicate in actual training. The efficiency of training is expected to improve because trainees will have practiced before practical training takes place, which will decrease the time needed for practical training and increase the number of training sessions that can be executed, increasing the efficiency of training overall. This study considers development methods for fire-fighting drill simulations using virtual reality techniques.

    A Study on Relationship between Physical Elements and Tennis/Golf Elbow

    • Choi, Jungmin;Park, Jungwoo;Kim, Hyunseung
      • Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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      • v.36 no.3
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      • pp.183-196
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      • 2017
    • Objective: The purpose of this research was to assess the agreement between job physical risk factor analysis by ergonomists using ergonomic methods and physical examinations made by occupational physicians on the presence of musculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremities. Background: Ergonomics is the systematic application of principles concerned with the design of devices and working conditions for enhancing human capabilities and optimizing working and living conditions. Proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent injuries and physical and emotional stress. The major types of ergonomic injuries and incidents are cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs), acute strains, sprains, and system failures. Minimization of use of excessive force and awkward postures can help to prevent such injuries Method: Initial data were collected as part of a larger study by the University of Utah Ergonomics and Safety program field data collection teams and medical data collection teams from the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (RMCOEH). Subjects included 173 male and female workers, 83 at Beehive Clothing (a clothing plant), 74 at Autoliv (a plant making air bags for vehicles), and 16 at Deseret Meat (a meat-processing plant). Posture and effort levels were analyzed using a software program developed at the University of Utah (Utah Ergonomic Analysis Tool). The Ergonomic Epicondylitis Model (EEM) was developed to assess the risk of epicondylitis from observable job physical factors. The model considers five job risk factors: (1) intensity of exertion, (2) forearm rotation, (3) wrist posture, (4) elbow compression, and (5) speed of work. Qualitative ratings of these physical factors were determined during video analysis. Personal variables were also investigated to study their relationship with epicondylitis. Logistic regression models were used to determine the association between risk factors and symptoms of epicondyle pain. Results: Results of this study indicate that gender, smoking status, and BMI do have an effect on the risk of epicondylitis but there is not a statistically significant relationship between EEM and epicondylitis. Conclusion: This research studied the relationship between an Ergonomic Epicondylitis Model (EEM) and the occurrence of epicondylitis. The model was not predictive for epicondylitis. However, it is clear that epicondylitis was associated with some individual risk factors such as smoking status, gender, and BMI. Based on the results, future research may discover risk factors that seem to increase the risk of epicondylitis. Application: Although this research used a combination of questionnaire, ergonomic job analysis, and medical job analysis to specifically verify risk factors related to epicondylitis, there are limitations. This research did not have a very large sample size because only 173 subjects were available for this study. Also, it was conducted in only 3 facilities, a plant making air bags for vehicles, a meat-processing plant, and a clothing plant in Utah. If working conditions in other kinds of facilities are considered, results may improve. Therefore, future research should perform analysis with additional subjects in different kinds of facilities. Repetition and duration of a task were not considered as risk factors in this research. These two factors could be associated with epicondylitis so it could be important to include these factors in future research. Psychosocial data and workplace conditions (e.g., low temperature) were also noted during data collection, and could be used to further study the prevalence of epicondylitis. Univariate analysis methods could be used for each variable of EEM. This research was performed using multivariate analysis. Therefore, it was difficult to recognize the different effect of each variable. Basically, the difference between univariate and multivariate analysis is that univariate analysis deals with one predictor variable at a time, whereas multivariate analysis deals with multiple predictor variables combined in a predetermined manner. The univariate analysis could show how each variable is associated with epicondyle pain. This may allow more appropriate weighting factors to be determined and therefore improve the performance of the EEM.


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