• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.77-86
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• 2004

Observational methods to evaluate postural load have an intrinsic week point that is the problem of reliability in observing postures subjectively, although they have been widely used in assessing risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in the industry. In this study, observational reliability was discussed based on reviewing several previous studies. Practical guidelines was presented to reduce the observational errors when using video recording for the assessment of risk factors. In addition, previous studies on observational reliability were summarized and analyzed according to body parts to be observed, media for observation, objective measures, analysis, statistics, etc. It is expected that this basic study can be used to increase the applicability and accuracy of the observational methods.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.61-66
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to develop improved boom structures with reliable fatigue strength of weldment and lower production cost. For that purpose, multi-body dynamic analysis was performed to evaluate forces acting on arm & boom cylinders and joints of boom structure during operation of an excavator for three working postures, then stress analysis was made to investigate stress distribution around diaphragms at the bottom plate of boom structures which was known to be susceptible to fatigue failures of welded joints, and finally boom structures with optimum arrangement of diaphragms was proposed. This work mainly consists of the following two parts: part 1 focuses on multi-body dynamic analysis of excavators during operation and part 2 includes evaluations of fatigue strength of welded joints for modified boom structures.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.9-19
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• 2008

Work-related musculoskeletal hazards in a paper-making industry were examined to explore ergonomic interventions in a participatory approach for mitigating the hazards. Manual tasks occurred in this paper-making industry were quite different with ordinary assembly industry where individual workers perform certain specified tasks repetitively. Workers used to perform varieties of team-based irregular manual tasks to interact with the facilities. Among 96 manual jobs investigated, 44 potential hazardous jobs were screened during basic investigation phase and finally 16 hazardous jobs were identified by the detailed analysis phase. The major hazardous factors were awkward postures and excessive weights. Possible ways of intervention were developed, reviewed and proposed by an ergonomics team comprised of staffs and engineers from various departments and ergonomics specialist from outside the company. The proposed intervention ideas were evaluated and modified by the workers and union representatives in terms of usability and comfort. Implemented interventions including mechanization, automation, and improvement of tools and equipments provided fairly promising results.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.73-83
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• 2005

The goal of this study is to propose the improved scheme that prevents the workers against musculoskeletal disorders at a fishcake manufacturing company, A questionnaire and an ergonomic assessment method were adopted to analyze the symptoms of workers' musculoskeletal disorders, and an analysis of working postures and a quantitative assessment on various processes were performed to find out harmful factors of workplace. Based on the result of the evaluation, to enhance the working environment, improvement of worktable, working space, tools, and outfit was suggested, and induction of mechanical system was also suggested. Suggested improvement plan was applied to the workplace step by step and it is confirmed that improvement plan can removes the injurious factors of musculoskeletal diseases effectively.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.48-57
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• 2023

With the advance of autonomous vehicle technology various sitting posture is possible like relax position (inclined seating posture). Parametric study was done with MADYMO, a mutibody dynamics solver, to investigate the effect of sitting posture in different frontal crash modes, full frontal, 40% offset, and angled rigid barrier crash as well as various impact speeds. Hybrid III 50th male and 5th female dummies were used to figure out the difference induced by occupant weight and dimension. Restraint system parameters complying to current safety protocols like NCAP are studied if they still work effectively in relax position which is feasible with autonomous vehicles.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.101-108
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• 2011

In forest work, working conditions are very hard to improve. The proper distribution of work time and good posture is believed to bring about direct improvements such as accident prevention. On this, this study has analyzed forest workers' posture and their working hours in order to improve their working conditions in stone channel work. Authors has chosen several core elements of stone channel work to focus on, which include stone masonry, excavation of bed, moving stone, directing work, choosing stone, and breaking stone. The ratio of real working time over total working time was shown as 84.6%. As for the time ratio of each elemental work over the real working time, the stone masonry was 60.4%, the directing work was 15.1%, moving stone was 12.1%, choosing stone was 7.1%, breaking stone was 3.3%, and excavation of bed was 2.0%. According to the analytical results provided by OWAS, the ratio of category III (Work posture has a distinctly harmful effect on the musculoskeletal system) has shown that moving stone turned out 65.2%, choosing stone was 61.5%, stone masonry was 46.1%, breaking stone was 14.3%, excavation of bed was 12.5% and directing work was 6.8%. Furthermore, the ratio of category IV (Work posture with an extremely harmful effect on the musculoskeletal system) has shown that excavation of bed turned out 37.5%, breaking stone was 28.6%, stone masonry was 27.3%, choosing stone was 7.7%, moving stone was 6.1% and directing working was 4.5%. These results are expected to be utilized for the improvement with respect to both working methods in the stone channel work and the workers' working posture.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.67-74
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• 2016

Objective: The aim of this study is to develop a farming shovel to reduce workload, which helps farmers lower the risk of musculoskeletal disease. Background: Most of work using farming tools including shovels requires repetitive works and awkward postures on body parts, and it could possibly cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders. It is necessary to develop and distribute farm equipment and tools in order to reduce physical workload. Method: To improve the most uncomfortable task perceived by ten farmers during the work with a shovel, the improved shovel was designed and made as a prototype for experiment for the comparison of the existing and improved shovels. Twenty males were recruited for this experiment, and muscle activity (%MVC) of six body parts and subjective discomfort ratings by body parts while working with a shovel were measured. A paired t-test was performed to compare physical workload between the existing shovel and the developed one. Results: A shovel applying foothold tied between shaft and blade was designed, which can help workers reduce repetitive bending of back and pressures for upper limbs while digging soil. According to compared evaluation of the developed shovel and the existing shovel, the developed shovel's %MVCs in all experimental muscles were significantly lower than those of the existing shovel. The developed shovel showed the biggest drop in perceived subjective discomfort rating of back, followed by arm and neck, compared to the existing shovel. Conclusion: It was confirmed that attaching a foothold to a shovel was an effective way of reducing workload in back and upper limbs during digging. Application: In the near future, if we put the prototype of developed shovel to practical use after making up for defects, it will help farm work environment be healthier and safer.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2023

There are various items in the safety and health standards of the manufacturing industry, but they can be divided into work-related diseases and musculoskeletal diseases according to the standards for sickness and accident victims. Musculoskeletal diseases occur frequently in manufacturing and can lead to a decrease in labor productivity and a weakening of competitiveness in manufacturing. In this paper, to detect the musculoskeletal harmful factors of manufacturing workers, we defined the musculoskeletal load work factor analysis, harmful load working postures, and key points matching, and constructed data for Artificial Intelligence(AI) learning. To check the effectiveness of the suggested dataset, AI algorithms such as YOLO, Lite-HRNet, and EfficientNet were used to train and verify. Our experimental results the human detection accuracy is 99%, the key points matching accuracy of the detected person is @AP0.5 88%, and the accuracy of working postures evaluation by integrating the inferred matching positions is LEGS 72.2%, NECT 85.7%, TRUNK 81.9%, UPPERARM 79.8%, and LOWERARM 92.7%, and considered the necessity for research that can prevent deep learning-based musculoskeletal diseases.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.112 no.3
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• pp.303-321
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• 2023

To develop the Forest Work Load Index (FWLI) for estimating the work intensity of forest workers, a study focused on forest tending was conducted. To estimate the FWLI, we used the Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS) and the Work Load Index (WLI). The OWAS is a prominent method used for analyzing musculoskeletal load in work tasks, and WLI is a prominent method used for analyzing the work intensity of workers. The PRI values analyzed for each forest tending project were 185.3 (Thinning), 150.6 (Pruning), 181.1 (Thinning for Forest Fire Prevention), and 197.0 (Thinning for Young Trees). The WLI values, calculated on the basis of the measured heart rates, were 59.5% (Thinning), 53.5% (Pruning), 56.2% (Thinning for Forest Fire Prevention), and 62.3% (Thinning for Young Trees). The FWLI was calculated using the analyzed PRI and WLI values. The FWLI values for the forest tending project were 110.2 (Thinning), 80.7 (Pruning), 102.1 (Thinning for Forest Fire Prevention), and 123.0 (Thinning for Young Trees). The FWLI developed in this study can be used to quantitatively compare the workloads of forest workers. In the future, the analyzed FWLI can be used as a basis for improving forest workers' postures and comparing workloads across different forest projects.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.81-88
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• 2014

This study identified the complaint ratio of musculoskeletal symptom by 119 EMTs and investigated the work risk extent through ergonomics evaluation about the patient transport works, which cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) to 119 EMTs. For this, the complaint ratio of musculoskeletal symptom utilized questionnaire tool based on KOSHA Code H-30-2008 and the risk extent about the patient transport work evaluated by using ergonomics evaluation tools such as OWAS, RULA and REBA. According to the study result, 60.9% of 119 EMTs experienced musculoskeletal symptom. Among them, the symptom on back was the most common (36.1%). The work, which mostly causes WMSDs, has been found as patient transport work (48.4%). Among the patient transport motion, loading/unloading of ambulance cot to/from ambulance and the lifting of patient by stretcher were OWAS risk-level 3 and RULA/REBA risk-level 3 to 4. Among the patient transport environment, carrying patient on stairway using emergency mini-stretcher, moving patient in vehicle using spine board and piggy-back carrying or cradle carrying patient on stairway or slope way were OWAS, RULA, REBA risk level 3 to 4. It is suggested that immediate improvement in work postures for these works should contribute to prevention against WMSDs to 119 EMTs.