• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.644-662
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• 2023

There are still outbreaks of COVID-19 across the world. Ships increase the risk of worldwide transmission of the virus. Close contact tracing remains as an effective method of reducing the risk of virus transmission. Therefore, close contact tracing in ship environments becomes a research topic. Exposure Notifications API (Application Programming Interface) can be used to determine the encountered location points of close contacts on ships. Location points of close contact are estimated by the encountered location points. Risky areas in ships can be calculated based on the encountered location points. The tracking of close contacts is possible with Bluetooth technology without the Internet. The Bluetooth signal can be used to judge the proximity among detecting devices by using the feature that Bluetooth has a strong signal at close range. This Bluetooth feature makes it possible to trace close contacts in ship environments. In this paper, we propose a method for close contact tracing and showing the risky area in a ship environment by combining beacon and Exposure Notification API using Bluetooth technology. This method does not require an Internet connection for tracing close contacts and can protect the personal information of close contacts.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.393-401
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• 2020

Purpose: This pilot study aimed to describe children's social contact patterns and to analyze factors related to their social contacts. Methods: The participants were 30 children aged ≥13 months to <7 years, whose teachers at childcare centers and parents at home were asked to maintain diaries of their social contacts prospectively for 24 hours. Data were collected from November 30, 2018, to January 7, 2019. Results: The 30 participating children were in contact with 363 persons in a 24-hours period (mean, 12.1±9.1). The number of contacts showed significant relationships with day of the week (p<.001), number of family members/cohabitants (p=.015), area of residence (p=.003), and type of housing (p=.002). A multiple regression model showed significantly higher numbers of contacts on weekdays (B=10.64, p=.010). Physical versus non-physical types of contact showed significant differences in terms of duration, location, and frequency (p<.001). The duration of contacts showed significant relationships with their location and frequency (p<.001), while the frequency of contacts was significantly related to their location (p<.001). Conclusion: This is the first survey describing the characteristics of Korean preschool children's social contacts. Further large-scale social contact studies of children should be conducted.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.72 no.2
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• pp.140-148
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• 2012

Background: Detection and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) infection with contact investigation is a key component of TB control program. I evaluated the prevalence and risk factors for TB infection among contacts of recently diagnosed pulmonary TB patients in a tertiary hospital in Korea. Methods: 206 contacts of 90 adult pulmonary TB patients underwent tuberculin skin tests (TST) and chest radiography. The TST results were considered positive with an induration of 10 mm or more, suggesting TB infection. A standardized questionnaire was used to assess risk factors associated with TB infection. Results: TST was positive in 97 of 206 contacts of TB patients (47.1%) and positive rate of TST increased with age. The risk of TB infection was significantly associated with close contact with TB patients (sleeping in the same room) (odd ratio [OR], 4.94; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.43~17.00). Conclusion: TB infection rate was higher in the elderly, and the risk of TB infection was significantly increased with close contact of TB patients.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.106-116
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aimed to develop a valid social contact survey instrument and to verify its feasibility for use among Korean adults. Methods: The Delphi technique was used to develop an instrument to assess social contacts, which was then applied in a cross-sectional pilot study. A panel of 15 medical professionals reviewed the feasibility and validity of each item. The minimum content validity ratio was 0.49. Thirty participants used the developed measure to record contacts during a 24-hour period. Results: After a systematic review, the survey instrument (parts I and II) was developed. Part I assessed social contact patterns over a 24-hour period, and part II assessed perceptions of contacts in daily life and preventive behaviors (hand hygiene and coughing etiquette). High validity and feasibility were found. In the pilot study, the 30 participants had a combined total of 198 contacts (mean, 6.6 daily contacts per person). The participants' age (p=0.012), occupation (p<0.001), household size (p<0.001), education (p<0.001), personal income (p=0.003), and household income (p<0.001) were significantly associated with the number of contacts. Contacts at home, of long duration, and of daily frequency were relatively likely to be physical. Assortative mixing was observed between individuals in their 20s and 50s. Contact type differed by location, duration, and frequency (p<0.001). Conclusions: The developed social contact survey instrument demonstrated high validity and feasibility, suggesting that it is viable for implementation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.485-491
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• 2022

Objectives: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health concern worldwide. Social contact patterns can affect the epidemiology and risk of airborne diseases such as TB. This study was designed to investigate the social contact patterns associated with TB. Methods: In this case-control study, groups of participants with and without TB were matched by age and sex. Participants reported the nature, location, frequency, and average duration of social contacts over 1 month. The duration and number of social and spatial contacts were compared between groups using the chi-square test and the t-test. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to quantify the relationship between social contact time and TB status. Data were analyzed using Stata version 11 statistical software. A p-value of <0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. Results: In this study, 80 patients with TB and 172 control participants were included, and a total of 3545 social contacts were registered. Social contact with family members (OR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.10 to 2.40), contact with a person with TB (OR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.16 to 2.01), and contact at the participant's home (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.19 to 1.82) were significantly associated with TB status. Conclusions: The duration of long-term social contact, rather than the number of contacts, may be the main contact-related factor associated with TB transmission in this population. The focus of contact-tracing efforts should be on finding and treating both family members and long-term contacts in non-household settings.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.85-93
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• 2020

Despite the development of modern medical sciences, the outbreak and spread of infections continue to threaten populations, and the spread of infections among populations is caused by social contacts. There have only been a few studies on social contacts in the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea). This study identified the types of social contacts in other countries through a systemic literature review and this helped provide basic data for Korea. Twelve studies were finally selected and then published from 2000 to December 2017. The most common study method was a retrospective contact diary (7cases, 58.3%), and random sampling (9cases, 75%). The number of contacts was 4.9-17.7/day, there were more frequent contacts during the weekdays than on weekends, and the most contacted people were those people that met daily. Physical contact was frequent at home. The highest frequency of contacts was between people 5-19 years old. In case of an epidemic, the spread of infection by this age group could be a concern. Assortative mixing was high in the 5-20 years old group, suggesting that this age group may be more likely to spread infection by contact within the same age group. Therefore, a national-wide survey on social contacts will be needed to predict the spread of infections, and to develop infection prevention based on a domestic basis in Korea.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.681-685
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• 2022

Including the COVID-19 crisis, humanity is constantly exposed to viral infections, and efforts are being made to prevent the spread of infection by quickly isolating infected people and tracing contacts. Passive epidemiological investigations that confirm contact with an infected person through contact have limitations in terms of accuracy and speed, so automatic tracking methods using various digital technologies are being proposed. This paper verify contact by utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology and present an algorithm that identifies close contact through analysis and correction of RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) values. Also, propose a system that can prevent the spread of viruses in a centralized server structure.

• Journal of Platform Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.52-59
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• 2023

The importance of spatio-temporal trajectories for contact tracing has increased due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Spatio-temporal trajectories store time and spatial data of moving objects. In this paper, I propose query processing for spatio-temporal trajectories of moving objects. The spatio-temporal trajectory model of moving objects has point type spatial data for storing locations and timestamp type temporal data for time. A trajectory query is a query to search for pairs of users who have been in close contact by boarding the same bus. To process the trajectory query, I use the Geolife dataset provided by Microsoft. The proposed trajectory query processing method divides trajectory data by date and checks whether users' trajectories were nearby for each date to generate information about contacts as the result.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.138-143
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• 2021

As of this moment, we are tracing people who are closed contact with Covid-19 patients and trying to block the spread of Covid-19 through diagnostic tests. However, the incubation period of the confirmed case is two weeks, and it takes a lot of human resources, time, and money to trace the routes of the confirmed case. In particular, as the number of confirmed cases have been increasing, the cost for finding closed contacts and blocking them in advance exponentially have almost reached the limitation of the budget. In finding closed contacts, all citizens must record an electronic access list every time they visit an amenities such as a store or a restaurant. This is likely the invasion of the privacy of personal location information. In this study, we designed a system that keeps one's location in real time, it will download the movement information of the confirmed case which is collected by KDCA, and it will notify the user when there is an overlap. Moreover, then guide for diagnostic test in advance will be used. The proposed method can solve the difficulty of recording in an electronic access list when visiting a store, and it can block infringement of privacy without providing personal information from KDCA.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.106-109
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• 2000

The virtual reality - haptic device is developed for the purpose used in the work that human cannot approach and that need elaborate exercises. To render haptic, the total system is constituted master, haptic device, and slave, remote manipulator. Human operates the remote manipulator. Human operates the remote manipulator relying on the hapti devices and stereo graphic. And then the force and scene of the remote manipulator is fed-back from each haptic devices and virtual devices. The feedback information gets system gain exactly. The system gain provides the most exact haptic and virtual devices. The feedback information gets system gain exactly. The system gain provides the most exact haptic and scene to human by the location, the graphic rendering and the haptic rendering algorithm on real-time. In this research, 3D haptic device is developed for common usage and make human feel the haptic when human contacts virtual object rendered by computer graphic. The haptic device is good for tracing location and producing devices because of the row structure. Also, openGL and Visual Basic is utilized to the algorithms for haptic rendering. The haptic device of this research makes the interface possible not only with virtual reality but also with the real remote manipulator.