• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.154-163
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• 2023

Objectives: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or lupus patients usually experience various physical and psychological challenges. Since the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, these challenges have become even harsher. Using the participatory action research approach, this study evaluated how an e-wellness program (eWP) impacted SLE-related knowledge and health behaviors, mental health, and quality of life among lupus patients in Thailand. Methods: A 1-group, pretest-posttest design study was conducted among a purposive sample of lupus patients who were members of Thai SLE Foundation. The 2 main intervention components were: (1) online social support, and (2) lifestyle and stress management workshops. Sixty-eight participants completed all the study requirements, including the Physical and Psychosocial Health Assessment questionnaire. Results: After being in the eWP for 3 months, participants' mean score for SLE-related knowledge increased significantly (t=5.3, p<0.001). The increase in sleep hours was statistically significant (Z=-3.1, p<0.01), with the percentage of participants who slept less than 7 hours decreasing from 52.9% to 29.0%. The percentage of participants reporting sun exposure decreased from 17.7% to 8.8%. The participants also reported significantly lower stress (t(66)=-4.4, p<0.001) and anxiety (t(67)=-2.9, p=0.005). The post-eWP quality of life scores for the pain, planning, intimate relationship, burden to others, emotional health, and fatigue domains also improved significantly (p<0.05). Conclusions: The overall outcomes showed promising results of improved self-care knowledge, health behaviors, mental health status, and quality of life. It is recommended that the SLE Foundation continues to use the eWP model to help the lupus patient community.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.145-155
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate oncology nurses' professional quality of life and its correlations with job satisfaction and job stress in a tertiary hospital in Seoul, South Korea. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was utilized to investigate 210 oncology nurses from various oncology and hemato-oncology units. Professional quality of life (ProQOL), which is conceptualized with three sub-dimensions (compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress), job satisfaction, job stress, demographic and work-related variables were measured. Results: The participants were all women, with the mean age of 28.4. The participants with high ProQOL was only 14.8%, and 75.3% and 77.6% of the participants reported a moderate to high level of burnout and secondary traumatic stress respectively. Job satisfaction, age, and the total years of nursing practice have positive correlations with compassion satisfaction. Also, compassion satisfaction was significantly different according to age group, work units, the level of education, nursing positions, and the years of practice. Conclusion: Since the level of professional quality of life among oncology nurses was relatively low, the program for oncology nurses to improve compassion satisfaction and to decrease compassion fatigue needs to be developed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.3D
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• pp.445-451
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• 2006

This study was conducted to develop the interlayer mixture that absorbs the stress between the old concrete pavement and the asphalt overlay pavement layer. The elasticity, the flexibility, the consistency and the impermeability is required for high-elastic Stress Absorbing Interlayer(HSAI) to absorb and disperse the stress that causes the flexural and horizontal movements of the joint and the crack. The HSAI developed from foreign product was satisfied with the design criteria. The specimens using the HSAI showed the significant reduction of the reflective crack compared those not using the HSAI. The significance included that the life of shear failure and horizontal displacement resistance increased 4 times. The life of the share failure increased to 5 times and the horizontal displacement increased to 9 times according to the selection of surface course material which showed the excellence of the HSAI.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.1
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• pp.27-40
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• 2024

The prediction of VIV amplitude is essential for the design and fatigue life estimation of steel tubes in tubular transmission towers. Limited to costly and time-consuming traditional experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods, a machine learning (ML)-based method is proposed to efficiently predict the VIV amplitude of steel tubes in transmission towers. Firstly, by introducing the first-order mode shape to the two-dimensional CFD method, a simplified response analysis method (SRAM) is presented to calculate the VIV amplitude of steel tubes in transmission towers, which enables to build a dataset for training ML models. Then, by taking mass ratio M^*, damping ratio ξ, and reduced velocity U^* as the input variables, a Kriging-based prediction method (KPM) is further proposed to estimate the VIV amplitude of steel tubes in transmission towers by combining the SRAM with the Kriging-based ML model. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods are demonstrated by using three full-scale steel tubes with C-shaped, Cross-shaped, and Flange-plate joints, respectively. The results show that the SRAM can reasonably calculate the VIV amplitude, in which the relative errors of VIV maximum amplitude in three examples are less than 6%. Meanwhile, the KPM can well predict the VIV amplitude of steel tubes in transmission towers within the studied range of M^*, ξ and U^*. Particularly, the KPM presents an excellent capability in estimating the VIV maximum amplitude by using the reduced damping parameter S_G.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.1-13
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• 2008

This study presents a case study of condition evaluation of various asphalt pavement sections to estimate performance lives. The pavement surface conditions including cracking and rutting are first evaluated using a automatic pavement analyzer, ARAN. HPCI(Highway Pavement Condition Index) values are estimated using the pavement surface distress data. It is observed from the pavement distress survey that the major distress type of the sections is top-down cracking. The modulus value of each pavement layer is back-calculated from the defection data obtained from a FWD(Falling Weight Deflectometer) and compared with the laboratory measured dynamic modulus values. Remaining lives of the various pavement sections are estimated based on a mechanistic-empirical approach and AAHTO 1993 design guide. The structural capacities of the all pavement sections based on the two approaches are strong enough to maintain the pavement sections for the rest of design life. Since the major distress type is top-down cracking, the remaining lives of the pavement sections are estimated based on HPCI and existing performance database of highway pavements. To evaluate the causes of premature pavement distress, various material properties, such as air void, asphalt binder content, aggregate gradation, dynamic modulus and fatigue resistance, are measured from the field cores. It is impossible to accurately estimate the binder contents of field samples using the ignition method. It is concluded from the laboratory tests that the premature top down cracking is mainly due to insufficient compaction and inadequate aggregate gradation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.20 no.2 s.70
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• pp.169-174
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• 2005

Traditionally, keyboards have been one of the most frequently used input devices for information processing using computers. As most computers adopt the Microsoft Windows for their operating system however, the usage of mouse has recently increased to a great extent. Moreover, the mouse has been used as the leading input device in such areas as industrial design and computer aided design. Excessive uses of mouse may cause a severe pain and fatigue on neck and upper limb due to the intensive and repetitive use of corresponding muscles, which renders a decline in efficiency and leads to musculoskeletal disorders. The main purpose of this study is to find the best working conditions to prevent musculoskeletal disorders when using mouse in a neutral posture. Utilizing electromyogram amplitude and Borg's scale, the role change and strength imposed on the muscles were measured and analyzed with and without the forearm support concerned. Also investigated were the effects of changes in elbow forearm supporter.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.313-326
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• 2015

Objective: The objective of this research is to quantitatively analyze muscle activities of arm and shoulder, according to direction in various types of one-handed manual material handling, based on surface electromyography. Background: Workers in industrial sites frequently carry out one-handed manual material handling using arm and shoulder muscles. Therefore, chronic load and accumulated fatigue occur to arm and shoulder muscles, which becomes a main cause of upper arm and shoulder musculoskeletal disorders. The shoulder muscles have widely range of motion, and complex interactions take place among various muscles including rotator cuff muscles. In this regard, research on interactions among should muscles, according to such various dynamic motions, is required. Method: Ten male subjects in their 20s participated in this research. This research considered upward, downward, leftward, rightward, forward and backward directions and fourteen muscles around arm and shoulder (biceps brachii and trapezius, etc.) as independent variables. The mean muscle activity was set as the dependent variable. This research extracted $4^{th}{\sim}7^{th}$ repetition signals according to ten times of repetitive muscle contraction, and analyzed the muscle activity concerned using the envelope detection technique. Results: The mean muscle activity of upward direction was analyzed highly statistically significant. The reason is that the effect of gravity works to arm and shoulder muscles. Also, it is conjectured that deformation of coracoacromial ligament was caused, and its contact pressure increased, due mainly to the shoulder flexion, and therefore load was analyzed high. Muscle activity was analyzed significantly low, according to concentric ballistic motion used in the concentric contraction phase by storing elastic energy in the eccentric contraction phase with a motion to bring the weight to the front of subject's body as to downward, leftward and backward directions. Because, elbow joint's flexion-extension motions mainly occurred, biceps brachii was analyzed high muscle activity as the prime mover. Conclusion: The information on the quantitative load of muscles can be applied to ergonomic work design for one-handed manual material handling to minimize muscle load. Application: This research has effectively identified muscle activity according to dynamic contraction by applying an envelope detection technique. The results can be used for ergonomic work design to minimize muscle load during the one-handed manual material handling, according to each direction. The research results are expected to be used for musculoskeletal disorder prevention and physiotherapy in the rehabilitation medical field, based on the muscle load of arm and shoulder in various directions.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.93-99
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• 2016

In this paper, we investigated the mechanical and electrical reliability of silver nanowire (AgNW) films. In particular, the durability and reliability of AgNW films were studied when the AgNW film was subjected to the bending deformation under current flow. The electrical durability of AgNW was evaluated by observing changes in heat generation and current density occurring in AgNW through voltage and current tests. The AgNW film showed a constant resistance change up to a bending radius of 2 mm and 200,000 cycles in the bending fatigue tests. The over-coating layer has an effect of improving the durability of the AgNW film. In the case of AgNW with the over-coating layer, heat was uniformly dissipated on the surface of AgNW film, whereas in the case of AgNW film without the over-coating layer, heat was generated locally. In the bending test under the current flow, the current density of the AgNW film was continuously decreased up to 52.4%. During bending, the AgNW was deformed due to mechanical deformation such as tensile, bending and sliding of the AgNW, consequently contact resistance of the AgNW was increased, leading to a electrical breakdown of AgNW by Joule heating. It was found that the application of the over-coating layer can improve the electrical and mechanical reliability of the AgNW film.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2010

Until now, the thickness design of anti-freezing layer has been empirically conducted using the frost depth determined from the freezing index. This approach cannot consider the structural properties of anti-freezing layer, which can cause the over-design of pavement structure. This paper presents results of structural evaluation of anti-freezing layer using the Falling Weight Deflectormeter (FWD) deflections. The FWD testing was directly conducted on top of the subbase layer located at the embankment, cutting, and boundary area of each section. It is observed from this testing that the center deflections of pavement structure with anti-freezing layer are smaller than those without anti-freezing layer. The deflection reduction rates are 15~55% in the embankment, 11~64% in the cutting, and 2~38% in the boundary, respectively. It was also found that the use of antifree zing layer enables to reduce the Surface Curvature Index (SCI) values up to 24 percent. Fatigue lives show that pavement structure with antifreezing layer are about two times higher than the those without anti-freezing layer. This fact indicates that the anti-freezing layer should be considered as a structural layer in the asphalt pavement system.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.3A
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• pp.149-160
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• 2012

Corrugated steel plates have several advantages such as high resistance for shear without stiffeners, minimization of welding process, and high fatigue resistance. To take advantage of these benefits, several researchers have attempted to use corrugated steel plate as a web of I-girders. The lateral-torsional buckling is the major design aspect of such I-girders. However, lateral-torsional buckling of the I-girder with corrugated steel webs still needs to be investigated especially for a real loading condition such as non-uniform bending. This paper investigated the lateral-torsional buckling strength of the I-girder with corrugated steel webs under linear moment gradient by using finite element analysis. From the results, it was found that the buckling behavior of the I-girder with corrugated steel webs differed depending on the number of periods of the corrugation. Also, a simple equation for the moment gradient correction factor of the I-girder with corrugated steel webs was suggested. The inelastic lateral-torsional buckling strength of the I-girder with corrugated steel webs was then discussed based on current design equations for ordinary I-girders and the results of finite element analysis.