• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.13-15
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• 2015

Purpose: Since the hand elevation test was first introduced by Ahn in 2001, it has been one of most performing provocative test for diagnosing carpal tunnel syndrome. Although many studies have been published on the hand elevation test, there are no study that can explain why false-negative results of hand elevation test appears in carpal tunnel syndrome patients diagnosed by electromyography (EMG) findings. Therefore we searched out whether hand elevation test is related with EMG severity. Materials and Methods: We made a retrospective study of 654 bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome patients. Among them 134 were studied which had different hand elevation test results on each hands. The paired samples t-test was used to compare the EMG severity of each group. The relationships between hand elevation test and EMG severity were examined using Pearson-product correlations. Comparing whether the frequency of false negative hand elevation were different between both hands, and whether the severity of EMG depends on which side of hand is, was evaluated with Mann-Whitney U-test. Results: Severity of EMG in positive group was moderate to severe on average, whereas mild to moderate on negative group, with significant difference statistically (p<0.001). Correlation between the hand elevation test results and EMG severity also showed significance statistically (p<0.001). Conclusion: Mild severity of EMG was found out to be the factor affecting the false results. However, EMG severity and hand elevation test shows a meaningful correlation, supporting the value of hand elevation test.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.36-44
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• 2009

Hand-washing has been recognized as a critical factor in controlling infection and cross-contamination. This study was performed to investigate hygienic behavior of male university students focusing on awareness of hand-washing, their hand washing practices, and the difference between their awareness and practices. Both a self-administered questionnaire survey and a separate direct observation in restrooms were carried out at a university campus over a four week period. In the survey, 93.6% of the responded students claimed to wash their hands after using toilet. However, just 16.9% of the observed students actually did so, according to a separate and unnoticed observational study. Among the observed students who washed their hands, 25.0% of them used soap, only 5.0% of them washed four parts of their hands, and 15.0% of them washed their hands for more than 10 seconds. Paper towel was the most common hand drying method in the direct observation and also in the survey. Significant differences between the questionnaire survey and the direct observation (p<0.0l) were found in hand-washing practices, duration of hand-washing, using soap, washing parts of the hand, and hand-drying method after using the toilet. This study indicates that there is a remarkable difference between the male university students' awareness of hand-washing and their hand-washing practices. This study reveals that there is the need for programs or campaigns to increase hand-washing practices of male university students.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.1-9
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• 2010

Generally, dynamic hand gesture recognition is formed through preprocessing step, hand tracking step and hand shape detection step. In this paper, we present advanced dynamic hand gesture recognizing method that improves performance in preprocessing step and hand shape detection step. In preprocessing step, we remove noise fast by using dynamic table and detect skin color exactly on complex background for controling skin color range in skin color detection method using YCbCr color space. Especially, we increase recognizing speed in hand shape detection step through detecting Start Image and Stop Image, that are elements of dynamic hand gesture recognizing, using Guideline. Guideline is edge of input hand image and hand shape for comparing. We perform various experiments with nine web-cam video clips that are separated to complex background and simple background for dynamic hand gesture recognition method in the paper. The result of experiment shows similar recognition ratio but high recognition speed, low cpu usage, low memory usage than recognition method using learning exercise.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.213-221
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• 2019

Objective: This study was performed to evaluate gender and age differences in hygienic behavior among the general population, focusing on hand-washing habits and the microbial load of hands. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire survey and a separate microbial examination were performed. The Pearson's correlation between hand-washing habits and microbial load was analyzed. Results: In the questionnaire survey on hand-washing habits, gender differences were found in hand-washing frequency, use of hand-washing agents, and hand drying methods (p<0.05). Age differences were found in numbers of washing parts of the hands and also in hand drying methods (p<0.05). Females showed better habits washing hands than did males, as did older people compared to younger. In the microbial examination of indicator bacteria on their hands, younger people tended to show a higher load of total aerobic bacteria than did the older, and females showed a higher load of total coliforms than did males (p<0.05). There were significant relationships between the load of total aerobic bacteria and hand-washing frequency, duration, and method of turning-off water (p<0.05). Conclusions: Although females were expected to show a better practice of hand-washing than were males based on the survey results, they showed a higher level of total coliforms in the hand examination. The older age group showed better hand-washing habits than did the younger age group and had less total aerobic bacteria on their hands. These inter-gender and age differences highlight the need for development and implementation of gender-and age-specific educational programs or campaigns.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1323-1329
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• 2021

For hand expression recognition, hand pose recognition based on the static shape of the hand and hand gesture recognition based on the dynamic hand movement are used together. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical hand pose model based on finger position and shape for hand expression recognition. For hand pose recognition, a finger model representing the finger state and a hand pose model using the finger state are hierarchically constructed, which is based on the open source MediaPipe. The finger model is also hierarchically constructed using the bending of one finger and the touch of two fingers. The proposed model can be used for various applications of transmitting information through hands, and its usefulness was verified by applying it to number recognition in sign language. The proposed model is expected to have various applications in the user interface of computers other than sign language recognition.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant surge in glove usage, as recommended by the World Health Organization. Despite efforts to ensure the quality and safety of gloves, glove-associated skin diseases such as hand dermatitis have become ubiquitous, particularly among health care workers. This review discusses the prevalence, causes, and risk factors of hand dermatitis, as well as research efforts in medical gloves in the past decade to overcome glove-related hand dermatitis. Research papers from 2013 to 2022 were reviewed, selecting only 49 relevant papers from the Ovid, PubMed, and Scopus databases. The average prevalence of hand dermatitis among health care workers increased from 21.08% to 37.24% upon the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cases are likely due to allergies to latex proteins, rubber additives, and accelerators commonly found in gloves. Using alternatives to latex gloves, such as accelerator-free and latex-free glove options, can help reduce allergy-induced hand dermatitis. Strict hand hygiene practices, such as frequent hand washing and the use of sanitizers, are also contributing factors in contracting hand dermatitis. Over the past decade, glove research advancements have focused mainly on reducing or immobilizing latex proteins. These include the use of biodegradable dialdehyde, sodium alginate, arctigenin, bromelain, papain, UV-LED, prototype photoreactors, and structure-modified nanosilica with silane A174. Two effective hand dermatitis preventive measures, i.e. an additional layer of glove liners and the use of gentle alcohol-based hand sanitizer, were recommended. These advancements represent promising steps towards mitigating hand dermatitis risks associated with glove usage.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.126-136
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aroma hand massage on anxiety and immune function in patients who had gynecology surgery under local anesthesia. Methods: The research design was a nonequivalent control group with pre-and posttest design. Data were collected from June 5 to October 6, 2010. Participants included 20 patients in the aroma hand massage group, 20 patients in a hand massage group, and 20 in a control group. As an experimental treatment, hand massage was carried out following the hand massage protocol. Measures consisted of the State Trait Anxiety, Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for anxiety, vital signs (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate), and salivary cortisol for anxiety, and immunoglobulin A for immune function. Results: Aroma hand massage and hand massage group showed lower levels in NRS for anxiety, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and pulse rate (p<.001) compared to controls. No group differences were found for state anxiety, salivary cortisol and immunoglobulin A. Conclusion: The results indicate that aroma hand massage and hand massage are effective in reducing anxiety and can be complementary alternative interventions for women having gynecology surgery under local anesthesia.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.854-861
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• 2015

This study evaluates the objective and subjective hand as well as the preference for hand and outdoor jackets on laminated waterproof breathable fabrics with different constituent characteristics to identify those best suited for consumer needs. Mechanical properties and objective hands were measured by the KES-FB system. The subjective hand and the preference of laminated waterproof breathable fabric for outdoor jackets were rated by the 20's and 30's women experts with tactile and visual senses that utilized a questionnaire with a seven-point semantic differential scale; subsequently, the flexibility and compressive elasticity of laminated waterproof breathable fabrics were low. However, light and thin waterproof breathable fabrics with a smooth surface had high scores in smoothness, fullness & softness and total hand value. In addition, laminated waterproof breathable fabrics were classified into three hand factors: flexibility, density, and surface properties. There were significant differences on flexibility and surface property perceptions, hand and out-door jackets preferences according to the characteristics of waterproof breathable fabrics. The hand preference of the laminated waterproof breathable fabric improved with decreasing 2HB and increasing EM. However, EM showed positive effect for outdoor jacket preferences. Those that were flexible and smooth were preferred for outdoor jackets.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.243-254
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence, severity and quality of life for nurses with hand dermatitis who want to take advantage of measures to manage their hand dermatitis. Methods: Participants in this research were 422 nurses with clinical experience of more than 12 months. Data were collected using a diagnostic tool for hand dermatitis, subjective severity and objective severity. The skin related quality of life was measured using the Korean version of Skindex-29. Data were analyzed using $x^2$ tests, t-test, and ANOVAs with SPSS 20.0. Results: The prevalence of hand dermatitis among the respondents was 56.9% (240/422). Nurses with hand dermatitis had significantly lower quality of life than nurses with no hand dermatitis. The more severe the hand dermatitis, the lower the quality of life was. Conclusion: The finding in this study indicate that there is a need to improve the health of nurses by lowering the prevalence of hand dermatitis, alleviating the severity of hand dermatitis and improving the quality of life.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.198-207
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe hospital nurses' knowledge and beliefs about hand hygiene and to identify the relationships between knowledge and beliefs. Methods: Data were collected from 232 nurses working in four university hospitals and were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 20.0 program. Results: The mean score of knowledge of hand hygiene was 8.1. The mean scores of behavioral, normative, and control belief about hand hygiene were 2.3, 2.5, and -0.7, respectively. Knowledge was correlated with educational level (p=.013) and experience of hand hygiene campaign (p=.018). The behavioral belief was correlated with age (p<.001) and career (p=.002). The normative belief was correlated with work department (p=.007). The control belief was correlated with educational level (p=.043) and experience of being monitored on hand hygiene (p=.010). The subjects who believed that head nurses, charge nurses, and colleagues practiced better hand hygiene had higher behavioral and normative belief scores than those who did not. There were no significant relationships between knowledge and beliefs. Conclusion: There is a need to improve knowledge of hand hygiene in hospital nurses. This study provides information for developing strategies to strengthen beliefs about hand hygiene.