• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.503-517
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• 2016

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of 3 dimensional contoured pillow through analyzing contact pressure and to suggest its design guidelines through analyzing the posture of head and neck area. Background: The quality of sleep is a very important factor closely related with human's health. To improve the quality of sleep, the verification of design factors affecting the posture of the head and neck is needed, and a pillow design that can induce proper posture is required. Method: This study measured the contact pressures of the two reference groups (bead and cotton pillows) as a method to evaluate the design effectiveness of the contoured pillow. This study proposed 3-dimensional design guidelines by drawing anthropometry (head length) affecting cervical curvature angle (CCA) through the measurement of the participants' cervical curvature angles. Results: In the design effectiveness evaluation, the contact pressure of cervical region was higher than that of a reference group (cotton pillow), and contract area increased, and contract pressure decreased in the shape distributing the occipital region's body pressure. This study proposed pillow's cervical supporting height by percentile of a head length [head length (%tile) (cervical supporting height) affecting the posture of the head and neck: 14.6cm (5%tile) (6.2cm), 15.5cm (25%tile) (6.7cm), 16.4cm (50%tile) (7.1cm), and 19.3cm (75%tile) (8.9cm)]. Conclusion: This study confirmed the contoured pillow's design effectiveness maintaining cervical angle comfortable to sleep with the shape supporting the cervical vertebrae and by reducing the contact load of the occipital region. Also, this study proposed pillow design guidelines based on the 3-dimensional contoured pillow design effectiveness, through which the study laid the foundation for pillow design in a systematic method. Application: The results of this study are expected to be utilized as the basis data by which the optimum pillow type and pillow design according to main percentile can be standardized.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2024

Background: Sleep accounts for approximately one-third of a person's lifetime. It is a relaxing activity that relieves mental and physical fatigue. Pillows of different sizes, shapes, and materials have been designed to improve sleep quality by achieving an optimal sleep posture. Objects: This study aimed to determine which pillow provides the most comfortable and supports the head and neck during sleep, which may enhance sleep quality. Methods: Twenty-eight healthy adults (19 males and 9 females) with an average age of 29 years participated in this cross-sectional study. This experiment was conducted while the participants laid down for 5 minutes in four different pillow conditions: (1) no pillow (NP), (2) neck support foam pillow (NSFP), (3) standard microfiber filled pillow (SFP), and (4) hybrid foam pillow (HFP). The head-neck peak pressure, cranio-vertebral angle in supine (CVAs), cranio-horizontal angle in supine (CHAs), chin-sternum distance (CSD), and muscle tone of sternocleidomastoid were analyzed using one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). The significance level was set at p < 0.05. Results: The head-neck peak pressure was the highest in the NSFP condition, followed by the NP, SFP, and HFP conditions. The CVAs, CHAs, and CSD of the SFP were lower than those of the other pillows. Muscle tone was the highest in the NP condition, followed by the of NSFP, HFP, and SFP conditions. The participants subjective comfort level in both the supine and side-lying postures was highest in the HFP condition, followed by the SFP and NSFP conditions. Conclusion: This study can be used to establish the importance of pillow selection for high-quality sleep. The results of this study, suggest that a hybrid pillow with a good supportive core and appropriate fluffiness can maintain comfort and correct cervical spine alignment during sleep.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.339-347
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• 2011

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate of various material of pillows by using biomechanical variables such as the cervical stability, head pressure distribution, and muscle activity. Method: Eight subjects participated in the experiment. Three different materials such as polyester sponge, memory foam and the buckwheat shell used for Korean traditional pillow were tested. Electro-goniometer, six channels of electromyography(EMG), ten channels of the head pressure sensors were used to measure the biomechanical responses. Surface electrodes were attached to the right/left semispinals capitis(RSC, LSC), the right/left sternocleidomastoid(RSM, LSM), the right/left upper trapezius(RUT, LUT). The cervical stability was evaluated by the angle deviated from the standing neck position. The head pressure distribution was evaluated by the pressure per unit area recorded on the sensors and the intensity of peak pressure. Electromyography(EMG) data were analyzed by using root mean square(RMS) and mean power frequency(MPF). Results: The buckwheat shell material showed a higher stability in the cervical spine then the other pillows during spine position. In terms of head pressure distribution, the memory form indicated the lowest pressure at supine position, buckwheat shell material indicated the lowest pressure during lying down to side, and polyester cushion recorded the highest pressure at all postures. Conclusion: The buckwheat shell material has a biomechanical advantage to maintain a healthy neck angle and reduce the pressure on the head, which means the buckwheat shell is a potential material for ergonomic pillow design. The pillow with memory form showed second best biomechanical performance in this study. Application: The shape of the buckwheat shell pillow and the characteristics of materials can be used to design the pillow preventing neck pain and cervical disk problems.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.1063-1073
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• 1999

Objective: Poor head and neck support during sleep can exacerbate the neck pain. Based on the ideal sleep posture and pillow suggested by Cyriax, we designed a new cervical pillow and compared the degree of pain reduction, quality of sleep and pillow satisfaction with a low hospital pillow and a high pillow. Method: The newly designed pillow has a built-in pressure-adjustable air bag in the cervical area and provides normal cervical lordotic curve in supine position and maintains cervical and thoracic vertebrae to form a horizontal line in side-lying position. Thiry-four patients with cervical pain used low hospital pillows for the first week of 3-week randomized crossover design study. They were subsequently randomly assigned to use each of the other two pillows for 1-week period. Outcomes were measured using Visual analog scale, Sleep questionaire, a pillow satisfaction scale. Result: Compared with other 2 types of pillow, Subjects using the newly desinged pillow showed much reduced pain intensity, increased duration of sleep and better satisfaction. Conclustion: We desinged a cervical pillow with built-in pressure adjustable air bag and it can significantly reduce pain intensity and improve quality of sleep in patients with cervical pain.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to analysis of the pitch and yaw deviations with or without using an aid-pillow for the head and neck cancer on the TomoTherapy. A total of 14 head and neck patients were selected to without-group (n=7) and with-group (n=7). A total of 333 MVCT image sets used to evaluate the translational (lateral, longitudinal and vertical) and rotational adjustments (pitch, roll and yaw) with 153 and 180 MVCT image sets at without- and with-group, respectively. Deviations of without- and with-groups were $0.12^{\circ}$ and $0.09^{\circ}$, respectively at pitch. And, deviations without- and with-groups were $0.47^{\circ}$ and $0.17^{\circ}$, respectively at yaw. In generally, with-group had reduced than without-group for the pitch and yaw deviations. Therefore, using an aid-pillow, it will able to increase the reproducibility of treatment for the head and neck cancer patients on the TomoTherapy.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.713-720
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• 2006

Heat conductivity, height, size, elasticity of pillow, stability of shape, hygroscopicity, ventilation, temperature and easy movability, and so on, are considered to be some of major conditions that affect the comfortable sleep. Considering those factors together, the thermal properties, height, shape and feeling of touch, etc, of pillow must be taken into account. Though studies have been conducted to figure out the physical properties of mattress or pillows from the perspective of factors related to the environment of sleep, they are not enough to be used as an index to evaluate the qualitative aspect of sleep. This study tries to consider the effect of pillow filling materials on the comfortable sleep, for which EEG, ECG, EOG, EMG, RT, etc, are to be measured in an attempt to provide the basic data required in proposing the condition that may lead to a sound and comfortable sleep. Three types of pillows that are sold in the market were used for this research in order to evaluate the quality of sleep depending on the filling materials of pillow. All data were statistically processed and the following conclusions were drawn. It was found that the pillow with feathers provided the best comfort as the pillow A turned out to have the shortest sleeping latency(SL) from the perspective of comfort. The pillow B which used the polyethylene is deemed to be suitable for fatigue relieving purpose as it turned out to have the highest slow wave sleep(SWS), but no statistically significant difference was validated. Moreover, the pillow C which used the natural wool was found to have the narrowest contacting area of the pillow and head and provide a great warm heat comfort that may led to a sound sleep because the temperature below the pillow took the longest time to rise.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.547-553
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• 2024

If congenital fever left untreated, it can cause atopic dermatitis. It is very important to manage the surface temperature of the neonatal's head during sleep. Baby pillows were mostly developed with cotton materials due to their delicate skin, or they were used for head correction due to their flexible skeletons. This paper measured the surface temperature of baby head in a sleep and analyzed the trends to figure out the PCM effect which to prevent the congenital fever. In addition it was performed a usability evaluation from baby's parents to investigate their satisfaction. According to the results, PCM is effective in regulating skin temperature of neonatal's head to prevent the congenital fever.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.35-39
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• 2020

Nonwet (Head in Pillow) defect is one of the defects in SMT (surface mount technology) process, the defect is caused by several factors, such as solder paste misalignment, reflow condition, package warpage and package ball size. This paper focused on ① reflow condition ② package ball & solder paste misalignment ③ package ball size for nonwet experiment. The first, on the case of reflow condition, there would be high risk of nonwet defect when the soldering time was increased, but N₂ was adopted to reflow process, there could be no or low risk of nonwet defect because of oxidation barrier control. And when the contact depth between Solder ball and solder paste was below 20 ㎛, there could be high risk of nonwet defect. Also smaller package ball would have low risk of nonwet defect.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.30 no.1_2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2018

Purpose : Standardized pillow may not support patient's individual cervical spine thoroughly when head and neck radiation therapy with $Tomotherapy^{(R)}$. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to make a comparative analysis for the difference of using standardized pillow only and using customized cervical spine immobilizer with standardized pillow. Materials and Methos : The head and neck cancer patients who are treated image-guided radiation therapy(IGRT) with $Tomotherapy^{(R)}$ were divided into two groups, 20 patients using standardized pillow only, and 20 patients using customized cervical spine immobilizer with standardized pillow. We achieved 20 mega-voltage computed tomography(MVCT) image per patient, compared curvature of the cervical spine in MVCT with curvature of the cervical spine in CT-simulation. Results : Results of comparative analysis were curvature consistency 95.9 %, maximum error of distance 41.9 mm, average distance error per fractionation 19.4 mm, average standard deviation 1.34 mm in case of using standardized pillow only, curvature consistency 98.9 %, maximum error of distance 12.9 mm, average distance error per fractionation 5.8 mm, average standard deviation 0.59 mm in case of using customized cervical spine immobilizer with standardized pillow. Conclusion : Using customized cervical spine immobilizer shows higher reproducibility and low distance error, therefore customized cervical spine immobilizer could be useful for head and neck cancer patients who need radiation therapy.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.89-96
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• 2006

Purpose: To study effectiveness of heterogeneity correction of internal-body inhomogeneities and patient positioning immobilizers in dose calculation, using images obtained from CT-Simulator. Materials and Methods: A water phantom($250{\times}250{\times}250mm^3$) was fabricated and, to simulate various inhomogeneity, 1) bone 2) metal 3) contrast media 4) immobilization devices(Head holder/pillow/Vac-lok) were inserted in it. And then, CT scans were peformed. The CT-images were input to Radiation Treatment Planning System(RTPS) and the MUs, to give 100 cGy at 10 cm depth with isocentric standard setup(Field Size=$10{\times}10cm^2$, SAD=100 cm), were calculated for various energies(4, 6, 10 MV X-ray). The calculated MUs based on various CT-images of inhomogeneities were compared and analyzed. Results: Heterogeneity correction factors were compared for different materials. The correction factors were $2.7{\sim}5.3%$ for bone, $2.7{\sim}3.8%$ for metal materials, $0.9{\sim}2.3%$ for contrast media, $0.9{\sim}2.3%$ for Head-holder, $3.5{\sim}6.9%$ for Head holder+pillow, and $0.9{\sim}1.5%$ for Vac-lok. Conclusion: It is revealed that the heterogeneity correction factor calculated from internal-body inhomogeneities have various values and have no consistency. and with increasing number of beam ports, the differences can be reduced to under 1%, so, it can be disregarded. On the other hand, heterogeneity correction from immobilizers must be regarded enough to minimize inaccuracy of dose calculation.