• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.43-48
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• 2016

Background: Work Ability Index (WAI) is a well-known and valid self-report tool that has been widely used in various studies to identify and avoid early retirement and work-related disability. Nevertheless, very few studies have been carried out to evaluate work ability in Iran. We aimed to investigate the WAI and the effect of work-related stress on it among Iranian workers. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive and analytic study was carried out among 449 workers from five working sectors in three big cities of Iran. Work ability and work-related stress were measured using the Persian version of WAI and the Persian version of Health and Safety Executive Stress Indicator Tool. Results: More than a third of the workers surveyed (34.70%) did not have an appropriate level of work ability (WAI < 37). There was a significant correlation between subscales of work-related stress and the mean score of WAI. Furthermore, the variables of body mass index, sleep quality, exercise activity, job tenure, and three subscales of work-related stress including demands, supervisor support, and role were significant predictors of WAI. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the interventional programs must be focused on improving supervisors support, eliminating ambiguity and conflicts in the role of workers in their job and organization, reducing job demands, improving sleep quality, and increasing exercise activity.

• 한국농공학회논문집
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• 제47권4호
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• pp.75-85
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• 2005

A study was performed to examine the effects of reclaimed-water irrigation on microorganism con-centration in ponded-water of paddy rice plots. Several treatments were used and each one was triplicated to evaluate the change of indicator microorganisms (total coliforms (TC), fecal coliforms FC), and E. coli) concentrations in 2003 and 2004 growing seasons. Their concentrations increased significantly right after irrigation, but decreased about $45\%$ in 24 hours. It implies that agricultural activities such as plowing and fertilizing should be practiced one or two days after irrigation considering health-risks. Treatments with UV-disinfected water irrigation demonstrated significantly lower concentrations than others including control plots where natural surface water was irrigated. The monitoring results from actual paddy rice fields and experimental paddy plots showed that concentrations of indicator microorganisms ranged from $10^2\;to\;10^5$ MPN/100mL. A comprehensive assessment of existing agricultural practices and a thorough monitoring in the field as well as treatment-plots are recommended to make more realistic national guidelines more applicable. UV-disinfected water irrigation reduced microorganism concentrations in paddy fields down to below the concentration of conventional paddy rice culture, and is thought to be an effective and feasible measure fur agricultural reuse of secondary effluent.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.201-209
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• 2017

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the socioeconomic inequality in malnutrition in under-5 children in Iran in order to help policymakers reduce such inequality. Methods: Data on 8443 under-5 children were extracted from the Iran Multiple Indicator Demographic and Health Survey. The wealth index was used as proxy for socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic inequality in stunting, underweight, and wasting was calculated using the concentration index. The concentration index was calculated for the whole sample, as well as for subcategories defined in terms of categories such as area of residence (urban and rural) and the sex of children. Results: Stunting was observed to be more prevalent than underweight or wasting. The results of the concentration index at the national level, as well as in rural and urban areas and in terms of children's sex, showed that inequality in stunting and underweight was statistically significant and that children in the lower quintiles were more malnourished. The wasting index was not sensitive to socioeconomic status, and its concentration index value was not statistically significant. Conclusions: This study showed that it can be misleading to assess the mean levels of malnutrition at the national level without knowledge of the distribution of malnutrition among socioeconomic groups. Significant socioeconomic inequalities in stunting and underweight were observed at the national level and in both urban and rural areas. Regarding the influence of nutrition on the health and economic well-being of preschool-aged children, it is necessary for the government to focus on taking targeted measures to reduce malnutrition and to focus on poorer groups within society who bear a greater burden of malnutrition.

• 전력전자학회논문지
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• 제25권5호
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• pp.376-384
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• 2020

An energy storage system is composed of lithium-ion batteries in modern applications. Batteries are regarded as storage devices for renewable and residual energy. The failure of batteries can cause the performance reduction and explosion of battery systems. High maintenance cost is essential when dealing with the problem of battery safety. Therefore an accurate health diagnosis is required to ensure the high reliability of battery systems. A battery pack is a combination of single cells in series and parallel connections. A battery pack has to consider various factors to assess battery health. Battery health involves conventional factors and additional factors, such as cell-to-cell imbalance. For large applications, state-of-health (SOH) can be inaccurate because of the lack of factors that indicate the state of the battery pack. In this study, six characterization factors are proposed for improving the SOH estimation of battery packs. The six proposed characterization factors can be regarded as health indicators (HIs). The six HIs are applied to the principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm. To reflect information regarding capacity, voltage, and temperature, the PCA algorithm extracts new degradation factors by using the six HIs. The new degradation factors are applied to a multiple regression model. Results show the advancement and improvement of SOH estimation.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• 제35권
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• pp.10.1-10.10
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• 2023

The purpose of this paper was to review the problems relating to Korea's occupational health services and suggest ways to improve them. Korea can be classified as a welfare state type of conservative corporatism partially interwoven with liberalism. While experiencing compressed economic growth, the economic sectors of developed (excess areas) and developing (deficient areas) countries are interwoven. Therefore, it is necessary to perfect conservative corporatism along with a complementary reinforcement of liberal contents and to apply a multilayered approach focusing on complementing the deficient areas. It is essential to form a national representative indicator related to occupational health, and a strategy for selection and concentration is needed. The proposed central indicator is the occupational health coverage rate (OHCR), which is the number of workers who have applied for mandatory occupational health services under the Occupational Safety and Health Act in the numerator with the total working population in the denominator. This paper proposes ways to raise the OHCR, which is currently at the level of 25%-40%, to 70%-80%, which is the level of Japan, Germany, and France. To achieve this target, it is necessary to focus on small businesses and vulnerable workers. This is an area of market failure and requires the active input of community-oriented public resources. For access to larger workplaces, the marketability of services should be strengthened and personal intervention using digital health resources should be actively attempted. Taking a national perspective, work environment improvement committees with tripartite (labor, management, and government) participation for improvement of the working environment need to be established at the center and in the regions. Through this, prevention funds linked to industrial accident compensation and prevention could be used efficiently. A national chemical substance management system must be established to monitor the health of workers and the general public.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.206-210
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• 2015

Background: Fatigue has a strong impact on workers' performance and safety, but expedient methods for assessing fatigue on the job are not yet available. Studies discuss posturography as an indicator of fatigue, but further evidence for its use in the workplace is needed. The purpose of the study is to examine whether posturography is a suitable indicator of fatigue in clerical workers. Methods: Thirty-six employees (${\emptyset}$ 34.8 years, standard deviation = 12.5) participated in postural tasks (eyes open, eyes closed, arm swinging, and dual task) in the morning and afternoon. Position of their center of pressure (COP) was registered using a Nintendo Wii Balance Board and commercial software. From registered COP time series, we calculated the following parameters: path length (mm), velocity (mm/s), anterior-posterior variance (mm), mediolateral variance (mm), and confidence area ($mm^2$). These parameters were reduced to two orthogonal factors in a factor analysis with varimax rotation. Results: Statistical analysis of the first factor (path length and velocity) showed a significant effect of time of day: COP moved along a shorter path at a lower velocity in the afternoon compared with that in the morning. There also was a significant effect of task, but no significant interaction. Conclusion: Data suggest that postural stability of clerical workers was comparable in the morning and afternoon, but COP movement was greater in the morning. Within the framework of dynamic systems theory, this could indicate that the postural system explored the state space in more detail, and thus was more ready to respond to unexpected perturbations in the morning.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제40권3호
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• pp.245-254
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• 2014

Objectives: This study was performed to investigate hand washing awareness of females and load of indicator bacteria on their hands. This study focused on the variation according to their age. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire survey and bacterial analysis of indicator bacteria were carried out for 100 Korean women in their age from 20 s to 60 s. Hand samples were collected through a modified glovejuice method. Results: In the survey, significant difference (p < 0.05) was found among the age groups in the use of hand washing agents. The levels of aerobic colony count (ACC) were the highest in both hands among the 20s (p < 0.05). The levels of Escherichia coli were higher in both hands in their 20s and 30s. No significant difference was found in the levels of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella spp. However, the positive rates of S. aureus (left hand, 37.5~47.1%; right hand, 58.5~62.5%) and Salmonella spp. (left hand, 25.0~52.9%; right hand, 37.5~64.7%) were higher in the hands of the 20s and 30s, and then showed decreasing trend according to increase of age. The effect of hand washing frequency on the ACC level of hands was significant (p < 0.001). Conclusions: These results indicate that there was no remarkable difference of hand hygiene awareness among female age groups. The detection of S. aureus and Salmonella spp. on the hands of some females in each age group revealed poor hand hygiene practices. The significant effect of hand washing frequency on the ACC level suggests that frequent hand washing is helpful to reduce hand contamination.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.287-303
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• 2018

Applications of energy harvesting from mechanical vibrations is becoming popular but the full potential of such applications is yet to be explored. This paper addresses this issue by considering an application of energy harvesting for the dual objective of serving as an indicator of structural health monitoring (SHM) and extent of control. Variation of harvested energy from an undamaged baseline is employed for this purpose and the concept is illustrated by implementing it for active vibrations of a pipe structure. Theoretical and experimental analyses are carried out to determine the energy harvesting potential from undamaged and damaged conditions. The use of energy harvesting as indicator for control is subsequently investigated, considering the effect of the introduction of a tuned mass damper (TMD). It is found that energy harvesting can be used for the detection and monitoring of the location and magnitude of damage occurring within a pipe structure. Additionally, the harvested energy acts as an indicator of the extent of reduction of vibration of pipes when a TMD is attached. This paper extends the range of applications of energy harvesting devices for the monitoring of built infrastructure and illustrates the vast potential of energy harvesters as smart sensors.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.176-187
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• 2013

Background: In 2006 Emergency Medical Services Index (EMSI), which summarizes the performance of regional emergency medical services system, was developed. This study assesses the performance of the EMSI to help determine whether EMSI can be used as evaluation tool. Methods: To build a composite score of the EMSI from predefined 24 indicators, 3 normalized values were calculated for each indicator, the normalized values of each indicator were weighted using 4 weighting methods, and the weighted values were aggregated into the final composite score using 2 aggregation schemes. The performance of EMSI was evaluated using 3 criteria: discrimination, construct validity, and sensitivity. Discrimination was the proportion of regions that did not include the overall median rank in the 5th to 95th percentiles rank interval, which was calculated from Monte Carlo simulation. Construct validity was a correlation among the alternative EMSIs. Sensitivity of EMSIs was evaluated by total shift of quartile membership and changes of 5th to 95th percentile intervals. Results: The total discrimination performance of the EMSI was 50.0%. Correlation coefficients between EMSIs using standardized values and those using rescaled values ranged from 0.621 to 0.997. Variation of the quartile membership of regions ranged from 0.0% to 75.0%. The total change in the 5th to 95th percentile intervals ranged from -19 to +17 places. Conclusion: The results suggested that the EMSI could be used as a tool for evaluating quality of regional EMS system and for identifying the areas for quality improvement.

• 지역사회간호학회지
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.556-565
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• 2002

Due to the fact that nurses may deal with diverse populations in the work place, it is very important for then to maintain appropriate interpersonal relationships with clients. Nurses should maintain diverse types of relationships appropriately with patients with special needs and their families during crisis, other nursing colleagues and staff on the same team, clients in the school or work place as well as the community. In particular, a hospital is a society with a system and hierarchy, and the importance of interpersonal relationships is much more emphasized. In interpersonal relationships, it is very important for a person to communicate with others in an accurate manner, and when the communication is not achieved appropriately, the person may have troubles and experience distress and conflicts because of the inaccurate communication of thoughts. According to the findings of previous studies, nurses actually experience much distress in the work place because of the miscommunication that they have with others. The purpose of this study was to observe a correlation between Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and assertiveness behavior, and to exam the effects of assertiveness training on the assertiveness behavior and conflict management mode. The subjects of this study included 20 persons in the experimental group and 20 persons the in control group. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was applied before the study. The assertiveness training group received six, 120 minutes sessions over a 3 week period. Pre-test on assertiveness behavior, Communication Conflict Inventory-General, Role Conflict Inventory- General, Conflict Management Mode was achieved for all the subjects prior to the training. Post-test was administered to all the subjects one week following the last session. The data were analyzed using SPSS PC program to obtain findings on mean. standard distribution, t-test, and Pearson correlation. The results are as follows: (1) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Introvert/Extrovert was correlated to assertive behavior and avoid- response type conflict management mode. (2) The assertiveness training was correlated to assertiveness behavior, communication conflict degree, and avoid- response type conflict management mode. (3) The post-test scores between the training group and the control group were significantly different in assertiveness behavior and avoid-response type conflict management mode. It is suggested that more studies need to be done to differentiate the effects of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and assertiveness training on assertiveness behavior and avoid-response type conflict management mode.