• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.2 s.57
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• pp.293-307
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• 1997

In Korea, sudden deaths of middle-aged and older male workers who are the responsible persons at home as well as workplace, have aroused social concern. Besides, U. N. has reported recently that mortality of Korea male in 40-50's was one of the highest among newly developed countries in 1992. Not much is, however, known about the nature of the work contributing to the mortality of different groups of workers. Therefore, this study was done to examine mortality of public servants, comprising about 5% of all the employed in Korea, according to their job titles and grades. The datas of 1753 official deaths, comprised 323 (only disease-oriented deaths) applicants of survivors' compensation, were used to examine age-adjusted Standardized Mortality Ratios(SMRs) according to their job titles, grades, tenures and cause of deaths. Controlling age and sex difference was conducted using 26,950,481 general population, 95,340 general deaths and 864,560 working public servants. All the groups were aged 20-64, who were being observed January - December in 1993, at the same time. Results and discussions are as follows. 1. SMRs standardized by general population was significantly low (SMR 44.9 CI 42.8-52.7) for all job titlses. Of public servants, 90.0% was graduated from high school, although 17.5% in general population. The distinction of social status such a education may produce a strong healthy worker effect. Besides, SMRs for different tenure groups showed a steady increase as tenure increases. This suggests that the magnitude of healthy-worker effect may be greater with increasing tenures. 2. SMRs standardized by own public servants was significantly elevated for work-men(SMR 121.0, CI 110.2-132.6) in solitue. When SMRs for different grade, of work-men was examined, 9th(SMR 124.2, CI 104.4-146.7) and 10th(SMR 137.9 CI 120.8-156.8)grade, lower grade in workmen, showed significantly elevated SMRs. Of workmen, 57.0% were graduated from high school and 50.1% in 9th grade, as well. These mean that low economic states made up social class, education may increase mortality rate. 3. Of SMRs according to all causes of death, only policemen on 'cause of death related hypertensive disease'(SMR 282.5, CI 121.6-556.7) was significantly high except for' cause of death related other signs, symptoms and ill-defined conditions'. 4. When SMRs on cause of death related hypertensive disease for different grade of policemen was examined, senior policemen(SMR 241.9), in charge of the front service, showed elevated SMR, in spite of statistical no significance. Especially, the working hour of senior policemen is quite long and also the work schedule is even more irregular for policemen. The results of this study showed that mortality for different jobs differed, and it differed also for different grades in the same job. This difference in mortality may reflect the difference in the nature of job contents, and further studies are warranted to elucidate which job characteristics are responsible.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.375-383
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• 2023

Objectives: Coal-fired power plants feature diverse working conditions, including multi-layered employment structures and irregular work cycles due to outsourcing and non-standardized tasks. The current uniform occupational environment measurement systems have limitations in accurately assessing and evaluating these varied conditions. This study aims to propose alternative measurement and assessment strategies to supplement existing methods. Methods: Major domestic coal-fired power plants were selected as the study targets. To prepare for the study and establish strategies, work processes were identified and existing occupational environment measurement results were compared and analyzed. The study proceeded by employing three strategies: specific exposure groups (SEGs) measurement, continuous monitoring, and supplementary measurements, which were then compared and discussed. Results: Previous exposure index evaluations (5,268 cases) indicated that crystalline silica, a type of respirable particulate matter, had detection limits below the threshold (non-detectable) in 82.6% (4,349 cases) of instances. Exposures below 10% of the exposure limit were observed at a very low concentration of 96.1%. Similar exposure group measurements yielded results where detection limits were below the threshold in 38.2% of cases, and exposures below 10% of the limit were observed in 70.6%. Continuous monitoring indicated detection limits below the threshold in 12.6% of cases, and exposures below 10% of the limit were observed in 75.6%. Instances requiring active workplace management accounted for more than 30% of cases, with SEGs at 11.8% (four cases), showing a higher proportion compared to 3.0% (four cases) in continuous monitoring. For coal dust, exposures below 10% of the limit were highest in legal measurements at 90.2% (113 cases), followed by 74.0% (91 cases) in continuous monitoring, and 47.0% (16 cases) in SEGs. Instances exceeding 30% were most prevalent in SEGs at 14.7% (five cases), followed by legal measurements at 5.0% (eight cases), and continuous monitoring at 2.4% (three cases). When examining exposure levels through arithmetic means, crystalline silica was found to be 104.7% higher in SEGs at 0.0088 mg/m³ compared to 0.0043 mg/m³ in continuous monitoring. Coal dust measurements were highest in SEGs at 0.1247 mg/m³, followed by 0.1224 mg/m³ in legal measurements, and 0.0935 mg/m³ in continuous monitoring. Conclusions: Strategies involving SEGs measurement and continuous monitoring can enhance measurement reliability in environments with irregular work processes and frequent fluctuations in working conditions, as observed in coal-fired power plants. These strategies reduce the likelihood of omitting or underestimating processes and enhance measurement accuracy. In particular, a significant reduction in detection limits below the threshold for crystalline silica was observed. Supplementary measurements can identify worker exposure characteristics, uncover potential risks in blind spots of management, and provide a complementary method for legal measurements.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.232-241
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• 2017

This study was carried out to design the stable elements of the aerial work machinery used in the orchard and farmland which had been conducted in the previous research. A hydraulic lifting lift has been developed to work safely at irregular and inclined locations using an auto leveling system and a horizontal sensor. The development of a centralized controller including remote control has been carried out in order to control the elevated work platform. Through the developed module, we carried out on-site test run to check whether the control is stable in the elevation workbench. Through the structural analysis of the elevation workbench, the maximum load and the equal load amount that the worker can safely work on the workbench are presented.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.457-462
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• 2000

Boom sprayers have been known by their excellency in field efficiency worker’s safety and pest control efficacy. The boom sprayer in Korea that was developed for paddy field is not suitable for upland field of which shape is irregular and inclination is steep, due to heavy chemical tank long boom width and manual on-off control of spraying. The goal of the study was to develope a boom control system that could control boom angles of left and right boom automatically and independently corresponding to local field slope. The prime mover was selected as a cultivating tractor. Main results of this study were as follows. 1. Ultrasonic sensor whose response time was 0.1s and response angle was within $\pm$20$^{\circ}$was selected to measure distance. Voltage output of the sensor(X, Volt) had a highly significant linear relationship with the vertical distance between the sensor and ground surface(Y, mm) as follows; Y=0.0036X-0.437 2. Left and right section of the boom could be folded up by a position control device(on-off control) which could control the left and right boom independently corresponding to local slope by equalizing distances between the sensor and boom at the center and left/right boom. Most reliable DB(dead band) was experimentally selected to be 75$\Omega$(6cm). 3. At traveling velocity of 0.3~0.5m/s RMS of error between desired and achieved height was less than 4.5cm The developed boom angle controller and boom linkage system were evaluated to be successful in achieving the height control accuracy target of $\pm$10cm.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.412-422
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors influencing the health promoting behavior(s) of office worker males in the COVID-19 pandemic by applying Pender's health promotion model. Methods: The participants in this study were 149 male office workers at companies located in S, G and S cities. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient and a stepwise multiple regression using the SPSS Window 25.0 program. Results: The subject's health promoting behaviors and prior related behaviors (r=.58, p<.001), perceived benefits of action (r=.41, p<.001), self-efficacy (r=.53, p<.001), social support (r=.39, p<.001), self-esteem (r=.47, p<.001) and commitment to a plan of action (r=.67, p<.001) showed a high positive correlation. The factors affecting the subjects' health promoting behaviors were the commitment to a plan of action (𝛽=.35, p<.001), self-esteem (𝛽=.27, p=.005), prior related behavior (𝛽=.26, p<.001), health status (good) (𝛽=.20, p=.001) and self-efficacy (𝛽=.14, p=.047). These variables explained 63.0% of the subjects' health promoting behaviors. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, subjects are more likely to be exposed to disease due to reduced outdoor activity time and irregular eating habits due to the strengthening of social distancing. Health promoting behaviors are an important concept that can maintain health and prevent diseases. To improve the health promoting behaviors of men engaged in office work, it is necessary to develop and operate a health promotion behaviors program considering those variables.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.165-174
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• 1999

Background: Coal-worker's pneumoconiosis(CWP) is radiologically divided into two major groups: simple pneumoconiosis (SP), in which small, rounded or irregular opacities smaller than 1cm are observed, and progressive massive fibrosis(PMF), which is characterized by opacities larger than 1cm. SP has a life expectancy equivalent to miners with no radiographic evidence of CWP, but PMF is associated with more obvious impairments of ventilatory capacity and premature death. But only minority of workers develop PMF when exposed to dust concentrations similar to those experienced by workers who develop only SP. In this study, immune status in patients with CWP were evaluated by measurement of the serum immunoglobulin levels between control, SP and PMF groups. Method: Coal workers selected for this study were emplyees of the Tae-Baek and Dong-Hae Hospital. All the patients were men of 45-76 years old and the mean duration of exposure to coal dust were 23.2 years. By X-ray examination, 51 patients were classified in SP, 59 in PMF category. The normal controls examined were 58 men of 26-70 years old. Serum Ig levels were estimated by using Nephelometer(Behring Nephelometer : Germany) and serum were collected 51 in SP, 49 in PMF and 57 cases in control group. Results: The levels of IgG were increased but the levels of IgM were decreased with increasing age in control groups. There were no statistical difference of immunoglobulin levels between smokers and nonsmokers in control groups. There were no statistical difference of immunoglobulin levels between Control, SP and PMF groups. Multiple regression analysis were undertaken to determine the statistical significance of the apparent trends and estimate the effects associated with age, smoking habit and radiological category of CWP. According to this analysis, the levels of IgG were decreased significantly in SP group and had decreasing tendancy, but not statistically significant in PMF group. Conclusion : From the observations described, CWP patients had decreased IgG concentration compared to control gorup. Therefore, there was some relation between CWP and immunoglobulin concentration.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.1277-1285
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• 2015

It has been known that the conventional retaining wall system with timber lagging and H pile has several problems such as the irregular gap between H-piles, cutting or adding to standard timber, back fill over first step excavation, and especially break-down accident at the disjoint of wall system. In the practical excavation, these problems may lead to worker's accident and the inefficiency of construction economy. To solve the above problems, a new method using prefabricated retaining wall was proposed and verified. The characteristics of the new method is to replace timber wall as free-sliding steel-lagging and connector. To check its verification and application, laboratory tests such as bending strength, tensile strength, and fatigue strength were carried out. Also, a pilot test in the field and numerical simulations under various ground conditions were performed. From the researches, it is found that the prefabricated retaining wall plate can be superior to the conventional timber lagging plate in the strength. It is also found that the proposed methods can be effective in the reuse of retaining wall plate and safe in the disjoint of wall system. Finally, it is desired that the proposed method will be effective in the reduction of the imported timbers and helpful in the safety of retaining wall construction.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.3 s.35
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• pp.279-286
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• 1991

Much of the working population in developing countries are engaged in shift work now and the number of shift workers is not expected to decrease in the future mostly because the need for continuity of production is increasing. Therefore, the possible effects of shift work on health are of particular interest, and in fact, there have been many epidemiological studies on shift work since the first world war. However, no studies on health effects of shift work have been reported in Korea, and the existing studies in western world have arrived at quite different conclusions mainly because the conditions of work other than shift work, such as age and selection of workers, work environment, and labor conditions also influence the health of workers. This study was firstly carried out in Korea to investigate the health risks related to shift work with 2,093 female workers randomly selected from three major manufacturing industries in proportion to total number of female workers in those industries. Differences of work conditions other than shift work in this study were adjusted by multivariate analysis. Ma findings obtained from this study are as follows : 1. There were significant differences between shift and day workers in the distribution of age, type of industry, condition of noise and dust, regularity of mealtime, working position, and working duration. Shift workers tended to be younger, to have shorter working duration, to have more irregular mealtime, to work in standing position, and to work under more noisy and dusty environment than day workers. 2. Univariate analysis showed that shift work increased the Todai Health Index (THI) scores of digestive tract, respiratory tract, and mental instability symptom categories. Shift work also increased days of sickness absence and number of industrial accident per 100 workers per month. 3. Multivariate analysis that adjusted the differences of demographic, occupational and non-occupational health-related working conditions showed that digestive tract symptom and mental instability symptom scores were significantly higher in shift workers than those in day workers. Based on these study results, it is concluded that the shift work has significant effects on some psychophysiological conditions of the workers and the effects are also influenced by several other personal and working conditions.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.63-74
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• 2008

The design of best efficient production process is common requirements of the production strategy department and the process planning department to maximize the revenue and accomplish target production volumes in the production periods. And they use several general methods for that-line-balancing, removing of the bottle-neck process, facility ramp-up, increasing of the worker's utilization, etc. But, those methods have depended on analytic, static and arithmetic calculations, yet. So, irregular work-waiting time causing the delay time isn't include in extracting production capacity, especially in the line production process. The work-waiting time is changed irregularly along the variation of each machine and very important for calculate real product lead-time and forecasting target production volumes. At this thesis, i'm going to mention the importance of the delay time of conveyor system which can be extracted by discrete-event simulation. And suggest it as a new main variable that must be considered at designing new production system. Then experimented and tested that's effects in the H-company case, conveyor based line production process.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.127-145
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• 2000

The objectives of this study are to identify health behaviors and health problems. and the relations between health behaviors and health problems of female workers in the retail business. The number of subjects were 200 female workers of 6 department stores in Seoul and Kyonggi area, whose jobs last more than 6 months as retail employees. The data was collected during 2 months from July 1 to August 30, 1998. The Cornell Medical Index Health Questionnaire(CMI) was used to measure their health problems, while health behaViorn were investigated in terms of 'smoking', 'alcohol', exercise', 'diet', and 'sleeping'. The data were analyzed with frequency. percentage, t-test, ANOVA test, and $X^2-test$ by SPSS PC+ program. The results of this study are as follows: 1. Out of health problems. Digestive symptoms occupied the highest percent number. nervous ones the second and cardiovascular ones the third among physical health problems of retail female workers. The most frequent mental health problem was 'adequacy' and the next, 'tension' and 'anger', 2, Health problems according to general characteristics of subjects were shown that the younger or the unmarried complained more than the older or the married, especially in the items of 'eye and ear', 'respiratory system', 'cardiovascular system', 'digestive tract', 'nervous system', 'adequacy', and 'depression'. The longer working duration they have had, the more they complained of 'respiratory system' and 'adequacy'. The lower academic careers complained of 'nervous' than the higher ones with statistical significance. 3. The analysis of daily health clinic notes showed that respiratory complaints were the highest percent, successively followed by digestive tract, nervous one, external injury, musculoskeletal system, urinary-reproductive system and others. 4. The level of their health practice was generally low in smoking, diet habit and alcohol intake, exercise, sleeping, very low especially in smoking, diet, alcohol intake, and exercise among them all. 5. Present smokers and ones with past experience complained of physical and mental health problems of 'respiratory system', 'digestive tract', 'skin', 'nervous', 'urinary-reproductive system', 'fatigability', adequacy', 'depression', 'anxiety', 'anger' and 'tension', than non smokers, with statistical difference. Workers without having breakfast and with irregular diet had more complaints on 'digestive tract', 'adequacy' and 'tension', than those who had regular dietary habit. The less the subjects slept, the more they complained of eye and ear, cardiovascular system. The subjects who drank alcohol complained more digestive problem. However, whether they exercise or not did not affect physical and mental health problems in a significant manner. 6. The subjects' age and marital status were statistically significant relating to health behaviors, as the younger or unmarried recorded a low level of health practice in smoking, drinking, dietary habit. Based on the results, the suggestions are made as follows: 1. Health education program on smoking, alcohol intake, diet habit is needed to improve health problems and health behavior of female retail workers. 2. The unmarried workers of late teen and twenties, who are transitional period from teenagers to adulthood are important targets for health promotion program especially for maternal health. 3. Better working environment with sufficient time and facilities for workers to relax is required to promote female sales workers' health. 4. Further research is required to identify the relation between workers' visual fatigue and intense lights for the display of goods.