• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.235-243
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• 2012

Objectives: The purpose of this study is the work environment management method through risk assessment and investigation of the work place that deals with Ammonium nitrate, based on information in and outside the country. Methods: This study suggests method of work environment management through risk assessment and investigation of the work place that deals with Ammonium nitrate, and finds out cases of Ammonium nitrate causing hazard, danger and health risk, based on literature investigation. Results: Rats exposed repeatedly to $LD_{50}$ 2,217 mg/kg(rat), $LC_{50}$ 88.8 mg/L(rat, skin) which cause high level of skin irritation, reported 1 $mg/m^3$ of NOAEL, while LOAEL was less than 100 mg/kg for the rats orally administered with the $LD_{50}$ 2,217 mg/kg(rat), $LC_{50}$ 88.8 mg/L(rat, skin), for 13 weeks. Domestically 31,640 ton/y of ammonium nitrate has been used in 22 workplace and the result of workplace assessment was 0.0171-0.9983 $mg/m^3$. ADD was 8.77-59.63 ${\mu}g/kg-day$ according to the exposure scenario. In other words the result of the risk assessment goes beyond the 'standard 1'. Conclusions: Ammonium nitrate creates a high level of irritation and toxicity when coming in breathe it or contact with skin, and is classified as category3 of GHS and specific target organ toxicant (irritating respiratory system). Exposure level at work places needs to be maintained under $1mg/m^3$, to prevent workers from being damaged.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.131-135
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• 2015

Since April 2012, more than 1,600 laboratory-confirmed human infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) have been reported, occurring primarily in countries in the Arabian Peninsula; the majority in Saudi Arabia. The MERS outbreak in Korea, which began in May 2015 through the importation of a single case who had recently traveled to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. As of November 28th, 186 secondary and tertiary cases had been reported; 38 deaths, mainly associated with underlying chronic illnesses, were reported. One case was exported to China and has been recorded as the first MERS case in China. Thirty-seven confirmed cases were associated with the index case, who was hospitalized from May 15 to May 17. Emergency room at one of the nation's largest hospitals had been affected by hospital-to-hospital and intra-hospital transmissions of MERS-CoV, resulting in an outbreak of 90 infected patients. The vast majority of 186 confirmed cases are linked to a single transmission chain associated with health facilities. The median age of patients is 55 years, with a range of 16 to 87 years. The majority (61%) of patients are men. Twenty-five (14%) of the cases involve healthcare workers. The overall median incubation period was six days, but it was four days for secondary cases and six days for tertiary cases. There has been no evidence of airborne transmission and sustained human-to-human transmission in communities. Intensified public health measures, including contact tracing, quarantine and isolation of all contacts and suspected cases, and infection prevention and control have brought the MERS-CoV under control in Korea. Since 4 July no new cases have been reported.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.201-208
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• 2010

Information on the distribution characteristics of construction errors is very important to determine the member factors, which are to be introduced in a new Korean design code for reinforced concrete structures. The new design code, which is under development for reinforced concrete structures, is based on the performance design concept. The construction errors of reinforced concrete members are mainly caused by the firmness and dimensional accuracy of forms, the arranging condition of reinforcing bars, the pouring and compaction methods of concrete, the skills of field workers, and the experience of supervisors. To find out the construction errors of reinforced concrete structures already built in Korea, a field survey for cover thickness, effective depth of reinforcement, the thickness of slabs and walls, and the dimension of beams and columns has been performed. Based on the survey, which is the first time in Korea, the analysis results are presented. The measuring methods for the construction errors, which have been established through the laboratory tests, are also presented. In addition, the measured construction errors from the survey are compared with the allowable tolerances in the current domestic and foreign specifications.

• Journal of Apiculture
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.315-323
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• 2019

Large amounts of sludge produced by paper mill industries represent one of the most serious environmental problems in the world. Recently, beekeepers living in the neighborhood of the paper mill in Hwasan County, Youngcheon city, GB, Korea, became alarmed that honey bee colonies were dying off suddenly across the neighborhood. A preliminary study was conducted to evaluate the toxicity (oral, fumigation, repellent) of recycled solid paper mill sludge (SPMS) and leachate paper mill sludge (LPMS) to honey bee workers under laboratory conditions, and to analyze the volatile organic compounds(VOC). The SPMS and LPMS were separately subjected to a liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) at three temperatures to extract VOC(highest VOC yields: 1.52% SPMS and 0.34% LPMS). A total of 70 chemicals were detected in the VOC of paper mill sludges, of which 49 and 21 volatile organic compounds from SPMS and LPMS, respectively. The SPMS was dominated by high degree presence of stanols (saturated sterols), such as cholestanol, cholestan-3-ol and also saturated hydrocarbons. However, LPMS was characterized by the absence of sterols. Both SPMS and LPMS showed an influence on the olfactory behavior of honey bee on Y-tube assay, with repulsion rates of 72 and 68%, respectively. Both SPMS and LPMS at concentration of 100mg/mL caused higher honey bee oral mortality than the untreated controls at 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours after treatment(highest oral mortality at 120 hr: 85.74%(SPMS); 93.51 % (LPMS)). A similar pattern was observed when honey bees were tested to fumigant toxicity. Both SPMS and LPMS caused significant higher mortality than the untreated control 24 hour after the exposure (highest fumigation mortality at 120 hr: 69.4% (SPMS); 56.8% (LPMS)). These preliminary results indicated that paper mill sludge could be partly responsible for sudden death and disappearance of honey bees, especially in hot humid summer days. With climate change, the risk of environmental chemical exposure to honey bee would pose greater attention.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.244-248
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• 2021

Background: Sunburn is the main avoidable cause of skin cancer. Beach lifeguards spend many hours exposed to the effects of solar radiation during their work day, precisely at times of the year when levels of solar irradiation are highest. The aim of this study is to quantify the risk to beach lifeguards of sun exposure. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in the Western Costa del Sol, southern Spain, during the summer of 2018. The research subjects were recruited during a skin cancer prevention course for beach lifeguards. All participants were invited to complete a questionnaire on their habits, attitudes, and knowledge related to sun exposure. In addition, ten were specially monitored using personal dosimeters for three consecutive days, and the results were recorded in a photoprotection diary. A descriptive analysis (mean and standard deviation for the quantitative variables) was performed, and inter-group differences were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Two hundred fifteen lifeguards completed the questionnaire, and 109 met the criteria for inclusion in this analysis. The mean age was 23.8 years (SD: 5.1), 78.0% were male, 71.5% were phototype III or IV (Fitzpatrick's phototype), and 77.1% had experienced at least one painful sunburn during the previous summer. The mean daily personal ultraviolet exposure per day, the minimal erythema dose, and the standard erythema dose, in J/m², were 634.7 [standard deviation (SD): 356.2], 2.5 (SD: 1.4) and 6.35 (SD: 3.6), respectively. Conclusion: Beach lifeguards receive very high doses of solar radiation during the work day and experience correspondingly high rates of sunburn. Intervention strategies to modify their sun exposure behavior and working environment are necessary to reduce the risk of skin cancer for these workers and to promote early diagnosis of the disease.

• Korean Journal of Artificial Intelligence
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2021

In this paper, We focused the issue of creating a socially problematic nurse schedule. The nurse schedule should be prepared in consideration of three shifts, appropriate placement of experienced workers, the fairness of work assignment, and legal work standards. Because of the complex structure of the nurse schedule, which must reflect various requirements, in most hospitals, the nurse in charge writes it by hand with a lot of time and effort. This study attempted to automatically create an optimized nurse schedule based on legal labor standards and fairness. We developed an I/O Q-Learning algorithm-based model based on Python and Web Application for automatic nurse schedule. The model was trained to converge to 100 by creating an Fairness Indicator Score(FIS) that considers Labor Standards Act, Work equity, Work preference. Manual nurse schedules and this model are compared with FIS. This model showed a higher work equity index of 13.31 points, work preference index of 1.52 points, and FIS of 16.38 points. This study was able to automatically generate nurse schedule based on reinforcement Learning. In addition, as a result of creating the nurse schedule of E hospital using this model, it was possible to reduce the time required from 88 hours to 3 hours. If additional supplementation of FIS and reinforcement Learning techniques such as DQN, CNN, Monte Carlo Simulation and AlphaZero additionally utilize a more an optimized model can be developed.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.478-490
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• 2022

TBM disc cutter, which is the main cutting tool of tunnel boring machine (TBM), is replaced when it is excessively worn during the boring process. Disc cutters are usually monitored by workers at cutterhead chamber, and they check the status and wear amount of cutters. Because cutterhead chamber is usually in dangerous circumstance due to high pressure and instability of excavation surface, the measurement by manpower occasionally results in inaccuracy of measurement result. In order to overcome the limitations, the real-time disc cutter monitoring techniques have been developed in some foreign countries. This paper collected the current status of disc cutter monitoring system from the literature. Several types of sensors are used to measure the cutter wear, and it is believed that the collected information can be useful reference when similar domestic technologies are developed in the future.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.353-360
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• 2022

Due to the dense and complicated working environment, the construction industry is susceptible to many accidents. Worker's fall is a severe problem at the construction site, including falling into holes or openings because of the inadequate coverings as per the safety rules. During the construction or demolition of a building, openings and holes are formed in the floors and roofs. Many workers neglect to cover openings for ease of work while being aware of the risks of holes, openings, and gaps at heights. However, there are safety rules for worker safety; the holes and openings must be covered to prevent falls. The safety inspector typically examines it by visiting the construction site, which is time-consuming and requires safety manager efforts. Therefore, this study presented a worker-driven approach (the worker is involved in the reporting process) to facilitate safety managers by developing integrated computer vision and inertia sensors-based mobile applications to identify openings. The TensorFlow framework is used to design Convolutional Neural Network (CNN); the designed CNN is trained on a custom dataset for binary class openings and covered and deployed on an android smartphone. When an application captures an image, the device also extracts the accelerometer values to determine the inclination in parallel with the classification task of the device to predict the final output as floor (openings/ covered), wall (openings/covered), and roof (openings / covered). The proposed worker-driven approach will be extended with other case scenarios at the construction site.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.75-82
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• 2010

As structures become larger, taller, and more diverse, a high degree of technology and expertise are required in the construction industry. However, it has been becoming difficult to construct under severe conditions and to fulfill the high performance needs of structures due to a lack of skilled construction engineers. To compensate for these weak points, high-performance concrete and performance specifications have been developed. The application of reliable high-fluidity concrete, which is one of these efforts, is expected to be effective in terms of overcoming severe conditions, reducing the number of workers required, and shortening the construction period. In order to apply high fluidity concrete in the field, practical mock-up tests were carried out to estimate whether self-compaction concrete could satisfy constructability needs. From the results, it was verified that the multi-component high fluidity concrete has excellent flowability in practical structures. In addition, it was shown that the temperature distribution in the concrete due to hydration heat is satisfactory. As a result, it is judged that multi-component high fluidity concrete can be utilized as an effective building material for various structures, including structures related to the electric power industry.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.623-630
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• 2020

Objective : A primary degenerative sagittal imbalance has been considered because of unique lifestyles such as the prolonged crouched posture during agricultural work and performing activities of daily living on the floor. Previous papers have reported that sagittal imbalance disease is often seen distinctly in the farming districts of "oriental" countries such as Korea and Japan. However, this finding was only evaluated with the use of X-ray, and other factors such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), muscle volume, compression fracture, and laboratory results were not considered. Thus, using these, we evaluate the agricultural work-associated factors for Korean elderly spinal sagittal imbalance. Methods : We recruited 103 Korean participants who had a sagittal vertical axis (SVA) of >5 cm in this Korean Elderly Sagittal Imbalance Cohort Study. The following were evaluated : radiological parameters, MRI, compression fracture, vitamin D, parathyroid hormone, C-terminal telopeptide, osteocalcin, bone mineral density and muscle fatty change, muscle volume, and health-related quality of life from patients' survey. Moreover, in this survey, the farmers' annual working hours were investigated. Subsequently, we analyzed the associated factors for spinal sagittal imbalance depending on occupation. Results : A total of 46 participants were farmers, and the others were housewives, sellers, and office workers. The farmer group had more SVA (141 vs. 99 mm, p=0.001) and pelvic tilt (31° vs. 24°, p=0.004) and lesser lumbar lordosis (20° vs. 30°, p=0.009) and thoracic kyphosis (24° vs. 33°, p=0.03) than non-farmer group. A significantly positive correlation was noted between the working hour and SVA in the farmer group (p=0.014). The visual analogue scale score for back pain (8.26 vs. 6.96, p=0.008) and Oswestry Disability Index (23.5 vs. 19.1, p=0.003) in the farmer group were higher than that in the non-farmer group, but the Short Form-36 score was not significantly different between the two groups. The Mini-Mental State Exam score was significantly lower in the farmer group than in the non-farmer group (24.85 vs. 26.98, p=0.002). Conclusion : The farmer group had more sagittal imbalance and back pain in proportion to the working hours even though the muscle and bone factors and general laboratory condition were not significantly different between the two groups. These results supported that the long hours spent in the crouched posture while performing agricultural work were a risk factor for severe sagittal imbalance.