• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.85-93
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• 2023

Purpose: The predominant approach for mitigating inadequate sampling rates has primarily involved bolstering the volume of education. This study aimed to curtail inadequate sampling rates through the implementation of continuous quality improvement (CQI) activities, tailoring effective methods to the unique needs of each institution. Methods: We developed a sample handling guidebook and implemented QI activities to address this issue. Results: These measures resulted in a 4.7% decrease in inadequate sampling rates, concurrently improving knowledge of sample handling and overall nurse satisfaction. We addressed the root causes of inadequate sampling before laboratory pre-processing by: 1) focusing on systematic rather than erratic errors through CQI activities, 2) revising the sample handling guide, and 3) delivering face-to-face education based on the specific needs of the nursing department. These changes resulted in an additional 0.6% decrease in the inadequate sampling rate. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the implementation of CQI activities based on evidence derived from a multifaceted causal analysis significantly reduced the inadequate sampling rate compared to previous studies.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.80 no.6
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• pp.701-709
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• 2021

The paper aims at improving the understanding and mitigating the effects of tunnel fires that may breakout due to the burning fuel and/or explosion within the tunnel. This study particularly focuses on the behavior of the commonly used horse shoe geometry of tunnel systems. The problem has been obtained using an adequate well-established program incorporating the Lagrangian approach. A transient-thermo-coupled static structural analysis is carried out. The effects of radiation and convection to the outer walls of the tunnel is studied. The paper also presents the impact of the hazard on the structural integrity of the tunnel. A methodology is proposed to study the tunnel fire using a model which uses equivalent steel sheet to represent the presence of reinforcements to improve the computational efficiency with adequate validation. A parametric study has been carried out and the effect of suitable lining property for mitigating the fire hazard is arrived at. Detailed analysis is done for the threshold limits of the properties of the lining material to check if it is acceptable in all aspects for the integrity of the tunnel. The study may prove useful for developing insights for ensuring tunnel fire safety. To conduct such studies experimentally are tremendously costly but are required to gain confidence. But, scaled models, as well as loading and testing conditions, cannot be studied by many trials experimentally as the cost will shoot up sharply. In this context, the results obtained from such computational studies with a feasible variation of various combinations of parameters may act as a set of guidelines to freeze the adequate combination of various parameters to conduct one or two costly experiments for confidence building.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.321-330
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• 2022

Busan New Port manages the largest volume of traffic among Korean ports, and accounts for 68.5% of the total volume of the Busan port. Due to this increase in volume, ultra large container ships call at Busan New Port. When the additional south container terminal as well as ongoing construction project of the west container terminal are completed, various encounters may occur at the Busan New Port entrance, which may cause collision risk.s Thus, the purpose of this study was to provide a plan to improve the safety of vessel traffic, in the in/out bound fairway of Busan New Port. For this purpose, the status of arrivals and departures of vessels in Busan New Port, was examined through maritime traffic flow analysis. Additionally, risk factors and safety measures were identified, by AHP analysis with ship operators of the study area. Also, based on the derived safety measures, scenarios were set using the Environmental Stress model (ES model), and the traffic risk level of each safety measure was identified through simulation. As a result, it is expected that setting the no entry area for one-way traffic would have a significant effect on mitigating risks at the Busan New Port entrance. This study can serve as a basis for preparing safety measures, to improve the navigation of vessels using Busan New Port. If safety measures are prepared in the future, it is necessary to verify the safety by using the traffic volume and flow changes according to the newly-opened berths.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.599-609
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• 2020

Objectives: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has rapidly become a global pandemic with over 26.4 million confirmed cases and approximately 871,000 fatalities worldwide as of this writing. In the Republic of Korea, disease clusters frequently occurred in long-term care hospitals where the majority of residents are elderly with underlying medical conditions. Despite the fact that public health authorities and local community health centers have put tremendous efforts into preventing the spread of disease, positive cases have continued to occur. Thus, the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention rapid response team decided to conduct an environmental investigation of a long-term care hospital to identify whether environmental contamination has remained and contributed to the spread of COVID-19. Methods: An environmental investigation was conducted at Hospital A. The characteristics of the facility and its HVAC system were assessed by checking the layout and interviewing the people in charge. A total of 64 surface samples were collected from areas of concern, including patient rooms, toilets, elevators, and nurses' station. These samples were tested by a regional health and environmental research institute using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: All samples from Hospital A were confirmed to be negative. Through interviews with high-level personnel at the regional community health center, we found that extensive disinfection is frequently performed on potentially contaminated areas in Hospital A in accordance with government guidelines. Conclusion: The environmental control measures implemented in Hospital A had been sufficient for mitigating the risk of further infection, suggesting that such measures may also be effective for other long-term health care facilities.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.467-477
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• 2017

Objectives: Oxidative stress and DNA damage have been proposed as mechanisms linking pesticide exposure to health effects such as cancer and neurological diseases. We investigated whether protective measures could significantly reduce the levels of biomarkers for oxidative stress and DNA damage in agricultural workers. Methods: In the present study, the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), biomarkers related to oxidative stress and DNA damage, respectively, were analyzed in urine samples collected from agricultural workers in two provinces of Korea (n=60). The influence of wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and performing protective behaviors on the levels of these two biomarkers was also evaluated. Results: The median urinary levels of MDA and 8-OHdG were 10.45 nmol/mg creatinine and 14.42 ng/mg creatinine in subjects living in region A, while they were 6.25 nmol/mg creatinine and 24.77 ng/mg creatinine in subjects living in region B, respectively. The levels of MDA and 8-OHdG were higher in male farmers. Farmers wearing greater numbers of PPE and performing more protective behaviors had significantly lower levels of MDA. Greater numbers of protective behaviors was significantly associated with lower levels of 8-OHdG. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that pesticide exposure could induce oxidative stress and DNA damage in agricultural workers, and that protective measures are important for mitigating pesticide exposure.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 2018

Wind damage of urban trees arises to be a serious issue especially in the typhoon-prone areas. As a family of tree species widely-planted in Southeast China, the structural behaviors of Plane tree is investigated. In order to accommodate the complexities of tree morphology, a fractal theory based finite element modeling method is proposed. On-site measurement of Plane trees is performed for physical definition of structural parameters. It is revealed that modal frequencies of Plane trees distribute in a manner of grouped dense-frequencies; bending is the main mode of structural failure. In conjunction with the probability density evolution method, the fragility assessment of urban trees subjected to wind excitations is then proceeded. Numerical results indicate that small-size segments such as secondary branches feature a relatively higher failure risk in a low wind level, and a relatively lower failure risk in a high wind level owing to windward shrinks. Besides, the trunk of Plane tree is the segment most likely to be damaged than other segments in case of high winds. The failure position tends to occur at the connection between trunk and primary branches, where the logical protections and reinforcement measures can be implemented for mitigating the wind damage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.25-36
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to estimate income-related health inequalities among adolescent population across regions in Korea. Methods: Data of 8,456 adolescents from 1998, 2001, 2005, 2007 Korean Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used for the analysis. True health status was proxied by self-rated health and overweight status. Per capita income was computed from household monthly average income adjusted by consumer price with base year 2005. Adolescent health inequalities were estimated by Concentration Index (CI) across income and space. Results: Ill health score was related with age (p<0.0001), gender (p=0.0155) and income (p<0.0001). Negative relationship between income and ill-health indicated that higher income group tended to enjoy better health and less overweight. These evidences suggested ill health were accumulated on the economically disadvantaged adolescents. The size of health inequalities (ill-health score) were estimated as CI=-0.057 and CI=-0.030 across income groups and regions, respectively. Comparable measures of within region health disparities were also observed. Conclusion: Since health disparity among adolescent population was small compared to adult population, lessening adolescent health inequality could be a helpful way of mitigating health disparities in later stage. Considering life stage of adolescents, school system and local communities could play important roles toward adolescent health distribution. Although health disparity between regions existed, health disparity within a region should not be neglected.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.301-312
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• 2009

Recently, habitat fragmentation and shrinkage has occurred because of increased road construction. As a measures mitigating the adverse effect such as eco-island by road construction, Korea has been installed eco-corridors since 1995. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), this study analyzed the importance of assessment items and the criteria to determine which areas require eco-corridors the most. First, related literature reviews, preliminary surveys, and expert interviews were carried out to develop assessment items and criteria for constructing the hierarchy. Second, experts were surveyed in order to determine the relative importance of the assessment items by applying the AHP. As a result, it found that the restoration of the ecological network was the most important assessment item, followed by wild animal resources in the Level 3. In the Level 4, the eighteen items were ranked in the order of their relative weight and it was found that the 'Baekdudaegan Mountain Range (0.189)' was the highest ranked item. Therefore, this approach can be applied to effective selection of the priority areas in planning eco-corridors in the national scale.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.67-81
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• 2017

Because of lack of accurate understanding of the mechanism of urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon and lack of scientific discussion, it is hard to come up with effective measures to mitigate UHI phenomenon. This study systematically described the UHI and suggested the solutions using green-infrastructure (green-infra). The factors that control UHI are very diverse: radiant heat flux, latent heat flux, storage heat flux, and artificial heat flux, and the air temperature is formed by the combination effect of radiation, conduction and convection. Green-infra strategies can improve thermal environment by reducing radiant heat flux (the albedo effect, the shade effect), increasing latent heat flux (the evapotranspiration effect), and creating a wind path (cooling air flow). As a result of measurement, green-infra could reduce radiant heat flux as $270W/m^2$ due to shadow effect and produce $170W/m^2$ latent heat flux due to evaporation. Finally, green-infra can be applied differently on the macro(urban) scale and micro scale, therefore, we should plan and design green-infra after the target objects of structures are set.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.91-98
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• 2012

As the occurrence rate of terror and hazard is increasing throughout the world, GSA, DoD, and FEMA are proceeding a study about mitigating the damage of terror. Korea is no more a safe place from the terrorist's threat, so we need to make measures against them. In this study we developed modified RVS System by revising some items to adjust the system to the domestic condition and conducted a risk assessment on several tall buildings in Korea. By using IRVS system which is developed by DHS, we also carried out the risk assessment. Comparing the results between RVS with IRVS, we performed terror risk evaluation of tall buildings. Through risk assessment of several tall buildings, we analyzed key factors of each scenarios and suggested the mean value of each items, so we would like to help the counter-terrorism in the design phase.