• Archives of design research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.73-80
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• 1999

Many domestic users complain about severe pain to the waist, neck, and shoulder as well as work performance because the domestic chair design was developed with western anthropometry dimension and design criteria. Ergonomic design standards are needed for office chair design to reduce stress and poor physical posture for various user body types. In this study, we have suggested design dimensions recommended from previous studies and Korean anthropometry data. We also have reviewed users' preference dimension through measured subjects and analyzed differences between users' preference dimension and the previous design criteria to verify physical appropriateness. We evaluated general office chairs and adjustable chairs which can adjust to fit each person. we also analyzed how each design dimension was reached and affected the human body by evaluation of physical discomfort and comfort. We have found seat height is very important in a workstation. If the seat height is high, it effects the thigh. If width, height, and angle of the backrest are wrong, fatigue to the shoulder, neck, and waist, etc.. As a result of this experiment, we suggested that the height of a seat for Koreans be 425mm for the fixed type and 365-484mm for the adjustable type. Also other design recommendations were suggested in the thesis. In conclusion, our research will be very important in the database because it provides adjustable ranges to fit user's body types in the various design fields.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.445-453
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• 2012

The aim of this paper was to prove that if the risk level in combined tasks was improved through evaluation of postural load of liquid weight measurement process, the workload level and ratio of exposure time would be changed, and the time of process would be seen concurrently. Background: According to results of epidemiological studies conducted by Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency, 122 musculoskeletal disorders occurred during 1992 to 2008, in which manufacturing industry covers 96(78.7%) of total. However, this is an insufficient level and only occupies 39% based on the South Korea's manufacturing standard industrial classification(246 industries). Method: Firstly, the number of batches weighed on one day(460min) was investigated based on the work performed and Weight measured weekly. VCR recording was taken based on the level of liquid ingredients prescribed for 1batch using the Camcorder. After dividing a 356 sec video into 1 sec using the screen capture function in Gom player, the job classification was performed by analyzing the change of working postures, which revealed 148 working postures. Time measurement was decided by time of the postures was being maintained. Then, the REBA analysis was performed for the working postures. The ratio of Exposure time was calculated based on the measurement time and REBA Score. In addition, the recommendations were designed and implementation was carried out for the working postures with REBA Score higher than 3. Finally, after the intervention, REBA measurement, time measurement, and ratio of exposure time were calculated for the comparison of works before and after improvement. Results: The number of work elements was decreased by 30.4% from 148 to 103 after improvement. The results of time measurement showed that the time was reduced by 46.3% from 356 sec to 191 sec. And the ratio of exposure time was also improved by 52.1% from 0% to 52.1% after improvement. Conclusion: The reduction of time was found to improve the productivity of management. Furthermore, because the reduction of ratio of exposure time and the improvement of workload level are the improvement of discomfort, it would contribute to the improvement of the worker's psychological working posture. Application: These results would contribute to musculoskeletal disease prevention and management performance. Further studies for other industries would be needed based on this case study.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.33-41
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• 2020

Purpose : Conventional Balance Measurement can only measure the center of gravity and the shaking movement of the body. As a result, it has the disadvantages of not responding to visual changes and blocking functions of variables. This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of new equipment that measures the balance of the body using changes in body segment and pressure using the acceleration sensor to compensate for the disadvantages of the existing equipment. Methods : To this end, balance ability was measured in 43 healthy male/female adults without orthopedic injuries and nervous system damage in the last 6 months. in a situation where the visual information was restricted by Virtual Reality (VR) gear, all subjects measured and evaluated the balance ability utilizing the new equipment. Balance measurement (Prime Medilab, Korea) and Wii fit (Nintendo, Japan) were used to measure the balance ability of the subjects, and the balance ability test was performed in 4 postures using each device for data acquisition. The test duration for each posture was 30 seconds. For data acquisition, the average value of three experiments measured using each equipment was analyzed, and the statistical test was performed using the independent sample and the corresponding sample t-test, and the significance level was set to α=.05. Results : As a result of measuring the balance ability using individual equipment, blocking visual information using VR gear, the average speed, maximum speed, and moving area of the COP increased equally. It was found that the obtained absolute size of the result in Wii was somewhat larger than that of BM. Conclusion : It is considered that in the future research, it is necessary to measure changes in the body's center of gravity through image analysis, etc., to make clear comparison and evaluation of the usability.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2013

Objective : The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of sensory integrative intervention on postural control and occupational performance (play) of the preschool child with postural disorder. Methods : Subject of this study was a 5 years and 8 month old boy. The subject underwent a sensory integration (SI) treatment which was part of the SI clinic course administered by the Korean Sensory Integration Society, in 2012. The treatment goal and treatment plan had established based on the evaluation results. Treatment was done with 11 sessions, the treatment activities and the adaptive responses of the subject were measured as outcome of the SI treatment. The goal of sessions were measured as Goal Attainment Scale, and re-evaluation was done on December in 2012. Results : During SI treatment, the subject was improved the stability of proximal body parts so that maintained Supine-Flexion Posture more than 20 seconds. He also showed increased attention span continuously about 1 activity on physical play. Conclusion : According to the results of this study, it was verified that sensory integrative intervention has positive effective on postural control and occupational performance (play) of the preschooler with postural disorder.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.319-325
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• 2022

The Study In order to obtain a sharpness Image from Skull PA axial projection (Haas) in a head axial X-ray Examination, this study changed the posture angle using Skull Phantom and evaluated the image subjectively to 5 radiologists who worked in the Department of Imaging at University Hospital. In the prone position, the head was lowered 4 cm from the back of the head, entered 25° toward the head, and the image evaluation score was high with 20 points, such as the back bone, dorsum sellae projected in the large hole, and posterior clinoid process. In addition, the score significance was verified, and the Cronbach Alpha value was evaluated to have good reliability of 0.789. As a result of calculating the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by setting the region of interest (ROI) of the image, it was the highest at 5.957 for 25° incident at the back of the head and 6.430 for 30° incident at the back of the head. As a result of the study, in order to obtain a sharp image of the back of the head bone, dorsum sellae, and posterior clinoid process when shooting in the axial direction after the head, it is filmed by tilting 25° toward the head from 4 cm below the back of the head. In order to obtain a sharp image of rock pyramid symmetry, petrous ridge, sagittal suture, and lambdoid suture, it is thought that it will be helpful for clinical use if you shoot it 8cm down from the back of the head and tilt it 30° toward the head.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.48-59
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• 1999

Objectives. This study was conducted to evaluate the association between upper extremity musculoskeletal symptoms and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment(RULA) in vehicle assembly line workers. The goal of this study is to show the feasibility of RULA as a checklist for work related musculoskeletal symptoms (WMSDs) in Korean workers. Methods. The total number of 199 people from the department of assembly and 115 people from the department of Quality Control(QC) in automotive plant were subjects for this cross sectional study. A standard symptom questionnaire survey has been used for the individual characteristics, work history, musculosketal symptoms and non-occupational covariates. The data were obtained by applying one-on-one interview for the all subjects. RULA has been applied for ergonomic work posture analysis and the primary ergonomic risk sure was computed by RULA method. Association between upper extremity musculoskeletal symptoms and RULA were assessed by multiple logistic regression analysis. Results. A total of 314 workers was examined. The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms by NIOSH case definition was 62.4%. The distribution of musculoskeletal symptoms by the part of the body turned out to be following; back:41.4%, neck: 32.8%, shoulder: 26.4%, arm: 10.5% and hand:29.3%. The relationship of the individual RULA scores were statistically significant for the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms. As the result of the multiple logistic regressioin analysis, grand final score (OR=2.250 95% CI: 1.402-3.612) was associated with musculoskeletal symptoms in any part of the body.; upper arm score(OR=1.786 95% CI: 1.036-3.079) and posture score A(OR=1.634 95% CI: 1.016-2.626) in neck; muscel use score(OR=3.076 95% CI:1.782-5.310) and posture score A(OR=1.798 95% CI: 1.072-3.017) in shoulder; upper arm score(OR=1.715 95% CI: 1.083-2.715) and muscel use score(OR=2.057 95% CI:1.303-3.248) in neck & shoulder; muscle use score(OR=10.662 95% CI: 3.180-35.742) in arm; writst/wist score(OR=2.068 95% CI: 1.130-3.786) and muscle use score(OR=2.215 95% CI: 1.284-3.819) in hand & wrist.; muscle use score of trunk (OR=2.601 95% CI: 1.147-5.901) in back. Conclusions. Musculoskeletal symptoms of the extremities were strongly associated with individual RULA body score. These results show that RULA can be used as a useful assessment tool for the evaluation of musculoskeletal loading which is known to contribute to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. RULA also can be used as a screening tool or incorporated into a wider ergonomic assessment of epidemiological, physical, mental, environmental and organizational factors. As shown in this study, complement of the analysis system for the other risk factors and characterizing between the upper limb and back part will be needed for future work.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.107-114
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• 2002

Objective : This study was designed to find the most effective and safest way to overcome Lumbago due to blood stasis and sprain involved in a few Meridian Tendino-musculatures by evaluating the effect of two kinds of Dong-gi(Dong-qi) Acupuncture(DGA) and by reporting their side effects. Material : 97 patients of out and admission patients were selected, who were diagnosed with lumbar sprain caused by repetitive bending, heavy weight lifting, unsuitable posture, concussion and falling down and whose Lumbago due to blood stasis and sprain in the concept of oriental medicine. Methods : 97 patients were divided into three groups. One is exclusive DGA group to which DGA and the method retaining needles on the acupoints for about 20 minutes were applied, the other is DGA combined active exercise group in which patients stretched their Meridian Tendino-muscuIatures with their hips moving up and downward repeatedly during DGA, the third is DGA combined passive exercise group in which patients were made to flex or extend their bodies on the auto flexion-distraction table in a prone position, from 10 to 20 degree, during DGA. In each group, bed rest, physical therapy and herbal medicine were used according to symptoms, in addition to DGA. In DGA method, "Su(Shu)" points of the meridian related to the involved Meridian Tendino-musculature were mainly chosen, that is, Sokkol(Shugu, B65), Hugye(Houxi, SI3), ChungJo(Zhongzhu, TE3) were used, for most LBP belonged to Bladder and Gallbladder Meridian Tendino-musculature disorders. Pyong-Bo-Pyong-Sa(Ping-Bu-Ping-Xie) such as Dong-Gi and Yeom-Jeon(Nian-Zhuan) was applied as Bo-Sa method. For evaluation of effectiveness, new score system was devised by severity of pain and range of movement. the score was given twice at patients' first and last visit and the difference between first and last score was regarded as a evaluation scale, the effectiveness was classified into four grade by evaluation scale.(scale : 12-15; excellent, 8-11; good, 4-7; fair, 0-3; bad) Results : 1. Exclusive DGA, DGA combined active exercise and DGA combined passive exercise group showed 97, 87 and 89% in effectiveness. 2. Exclusive DGA, DGA combined active exercise and DGA combined passive exercise group showed no aggravation of pain, range of movement. 3. In blood test of 34 patients, only one patient showed abnormal rise of sGOT, sGPT and $\gamma$-GTP at his first visit and the others didn't show any detrimental change. DGA had no bad influence upon BUN and creatinine of patients. Conclusion : For complex theraphy combining DGA, exercise, physical therapy and Herbal medicine proved to be highly effective on treating lumbago due to blood stasis and sprain, this is expected to be available for clinical use.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.123-131
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• 2008

In Oriental medicine, the status of a tongue is the important indicator to diagnose the condition of one's health like the physiological and the clinicopathological changes of internal organs in a body. A tongue diagnosis is not only convenient but also non-invasive, and therefore widely used in Oriental medicine. However, the tongue diagnosis is affected by examination circumstances like a light source, patient's posture, and doctor's condition a lot. To develop an automatic tongue diagnosis system for an objective and standardized diagnosis, segmenting a tongue region from a facial image captured and classifying tongue coating are inevitable but difficult since the colors of a tongue, lips, and skin in a mouth are similar. The proposed method includes preprocessing, over-segmenting, detecting the edge with a local minimum over a shading area from the structure of a tongue, correcting local minima or detecting the edge with the greatest color difference, selecting one edge to correspond to a tongue shape, and smoothing edges, where preprocessing consists of down-sampling to reduce computation time, histogram equalization, and edge enhancement, which produces the region of a segmented tongue. Finally, the systematic procedure separated only a tongue region from a face image with a tongue, which was obtained from a digital tongue diagnosis system. Oriental medical doctors' evaluation for the results illustrated that the segmented region excluding a non-tongue region provides important information for the accurate diagnosis. The proposed method can be used for an objective and standardized diagnosis and for an u-Healthcare system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.20 no.2 s.70
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• pp.169-174
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• 2005

Traditionally, keyboards have been one of the most frequently used input devices for information processing using computers. As most computers adopt the Microsoft Windows for their operating system however, the usage of mouse has recently increased to a great extent. Moreover, the mouse has been used as the leading input device in such areas as industrial design and computer aided design. Excessive uses of mouse may cause a severe pain and fatigue on neck and upper limb due to the intensive and repetitive use of corresponding muscles, which renders a decline in efficiency and leads to musculoskeletal disorders. The main purpose of this study is to find the best working conditions to prevent musculoskeletal disorders when using mouse in a neutral posture. Utilizing electromyogram amplitude and Borg's scale, the role change and strength imposed on the muscles were measured and analyzed with and without the forearm support concerned. Also investigated were the effects of changes in elbow forearm supporter.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.3999-4008
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• 2012

This study investigated the symptoms of work-related musculoskeletal disorder(WMSDs) for physical therapists who have different work duties. We analyzed the symptoms in the musculoskeletal system and the degree of work-harmfulness by the survey of the symptom in the musculoskeletal system and rapid upper limb assessment(RULA) for pain control group(n=56), adult exercise group(n=53), and pediatric exercise group(n=22). As a result, 69.6% of the pain control group, 84.9% of the adult exercise group, 81.8% of the pediatric exercise group show the observable symptom. The adult exercise group has the biggest work load per hour in the final wrist & arm score of the ergonomic risk assessment using RULA. The action level of the pain control group is $3.0{\pm}0.9$; the Action Level of adult exercise group is $3.3{\pm}0.6$; the Action Level of the pediatric exercise group is $3.2{\pm}0.8$, and so it is shown that the adult exercise group has a problem of working posture. It is considered that devices and education system for preventing from WMSDs should come into wide use.