• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.350-356
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• 2022

Background: Although sick leave is a complex phenomenon, it is believed that there is potential for prevention at the workplace. However, little is known about this potential and what specific measures should be implemented. The purpose of the study was to identify perceived reasons to take work-related sick leave and to suggest preventive measures. The study was completed before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, and the risk factors identified may have been amplified during the pandemic. Methods: An in-depth cross-sectional survey was conducted across a randomly selected sample of hospital nurses in Norway. The national sample comprised 1,297 nurses who participated in a survey about their sick leave during the previous 6 months. An open-ended question about perceived reasons for work-related sick leave was included to gather qualitative information. Results: Among hospital nurses, 27% of the last occurring sick leave incidents were perceived to be work-related. The most common reasons were high physical workload, high work pace, sleep problems, catching a viral or bacterial infection from patients or colleagues, and low staffing. Conclusions: Over a quarter of the last occurring sick leave incidents among Norwegian hospital nurses are potentially preventable. To retain and optimize scarce hospital nursing resources, strategies to reduce work-related sick leave may provide human and financial benefits. Preventive measures may include careful monitoring of nurses' workload and pace, optimizing work schedules to reduce the risk of sleep problems, and increasing staffing to prevent stress and work overload.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제22권6호
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• pp.832-839
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• 1998

The potential work is defined as the maximum available work extractable from a composite system. It is important concept to understand the behavior of a composite system because it is a property of the composite system and shows the possible room for the system to change its state by itself. To explain this concept quantitatively, the behavior of a composite system composed of two simple ideal gas systems is analyzed. The potential work of the composite system is estimated, the various reversible processes from a given state to the equilibrium state and the processes on which potential works are constant are shown on the T-P and S-V planes. Such an effort will be necessary to understand and characteristics of composite systems as well as helpful for a deeper comprehension of the energy conversion principles.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제30권6호
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• pp.1309-1312
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• 2009

Surface potential and growth processes of hexadecanethiol (HDT) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on Au(111) surfaces were examined by Kelvin probe method and scanning tunneling microscopy. It was found that surface potential strongly depends on surface structure of HDT SAMs. The surface potential shift for the striped phase of HDT SAMs chemisorbed on Au(111) surface was +0.45 eV, which was nearly the same as that of the flat-lying hexadecane layer physisorbed on Au(111) surface. This result indicates that the interfacial dipole layer induced by adsorption of alkyl chains is a main contributor to the surface potential change. In the densely-packed HDT monolayer, further change of the surface potential was observed, suggesting that the dipole moment of the alkanethiol molecules is an origin of the surface potential change. These results indicate that the work function of a metal electrode can be modified by controlling the molecular orientation of an adsorbed molecule.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2008년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.9
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• pp.132-132
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• 2008

Silicon carbide (SiC) is an attractive material for high-power, high-temperature, and high-frequency applications. So far, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been extensively used to study the surface charges, dielectric constants and electrical potential distribution as well as topography in silicon-based device structures, whereas it has rarely been applied to SiC-based structures. In this work, the surface potential and topography distributions SiC with different doping levels were measured at a nanometer-scale resolution using a scanning kelvin probe force microscopy (SKPM) with a non-contact mode AFM. The measured results were calibrated using a Pt-coated tip and a metal defined electrical contacts of Au onto SiC. It is assumed that the atomically resolved surface potential difference does not originate from the intrinsic work function of the materials but reflects the local electron density on the surface. It was found that the work function of the Au deposited on SiC surface was higher than that of original SiC surface. The dependence of the surface potential on the doping levels in SiC, as well as the variation of surface potential with respect to the schottky barrier height has been investigated. The results confirm the concept of the work function and the barrier heights of metal/SiC structures.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.107-115
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• 1998

A path planning using potential field method is very useful for the real-time navigation of mobile robots. However, the method needs high modeling cost to calculate the potential field because of complex preprocessing, and mobile robots may get stuck into local minima. In this paper, An efficient path planning algorithm for multiple mobile robots, based on the potential field method, was proposed. In the algorithm. the concepts of subgoals and obstacle priority were introduced. The subgoals can be used to escape local minima, or to design and change the paths of mobile robots in the work space. In obstacle priority, all the objects (obstacles and mobile robots) in the work space have their own priorities, and the object having lower priority should avoid the objects having higher priority than it has. In this paper, first, potential based path planning method was introduced, next an efficient collision-avoidance algorithm for multiple mobile robots, moving in the obstacle environment, was proposed by using subgoals and obstacle priority. Finally, the developed algorithm was demonstrated graphically to show the usefulness of the algorithm.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.278-283
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• 2024

Background: Limited research has delved into the effects of work characteristics on premenstrual symptoms (PMS) in women, which can influence work performance and overlook potential hazards for women in their work environments. This study aimed to investigate the impact of shift work and working in a clean room on premenstrual symptoms, menstrual status, and menstrual pain among employed females in an electronics manufacturer. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on menstruating female employees between August and December 2014, aged 18e55, who received regular employee health checks. Questionnaires were designed to collect information on demographics, personal lifestyle, menstrual status, menstrual pain scores, and self-reported premenstrual symptoms. Results: Among 7,193 participants, 18.6% reported moderate to severe menstrual pain affecting their work. Female workers who reported shift work showed an increased prevalence of moderate to severe premenstrual symptoms, including fatigue (RR = 1.20), somatic discomforts (RR = 1.04), diarrhea (RR = 1.04), and tension (RR = 1.05). Additionally, shift work was associated with an elevated risk of experiencing a moderate or significant impact of menstrual pain on work (RR = 1.03), menstrual irregularity (RR = 1.30), and high menstrual pain (RR = 1.23). Working in a clean room was associated with an increased risk of high menstrual pain (RR = 1.13). Subjects working shifts in a clean room had the highest pain scores compared to the other groups. Conclusion: This study underscores the association of work-related factors on PMS in female employees. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of premenstrual symptoms in female workers with different work characteristics, emphasizing the potential hazards of work-related factors on female employees.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• 제37권5호
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• pp.619-626
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• 2021

In [1, 2], we studied the string-like system with time-varying delay. Unlike the string system, the plate system must consider both longitudinal and transverse strains. First, we consider the physical phenomenon of an axially moving plate concerning kinetic energy, potential energy, and work dones. By the energy conservation law in physics, we have a nonlinear plate-like system with internal time delay.

• 한국세라믹학회지
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• 제40권3호
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• pp.293-300
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• 2003

알루미나 분말과 전해질의 농도가 제타전위 및 등전점에 미치는 영향에 대하여 고찰하였다. 0.1~l $\mu\textrm{m}$의 입도 범위를 지닌 알루미나 분말시료와 NH$_4$NO$_3$를 사용하여 실험을 수행하였으며, 전기영동법을 이용하여 제타전위를 측정하였다. 현탁액 내의 시료량이 증가할수록 제타전위와 등전점은 큰 값을 나타내었으며, 현탁액의 농도가 0.0l wt%일 때 제타전위 측정에 가장 적합한 것으로 나타났다. 또한 전해질 농도가 증가할 경우, 제타전위의 값은 다소 증가하는 경향을 보였으나 큰 변화는 없었고, 등전점 값은 오히려 조금 감소하였다. 제타전위 측정에 가장 적합한 전해질 농도는 10 mM인 것으로 나타났으며, 전해질의 종류에 따라서 제타전위와 등전점의 값이 조금 변하는 경향이 있으나 큰 차이를 발생시키지는 않는 것으로 확인되었다.

• 한국소성가공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국소성가공학회 2000년도 춘계학술대회논문집
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• pp.71-74
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• 2000

The equi-potential lines designed in the electric field are introduced to find the preform shape in axisymmetric hot forging. The equi-potential lines generated between two conductors of different voltages show similar trends of the minimum work paths between the undeformed shape and the deformed shape. Base on this similarity the equi-potential lines obtained by arrangement of the initial and final shapes are utilized for the design of preform and then the artificial neural network is used to find the range of initial volume and potential value of the electric field.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.339-346
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• 2005

Artificial potential field (APF) is a widely used method for local path planning of autonomous mobile robot. So far, many different types of APF have been implemented. Once the artificial potential functions are selected, how to choose appropriate parameters of the functions is also an important work. In this paper, a detailed analysis is given on how to choose proper parameters of artificial functions to eliminate free path local minima and avoid collision between robots and obstacles. Two kinds of potential functions: Gaussian type and Quadratic type of potential functions are used to solve the above local minima problem respectively. To avoid local minima occurred in realistic situations such as 1) a case that the potential of the goal is affected excessively by potential of the obstacle, 2) a case that the potential of the obstacle is affected excessively by potential of the goal, the design guidelines for selecting appropriate parameters of potential functions are proposed.