• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.170-178
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• 2020

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) continues to be one of the main causative agents of tuberculosis (TB); moreover, the incidence of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections has been rising gradually in both immunocompromised and immunocompetent patients. Precise and rapid detection and identification of MTB and NTM in respiratory specimens are thus important for MTB infection control. Molecular diagnostic methods based on the nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) are known to be rapid, sensitive, and specific compared to the conventional acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear and mycobacterial culture methods. In the present study, the clinical performances of three commercial molecular diagnostic assays, namely TB/NTM PCR (Biocore), MolecuTech Real MTB-ID^® (YD Diagnostics), and REBA Myco-ID^® (YD Diagnostics), were evaluated with a total of 92 respiratory specimens (22 AFB smear positives and 67 AFB smear negatives). The sensitivity and specificity of TB/NTM PCR were 100% and 75.81%, respectively. The corresponding values of MolecuTech Real MTB-ID^® and REBA Myco-ID^® were 56.52% and 90.32%, and 56.52% and 82.26%, respectively. TB/NTM PCR showed the highest sensitivity; however, the concordant rate was 10% compared with sequence analysis. Although MolecuTech Real MTB-ID^® showed lower sensitivity, its specificity was the highest among the three methods. REBA Myco-ID^® allowed accurate classification of NTM species; therefore, it was the most specific diagnostic method. Of the three PCR-based methods, MolecuTech Real MTB-ID^® showed the best performance. This method is expected to enable rapid and accurate identification of MTB and NTM.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.319-328
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• 2011

It has been very important to have an exact evaluation for risk factors in order to prevent MSDs(Musculoskeletal Disorders). However, most MSDs evaluation checklists have always been some problems of possibilities associated with subjective evaluation. Therefore, this study tried to conduct a sort of sensitivity analysis on three major evaluation checklists(OWAS, RULA, REBA). Specifically, major subjects in the study consisted of three parts as follows; comparison of the results between experienced and inexperienced subjects, analysis for the consistency of the results in terms of different evaluation times. The results of the study were summarized as follows; 1) There was statistically significant difference of the results by RULA and by REBA between experienced and inexperienced subjects. This might due to the fact that experienced subjects have had better ability to detect the bad working posture during evaluation. However, the results by OWAS did not give any significantly different results between experienced and inexperienced subjects., 2) All three checklists showed significantly different results in terms of different evaluation times. Further study on this subject would eventually provide a sophisticated evaluating guidelines for MSDs regarding determination of subject-specific evaluation, identification of repetitive number of evaluations for stable results for each checklist, determination of job-specific evaluation methods, and so on.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.2
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• pp.210-216
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• 2021

Musculoskeletal disorders affect workers' safety in most industries, and forest operations are classified as a musculoskeletal burden according to the Occupational Safety and Health Act in South Korea. In particular, felling and delimbing operations are mainly conducted by manpower, and then, it is necessary to evaluate ergonomic risk assessment for safety of felling and delimbing workers. Three ergonomic risk assessment methods, such as Ovako Working posture Analysis System (OWAS), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), are available for assessing exposure to risk factors associated with timber harvesting operations. Here, three ergonomic risk assessment methods were applied to examine ergonomic risk assessments in chainsaw felling and delimbing operations. Additionally, exposure to risk factors in each method was analyzed to propose an optimal working posture in felling and delimbing operations. The risk levels of these operations were evaluated to be highest in the RULA method, followed by the OWAS and REBA methods, and most of the exposed working postures were examined with a low-risk level of two and three without requiring any immediate working posture changes. However, two significant working postures, including the bending posture of the waist and leg in felling operation and standing posture on the fallen trees in delimbing operation, were assessed as the high-risk level and needed immediate working posture changes. Low-risk work levels were examined in the squatting posture for felling operation and the straightened posture of the waist and leg for delimbing operation. Moreover, the slope in felling operation and the tree height in delimbing operation significantly affected risk level assessment of working posture. Therefore, our study supports that felling and delimbing workers must operate with low-risk working postures for safety.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1992.05a
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• pp.18-18
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• 1992

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.5-11
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• 2012

In this review article, we focus on various co-evaporation technologies developed for the fabrication of high performance $REBa_2Cu_3O_{7-{\delta}}$ (RE: Y and Rare earth elements, REBCO) superconducting films. Compared with other manufacturing technologies for REBCO films such as sputtering, pulsed laser deposition (PLD), metal-organic deposition (MOD), and metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), the co-evaporation method has a strong advantage of higher deposition rate because metal sources can be used as precursor materials. After the first attempt to produce REBCO films by the co-evaporation method in 1987, various co-evaporation technologies for high performance REBCO films have been developed during last several decades. The key points of each co-evaporation technology are reviewed in this article, which enables us to have a good insight into a new high throughput process, called as a Reactive Co-Evaporation by Deposition and Reaction (RCE-DR).

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.329-341
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• 2008

The psychosocial stress and musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) have been one of major health problems for hospital workers. This study tried to understand the relationship between symptoms associated with MSDs and risk factors such as working posture, job stress, psychosocial stress and fatigue. A total number of 655 hospital workers participated in this study. Specifically, REBA was applied for evaluating working posture and a checklist prepared by KOSHA(Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency) was used for symptom survey. A questionnaire from KOSHA was also used for collecting data associated with job stress, psychosocial stress and fatigue. All these data were formulated and modeled by path analysis which was one of major statistical tools in this study. Specifically, path analysis for the data we collected came up with several major findings. The risk scores from working posture based on REBA had indirect effects via fatigue factor(MFS) as well as direct effects on symptoms. The factors associated with job stress(KOSS) and psychosocial stress(PWI-SF) had significant effects on symptoms. Specifically, indirect effect of job stress factors via fatigue factors(MFS) had bigger than that of direct effect of job stress on symptom.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.107-111
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• 2023

This study aims to empirically investigate effects of motion repetition and external load according to joint motion on discomfort through an experiment. Eighteen college students (female: 9; male: 9) participated in an experiment measuring perceived discomfort using the Borg CR10. Joint(wrist, elbow, shoulder and trunk) motion, its repetition and external load were adopted as independent variables. The results showed that all three independent variables were statistically significant on discomfort. Participants' sex also significantly affected discomfort obtained in the experiment. While the interactions of joint motion and repetition, and joint motion and external load were not significant at α = 0.05, that of motion repetition and external load was significant. Based on the experimental results, four regression equations by the joints involved were presented, which could be used as a tool for evaluating postural loads by the joints. It may be postulated that based on the results of this study, scoring systems of RULA and REBA, and those of OWAS and REBA underestimates effects of motion repetition and external load, respectively. It is expected that the results of this study will be used as a basic data for developing an observational method properly reflecting the effects of motion repetition and external load.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Therapy
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.73-84
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• 2018

Objective : The purpose of this study was to promote R&D of toilet design for the disabled by evaluating the Front-entry sitting toilet applied it to actual wheelchair users to examine the possibility of their application as a toilet that is low physical demanding and high satisfaction. Methods : Forty wheelchair users were asked to demonstrate using Front-entry sitting toilet after collecting the general characteristics and their current wheelchair usage information. Musculoskeletal disease risk assessment and user satisfaction were evaluated throughout Rapid Entire Body Assessment(REBA), Quebec Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology 2.0(QUEST) and subjective opinion questionnaire. Results : Statistical result showed that REBA scores($3.18{\pm}.38$) of Front-Entry Sitting Toilet were significantly lower(z=-5.930, p<.05) than the conventional toilet($6.53{\pm}1.15$). Overall, user satisfaction ratings were high with detailed scores were high in order of durability($4.48{\pm}.62$), safety($4.38{\pm}.63$), necessity($4.33{\pm}.73$) and universal ($4.6{\pm}.61$). Subjective opinion survey showed most were 'it was convenient to not have to rotate(30.8%).' Conclusion : This study found that Front-entry sitting toilet was highly likely to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders and users' satisfactions were high. Through this study, we hope to expand the scope of occupational therapists and contribute to the physical, mental and social health in the daily activities of the people by applying various approaches.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.69-76
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• 2015

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women worldwide and there is a significant association between human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer. Certain HPV groups, labeled high-risk (HR) HPV groups, are strongly associated with malignancies of the human cervix. HPV prevalence and genotype distribution were analyzed using the REBA $HPV-ID^{(R)}$ (YD Diagnostics, Yongin, Korea) assay based on the reverse blot hybridization assay (REBA) with a total of 324 liquid-based cytology samples from women in Western Shandong Province, East China and results were compared with cytological diagnosis. Most of the HPV genotypes that were detected in high-grade cervical lesions were HR-HPV genotypes such as HPV 16, 18, 33, 53, and 58. The prevalence of these HR-HPV genotypes increased in high-grade cervical lesions. However, from low- to high-grade cervical lesions, the ability to detect LR-HPV genotypes decreased. Additionally, in general, the single HPV genotype infection rate increases in proportion to the severity of the lesion. The study findings suggest that a currently available preventive vaccine against HPV 16 and 18 may have limited effectiveness for prevention of all HPV infection in this province. Finally, based on these findings, these data could guide national or regional vaccination programs in the Western Shandong Province of East China to substantially reduce the burden of cervical lesions.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1021-1039
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• 2012

Based on the ergonomic evaluation of workers in the domestic traditional Korean sweet manufacturer, one of the small scale agricultural product manufacturers, the purpose of this study is on estimating the specific works and muscles that have possibility of musculoskeletal disorder through an EMG experiment for quantitative evaluation. The method followed in an order: works that have musculoskeletal disorder risk were extracted through ergonomic assessment tools, RULA and REBA, and then EMG experiment on the postures was carried out with six healthy adult male patients. As an ergonomic evaluation result, work posture during the drying process had the greatest musculoskeletal disorder risk, and EMG activity in the cleansing work posture scored the highest among the drying, cleansing, and coating work postures. In particular in the drying work, relatively high EMG activities were shown in the two muscles in the lower body: biceps femoris muscle, and gastrocnemius, than any other muscles. Therefore, during the traditional Korean sweet workplace design in future, the workplace requires a posture that deeply bow wrist for a long time should be avoided.