• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.460-471
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• 2012

Objectives: Due to global warming resulting from climate change, there has been increasing interest in the relationship between temperature and mortality. These temperature-related deaths depend on diverse conditions related to a given place and person, as well as on time. This study examined changes in the impact of high temperatures on death in summer, using the effect and burden of elevated temperatures on deaths in Seoul and Daegu. Methods: A Poisson regression model was used to estimate short-term temperature effects on mortality. Temperature-related risks were divided into three time periods of equal length (1996-2000, 2001-2005, and 2006-2010). In addition, in order to compare the impact of high temperatures on deaths, this study calculated the proportion of attributable deaths to population, which simultaneously considers the threshold and the slope above the threshold. Results: The effect and burden of high temperatures on deaths is high in Daegu. However, the impact (i.e. the effect and burden) of elevated summer temperatures on deaths has declined over the past 15 years. Sensitivity analyses using alternative thresholds show the robustness of these findings. Conclusion: This study suggests that the attributable burden of high temperatures on deaths to be more plausible than relative risk or threshold for comparing the health impact of high temperatures across populations. Moreover, these results contain important implications for the development or the adjustment of present and future strategies and policies for controlling the temperature-related health burden on populations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.337-340
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• 2009

Wireless tele-home-care application gives new possibilities for ECG (electrocardiogram) monitoring system with wearable biomedical sensors. Thus, continuously development of high convenient ECG monitoring system for high-risk cardiac patients is essential. This paper describes to monitor a person's ECG using wearable approach. A wearable belt-type ECG electrode with integrated electronics has been developed and has proven long-term robustness and monitoring of all electrical components. The measured ECG signal is transmitted via an ultra low power consumption wireless sensor node. ECG signals carry a lot clinical information for a cardiologist especially the R-peak detection in ECG. R-peak detection generally uses the threshold value which is fixed thus it bring errors due to motion artifacts and signal size changes. Variable threshold method is used to detect the R-peak which is more accurate and efficient. In order to evaluate the performance analysis, R-peak detection using MIT-BIH databases and Long Term Real-Time ECG is performed in this research. This concept able to allow patient to follow up critical patients from their home and early detecting rarely occurrences of cardiac arrhythmia.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.113-119
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• 2023

PURPOSE: This study aimed to determine the effects of using a smartphone in the sitting position on the pelvic posture and the low back pressure pain threshold (PPT). METHODS: Thirty participants (15 women and 15 men) were recruited for this study. The participants were asked to sit in a normal sitting position without using a smartphone, followed by sitting while watching a video using a smartphone. The pelvic posture was measured using the back range of motion II (BROM II) device and a palpation meter. We measured PPT using the digital pressure algometer. RESULTS: Pelvic posterior tilting was significantly greater when sitting while using a smartphone relative to sitting without using a smartphone (p < .05). There was no significant difference in the height of the iliac crest when sitting while using a smartphone compared to sitting without using a smartphone (p > .05). The PPTs of L1, L3, and L5 were significantly lower when sitting while using a smartphone relative to sitting without using a smartphone (p < .05). CONCLUSION: Based on these results, it can be concluded that frequent smartphone use while sitting may potentially increase the risk of developing low back problems.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.4E
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• pp.178-182
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• 2002

In this paper, we propose an adaptive wavelet method for car interior noise cancellation. For this purpose, we use a node dependent threshold which minimizes the Bayesian risk. We propose a noise estimation method based on spectral entropy using histogram of intensity and a candidate best basis instead of Donoho's best bases. And we modify the hard threshold function. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is more efficient, especially to heavy noisy signal than conventional one.

• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.397-407
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• 2006

A new stochastic process is introduced for describing a mechanism of viruses. The process generalizes the $Bartoszy\'{n}ski's$ process ($Bartoszy\'{n}ski$, 1975a, 1975b, 1976) by allowing the stochastic perturbation between consecutive jumps to take into account the persistent infection (the infection without breaking infected cells). It is shown that the new process can be obtained by a weak limit of a sequence of Markov branching processes. Along with the construction of the new process, we study how the stochastic perturbation influences the risk of a symptom in an infected host. For this purpose, the quantal response model and the threshold model are investigated and compared through their induced survival functions.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.697-704
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• 2007

It is common in financial time series that volatility(conditional variance) as a measure of risk exhibits asymmetry in such a manner that positive and negative values of return rates of the series tend to provide different contributions to the volatility. We are concerned with asymmetric conditional variances for Korean financial time series especially during the time span of 2000-2001. Notice that these periods suffer from 9-11 disaster in US and collapses of stock prices of dot-companies in Korea. Threshold-ARCH models are considered and a Wald test of asymmetry is suggested. News impact curves are illustrated for graphical representations of leverage effects inherent in various Korean financial time series.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.251-255
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• 2016

Background: Building demolition can lead to emission of dust into the environment. Exposure to silica dust may be considered as an important hazard in these sites. The objectives of this research were to determine the amount of workers' exposure to crystalline silica dust and assess the relative risk of silicosis and the excess lifetime risk of mortality from lung cancer in demolition workers. Methods: Four sites in the Tehran megacity region were selected. Silica dust was collected using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health method 7601 and determined spectrophotometrically. The Mannetje et al and Rice et al models were chosen to examine the rate of silicosis-related mortality and the excess lifetime risk of mortality from lung cancer, respectively. Results: The amount of demolition workers' exposure was in the range of $0.085-0.185mg/m^3$. The range of relative risk of silicosis related mortality was increased from 1 in the workers with the lowest exposure level to 22.64/1,000 in the employees with high exposure level. The range of the excess lifetime risk of mortality from lung cancer was in the range of 32-60/1,000 exposed workers. Conclusion: Geometric and arithmetic mean of exposure was higher than threshold limit value for silica dust in all demolition sites. The risk of silicosis mortality for many demolition workers was higher than 1/1,000 (unacceptable level of risk). Estimating the lifetime lung cancer mortality showed a higher risk of mortality from lung cancer in building demolition workers.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2013

This paper presents a lateral collision risk index between an ego vehicle and a rear-side vehicle. The lateral collision risk is designed to represent a lateral collision risk and provide the appropriate threshold value of activation of the lateral collision management system such as the Blind Spot Detection(BSD). The lateral collision risk index is designed using the Time to Line Crossing(TLC) and the longitudinal collision index at the predicted TLC. TLC and the longitudinal collision index are calculated with the signals from the exterior sensor such as the radar equipped on the rear-side of a vehicle and a vision sensor which detects the distance and time to the lane departure. For the robust situation assessment, the perception of driving environment determining whether the road is straighten or curved should be determined. The relative motion estimation method has been proposed with the road information via the integrated estimator using the environment sensors and vehicle sensor. A lateral collision risk index was composed with the estimated relative motion considering the relative yaw angle. The performance of the proposed lateral collision risk index is investigated via computer simulations conducted using the vehicle dynamics software CARSIM and Matlab/Simulink.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.39-46
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• 2017

PURPOSE: The effectiveness of the stretching to increase the range of motion of the joint, reduce the risk of injury, enhance athletic performance or decrease post exercise muscle soreness. This study was to compare the effect of the stretching method applied on the shortened hamstring muscle for flexibility, strength, pressure pain threshold value and muscle tone. METHODS: This study is a two-group pretest- posttest design. Fifty-four healthy young adults were randomly assigned to a vibration-assisted stretching group (VASG, n=27) or a static stretching group (SSG, n=27). Participants performed each stretch in 4 sets of 30 seconds each. A 30-second break time was provided between the sets. The range of motion, strength, pressure pain threshold values and muscle tone of the hamstring muscle were measured to compare the effects of the stretching methods. RESULTS: Both the VASG and the SSG participants showed significant improvement in the range of motion and strength (p<.05); however, the increase in the VASG was significantly higher than that in the SSG (p<.05). The pressure pain threshold values and muscle tone were significantly decreased only in the VASG (p<.05). CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that vibration-supported stretching is an effective intervention for people with hamstring shortening, with high pain level and muscle tone decrease.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.780-787
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• 2017

The consumption of high-salt foods is an independent risk factor for increased hypertension. Thus, evaluating the relationship of taste sensitivity and pleasantness of high-salt foods such as Korean jang products, would help contribute to an understanding of salty food eating behaviors of the Korean rural elderly. This study aimed to verify the association between taste sensitivity and salinity of Korean jang products, and the preferences of food groups and nutrient intake in the rural elderly. We studied 269 elderly persons (males 83, females 186) aged above 65 years, residing in the rural area, Sunchang gun Jeonbuk. For each subject, a recognition threshold of 4 basic tastes and pleasant concentrations of NaCl were estimated using the sip- and-spit method. Taste preferences, frequency of intake of food groups, nutrient intakes, and salinity and sweetness of Korean jang products (Doenjang, Ganjang, Gochujang) were assessed. No association was found between salt taste recognition threshold and optimally preferred concentration of salt and salinity of Korean jang products. However, the sweet taste recognition threshold was positively related to the sweetness of Korean jang products. Also, the salinity of Doenjang positively correlated with the frequencies of food groups and nutrient intakes. That is to say that the sweet taste sensitivity was related to the sweetness of Korean jang products, but was not sensitive to the salty taste. The salinity of Doenjang correlated with the consumption of food and nutrient intakes. Taken together, these findings suggest the need for appropriate intervention and education to reduce the salinity of Doenjang, which is an important modifiable factor contributing to reducing sodium intake in the rural elderly.