• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.375-383
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• 2023

Objectives: Coal-fired power plants feature diverse working conditions, including multi-layered employment structures and irregular work cycles due to outsourcing and non-standardized tasks. The current uniform occupational environment measurement systems have limitations in accurately assessing and evaluating these varied conditions. This study aims to propose alternative measurement and assessment strategies to supplement existing methods. Methods: Major domestic coal-fired power plants were selected as the study targets. To prepare for the study and establish strategies, work processes were identified and existing occupational environment measurement results were compared and analyzed. The study proceeded by employing three strategies: specific exposure groups (SEGs) measurement, continuous monitoring, and supplementary measurements, which were then compared and discussed. Results: Previous exposure index evaluations (5,268 cases) indicated that crystalline silica, a type of respirable particulate matter, had detection limits below the threshold (non-detectable) in 82.6% (4,349 cases) of instances. Exposures below 10% of the exposure limit were observed at a very low concentration of 96.1%. Similar exposure group measurements yielded results where detection limits were below the threshold in 38.2% of cases, and exposures below 10% of the limit were observed in 70.6%. Continuous monitoring indicated detection limits below the threshold in 12.6% of cases, and exposures below 10% of the limit were observed in 75.6%. Instances requiring active workplace management accounted for more than 30% of cases, with SEGs at 11.8% (four cases), showing a higher proportion compared to 3.0% (four cases) in continuous monitoring. For coal dust, exposures below 10% of the limit were highest in legal measurements at 90.2% (113 cases), followed by 74.0% (91 cases) in continuous monitoring, and 47.0% (16 cases) in SEGs. Instances exceeding 30% were most prevalent in SEGs at 14.7% (five cases), followed by legal measurements at 5.0% (eight cases), and continuous monitoring at 2.4% (three cases). When examining exposure levels through arithmetic means, crystalline silica was found to be 104.7% higher in SEGs at 0.0088 mg/m³ compared to 0.0043 mg/m³ in continuous monitoring. Coal dust measurements were highest in SEGs at 0.1247 mg/m³, followed by 0.1224 mg/m³ in legal measurements, and 0.0935 mg/m³ in continuous monitoring. Conclusions: Strategies involving SEGs measurement and continuous monitoring can enhance measurement reliability in environments with irregular work processes and frequent fluctuations in working conditions, as observed in coal-fired power plants. These strategies reduce the likelihood of omitting or underestimating processes and enhance measurement accuracy. In particular, a significant reduction in detection limits below the threshold for crystalline silica was observed. Supplementary measurements can identify worker exposure characteristics, uncover potential risks in blind spots of management, and provide a complementary method for legal measurements.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.701-716
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• 2023

Microplastics (<5 mm diameter) in aquatic environments adsorb heavy metals, potentially exposing humans to their toxic effects via food chains. We investigated factors influencing the adsorption of heavy metals on microplastics in aquatic environments, examining their adsorption processes and mechanisms. Adsorption characteristics vary with polymer type, crystallinity, particle size, and environmental conditions (pH, temperature, weathering), and the adsorption capacity for heavy metals increases with weathering and reduction in polymer particle size. However, correlations between environment temperature, polymer crystallinity, and adsorption capacity for heavy metals could not be confirmed. The adsorption behavior of heavy metals can be explained in terms of physicochemical adsorption processes and evaluated through adsorption kinetics and isothermal studies, with multiple mechanisms usually being involved. An understanding of the adsorption of heavy metals by microplastics should aid evaluation of the potential risks of microplastics in aquatic environments.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.291-304
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• 2023

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have become an increasing concern in terms of human health risks as well as aesthetic impairment due to their toxicity. The reduction of water pollutants, especially nutrients from non-point sources in a reservoir watershed, is fundamental for HABs prevention. We investigated the pollutant removal efficiencies of a constructed wetland to evaluate its feasibility as a method for controlling non-point sources located in the Annaecheon stream within the Daecheong Reservoir watershed. The overall removal efficiencies of pollutants were as follows: BOD 14.3%, COD 17.9%, SS 50.0%, T-N 19.0%, and T-P 35.4%. These results indicate that constructed wetlands are effective in controlling pollutants from non-point sources. The seasonal variation in removal efficiency depended on the specific pollutants. The removal efficiencies of BOD, COD, and T-N were stable throughout the year, except during winter, which might have been influenced by lower microorganism activity. In contrast, T-P showed a consistent removal efficiency even during the winter season, suggesting that the wetland can reduce external phosphorus loading to the reservoir. Regarding the effects of pollutant loadings on removal efficiency, the effluent concentrations of all pollutants were significantly decreased compared to those in the influent in case of middle and high loadings. This demonstrates that constructed wetlands can handle high pollutant loads, including the initial runoff during rainfall, to prevent reservoir eutrophication. Despite the various strengths of wetland water purification, there are limitations as passive treatment. Therefore, more case studies should be conducted to suggest optimum operational conditions for constructed wetlands, taking into consideration reservoir-specific characteristics.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2024

Dangerous tasks that occur every day at industrial site manufacturing plants, which have recently been making rapid changes, were classified by type, and the effect of mobile circuit television (CCTV) on safety accidents among daily safety management methods was analyzed. The subject of the study is about 3,000 workers who manage the infrastructure facility sector to supply utilities such as gas, water, and electricity to the display manufacturing process located in Asan City, and the study was conducted based on the daily dangerous work from 2019 to 2022, and during this study period, many construction works such as new investment and expansion of construction and manufacturing processes were occurring at the site. As a result, the rate of safety accidents and exposure to risks are expanding, and most of the safety accidents occurred because the sectors that did not follow the basics and the safety measures on the site were not implemented. In this paper, it was confirmed that there is an accident reduction effect according to the relationship between the dangerous work classified according to the work importance and the mobile CCTV shooting rate. Considering the characteristics of the manufacturing plant site, it can be used to play the role of basic data for preventing safety accidents based on the expansion of the introduction of a new safety management culture in the future.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.93-105
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• 2024

Purpose: This study aims to quantitatively determine the impact on nearby risidents by selecting the amount of chemicals emitted from the workplace among the substances subject to the chemical emission plan and predicting the concentration with the atmospheric diffusion program. Method: The selection of research materials considered half-life, toxicity, and the presence or absence of available monitoring station data. The areas discharged from the materials to be studied were selected as the areas to be studied, and four areas with floating populations were selected to evaluate health risks. Result: AERMOD was executed after conducting terrain and meteorological processing to obtain predicted concentrations. The health hazard assessment results indicated that only dichloromethane exceeded the threshold for children, while tetrachloroethylene and chloroform appeared at levels that cannot be ignored for both children and adults. Conclusion: Currently, in the domestic context, health hazard assessments are conducted based on the regulations outlined in the "Environmental Health Act" where if the hazard index exceeds a certain threshold, it is considered to pose a health risk. The anticipated expansion of the list of substances subject to the chemical discharge plan to 415 types by 2030 suggests the need for efficient management within workplaces. In instances where the hazard index surpasses the threshold in health hazard assessments, it is judged that effective chemical management can be achieved by prioritizing based on considerations of background concentration and predicted concentration through atmospheric dispersion modeling.

• Journal of Applied Tourism Food and Beverage Management and Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.45-69
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• 2002

This study is designed to examine feasibility and limitation of outsourcing in cooking Western food in a hotel, to interpret importance of outsourcing(eg. outside order, outside procurement, outside supply) in a broad sense in order to reinforce the core capacity in the cooking department, and to know whether the cooking human power is efficiently used and how much the chefs recognize outsourcing of food materials. As many companies conduct restructuring to cut down its size, the reduction of human power led the Western food cooking in the hotel to lower core capacities, lower quality, and lower efficiency. In addition, the sagging morale of chefs undermined creativity. To change from the traditional kitchen to an economic kitchen needs to look into importance of outsourcing, cognitive attitude of chefs, relation with outside suppliers. Here suggests performance of positive changes in the structure The study examined feasibility and limitation of outsourcing in the hotel kitchen as well as chefs' cognitive attitude toward outsourcing of food materials to reinforce core capabilities of the hotel kitchen. 1. Companies of outsourcing are selected according to variability of price conditions, flexibility of contract conditions, popularity of the outsourcing company, and reputation of the outsourcing company. 2. The importance of outsourcing in the Western food cooking is divided into 4 factors such as standard of selecting outsourcing companies, policies of cooking manu, quality of cooking, and quantity of cooking. 3. The most feasible section in outsourcing of food materials is a process of kneading flour for bread, which shows that many Western-food chefs expect to put higher possibility of outsourcing on the kneading. In other words, when it comes to confectionery and bakery, there are many outside expert processing companies supplying high quality products. In the order of outsourcing feasibility, sauce is followed by processed vegetable, garnish of main dish, and soup. The least feasible section in outsourcing of food materials is appetize. Appetize includes a concept of a improvised dish and needs speed. Due to its color, freshness, and sensibility of taste, the appetize plays a key role in the Western food cooking. 4. When outsourcing is taken in place, the highest risk is to lower the inner cooking skills. Therefore chefs in charge of the Western food sequently recognize both internal problems including storage of cooking skills, unstability of layoffs, and loss of cooperation between departments, and external problems including inferior goods, difficulty of differentiating manu, delay of delivery, and expiration date. It shows that most of the Western food chefs consider risks of the internal problems at first. 5. A effective outsourcing needs appropriate selection of outsourcing companies, maintenance of credibility, active communication, check and management of hygiene. However regardless of their position or career, chefs in charge of the Western food have the same cognitive attitude toward selecting successful outsourcing companies after the outsourcing system is enforced. The core of cooking, or a final stage in the full process of so-called artistic cooking, should be treated with insourcing. Reduction of several cooking processes resulted in shortened cooking time, increased efficiency, faster cooking, cutting the waiting-lines, and finally more room for customers. The outsourcing system can reduce or eliminate the following processes in cooking: buying various food materials, checking, storing, preparing, and processing. Especially in the Western food cooking department of a hotel, the outsourcing system should be enforced to make an economic kitchen and to efficiently manage it. Wow it's time to change from the traditional kitchen to an economic kitchen in the hotel cooking department. For that, the cooking department should become a small but strong organization by outsourcing except its core work.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.135-149
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• 2020

Artificial intelligences are changing world. Financial market is also not an exception. Robo-Advisor is actively being developed, making up the weakness of traditional asset allocation methods and replacing the parts that are difficult for the traditional methods. It makes automated investment decisions with artificial intelligence algorithms and is used with various asset allocation models such as mean-variance model, Black-Litterman model and risk parity model. Risk parity model is a typical risk-based asset allocation model which is focused on the volatility of assets. It avoids investment risk structurally. So it has stability in the management of large size fund and it has been widely used in financial field. XGBoost model is a parallel tree-boosting method. It is an optimized gradient boosting model designed to be highly efficient and flexible. It not only makes billions of examples in limited memory environments but is also very fast to learn compared to traditional boosting methods. It is frequently used in various fields of data analysis and has a lot of advantages. So in this study, we propose a new asset allocation model that combines risk parity model and XGBoost machine learning model. This model uses XGBoost to predict the risk of assets and applies the predictive risk to the process of covariance estimation. There are estimated errors between the estimation period and the actual investment period because the optimized asset allocation model estimates the proportion of investments based on historical data. these estimated errors adversely affect the optimized portfolio performance. This study aims to improve the stability and portfolio performance of the model by predicting the volatility of the next investment period and reducing estimated errors of optimized asset allocation model. As a result, it narrows the gap between theory and practice and proposes a more advanced asset allocation model. In this study, we used the Korean stock market price data for a total of 17 years from 2003 to 2019 for the empirical test of the suggested model. The data sets are specifically composed of energy, finance, IT, industrial, material, telecommunication, utility, consumer, health care and staple sectors. We accumulated the value of prediction using moving-window method by 1,000 in-sample and 20 out-of-sample, so we produced a total of 154 rebalancing back-testing results. We analyzed portfolio performance in terms of cumulative rate of return and got a lot of sample data because of long period results. Comparing with traditional risk parity model, this experiment recorded improvements in both cumulative yield and reduction of estimated errors. The total cumulative return is 45.748%, about 5% higher than that of risk parity model and also the estimated errors are reduced in 9 out of 10 industry sectors. The reduction of estimated errors increases stability of the model and makes it easy to apply in practical investment. The results of the experiment showed improvement of portfolio performance by reducing the estimated errors of the optimized asset allocation model. Many financial models and asset allocation models are limited in practical investment because of the most fundamental question of whether the past characteristics of assets will continue into the future in the changing financial market. However, this study not only takes advantage of traditional asset allocation models, but also supplements the limitations of traditional methods and increases stability by predicting the risks of assets with the latest algorithm. There are various studies on parametric estimation methods to reduce the estimated errors in the portfolio optimization. We also suggested a new method to reduce estimated errors in optimized asset allocation model using machine learning. So this study is meaningful in that it proposes an advanced artificial intelligence asset allocation model for the fast-developing financial markets.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.139-166
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• 2010

The supply chain management (SCM) systems have emerged as strong managerial tools for manufacturing firms in enhancing competitive strength. Despite of large investments in the SCM systems, many companies are not fully realizing the promised benefits from the systems. A review of literature on adoption, implementation and success factor of IOS (inter-organization systems), EDI (electronic data interchange) systems, shows that this issue has been examined from multiple theoretic perspectives. And many researchers have attempted to identify the factors which influence the success of system implementation. However, the existing studies have two drawbacks in revealing the determinants of systems implementation success. First, previous researches raise questions as to the appropriateness of research subjects selected. Most SCM systems are operating in the form of private industrial networks, where the participants of the systems consist of two distinct groups: focus companies and vendors. The focus companies are the primary actors in developing and operating the systems, while vendors are passive participants which are connected to the system in order to supply raw materials and parts to the focus companies. Under the circumstance, there are three ways in selecting the research subjects; focus companies only, vendors only, or two parties grouped together. It is hard to find researches that use the focus companies exclusively as the subjects probably due to the insufficient sample size for statistic analysis. Most researches have been conducted using the data collected from both groups. We argue that the SCM success factors cannot be correctly indentified in this case. The focus companies and the vendors are in different positions in many areas regarding the system implementation: firm size, managerial resources, bargaining power, organizational maturity, and etc. There are no obvious reasons to believe that the success factors of the two groups are identical. Grouping the two groups also raises questions on measuring the system success. The benefits from utilizing the systems may not be commonly distributed to the two groups. One group's benefits might be realized at the expenses of the other group considering the situation where vendors participating in SCM systems are under continuous pressures from the focus companies with respect to prices, quality, and delivery time. Therefore, by combining the system outcomes of both groups we cannot measure the system benefits obtained by each group correctly. Second, the measures of system success adopted in the previous researches have shortcoming in measuring the SCM success. User satisfaction, system utilization, and user attitudes toward the systems are most commonly used success measures in the existing studies. These measures have been developed as proxy variables in the studies of decision support systems (DSS) where the contribution of the systems to the organization performance is very difficult to measure. Unlike the DSS, the SCM systems have more specific goals, such as cost saving, inventory reduction, quality improvement, rapid time, and higher customer service. We maintain that more specific measures can be developed instead of proxy variables in order to measure the system benefits correctly. The purpose of this study is to find the determinants of SCM systems success in the perspective of vendor companies. In developing the research model, we have focused on selecting the success factors appropriate for the vendors through reviewing past researches and on developing more accurate success measures. The variables can be classified into following: technological, organizational, and environmental factors on the basis of TOE (Technology-Organization-Environment) framework. The model consists of three independent variables (competition intensity, top management support, and information system maturity), one mediating variable (collaboration), one moderating variable (government support), and a dependent variable (system success). The systems success measures have been developed to reflect the operational benefits of the SCM systems; improvement in planning and analysis capabilities, faster throughput, cost reduction, task integration, and improved product and customer service. The model has been validated using the survey data collected from 122 vendors participating in the SCM systems in Korea. To test for mediation, one should estimate the hierarchical regression analysis on the collaboration. And moderating effect analysis should estimate the moderated multiple regression, examines the effect of the government support. The result shows that information system maturity and top management support are the most important determinants of SCM system success. Supply chain technologies that standardize data formats and enhance information sharing may be adopted by supply chain leader organization because of the influence of focal company in the private industrial networks in order to streamline transactions and improve inter-organization communication. Specially, the need to develop and sustain an information system maturity will provide the focus and purpose to successfully overcome information system obstacles and resistance to innovation diffusion within the supply chain network organization. The support of top management will help focus efforts toward the realization of inter-organizational benefits and lend credibility to functional managers responsible for its implementation. The active involvement, vision, and direction of high level executives provide the impetus needed to sustain the implementation of SCM. The quality of collaboration relationships also is positively related to outcome variable. Collaboration variable is found to have a mediation effect between on influencing factors and implementation success. Higher levels of inter-organizational collaboration behaviors such as shared planning and flexibility in coordinating activities were found to be strongly linked to the vendors trust in the supply chain network. Government support moderates the effect of the IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support on collaboration and implementation success of SCM. In general, the vendor companies face substantially greater risks in SCM implementation than the larger companies do because of severe constraints on financial and human resources and limited education on SCM systems. Besides resources, Vendors generally lack computer experience and do not have sufficient internal SCM expertise. For these reasons, government supports may establish requirements for firms doing business with the government or provide incentives to adopt, implementation SCM or practices. Government support provides significant improvements in implementation success of SCM when IS maturity, competitive intensity, top management support and collaboration are low. The environmental characteristic of competition intensity has no direct effect on vendor perspective of SCM system success. But, vendors facing above average competition intensity will have a greater need for changing technology. This suggests that companies trying to implement SCM systems should set up compatible supply chain networks and a high-quality collaboration relationship for implementation and performance.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.261-266
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• 2002

In an attempt to avoid the adverse effects of the cardiopulmonary bypass, off pump coronary artery bypass grafting(Off pump CABG) that has recently been rediscovered and refined. We compared the preoperative risk factors and in-hospital outcomes of patients done Off pump with those done On pump CABG. Material na Method: One hundred seventy eight patients was underwent CABG between January 2001 and July 2001 12 patients whom underwent associated valvular or left ventricular volume reduction surgery were excluded in this study Data were collected for 52 Off pump CABG and 114 On pump CABG for patient and disease risk factors, extent of coronary disease, and in-hospital outcomes. Result: Off pump CABG and On pump CABG groups did not show any differences in their patient and disease risk factors, and extent of coronary disease. Off pump CABG group had significantly lower mean operation time(234 $\pm$ 37 min vs 290 $\pm$ 48 min, p<0.001), lower mean CK-MB level(10.1 $\pm$ 13.5 IU/L vs 33.1 $\pm$ 18.2 IU/L, p<0.001) and mean ventilation time(14.8 $\pm$ 3.5 hours vs 16.2 $\pm$ 4.9 hours, p=0.048) than On pump CABG groups. On pump CABG group had significantly more distal grafts(3.4 $\pm$ 0.9 vs 2.6 $\pm$ 0.8, p<0.001) than Off pump CABG groups. There were no operative mortality in two groups. Off pump) CABG and On pump CABG groups did not show any differences in their postoperative complications and outcomes including perioperative myocardial infarction, stroke, respiratory failure, renal failure, reoperation, the amount of bleeding, the need of intraaortic balloon pump, the need of inotropics, and the stay of intensive care unit and hospital. Two patients were converted to On pump CABG. Conclusion: This study showed that patients having Off pump CABG are not exposed to a greater risks of adverse outcomes and also provided evidence that patients having Off pump CABG have significantly lower operation time, CK-MB, ventilation time and less distal grafts. Although there may be potential benefits to Off pump CABG, further studies must be directed to determine those patients who would benefit from Off pump CABG.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2018

Objectives : We aimed to investigate the discontinuation rate and reasons of doxepin base prescription pattern in insomnia outpatients of psychiatry department of a university hospital. Methods : 534 patients prescribed doxepin were screened. 201 patients were included and reviewed for their medical records retrospectively. The discontinuation rate and reasons of doxepin after 2 months of prescription were investigated. Patients were divided into three groups according to the prescription patterns. The initial group, prescribed doxepin as the first hypnotic, the add-on group, prescribed doxepin while maintaining existing hypnotics, and the switching group, prescribed doxepin after discontinuation of existing hypnotics. Results : The discontinuation rate after 2 months of prescription of doxepin was 56.2%. There were significant differences in the discontinuation rate among three groups. The initial group had the highest while the add-on group had the lowest (p=0.018). In reasons for discontinuation of doxepin among three groups, lack of efficacy (p<0.001) and adverse events (p<0.001) were significantly higher in the add-on group. In the initial group, patient's refusal (p=0.022) and unknown or loss to follow up (p<0.001) were significantly higher. Conclusions : The results of this study suggested that add-on is superior than switching method and gradual reduction of existing hypnotics is necessary to maintain doxepin treatment and prevent adverse events. Additional large scale prospective studies are needed to evaluate various factors and risks of discontinuation of doxepin.