• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.28
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• pp.17.1-17.3
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• 2013

The fact that hazardous metals do not bio-degrade or bio-deteriorate translates to long-lasting environmental effects. In the context of evidently rapid global industrialization, this ought to warrant serious caution, particularly in developing countries. In the Republic of Fiji, a developing country in the South Pacific, several different environmental studies over the past 20 years have shown levels of lead, copper, zinc and iron in sediments of the Suva Harbor to be 6.2, 3.9, 3.3 and 2.1 times more than the accepted background reference levels, respectively. High levels of mercury have also been reported in lagoon shellfish. These data inevitably warrant thorough assessment of the waste practices of industries located upstream from the estuaries, but in addition, an exposure and health impact assessment has never been conducted. Relevant government departments are duty-bound, at least to the general public that reside in and consume seafood from the vicinities of the Suva Harbor, to investigate possible human effects of the elevated hazardous metal concentrations found consistently in 20 years of surface sediment analysis. Furthermore, pollution of the intermediate food web with hazardous metals should be investigated, regardless of whether human effects are eventually confirmed present or not.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.801-810
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• 2015

With the international community's efforts to respond to climate changes progressing in the world, Green IT technologies have also developing rapidly. As green IT technologies against climate change has emerged as the agenda of social sciences, the concept of green IT has evolved into two types: greening of IT and greening by IT. In this context, this study reviewed in depth green IT research trends as well as concepts of greening of IT and greening by IT to respond to climate change. Furthermore, it proposed a life cycle assessment (LCA) as an indicator for assessing green IT. The results of this study are expected to contribute to solving political problems with green IT and continuing research in the climate change era. They are also expected to make a contribution to the development of IT industry in Korea by presenting the concepts of greening of IT and greening by IT.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.505-524
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• 2022

Floods represent extreme hydrological phenomena that affect populations, environment, social, political, and ecological systems. After the catastrophic floods that have hit Europe and the World in recent decades, the flood problem has become more current. At the EU level, a legal framework has been put in place with the entry into force of Directive 2007/60/EC on Flood Risk Assessment and Management (Flood Directive). Two years after the entry into force of the Floods Directive, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), has adopted a Regulation on the types and content of water protection plans, which takes key steps and activities under the Floods Directive. The "Methodology for developing flood hazard and risk maps" (Methodology) was developed for the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the methodology used in the majority of EU member states, but with certain modifications to the country's characteristics. Accordingly, activities for the preparation of the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment for each river basin district were completed in 2015 for the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Activities on the production of hazard maps and flood risk maps are in progress. The results of probable climate change impact model forecasts should be included in the preparation of the Flood Risk Management Plans, which is the subsequent phase of implementing the Flood Directive. By the foregoing, the paper will give an example of the development of the hydrodynamic model of the Zujevina River, as well as the development of hazard and risk maps. Hazard and risk maps have been prepared for medium probability floods of 1/100 as well as for high probability floods of 1/20. The results of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) recording were used to create a digital terrain model (DMR). It was noticed that there are big differences between the flood maps obtained by recording LiDAR techniques in relation to the previous flood maps obtained using georeferenced topographic maps. Particular attention is given to explaining the Methodology applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2024

Widespread damages from extreme winds have attracted lots of attentions of the resilience assessment of power distribution systems. With many related environmental parameters as well as numerous power infrastructure components, such as poles and wires, the increased challenge of power asset management before, during and after extreme events have to be addressed to prevent possible cascading failures in the power distribution system. Many extreme winds from weather events, such as hurricanes, generate widespread damages in multiple areas such as the economy, social security, and infrastructure management. The livelihoods of residents in the impaired areas are devastated largely due to the paucity of vital utilities, such as electricity. To address the challenge of power grid asset management, power system clustering is needed to partition a complex power system into several stable clusters to prevent the cascading failure from happening. Traditionally, system clustering uses the Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) to derive the clustering result, which is time-consuming and inefficient. Meanwhile, the previous studies considering the weather hazards did not include any detailed weather-related meteorologic parameters which is not appropriate as the heterogeneity of the parameters could largely affect the system performance. Therefore, a fragility-based network hierarchical spectral clustering method is proposed. In the present paper, the fragility curve and surfaces for a power distribution subsystem are obtained first. The fragility of the subsystem under typical failure mechanisms is calculated as a function of wind speed and pole characteristic dimension (diameter or span length). Secondly, the proposed fragility-based hierarchical spectral clustering method (F-HSC) integrates the physics-based fragility analysis into Hierarchical Spectral Clustering (HSC) technique from graph theory to achieve the clustering result for the power distribution system under extreme weather events. From the results of vulnerability analysis, it could be seen that the system performance after clustering is better than before clustering. With the F-HSC method, the impact of the extreme weather events could be considered with topology to cluster different power distribution systems to prevent the system from experiencing power blackouts.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.63-72
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• 2008

Signalized intersections are operated without a signal preemption control strategy in Korea, thus there is no priority treatment for an emergency vehicle passing through the intersections. In this paper, a signal preemption control strategy is introduced to improve the safety and operational efficiency of an emergency vehicle. Using the micro simulation tool, the effects on delay and travel speed of the signal preemption control strategy are analyzed for various traffic conditions to identify the general performance trends. Then, another simulation analysis is performed to verify the feasibility of the control strategy using real network data collected from field study. Results show that the preemption control strategy provides the positive impact on emergency vehicles' operation, but the positive impact is reduced as the v/c ratios increase. As expected, the average delays of the normal vehicles are slightly increased, but the magnitude is not significant. Therefore, it is expected that the introduction of the preemption control strategy in Korea would produce the positive social benefits.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2023

Background: Several previous studies have reported that quality of life (QoL) in hemodialysis patients affects mortality. However, the 36-item Short Form Health Survey, which has been used mainly in previous studies, is complicated in terms of questionnaire composition and interpretation. This study aimed to identify the impact of QoL on mortality in hemodialysis patients using an easier and simpler diagnostic tool. Methods: This retrospective study included 160 hemodialysis patients. QoL was evaluated using the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-Brief version (WHOQOL-BREF). Psychosocial factors were evaluated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. We also evaluated medical factors, such as dialysis adequacy and laboratory results. Results: The mean hemodialysis vintage was 70.7±38.0 months. The proportion of patients who were elderly was higher in the mortality group than in the surviving group, and the Charlson Comorbidity Index score was also higher in the former group. Of the four domains of the WHOQOL-BREF, the physical health and psychological scores of the mortality group were significantly lower than those of the survival group. When the score in the physical health domain or psychological domain was ≤10, the 10-year mortality rate after hemodialysis initiation increased by approximately 2.3- and 2-fold, respectively. Conclusion: QoL may have a significant effect on mortality in patients undergoing hemodialysis. The WHOQOL-BREF is an instrument that can measure QoL relatively easily and can be used to improve the long-term prognosis of patients undergoing hemodialysis.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.64-70
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• 2024

Fire prediction, response and assessment for outdoor storage tanks are essential to disaster management because they have significant human, social and environmental impacts. Therefore, in this study, the fire situation an outdoor storage tank was simulated and the effects of fire on the radiant heat flux were analyzed concerning tank height and fire occurrence time. tank height and fire occurrence time. For this purpose, fire scenarios and specifications of the outdoor storage tank were set, and a study was carried out considered height, fire occurrence time and the operating or non-operating of a water spray system in outdoor storage tanks containing large amounts of Pentane using FDS (Fire Dynamics Simulator). As a results, the radiant heat flux was reduced by more than 50% depending on whether the water spray system was m operating or not. When the water spray system was in operation, the maximum radiant heat flux was 13.75 kW/m² at a tank height of 14 m, and when the water spray system was not 117 operation, the maximum radiant heat flux was 25.14 kW/m² at the same tank height. Additionally, it was found that when the water spray system was in operation, the radiant heat flux was 50% lower than when the water spray system was not in operation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.135-140
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• 2015

Individuals who are vulnerable during disaster - including elderly, people with disabilities, children, pregnant women and etc - have a strong desire to protect themselves when disaster strikes since they are less capable to deal with the impact of disaster. Their experience and effort to keep them safe can be used as a resource to reduce the impacts of disaster not only for them but also for the community as a whole. Therefore, voluntary disaster management program will contribute to our society as a tool to respond effectively to disaster not only to meet the vulnerable's special needs but also to enhance community safety and public interest. This paper suggests a model that able "disaster vulnerable population" to take a leadership role in identifying risk and vulnerability factors, recommending disaster management strategy, and through that, contributing to enhance society's disaster plan. Therefore, this study aimed to surveyed individuals including "disaster vulnerable population" in order to assess the vulnerable's participation in disaster related volunteer work and surveyed associated institutions(volunteer centers, community centers) in order to research currently existing relevant programmes and the participation of "disaster vulnerable population" in such programmes. Also conducted focus group interview to explore voluntary program which will possibly integrate "disaster vulnerable population" into disaster management activities. As a result, three types of voluntary disaster management programs - education, public-relations, and activity - were suggested.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1643-1648
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• 2014

Family caregivers of older cancer patients face many challenges in managing illness. The burden impacts physical, emotional, spiritual, and social health. The objective of this study was to identify burden among caregivers of older patients with advanced cancer, and associated factors. Materials and Methods: Caregivers of older cancer patients were randomly interviewed from March-September 2012. Information on baseline characteristics and caregiver burden using the Zarit Burden Inventory (ZBI) was collected. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze baseline data, with univariate and multiple linear regression to analyze factors associated with higher burden. Results: One hundred and fifty participants were assessed. The mean ZBI was $19.2{\pm}12.9$ (95%CI, 17.1, 21.2). Two-thirds of caregivers reported no burden (63%) and the main impact variable on ZBI was guilt. High burdens were associated with single caregiver, relationship with the patient as siblings, presence of migraines, and cancer types of the patients. Conclusions: Caregiver burden of Thai cancer patients is low. This unexpected small number could be the result of the socio-cultural viewpoint. Assessment of caregivers and focusing on related factors should be incorporated into treatment plans.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.256-264
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• 2016

Equity-focused public health policy has solid theoretical and practical basis, in addition to ethical one. In the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea), however, equity in health has not had a high priority in policy goals, regardless of policy areas and particular actors or approaches. Equitable health has been only a minor concern in most public health issues and their decision-making. Generic public health policies are needed to reduce inequity in health, but the importance of a firm basis for sound policy-making cannot be overemphasized. Health equity should be 'mainstreamed' in all public health policies. Potential approaches include intersectoral collaboration, health impact assessment, and 'Health in All Policies.' Public policy agendas for equitable health cannot be formulated without measurement and recognition of the problem. Korea is still suffering from the lack of reliable information on the current status of health inequity, resulting in a relatively weak awareness of the problem among both the general public and policy-makers. More information is needed to increase recognition and awareness that will increase intervention and actions. The absence of decision-making and actions should not be justified even by the lack of information on determinants and pathways of health inequities. Generic plausible solutions can often work in the real world according to political and social commitment. I have discussed several aspects of public health policy from the perspective of health equity, focusing on current status and plausible explanation. Policy process, agenda setting in particular, is highlighted and theories and concepts are presented along with analysis and description of current situation.