• Journal of International Academy of Physical Therapy Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.469-474
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between the stature and the muscle performance ratings and the subjective discomfort rations at performing lower arm's pronation and supination according to change sin the height of working table for more efficient performance at designing a working table and performing a work. For the purpose, this study conducted an experiment targeting 40 people in their 20s, who were classified into 4 groups each group composing 10 people at intervals of 5cm from the standard stature of 166.5cm. The experiment measured the maximum isometric pronation and the supination muscular power, and at measuring the factors, the heights of working tables were set as 800mm, 850mm, and 900mm. From the measurement results, it was found that the stature and the maximum muscular power was correlated. That is, as the experiment groups's average stature is higher, the maximum muscular power was higher. For the correlation between the motion patterns(pronation and supination) and the maximum muscular power, it was seen that the maximum muscular power was higher at performing the pronation than the supination. In the correlation between motion patterns and the subjective discomfort ratings, it was seen that the subjective discomfort rating was higher at performing the supination than the pronation. For the correlation between height adjustment and the subjective discomfort ratings, as the height of working table was lower, the subject discomfort rating was lower. Therefore there was no difference in the maximum muscular power according to the height changes of working table, but it was found that as the working table was higher, the user felt more comfortable.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.95-102
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• 2009

Ten young females were participated in this study to investigate the effects of types of shoes (sneakers, high heels, kill heels), types of tasks (standing, walking floor, step up and down), and areas of foot (fore foot, middle foot, rear foot) on foot pressures as well as subjective discomfort ratings. Results showed that kill heels had the most discomfort shoes, followed by high heels and sneakers. Generally, as the heel was higher, the discomfort of foot increased. For the analyses of task types, generally discomfort ratings were highest for the step down and up, followed by walking floor and standing. Especially discomfort ratings of high heels and kill heels were more evident in case of step up and step down than standing and walking floor. Standing task was rated as the lowest levels of discomfort on users' foot. Peak and mean foot pressures were also evaluated in this study. The findings represented that there was no significant differences between types of shoes in both peak and mean foot pressures. The peak pressure (82.14kPa) and mean pressure (40.32kPa) for standing task were significantly lower than those of other tasks [walking floor (190.55kPa, 55.46kPa), step up (191.43kPa, 53.80kPa), and step down (200.66kPa, 52.62kPa)]. Generally discomfort ratings and peak/mean pressures associated with foot showed that fore foot had higher discomfort ratings as well as peak and mean pressures than middle and rear foots. In particularly, this trend was more obvious in case of high heels and kill heels. For the high heels and kill heels, the peak pressures of fore foot were 4.5~4.8 times and 2.3~2.5 times greater than that of middle foot and rear foot, respectively, whereas the peak pressures of fore foot were 2.9 times and 1.7 times greater than that of middle and rear foots, respectively, in case of sneakers.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.9-19
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• 2009

Repetitive movement, inadequate working posture, overuse of force, physical contact with sharp edge, vibration and temperature were well known risk factors of WMSDs (Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders). Many researchers have investigated the relationship between inadequate working postures and incidences of WMSDs of the upper extremities, whereas relatively few researchers have tried to evaluate workload associated with the lower-body postures. The effects of lower-limb postures including various knee flexion angles on the subjective discomfort, heart rate and EMG of lower-limb muscles were investigated in this study. Thirty graduate students were asked to maintain thirteen different body postures, and heart rate and EMG data of five muscle groups (electro spine, biceps femoris, vastus medialis, gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior) from each posture were collected during fifteen minutes sustaining tasks. All participants were also asked to report their discomfort ratings of body parts. Results showed that high subjective discomfort ratings and heart rates were reported at the postures of knee angles of $60^{\circ}$ and $90^{\circ}$, whereas low discomfort ratings were founded at the postures of chair heights with 20cm, 40cm, and sitting with crossed legged. The change of median frequency for each muscle group during fifteen minutes tasks was investigated for each body posture to evaluate the relationship between muscle fatigue and body posture. It was found that the trends of changes of median frequency were different based on muscle group as well as lower-limb body posture from this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.105-110
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• 2008

This study focused on the decreased effect of the work load on using the lower extremity supporter in kneeling posture. Fatigue measures included subjective discomfort ratings through the use of the Borg's CR-10 scale based parameters. The resting period and work method were considered as independent variables. The break time conditions are grouped into 10 seconds after work for 1 min and not exist break time. The method of work conditions are divided into four types. There are kneeling with the lower extremity supporter, kneeling with the knee protector, just kneeling and squatting. The result of the ANOVA of the shift value of subjective discomfort showed the followings: 1) There were differences as regards to the method of the work, the break time and the part of body($p{\leq}0.05$). 2) The lower extremity supporter showed the least subjective discomfort in other part of body except the upper leg.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.695-703
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• 2011

Objective: This study was to investigate the effects of coordinated upper-limb body postures on the subjective discomfort rating, heart rate, and muscle activities. Background: Although generally many checklists such as OWAS, RULA, and REBA were applied to evaluate various body postures, the body postures were might be overestimated or underestimated because each body part(i.e., back, shoulder, and elbow etc.) was evaluated separately, and then added all rates of individual body parts to assess an overall risk level for the body posture in these methodologies. Methods: A total of 20 participants maintained 14 postures which were combinations of back, shoulder, and elbow flexion angles and then muscle activities, subjective discomfort, and heart rates were collected every three minute during a sustained 15 minute and 0.5kg weight holding task. Four muscle groups were investigated: erector spine, anterior deltoid, upper trapezius, triceps brachii. Results: Results showed that subjective discomfort was the lowest when the angle of back and shoulder were both $0^{\circ}s$, while the body posture with $45^{\circ}$ of back angle and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder angle was rated as the most subjective discomfort posture. In general, the subjective discomfort ratings increased as back and shoulder flexion angles increased. It was noted that, however, the subjective discomfort of body posture with a $45^{\circ}$ back angle and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder flexion angle was lower than that of body posture with a $0^{\circ}$ back and $45^{\circ}$ shoulder flexion angle. The research findings of heart rates and muscle activities showed similar results for the analyses of subjective discomfort ratings. Conclusions: The possible limitations of the current ergonomics evaluation techniques which assessing a body posture with summing all body part score after individually analyzed in this study. Based on the analyses of subjective discomfort, heart rate, and muscle activities, it was recommended that a use of effects of coordinated upper-limb body postures would be considered when one evaluates work-load for various working postures. Application: These findings can be used for developing a more accurate assessment checklist for working posture as well as preventing musculoskeletal disorders of workers in workplaces.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.73-78
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• 2001

It has been proposed that the acceptable level of discomfort was a valid measure of postural loading. Although the number of women employees has increased at a much faster rate than men workers did and female workers are thought to be more vulnerable to musculoskeletal disorders, most previous studies dealt with perceived discomforts for joint motions focused on male subjects. This study aims to measure perceived discomfort ratings of females for static joint motions. Ten female subjects participated in the experiment measuring perceived discomforts, in which almost every possible joint motion was included and the free modulus method of the magnitude estimation was employed. The results showed that discomfort levels were dependent on the joint motions and joints, and subjective discomfort ratings of women were significantly larger than those of men.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.36-39
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• 1998

In this study, the postural stresses in automobile assembly tasks were evaluated through an experiment. We had 19 subjects who simulated 42 different working postures occuring in the automobile assembly tasks for1 min and rated their whole body discomforts subjectively. We sued a free modulus magnitude estimation technique, commonly used as a psycophysical rating technique, and fully trained the subjects for the technique. The postures were selected through the analysis of the characteristics of te automobile assembly tasks and the expected difficulties. The subjective discomfort rating data were normalized by min-max standardization method. The consistency of the rating data was guaranteed by the analysis of spear man rank-order. The postures were ranked on their ratings and the relationships between the whole body discomfort ratings, and joint discomfort ratings were analysed. It is expected taht a system for evaluating postural stresses, which was specific to automobile assembly tasks, can be developed based on the relationship and can also be expended to a general purpose system with a minor modification.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.57-73
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• 2003

Although body pressure distribution is sensitive to movements and is relatively simple to measure even in small space, there are few researches involving applications to driver's posture and its change. The main objective in this study is the application of body pressure distribution measurements for the prediction of the driver's posture and its change. This requires quantitative analyses of the dynamic body pressure distribution, which is the change of body pressure distribution with time. The experiment involved 16 male subjects who drove for 45 minutes in a seating buck. Measurement time, stature group, and lumbar support prominence were selected as independent variables, with subjective ratings of driver's discomfort, body posture data of hip, torso. knee angle, and body pressure data variables as dependent variables. The body pressure change variables and subjective ratings were found to increase as the measurement time increased and body pressure ratio variables reflected the torso angle. From the results and analysis of the body posture data and subjective rating results, it was predicted that the seats and the design of the lumbar supports used in the experiment was not fit for tall subjects, which could also be confirmed through the body pressure distribution data.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.297-302
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• 2011

Many WMSDs(work-related-musculoskeletal disorders) have been reported in diverse industries and have also attracted much attention in recent years. Neck-related MSD is generally known as one of common WMSDs, especially it happens to workers who are working at the automobile assembly plants and/or shipyards. The awkward posture is considered as a main cause of neck-related MSDs. A neck supporter was developed to prevent neck-related MSDs, and 10 males were recruited to evaluate the newly developed neck supporter by measuring subjective discomfort ratings of whole body, shoulder, neck and neck-muscle activities. Muscle activities from four neck muscle groups(left/right sternocleidomastoid and upper/middle trapezius) were measured while simulating an automobile assembly task. Results showed that the neck supporter help to significantly improve subjective discomfort for whole-body, shoulder as well as neck body parts. The analyses of muscular activities also showed that the activities of left/right sternocleidomastoid muscles were statistically decreased with the neck supporter in this study. The muscle activities of upper/middle trapezius in case of wearing the neck supporter were not significantly different with the muscle activities in case of no-wearing the neck supporter. Overall findings verified that the neck supporter might help to prevent neck-related MSDs based on the current study.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.565-575
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• 2014

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of weight of load and time on the physical workload of repetitive upper-limb tasks with handling light weight loads using EMG and perceived discomfort, and to investigate the relationship between EMG and perceived discomfort for those repetitive tasks of moving light weight loads. Background: Repetitive upper-limb motion is known as one of the main risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders, and a lot of repetitive tasks are carried out while handling light weight loads in the industry. In evaluating the workload of repetitive tasks handling light weight loads, EMG and perceived discomfort can be used, though their relationship in those work conditions are not much investigated. Method: A laboratory experiment with 18 healthy males were conducted to record EMG signals from 5 muscle sites of the right arm and shoulder and rate perceived discomforts for the body parts and the whole body while carrying out repetitive materials-handling tasks for 52min. The subjects were divided into 3 groups which handled the loads of 1kg, 2kg and 3kg, respectively. ANOVAs were conducted to analyze the effects of the weight and time on RMS of EMG amplitude (normalized RMS: NRMS), median frequency of power spectrum of EMG (normalized MDF: NMDF) and perceived discomfort. The correlations between NRMS and NMDF and perceived discomfort were also analyzed. Results: Statistically significant muscular fatigue effects were not found from NRMS and NMDF in most muscles, while there were significant increases of discomfort as the task time elapsed. It was shown that there were an increasing trend of the muscular activity as the weight of load increased and a decreasing trend of median frequency of EMG of upper and lower arms as time elapsed. It was found that there were significant negative correlations between NMDFs from the lower arm and discomfort ratings, though the relationships were weak. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the working conditions adopted in this study were not enough to induce muscular fatigue, while there was significant increase in perceived discomfort. A further study is necessary to integrate the objective and subjective measures for more reliable and sensitive evaluation of workload of repetitive tasks of handling light weight loads. Application: This study can be used as a basic study for the evaluation of workload of repetitive tasks handling light weight loads.