• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.183-196
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• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this research was to assess the agreement between job physical risk factor analysis by ergonomists using ergonomic methods and physical examinations made by occupational physicians on the presence of musculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremities. Background: Ergonomics is the systematic application of principles concerned with the design of devices and working conditions for enhancing human capabilities and optimizing working and living conditions. Proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent injuries and physical and emotional stress. The major types of ergonomic injuries and incidents are cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs), acute strains, sprains, and system failures. Minimization of use of excessive force and awkward postures can help to prevent such injuries Method: Initial data were collected as part of a larger study by the University of Utah Ergonomics and Safety program field data collection teams and medical data collection teams from the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (RMCOEH). Subjects included 173 male and female workers, 83 at Beehive Clothing (a clothing plant), 74 at Autoliv (a plant making air bags for vehicles), and 16 at Deseret Meat (a meat-processing plant). Posture and effort levels were analyzed using a software program developed at the University of Utah (Utah Ergonomic Analysis Tool). The Ergonomic Epicondylitis Model (EEM) was developed to assess the risk of epicondylitis from observable job physical factors. The model considers five job risk factors: (1) intensity of exertion, (2) forearm rotation, (3) wrist posture, (4) elbow compression, and (5) speed of work. Qualitative ratings of these physical factors were determined during video analysis. Personal variables were also investigated to study their relationship with epicondylitis. Logistic regression models were used to determine the association between risk factors and symptoms of epicondyle pain. Results: Results of this study indicate that gender, smoking status, and BMI do have an effect on the risk of epicondylitis but there is not a statistically significant relationship between EEM and epicondylitis. Conclusion: This research studied the relationship between an Ergonomic Epicondylitis Model (EEM) and the occurrence of epicondylitis. The model was not predictive for epicondylitis. However, it is clear that epicondylitis was associated with some individual risk factors such as smoking status, gender, and BMI. Based on the results, future research may discover risk factors that seem to increase the risk of epicondylitis. Application: Although this research used a combination of questionnaire, ergonomic job analysis, and medical job analysis to specifically verify risk factors related to epicondylitis, there are limitations. This research did not have a very large sample size because only 173 subjects were available for this study. Also, it was conducted in only 3 facilities, a plant making air bags for vehicles, a meat-processing plant, and a clothing plant in Utah. If working conditions in other kinds of facilities are considered, results may improve. Therefore, future research should perform analysis with additional subjects in different kinds of facilities. Repetition and duration of a task were not considered as risk factors in this research. These two factors could be associated with epicondylitis so it could be important to include these factors in future research. Psychosocial data and workplace conditions (e.g., low temperature) were also noted during data collection, and could be used to further study the prevalence of epicondylitis. Univariate analysis methods could be used for each variable of EEM. This research was performed using multivariate analysis. Therefore, it was difficult to recognize the different effect of each variable. Basically, the difference between univariate and multivariate analysis is that univariate analysis deals with one predictor variable at a time, whereas multivariate analysis deals with multiple predictor variables combined in a predetermined manner. The univariate analysis could show how each variable is associated with epicondyle pain. This may allow more appropriate weighting factors to be determined and therefore improve the performance of the EEM.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2002

The need for ready-to-wear clothing increases as the problem comes to arise from the fit of custommade clothing due to the characteristics of middle-aged women's somatotype. At this point of time, a study on the realities of production of custom-made clothing in middle-aged women's clothing business firms is of very greatly significance. Therefore, this study was intended to identify the problem and improvements through the survey research of production of custom-made clothing in middle-aged women's clothing business firms and further present the plan for development of custom-made clothing business. The questionnaire was framed based on the contents extracted from the preliminary questionnaire research for the pattern section chief of each business firm. Collected data were statistically processed using the SPSS 10.0 Windows program. As a result, the following findings were obtained: 1. The target age of the middle-aged women's clothing business firms ranged from more than 45 years to less than 50 years of age. Clothing business firms much made inroads into the ready-to-wear clothing market largely in the 1980s and the 1990s. Their active entry into the custom-made clothing market occurred in the 1970s and the 1980s. 2. In terms of the clothing production method of middle-aged women's clothing firms, some private boutique and designer brand clothing firms entered the clothing market with a focus on custom-made clothing in the beginning of its organization and introduced the production method of ready-to-wear clothing in accordance with changes in production methods and consumers' needs and wants. National brand clothing firms manufactured clothing with a focus on ready-to-wear clothing from the beginning of its organization, but at last they manufactured both partial custom-made and whole custom-made as the problem arose from ready-to-wear clothing. Seeing that their clothing production showed the ratio readyto-wear to custom-made clothing of 2.58:1. And it was found that the manufacture of ready-to-wear and custom-made clothing took into consideration the great difference in the pattern, size and design plan. The research of the clothing production process showed that whole custom-made and partial custommade were distinguished according to whether or not the sample was presented. 3. The ready-to-wear pattern of middle-aged women's clothing firms were used with a focus on the 'patternmaker-developed pattern' and company-developed pattern'. Most clothing businesses produced clothing in 4 to 5 basic sizes, which is found to be insufficient to complement the physical characteristics of middle-aged women with many specific somatotypes. In the pattern of custom-made clothing, the 'pattern of ready-to-wear were applied' or the 'customized pattern was developed'. Actual measurements were most used as the size of custom-made, and accordingly it is predicted that the level of satisfaction is higher with the fit of custom-made clothing than that of ready-to-wear. The selling place and the head office showed the similar percent as the place for measuring the size of custom-made clothing. Size measurers were mostly the shop master. And it was found that most clothing business firms had a problem when the measured size was applied to the pattern. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide education on size measurement for shop masters. 4. It was found that in the middle-aged women's clothing firms, the pattern correction of the length of sleeve, jacket and slacks occupied the highest percent. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide for the size system to complement the accurate somatotype characteristics of middle-aged women. 5. In custom-made clothing customer management, most firms engaged in customer somatotype management through size management. They provided customers with commodity information by informing them of the sales and event period and practiced human management for customers by maintaining the get-together and friendly relationship. 6. Middle-aged women's clothing businesses responded that it would be necessary to improve the fit of custom-made clothing and complement their pursuit for individuality as the plan to improve its quality. In consequence, it suggests that middle-aged women's clothing businesses should provide middle-aged women with the clothing of better-suited size and refined design. Middle-aged women's clothing businesses responded that it was the most urgent task to form the custom-made clothing manufacturing team as the plan to expand the custom-made clothing market, which is identified as their emphasis on the systematized production of custom-made clothing.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-248
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• 2010

This paper describes a collaborative project between academia and industry which focused on improving the marketing and product development strategies for two private label apparel brands of a large regional department store chain in the southeastern United States. The goal of the project was to revitalize product lines of the two brands by incorporating student ideas for new solutions, thereby giving the students practical experience with a real-life industry situation. There were a number of key players involved in the project. A privately-owned department store chain based in the southeastern United States which was seeking an academic partner had recognized a need to update two existing private label brands. They targeted middle-aged consumers looking for casual, moderately priced merchandise. The company was seeking to change direction with both packaging and presentation, and possibly product design. The branding and product development divisions of the company contacted professors in an academic department of a large southeastern state university. Two of the professors agreed that the task would be a good fit for their classes - one was a junior-level Intermediate Brand Management class; the other was a senior-level Fashion Product Development class. The professors felt that by working collaboratively on the project, students would be exposed to a real world scenario, within the security of an academic learning environment. Collaboration within an interdisciplinary team has the advantage of providing experiences and resources beyond the capabilities of a single student and adds "brainpower" to problem-solving processes (Lowman 2000). This goal of improving the capabilities of students directed the instructors in each class to form interdisciplinary teams between the Branding and Product Development classes. In addition, many universities are employing industry partnerships in research and teaching, where collaboration within temporal (semester) and physical (classroom/lab) constraints help to increase students' knowledge and experience of a real-world situation. At the University of Tennessee, the Center of Industrial Services and UT-Knoxville's College of Engineering worked with a company to develop design improvements in its U.S. operations. In this study, Because should be lower case b with a private label retail brand, Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst's (1999) revised Retail Apparel Product Development Model was used by the product development and brand management teams. This framework was chosen because it addresses apparel product development from the concept to the retail stage. Two classes were involved in this project: a junior level Brand Management class and a senior level Fashion Product Development class. Seven teams were formed which included four students from Brand Management and two students from Product Development. The classes were taught the same semester, but not at the same time. At the beginning of the semester, each class was introduced to the industry partner and given the problem. Half the teams were assigned to the men's brand and half to the women's brand. The teams were responsible for devising approaches to the problem, formulating a timeline for their work, staying in touch with industry representatives and making sure that each member of the team contributed in a positive way. The objective for the teams was to plan, develop, and present a product line using merchandising processes (following the Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst model) and develop new branding strategies for the proposed lines. The teams performed trend, color, fabrication and target market research; developed sketches for a line; edited the sketches and presented their line plans; wrote specifications; fitted prototypes on fit models, and developed final production samples for presentation to industry. The branding students developed a SWOT analysis, a Brand Measurement report, a mind-map for the brands and a fully integrated Marketing Report which was presented alongside the ideas for the new lines. In future if the opportunity arises to work in this collaborative way with an existing company who wishes to look both at branding and product development strategies, classes will be scheduled at the same time so that students have more time to meet and discuss timelines and assigned tasks. As it was, student groups had to meet outside of each class time and this proved to be a challenging though not uncommon part of teamwork (Pfaff and Huddleston, 2003). Although the logistics of this exercise were time-consuming to set up and administer, professors felt that the benefits to students were multiple. The most important benefit, according to student feedback from both classes, was the opportunity to work with industry professionals, follow their process, and see the results of their work evaluated by the people who made the decisions at the company level. Faculty members were grateful to have a "real-world" case to work with in the classroom to provide focus. Creative ideas and strategies were traded as plans were made, extending and strengthening the departmental links be tween the branding and product development areas. By working not only with students coming from a different knowledge base, but also having to keep in contact with the industry partner and follow the framework and timeline of industry practice, student teams were challenged to produce excellent and innovative work under new circumstances. Working on the product development and branding for "real-life" brands that are struggling gave students an opportunity to see how closely their coursework ties in with the real-world and how creativity, collaboration and flexibility are necessary components of both the design and business aspects of company operations. Industry personnel were impressed by (a) the level and depth of knowledge and execution in the student projects, and (b) the creativity of new ideas for the brands.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.159-185
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• 2016

Planning a multi-day trip is a complex, yet time-consuming task. It usually starts with selecting a list of points of interest (POIs) worth visiting and then arranging them into an itinerary, taking into consideration various constraints and preferences. When choosing POIs to visit, one might ask friends to suggest them, search for information on the Web, or seek advice from travel agents; however, those options have their limitations. First, the knowledge of friends is limited to the places they have visited. Second, the tourism information on the internet may be vast, but at the same time, might cause one to invest a lot of time reading and filtering the information. Lastly, travel agents might be biased towards providers of certain travel products when suggesting itineraries. In recent years, many researchers have tried to deal with the huge amount of tourism information available on the internet. They explored the wisdom of the crowd through overwhelming images shared by people on social media sites. Furthermore, trip planning problems are usually formulated as 'Tourist Trip Design Problems', and are solved using various search algorithms with heuristics. Various recommendation systems with various techniques have been set up to cope with the overwhelming tourism information available on the internet. Prediction models of recommendation systems are typically built using a large dataset. However, sometimes such a dataset is not always available. For other models, especially those that require input from people, human computation has emerged as a powerful and inexpensive approach. This study proposes CYTRIP (Crowdsource Your TRIP), a multi-day trip itinerary planning system that draws on the collective intelligence of contributors in recommending POIs. In order to enable the crowd to collaboratively recommend POIs to users, CYTRIP provides a shared workspace. In the shared workspace, the crowd can recommend as many POIs to as many requesters as they can, and they can also vote on the POIs recommended by other people when they find them interesting. In CYTRIP, anyone can make a contribution by recommending POIs to requesters based on requesters' specified preferences. CYTRIP takes input on the recommended POIs to build a multi-day trip itinerary taking into account the user's preferences, the various time constraints, and the locations. The input then becomes a multi-day trip planning problem that is formulated in Planning Domain Definition Language 3 (PDDL3). A sequence of actions formulated in a domain file is used to achieve the goals in the planning problem, which are the recommended POIs to be visited. The multi-day trip planning problem is a highly constrained problem. Sometimes, it is not feasible to visit all the recommended POIs with the limited resources available, such as the time the user can spend. In order to cope with an unachievable goal that can result in no solution for the other goals, CYTRIP selects a set of feasible POIs prior to the planning process. The planning problem is created for the selected POIs and fed into the planner. The solution returned by the planner is then parsed into a multi-day trip itinerary and displayed to the user on a map. The proposed system is implemented as a web-based application built using PHP on a CodeIgniter Web Framework. In order to evaluate the proposed system, an online experiment was conducted. From the online experiment, results show that with the help of the contributors, CYTRIP can plan and generate a multi-day trip itinerary that is tailored to the users' preferences and bound by their constraints, such as location or time constraints. The contributors also find that CYTRIP is a useful tool for collecting POIs from the crowd and planning a multi-day trip.

• 대한공업교육학회지
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.128-160
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• 2009

Narratively I have described interactions between two teachers performing an introduction to the engineering class with various situations such as place, teacher, student and subject. I have specifically illuminated a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space embracing the culture of the university, the college of engineering and the ABEEK(Accreditation Board of Engineering Education of Korea)program. The result of the study is as follows: First, in order to stimulate the students' motivation, the teachers have to make not only their class PowerPoint slides match the size of the classroom, but the content of the slides must be condensed with core concepts. They also should utilized some video clips to empower students' interest in the subject within their classrooms. Second, the teachers should do various class activities in the classroom. Instead of spending most of the class time with his/her explanation, it would be advantageous for the teachers to allow the students to perform a task in class. Third, the teachers should ask their students about assignments which are helping students' understanding of the subject and planning of their future. Lastly, the teachers need to design the mid-term and the final tests inducing the students' motivation. Those tests also must test students' creativity and insight of the subject. Thus, the test should consist of an interpretive exercise and an essay type of item thus reducing the multiple choice types of items. There are several limitations to the study. First it is difficult to generalize what we found here because it is a case study. Second, we could not study in depth the effect of the interaction between the two teachers who were performing the introduction to the engineering course during the academic semester. Third, this study just probed into the difficulties of teaching the course. Hence, we have to understand more by focusing on each issue such as adapting to a new learning environment as a student from abroad, a practical experience boosting the students' interest in the introduction to the engineering course, also a practical experience on process based learning-versus result based learning, and an effective management of the student team presentation etc.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.65-69
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• 2009

Purpose: Recently incidence of VDT syndrome has gradually increased as extensive use of computers. VDT syndrome reported by VDT workers include musculoskeletal disorder, neuropsychiatric disoders and eye symptoms such as eye strain, tired eyes, irritation and blurred vision. The environmental factors of VDT syndrome include electromagnetic waves, size, brightness and lighting of computer screen, height of a monitor and a worktable, working hours, kind of task, distance between screen and workers, indoor humidity and temperature, indoor air contamination and ventilation. In this study, we investigated the environmental factors related to body symptoms and health effects included in VDT syndrome. Methods: Study subjects were total 120 persons (54 male, 66 female) with age from 19 to 28. We surveyed the body symptoms and physical discomfort when doing an activity in a short distance such as reading book or paper, computer work. The questionnaire included main body symptoms, self-consciousness symptoms of eye, satisfaction of working environment, pain of the wrist when using keyboard and mouse. Results: Most of people (70%) felt physical pain from long time work of computer, paper, electrical apparatus. They mainly complained pain of neck and low back (57.1%), eye (45.2%) and head (31%). With the environmental factors, 78.3% of the subjects complaint pain of eye from inappropriate illumination. Most of the symptoms included 'eye fatigue'(38.3%), 'dryness of eye'(31.9%) and 'blurred vision'(23.7%). Subjects in this study complained discomfort of their chairs and most of them experienced pain in the wrist when using keyboard or mouse. Conclusions: When people use electrical apparatus or work with paper, people would get their eye fatigue and feeling of physical fatigue because of not harmonizing various environmental factors such as light, space, posture, worktable with theirselves. Therefore, workers should develop preventive method such as self-control of adequate break time to avoid fatigue while VDT work. Work environment should be changed to ergonomic design for optimal visual environment to prevent musculoskeletal disorder through constant research.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.58-72
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• 2009

In this study, the organic matter and biomass was characterized by using respirometry based on ASM No.2d (Activated Sludge Model No.2d). The activated sludge models are based on the ASM No.2d model, published by the IAWQ(International Association on Water Quality) task group on mathematical modeling for design and operation of biological wastewater treatment processes. For this study, OUR(Oxygen Uptake Rate) measurements were made on filtered as well as non-filtered wastewater. Also, GC-FID and LC analysis were applied for the estimation of VFAs(Volatile Fatty Acids) COD(S_A) in slowly bio-degradable soluble substrates of the ASM No.2d. Therefore, this study was intended to clearly identify slowly bio-degradable dissolved materials(S_S) and particulate materials(X_I). In addition, a method capable of determining the accurate time to measure non-biodegradable COD(S_I), by the change of transition graphs in the process of measuring microbial OUR, was presented in this study. Influent fractionation is a critical step in the model calibrations. From the results of respirometry on filtered wastewater, the fraction of fermentable and readily biodegradable organic matter(S_F), fermentation products(S_A), inert soluble matter(S_I), slowly biodegradable matter(X_S) and inert particular matter(X_I) was 33.2%, 14.1%, 6.9%, 34.7%, 5.8%, respectively. The active heterotrophic biomass fraction(X_H) was about 5.3%.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.81-86
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• 2014

The aim of this study was to take the field manager's opinion about the dental hygiene student's competency. Study design was cross sectional contents analysis with the in-depth interviews. Twelve subjects were randomly selected in half an hour interview. They were signed there's own autograph on the informed consents. The contents of the qualitative interviews were divided into two parts: students' competency required for the field practice and the system of the field practice. The first part consisted of the attitude of the field's practice, how well has accomplished the job, and demanded requirements for the better performance. And the other part was made up of duration of practice, the number of students per institution and other opinion. The results showed that most of them have positive conception about student's competency. They mentioned that many students have 'enthusiastic behavior and attitude in task performance' and 'progressive attitude and mind in duty'. While 'lack of interest in practice and sociality', 'the arrogant demeanor in the fields', and 'passive behavior and attitude in the interpersonal relationship' should be avoided for excellent competency. It is required for dental hygiene students to write daily practice record and clarify their reasons to choose the institution for better performance. In addition, it should be considered to make concrete evaluation items and students and field managers should have mutual responsibility.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.81-92
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• 2010

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess bra in activation and difference by LI11 or ST36 acupuncture stimulation using functional MRI (fMRI). Methods: A total of 10 healthy right-handed volunteers were studied. LI11 acupuncture and ST36 acupuncture stimulations were applied in order on the left. The block design paradigm of RARARA was used for the task, with R representing rest and A representing stimulation, and each period lasted 30 seconds. fMRI data were analyzed using SPM2. Results: The left LI11 acupuncture stimulation activated both sides of the inferior parietal lobule, the left side of the extra-nuclear, culmen and inferior semi-lunar lobules. On the right side, the nodule and midbrain regions were activated by the left LI11 acupuncture stimulation. The left ST36 acupuncture stimulation activated the right side of the superior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, inferior semi-lunar lobule and pyramis. On the left side, the sub-gyral, middle temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, extra-nuclear, cingulate gyrus and fastigium regions were activated by the left ST36 acupuncture stimulation. Besides, both sides of the paracentral lobule, inferior parietal lobule, culmen, cerebellar tonsil and midbrain regions were activated. Conclusions: In conclusion, brain signal activation patterns according to acupoints were observed to differ, and ST36 acupuncture stimulation activated more regions than LI11. It is supposed that LI11 and ST36 acupuncture stimulations have an influence on motor function and sensory aphasia, and these stimulations thus represent potential for ocular motor dysfunction, discriminative touch or position sense disorder. Moreover, ST36 acupuncture stimulation activated the cingulate gyrus of the limbic system, so it seems to have an influence over autonomic functions.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.167-175
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• 1998

Purpose : It is not a simple task to achieve the ideal isodose curve with a standard vaginal applicator or sing1e plane needle impant in the paravaginal tissue when primary or recurrent gynecological neoplasms(cervical cancers, vaginal cancers and vulvar cancers) are treated as a boost following external beam radiotherapy. The authors introduce the development and construction of a simple, inexpensive, customized applicator for volume implant to maximize the radiation dose to the tumor while minimizing the dose to the rectum and the bladder. Materials and Methods : Nine patients underwent Ir-192 transperineal interstitial implantation for either recurrent(5 cases) or primary(3 cases) cervical cancers or primary vaginal cancer(1 case) between August 1994 and February 1998 at Ajou university hospital. First 3 cases were performed with a sing1e plane implant guided by digital palpation. Because of inadequate isodose coverage in the tumor volume in first 3 cases, we designed and constructed interstitial vaginal applicator for volume implant to improve tumor dose distribution and homogeneity while sparing the surrounding normal tissue. Our applicators consist of vaginal obturator and perineal template that made of the clear acrylamide and dental mold material$(Provil^{(R)})$. The applicators were customized individually according to the tumor size and its location Both HDR and LDR irradiation were given with these applicators accomodating 6 Fr needles(Microselectron Nucletron). The pretreatment planning prior to actual implant was performed whenever possible. Results : Needles can be inserted easily and evenly into the tumor volume through the holes of templates, requiring less efforts and time for the implant procedure. Our applicators made of materials available from commercial vendors. These have an advantage that require easy procedure, and spend relatively short time to construct. Also it was possible to fabricate applicators to individualize according to the tumor size and its location and to achieve the ideal isodose coverage. We found an accurate needle arrangement and ideal dose distribution through the CT scan that was obtained in 3 cases after needle implant. Three patients with primary cervical and vaginal cancers were controlled locally at final follow up. But all recurrent cases failed to do so. Conclusion : The authors introduce inexpensive, simple interstitial vaginal templates which were self-designed and constructed using materials available from commercial vendors such as acrylanide and dental mold material $(Provil^{(R)})$.