• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.264-270
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• 2010

Agricultural workers are often exposed to high levels of dust during field operations. A systematic exposure assessment of annual task-weighted exposure has not been thoroughly examined. The occupational dust exposure in two wine grape vineyards was measured. Exposure levels to total and respirable dust were determined for a 1-year cycle of work. An operation profile including the frequency of tasks was established. The means of total and respirable dust exposure were $1.08\;mg/m^3$ and $0.07\;mg/m^3$, respectively. Based on the exposure for each task and the task frequency, task-weighted mean exposures to total and respirable dust were estimated as $1.115\;mg/m^3$ and $0.079\;mg/m^3$, respectively. The task-weighted exposure was significantly represented by three operations and could be attributed to the exposure frequency rather than the exposure intensity of operations. The measurement of a few of the most frequent tasks may be an alternative method of estimating task-weighted exposure. Agricultural dust exposure can be significantly reduced by targeting those tasks most important to task-weighted dust exposure.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.57-68
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• 2019

This paper was done as an exploratory study aiming to identify the relationship between small group characteristic factors and perceived performance in the Village Development Committee (VDC) in Saemaul Undong project in Laos. The data were gathered from 166 members in 17 VDCs in Vientian province, however 135 questionnaires were used in analysis. Structure Equation Model was applied in the analysis with Amos 21. The major finding of this study were as follows; firstly decision making was more influenced by task cohesion than social cohesion, secondly organizational citizen behavior was influenced by both task cohesion and social cohesion. However, social cohesion had more influence than task cohesion, thirdly the VDC members learned their technical knowledge from decision-making process, and influenced to their perceived performance level and to VDC sustainablity, and fourthly in overall, committee members implemented their jobs based on task-oriented.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.326-336
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• 2022

Since the food industry, including the agricultural production, is the largest industrial sector in Myanmar, the Myanmar government and industry have a strong willingness to develop the food manufacturing industry despite the limitations of investment, production and technological level. Particularly, the Myanmar government recognizes that the agricultural product-based food industry is an essential element for national economic growth, and is promoting various policy efforts for the industrial development. Therefore, the overall status of the food industry in Myanmar has been reviewed in this study. Also, the TASK (Technology Advice and Solutions from Korea) project in the food processing sector as an ODA (official development assistance) program has been specifically addressed in order to strengthen bilateral cooperation between Korea and Myanmar in the near future.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.165-173
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• 2020

The emergence of unmanned agricultural machinery has brought new research content to the development of precision agriculture. In order to speed up the research on key technologies of unmanned agricultural machinery, classification of intelligence level of unmanned agricultural machinery has become a primary task. In this study, the researchers take the complex interactive system consisting of unmanned grain harvester, task and driving environment as the research object, and carry out a research on the grading and classification of intelligent level of unmanned grain harvester. The researchers of this study also establish an evaluation model of unmanned grain harvester vehicle, which consists of human intervention degree, environmental complexity, and task complexity. Besides, the grading and classification of intelligence level of the unmanned grain harvester is carried out according to the human intervention degree, environmental complexity and the task complexity of the unmanned grain harvester. It provides a direction for the future development of unmanned agricultural machinery.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.126-128
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• 2014

This study was carried out to assay the disease incidence degree of Sclerotium rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii in sixteen most popular commercial cultivars of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) in Republic of Korea. The degree of disease incidence was evaluated on pot experiments. In pot experiments using artificial inoculation, the Sclerotium rolfsii caused a stem rot on seedling of sweet potato plants and causes a crown rot on lower stems near or at the soil line at favorable environmental conditions. White mycelial mats and sclerotia were formed at the infection sites. Plants severely infected were fell over or died because lower stems near soil surface were rotten. The degree of disease incidence was varied according to cultivars. Two cultivars, Bio-mi and Deayumi, were very resistant, while five cultivars, Shinjami, Shingeonmi, Hongmi, Yeonjami, and Shinhung-3 were highly susceptible.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.395-401
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• 2011

Objective: This study examined the effects of working chair that was developed for farmers who work in grapevine's cluster thinning. Background: Agricultural work involves some of the nation's highest occupational risk exposures. Fruit cultivation has been recognized as one of the most hazardous crops in which to work. Grapevine cluster thinning task involve activities related to the main risk factors associated with upper limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Method: An experiment was designed to test the working chair. Six healthy male($25.8{\pm}4.9years$) were selected as the subjects for this study. Electromyography(EMG) was used to monitor the muscles activity, and Electro-goniometer was used to measure the ranges of motions of the elbow, trunk and knee. Subjective test was also carried out to examine discomfort body parts and their pain intensity. A grapevine's working space was built for the experiment and working chair was installed on it. In order to examine the muscle activity and range of motion, subjects used to the working chair for 30 minutes for each experimental condition. Another test without working chair was also performed for comparison. %MVC was used to quantify the level of muscle activity. Results: Decreases of muscle activity was found in all leg muscles and significant decrease of muscle activity was found in left Gastrocnemius. The range of motion of the trunk and knee also decreased when working chair used. Discomfort in lower back, thigh and shank region were reduced significantly. However, in upper limbs muscle activity tended to increase in working chair compared with conventional task. Conclusion: Improvement for cushion in seat back and pan required to reduce discomfort in buttocks. Application: Overall findings verified that the working chair might help to prevent upper limb and lower back MSDs based on the current study. These results can be practically used for work improvement for the grapevine growers to prevent MSDs.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide analysis of physiological, biomechanical responses occurring from the operation to lifting or twist lifting task appears frequently in agricultural work. Methods: This study investigated the changes of physiological factors such as heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and biomechanical factors such as physical activity and kinetic analysis in the task of twisting at the waist while lifting. Results: Heart rates changed significantly with the workload. The result indicated that the workload of 2 kg was light intensity work, and the workload of 12 kg was hard intensity work. Physical activity increased as the workload increased both on wrist and waist. Besides, stress index of the worker increased with the workload. Dynamic load to herniated discs was analyzed using inertial sensor, and the angular acceleration and torque increased with the workload. The proposed measurement system can measure the recipient's physiological and physical signals in real-time and analyzed 3-dimensionally according to the variety of work load. Conclusions: The system we propose will be a new method to measure agricultural workers' multi-dimensional signals and analyze various farming tasks.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.479-491
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• 2023

The automation of agricultural machines is an irreversible trend considering the demand for improved productivity and lack of labor in handling agricultural tasks. Unstructured working environments and weather often inhibit a seemingly simple task from being fully autonomously performed. In this context, we propose a remote driving system (RDS) to aid agricultural machines designed to operate autonomously. Particularly, we modify a commercial speed sprayer for orchard environments into a robotic speed sprayer to evaluate the proposed RDS's usability and test three sensor configurations in terms of human performance. Furthermore, we propose a confidence error ellipsebased task performance measure to evaluate human performance. In addition, we present field experimental results describing how the sensor configurations affect human performance. We find that a combination of a semiautonomous line tracking device and a wide-angle camera is the most effective for spraying. Finally, we discuss how to improve the proposed RDS in terms of usability and obtain a more accurate measure of human performance.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.217-223
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate personal and area exposure of airborne nicotine during harvest and weaving tasks in tobacco farms. Methods: Nicotine was measured with NIOSH method 2551 and Passive sampler which was validated in previous papers for area and personal sampling. Results: The average (geometric mean) concentrations of nicotine with two different tasks in personal sample were 6.5 ${\mu}g/m^3$ (harvest), 32.6 ${\mu}g/m^3$ (weaving) and in area sample were 0.8 ${\mu}g/m^3$ (harvest), 57.2 ${\mu}g/m^3$ (weaving). There was significant difference in area sample between harvest and weaving task (p=0.000). Also, there was significant difference with personal sample (p=0.000). Conclusions: It was found that weaving task should be considered to be the first priority for reducing nicotine exposure.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.22-31
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• 2021

This report introduces a definition for robot task intelligence and explains the basis of the challenges associated with implementing robot task intelligence in real-world problems. Two fundamental elements of this intelligence, robot manipulation and navigation, are introduced herein. We describe the existing trends and industrial applications of the robot task intelligence in logistics and agricultural automation. Furthermore, as an underpinning technology for this intelligence, we review the existing three-dimensional position estimation techniques and summarize the difficulties associated with applying pure SLAM technology to real-world applications. Finally, we discuss the prospects of the robot task intelligence research and its potential for solving real-world problems.