• International Journal of Safety
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.22-25
• /
• 2012

Scoliosis can be biomechanically described as a three dimensional deformity of the spine, with deviations from the physiologic curves in the sagittal and frontal planes, usually combined with intervertebral rotation. Various factors are suspected such as genetic defects, uneven growth of the vertebrae, hormonal effects, abnormal muscular activity, postural problems, or a mix of some of these elements, but its initial cause is known in only 15-20% cases. The screening test for diagnosing scoliosis is called the Adams Forward Bend Test. During the experiment, the subjects were asked to bend over, with arms dangling, until a curve could be observed. The Scoliometer was placed on the back of the subjects and used to measure the difference between the left and right apex of the curve in the thoracic, thoracolumbar and lumbar area. Then, the subjects were asked to perform Maximum Voluntary Contractions (MVCs) using the digital back muscle dynamometer in three different postures: (1) 0o (sagittally symmetric); (2) 30o from the mid-sagittal plane (clockwise); and (3) 30o from the mid-sagittal plane (counterclockwise). In addition to the experimental data, subject-dependent variables including Body Mass Index (BMI), percentage of body fat and muscle mass of left/right arms and legs were employed to reveal the cause of difference among three MVC conditions. All those variables were tested using statistical methods.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.266-273
• /
• 1999

The maximum work capacity at various shoulder angles was estimated in terms of joint moment through maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) measurement, and the result was compared to workload computed from 3-D static lifting model (3DSSPP) based upon national institute of safety and health (NIOSH) lifting guideline (1991). The electromyography (EMG) of anterior/posterior deltoid and trapezius muscle was also recorded to study the function of individual muscle during asymmetric shoulder lifting. Psychophysical workload was measured to observe the difference from MVC or biomechanical estimation. An apparatus was constructed for the study and twenty five trials including five flexion angles and five add/abduction angles were performed isometrically. Results indicated that MVC at 30 degree of flexion was the strongest whereas MVC at 120 degree was the weakest. In case of add/abduction, MVC decreased to 77 to 89 % during add/abduction compared to the MVC at neutral position. Regarding the normalized EMG value, a substantial increase was observed at 30 and 60 degree abduction. More importantly, the shoulder moment computed from maximum permissible limit (MPL) was greater than the moment at MVC condition during 30 degree adduction. Current result can be used as a reference information for a safe workplace design to prevent the shoulder from an excessive work load in industry.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
• /
• 2005.10a
• /
• pp.57-78
• /
• 2005

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is to determine a set of feasible vehicle routes, one for each vehicle, such that each customer is visited exactly once and the total distance travelled by the vehicles is minimized. A feasible route is defined as a simple circuit including the depot such that the total demand of the customers in the route does not exceed the vehicle capacity. While there have been significant advances recently in exact solution methodology, the VRP is not a well solved problem. We find most approaches still relying on the branch and bound method. These approaches employ various methodologies to compute a lower bound on the optimal value. We introduce a new modelling approach, termed route-splitting, for the VRP that allows us to address problems whose size is beyond the current computational range of set-partitioning models. The route-splitting model splits each vehicle route into segments, and results in more tractable subproblems. Lifting much of the burden of solving combinatorially hard subproblems, the route-splitting approach puts more weight on the LP master problem, Recent breakthroughs in solving LP problems (Nemhauser, 1994) bode well for our approach. Lower bounds are computed on five symmetric VRPs with up to 199 customers, and eight asymmetric VRPs with up to 70 customers. while it is said that the exact methods developed for asymmetric instances have in general a poor performance when applied to symmetric ones (Toth and Vigo, 2002), the route splitting approach shows a competent performance of 93.5% on average in the symmetric VRPs. For the asymmetric ones, the approach comes up with lower bounds of 97.6% on average. The route-splitting model can deal with asymmetric cost matrices and non-identical vehicles. Given the ability of the route-splitting model to address a wider range of applications and its good performance on asymmetric instances, we find the model promising and valuable for further research.