• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.71-78
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• 2011

The aim of study was to reduce risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders, and prevent it according to evaluation and analysis of its symptoms survey, and work postures which doing much frequently. This study was conducted by 64 firefighters. It was surveyed physical burden levels, distribution of musculoskeletal symptoms, and analized work postures by using ergonomics tools, such as Rapid Entire Body Assesment(REBA), Rapid Upper Lim Assessment(RULA), NIOSH Lifting Equation(NLE). Physical burden levels, and distribution of musculoskeletal symptoms were surveyed according to frequency analysis, and the analysis of above tools were presented figures and scores. The all the results of REBA were that risk level was "High", action level was "Need soon" and the results of RULA were "The results are required detailed survey and immediate improvement" at Require rescue person handling, fire hose, hybraulic rescue equipment, universal axe work postures. The occurrence possibility of musculoskeletal disorders of fire fighters is quite high due to instability postures, excessive physical work and so on. Thus, making various efforts to prevent disorders, and improving working environment is necessary continuously.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.432-438
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• 2021

Background: We aimed to investigate the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) and its associated agricultural work-related, biomechanical factors among this population. Methods: We analyzed initial survey data from the Safety for Agricultural Injury of Farmers cohort study involving adult farmers in Jeju Island. The prevalence of LBP was calculated with associated factors. Results: In total, 1,209 participants were included in the analysis. The overall prevalence of LBP was 23.7%. Significant associations for LBP were the type of farming activity, length of farming career, prior agricultural injury within 1 year, and stress levels. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed three biomechanical factors significantly related to LBP: repetitive use of particular body parts; the inappropriate posture of the lower back and neck. Conclusions: Some occupational, and biomechanical risk factors contribute to LBP. Therefore, postural education, injury prevention education, and psychological support will be needed to prevent LBP.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2021

Background: Neck pain is a major public health problem among sewing machine operators working in textile factories. Even though the textile industries are growing in number in Ethiopia, but there is a dearth of published studies on the prevalence of neck pain. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of neck pain among sewing machine operators of garment factories in Mekelle city. Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was implemented among 297 sewing machine operators' working in garment factories in Mekelle city. A systematic random sampling technique was used. Data were collected through interviews and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science version 23. Finally, variables with 95% confidence interval (CI): p < 0.05 in the multivariate analysis were significantly declared. Results: Two hundred ninety-seven sewing machine operators were enrolled, with 98.7% response rates. In this study, the 12-month prevalence rate of neck pain was found to be 42.3% (95% CI: 36.6%-47.9%), and variables like such as break time [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 5.888, 95% CI: (2.775-12.493)], working hours per day [AOR: 6.495, 95% CI: (2.216-19.038)], static posture [AOR: 4.487, 95% CI (1.640-12.275)], and repetitive activity [AOR: 4.519, 95% CI:(2.057-9.924)] were associated with neck pain. Conclusion: In this study, neck pain is a major public health problem. Continuous work without break time, working greater than 8 hours per day, sitting in the same position for greater than 2 hours, and high repetitive activities were found significantly associated with neck pain. Owners and governmental bodies need to focus on developing preventive strategies and safety guidelines.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.555-569
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• 2015

During a design process of a protective equipment for sports activities, minimizing movement restrictions is important for enhancing its functions particularly for protection. This study presents a three-dimensional(3D) modeling methodology for designing baseball catcher's leg guards that will allow maximum possible performance, while providing necessary protection. 3D scanning is performed on three positions frequently used by a catcher during the course of a game by putting markings on the subject's legs at 3cm intervals : a standing, a half squat with knees bent to 90 degrees and 120 degrees of knee flexion. Using data obtained from the 3D scan, we analyzed the changes in skin length, radii of curvatures, and cross-sectional shapes, depending on the degree of knee flexion. The results of the analysis were used to decide an on the ideal segmentation of the leg guards by modeling posture. Knee flexions to 90 degrees and to $120^{\circ}$ induced lengthwise extensions than a standing. In particular, the vertical length from the center of the leg increases to a substantially higher degree when compared to those increased from the inner and the outer side of the leg. The degree of extension is varied by positions. Therefore, the leg guards are segmented at points where the rate of increase changed. It resulted in a three-part segmentation of the leg guards at the thigh, the knee, and the shin. Since the 120 degree knee-flexion posture can accommodate other positions as well, the related 3D data are used for modeling Leg Guard (A) with the loft method. At the same time, Leg Guard (B) was modeled with two-part segmentation without separating the knee and the shin as in existing products. A biomechanical analysis of the new design is performed by simulating a 3D dynamic analysis. The analysis revealed that the three-part type (A) leg guards required less energy from the human body than the two-part type (B).

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.237-243
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• 2015

As one of the most widely used assistive technology devices for the disabled in Korea, the powered wheelchair conforms to KS P ISO 7176-5 standard size which uses original version of international standard, ISO 7176-5 without technological modification. However, the international standard is not suitable for the disabled in Korea because it defines the size of wheelchair based on the body size of foreigners, which causes imbalanced posture due to limitation of movement or rotation of pelvis, pressure ulcer incidence due to excessive pressure on the thigh or popliteal space and calf, and safety of reduction due to improper posture. This study suggested the guidance of size for powered wheelchair based on human body size examined by Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, showing a great difference from the size defined in KS P ISO 7176-5 and accordingly redefinition for the size of powered wheelchair is needed.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.45-59
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• 2007

The operating tasks of overhead crane have caused undue stress to the operators from physical, mental, and environmental workload. Existing workload assessment models for musculoskeletal disorders such as OWAS, RULA, and QEC have limited applicability to the crane operating tasks because they focus mainly on physical factors and do not consider the relative importance of each factor. The present study was to develop a workload assessment model customized to overhead crane operation, following a systematic process: (1) analyzing task characteristics, (2) selecting workload factors, (3) developing assessment methods, (4) establishing action levels, and (5) computerizing the assessment model. Based on literature review, worksite survey, and focus group interview, 4 physical factors (awkward posture, static posture, repetitive motion, and excessive force), 6 mental factors (visual demand, auditory demand, task complexity and difficulty, time urgency, work schedule related stress, and safety related stress), and 4 environmental factors (noise, vibration, dust, and temperature) were selected and their rating scales and relative weights were determined. Then, based on the workload assessment results of 8 overhead cranes operated at different workplaces, the action levels of each factor category were established. Finally, the crane operation assessment model was computerized for effective analysis and report preparation. The present approach is applicable to develop a customized workload assessment model for an operating task under consideration.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.120-126
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to develop a visibility evaluation system for cabin type combine. Human's field of view was classified into five levels (perceptive, effective, stable gaze, induced, and auxiliary) depending on rotation of human's head and eye. Divider, reaper lever, gearshift, dashboard, and conveying part were considered as major viewpoints of combine. Visibilities of combine was evaluated quantitatively using the viewpoints and the human's field of view levels. The visibility evaluation system for cabin type combine was consisted of a laser pointer, stepping motors to control the direction of view, gyro sensors to measure horizontal and vertical angle, and I/O interface to acquire the signals. Tests were conducted with different postures ('sitting straight', 'sitting with $15^{\circ}$ tilt', 'standing straight', and 'standing with $15^{\circ}$ tilt'). The LSD (least significant difference) multiple comparison tests showed that the visibilities of viewpoints were different significantly as the operator's postures were changed. The results showed that the posture at standing with $15^{\circ}$ tilt provided the best visibility for operators. The divider of the combine was invisible due to blocking with the cabin frame at many postures. The reaper lever showed good visibilities at the postures of sitting or standing with $15^{\circ}$ tilt. The gearshift, the dashboard, and the conveying part had reasonable visibilities at the posture of sitting with $15^{\circ}$ tilt. However, most viewpoints of the combine were out of the stable gaze field of view level. Modifications of the combine design will be required to enhance the visibility during harvesting operation for farmers' safety and convenience.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.877-885
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• 2022

Vision-based activity recognition has been widely attempted at construction sites to estimate productivity and enhance workers' health and safety. Previous studies have focused on extracting an individual worker's postural information from sequential image frames for activity recognition. However, various trades of workers perform different tasks with similar postural patterns, which degrades the performance of activity recognition based on postural information. To this end, this research exploited a concept of human-object interaction, the interaction between a worker and their surrounding objects, considering the fact that trade workers interact with a specific object (e.g., working tools or construction materials) relevant to their trades. This research developed an approach to understand the context from sequential image frames based on four features: posture, object, spatial features, and temporal feature. Both posture and object features were used to analyze the interaction between the worker and the target object, and the other two features were used to detect movements from the entire region of image frames in both temporal and spatial domains. The developed approach used convolutional neural networks (CNN) for feature extractors and activity classifiers and long short-term memory (LSTM) was also used as an activity classifier. The developed approach provided an average accuracy of 85.96% for classifying 12 target construction tasks performed by two trades of workers, which was higher than two benchmark models. This experimental result indicated that integrating a concept of the human-object interaction offers great benefits in activity recognition when various trade workers coexist in a scene.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1211-1214
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• 2004

High-heeled women have been identified with balance control problems. The purposes of this study were to objectively quantify the displacements and velocities of center-of-pressure (COP) of body during waist pulling and to compare the differences between barefooted and high-heeled situations. We used a waist pulling system which has three different magnitudes to sway the subjects. We found that the kinematic information of barefooted and high-heeled women's COP is very important in understanding the mechanism of postural balance control of women in every-day life. In the high-heeled's case, the displacement of COP increases in 200％ as against bare footed. Also the velocity variation of COP grows three times than the bare footed. COP analysis in postural balance study of high-heeled women is also considered useful in development of the safety systems that prevent high-heeled women from falling

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.2004-2009
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to define how wrist motion is affected by different postures and supporting devices and to discover functional range of wrist motion for keyboard typing. The range of wrist motion (ROM) needed for fourteen experienced typists to type on a computer keyboard was measured by flexible and biaxial electrogoniometers. The most frequent wrist motion during typing was in extended and ulnarly deviated positions in both wrists. Range of wrist motion was similar in both wrists. The average ROM for keyboard typing with the typists' own posture was about 39 in flexion/extension (FEM) and 29 in radial/ulnar deviation (RUD) in both wrists. The range of wrist motion was significantly reduced to 30 in FEM and 27 in RUD with use of either wrist or forearm supporting devices, which suggests that these devices might help to relieve fatigue, discomfort, or pain during and/or after typing. Results of this study will be of interest to clinicians and helpful to those who are professionally or non-professionally involved in typing.