• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2018

Objective: An automated process for medication preparation and dispensing is essential to improve the quality of work. To reduce night pharmacy workload, a new automated dispensing cabinet system was implemented in a hospital emergency medical center. The purpose of this study is to verify that implementation of an automated dispensing cabinet system will influence the efficiency of night pharmacy work. Methods: To evaluate the new system implementation, a retrospective study and survey was performed in the Ewha Womans University medical center. We compared the dispensing and near-miss error rates between the automated dispensing cabinet system and a night pharmacy. The degree of satisfaction of night shift workers with the new system was surveyed. Results: This study showed significantly reduced dispensing rates of night medications (56.1% and 37.3%; p < 0.01) and near-miss night medications (0.27% and 0.17%; p<0.01). Thirty-two persons responded to the survey, and the satisfaction score for the new system was 4.0 (${\pm}0.8$). The scores were high in order of efficiency, management, and convenience. Time requirement was also reduced because of the simple step of only reviewing in the pharmacy with the new system. Conclusion: Due to system implementation, workload was reduced and time was saved for not only night shift workers but also patients receiving emergency discharge medicine. It was suggested that this will have a positive effect on pharmacist medical service and patient safety.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.615-621
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• 2014

VTS operators may suffer from acute, chronic, or traumatic stress caused by their workload and working environments associated with task or combination of task. This study intended to measure the level of VTS operator' stress and find out factors influencing it by understanding their characteristics during carrying out their task. For this purpose, analyzed the data collected through conducting survey on VTS operators as the Korea Occupational Stress(KOSS) and Psychological Well-being Index(PWI). As a result, VTS operators are experiencing higher level of psychological stress than the national average. And the factors to cause VTS operators' occupational stress can be summarized as follows; working environment factors, shift work especially night duty, workload, etc. This study provides the fundamental information for understanding human factors of VTS operator' occupational stress.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.146-153
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• 2012

Objectives: The introduction of computerized numeric control (CNC) technology in manufacturing industries has revolutionized the production process, but there are some health and safety problems associated with these machines. The present study aimed to investigate the extent of postural discomfort in CNC machine operators, and the relationship of this discomfort to the display and control panel height, with a view to validate the anthropometric recommendation for the location of the display and control panel in CNC machines. Methods: The postural discomforts associated with CNC machines were studied in 122 male operators using Corlett and Bishop's body part discomfort mapping, subject information, and discomfort level at various time intervals from starting to end of a shift. This information was collected using a questionnaire. Statistical analysis was carried out using ANOVA. Results: Neck discomfort due to the positioning of the machine displays, and shoulder and arm discomfort due to the positioning of controls were identified as common health issues in the operators of these machines. The study revealed that 45.9% of machine operators reported discomfort in the lower back, 41.8% in the neck, 22.1% in the upper-back, 53.3% in the shoulder and arm, and 21.3% of the operators reported discomfort in the leg. Conclusion: Discomfort increased with the progress of the day and was highest at the end of a shift; subject age had no effect on patient tendency to experience discomfort levels.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.67-71
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• 2017

Background: Job stress and job satisfaction are important factors affecting workforce productivity. This study was carried out to investigate the job stress, job satisfaction, and workforce productivity levels, to examine the effects of job stress and job satisfaction on workforce productivity, and to identify factors associated with productivity decrement among employees of an Iranian petrochemical industry. Methods: In this study, 125 randomly selected employees of an Iranian petrochemical company participated. The data were collected using the demographic questionnaire, Osipow occupational stress questionnaire to investigate the level of job stress, Job Descriptive Index to examine job satisfaction, and Hersey and Goldsmith questionnaire to investigate productivity in the study population. Results: The levels of employees' perceived job stress and job satisfaction were moderate-high and moderate, respectively. Also, their productivity was evaluated as moderate. Although the relationship between job stress and productivity indices was not statistically significant, the positive correlation between job satisfaction and productivity indices was statistically significant. The regression modeling demonstrated that productivity was significantly associated with shift schedule, the second and the third dimensions of job stress (role insufficiency and role ambiguity), and the second dimension of job satisfaction (supervision). Conclusion: Corrective measures are necessary to improve the shift work system. "Role insufficiency" and "role ambiguity" should be improved and supervisor support must be increased to reduce job stress and increase job satisfaction and productivity.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.139-146
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• 2019

This study was done to explore the correlation among sense of humor, optimism, and nursing performance and identify factors related nursing performance among nurses. A survey was conducted for April 2018 with self-report questionnaire. Participants were 181registered nurses working in three tertiary hospitals. Sense of humor was positively correlated optimism, and nursing performance. Factors affecting nursing performance included educational background, work shift, clinical career. Nursing performance had a positive correlation with sense of humor and optimism. And work shift, sense of humor and optimism accounted for 38.6% of the variance in nursing performance. Therefore, quality management for developing nursing professionalism support for improving nursing performance and sense of humor and optimism . Future research will be needed to clarify the effects of the sense of humor and optimism promotion program on nursing performance.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.231-257
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• 2018

Japan has generally been considered as the developmentalist welfare state. However, Japan has recently been transformed into a social investment state. Although it still has a developmentalist characteristics with its institutional path dependence, the new social and economic challenges derived from the new social risks such as low birth rates and aging population forced Japan to adopt a new welfare state strategy. The paradigm shift in terms of welfare state strategy was launched by the Third Way positioning of the Democratic party government and succeed to the Second Stage of Abenomics under the Third Abe Cabinet. This paper argues that the welfare state paradigm shift towards a social investment state in Japan is not limited to the Japan's Plan for Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens for a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution, but expands its scope to include the work-family balance policies such as labor market activation for women and public caring for children.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.1424-1436
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• 2020

Although huge progress has been made in current image segmentation work, there are still no efficient segmentation strategies for tree image which is taken from natural environment and contains complex background. To improve those problems, we propose a method for tree image segmentation combining adaptive mean shifting with image abstraction. Our approach perform better than others because it focuses mainly on the background of image and characteristics of the tree itself. First, we abstract the original tree image using bilateral filtering and image pyramid from multiple perspectives, which can reduce the influence of the background and tree canopy gaps on clustering. Spatial location and gray scale features are obtained by step detection and the insertion rule method, respectively. Bandwidths calculated by spatial location and gray scale features are then used to determine the size of the Gaussian kernel function and in the mean shift clustering. Furthermore, the flood fill method is employed to fill the results of clustering and highlight the region of interest. To prove the effectiveness of tree image abstractions on image clustering, we compared different abstraction levels and achieved the optimal clustering results. For our algorithm, the average segmentation accuracy (SA), over-segmentation rate (OR), and under-segmentation rate (UR) of the crown are 91.21%, 3.54%, and 9.85%, respectively. The average values of the trunk are 92.78%, 8.16%, and 7.93%, respectively. Comparing the results of our method experimentally with other popular tree image segmentation methods, our segmentation method get rid of human interaction and shows higher SA. Meanwhile, this work shows a promising application prospect on visual reconstruction and factors measurement of tree.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2022

Background: The global shift toward greener societies demands new technologies and work operations in the waste-management sector. However, progressive industrial methods do not necessarily consider workers' health. This study characterized workers' exposure to bioaerosols and investigated the bioaerosols' potential to engage the immune system in vitro. Methods: Full shift personal aerosol sampling was conducted over three consecutive days. Dust load was analyzed by gravimetry, fungal and actinobacterial spores were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, and endotoxin by limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay. In vitro exposure of HEK cells to airborne dust samples was used to investigate the potential of inducing an inflammatory reaction. Results: The total dust exposure level exceeded the recommended occupational exposure limit (OEL) of 5.0 mg/m³ in 3 out of 15 samples. The inhalable endotoxin level exceeded the recommended exposure level by a 7-fold, whereas the fungal spore level exceeded the recommended exposure level by an 11-fold. Actinobacterial spores were identified in 8 out of 14 samples. In vitro experiments revealed significant TLR2 activation in 9 out of 14 samples vs. significant TLR4 activation in all samples. Conclusion: The present study showed that the dust samples contained potentially health-impairing endotoxin, fungi, and actinobacterial levels. Furthermore, the sampled dust contained microbial components capable of inducing TLR activation and thus have the potential to evoke an inflammatory response in exposed individuals.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.32-43
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• 2023

Purpose: This study investigated the dietary behavior of experienced shiftwork nurses and aimed to identify factors related to dietary behavior. Methods: This study was a secondary analysis based on the Shift Work Nurses' Health and Turnover study (2018-2021) among Korean nurses. In total, 247 experienced (>12 months) shiftwork nurses were included in this study. The participants' dietary behavior, depression, level of occupational stress, fatigue, physical activity, and general characteristics were measured. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and multiple regression analysis were conducted. Results: The dietary behavior score of the participants using the Mini-Dietary Assessment Index was 29.35±5.67. Thirty percent of the participants were depressed, the participants experienced moderate occupational stress, and 74.1% of the participants engaged in an inadequate amount of physical activity. The factors influencing shiftwork nurses' dietary behavior were having child(ren) (β=.16, p=.027), depression (β=-.13, p=.032), level of occupational stress related to occupational climate (β=-.13, p=.035), and an inadequate amount of physical activity (β=-.17, p=.006). These factors explained 10.4% of the variance in experienced shiftwork nurses' dietary behavior scores. Conclusion: Experienced nurses with child(ren) tended to have healthier diets. However, a higher level of occupational stress related to occupational climate, depression, and engaging in an inadequate amount of physical activity were associated with a higher risk of having an unhealthy diet. Therefore, strategies are needed to encourage physical activity and alleviate adverse occupational climate and depression among experienced nurses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.89-93
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• 2009

The muscular-skeletal disorders that have become a major issue recently in Korean industrial safety area are mainly caused by manual material handling task. The objective of this study is to provide scientific data for the establishment of work safety standard for Korean workers through the experiments of lifting task under various conditions, in order to prevent the muscular-skeletal disorders in the industrial work site. This study used the psychophysical approach to determine the maximum acceptable weight(MAWL) for seven young male subjects, and used isometric and isoinertial strength variables as predictors to develop prediction models. Also, the oxygen consumption, heart rate, and RPE were measured or recorded while subjects were lifting their MAWL. Three different lifting frequencies(1, 3, 5lifts/min) with two lifting range from floor to knuckle height and knuckle to shoulder height for one hour's work shift using free style lifting technique were studied. These results may not only provide scientific data in establishing the safety standards for Korean workers' lifting tasks, but also contribute preventing the rapidly increasing muscular-skeletal disorders lately on the industrial site.