• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.379-388
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• 2012

Objective: This study developed a new shower carrier prototype to reduce caregivers' muscle burden and to increase use convenience by reflecting the needs of domestic long-term care institutions. Background: In the long-term care institutions, one of the ADL(Activities of Daily Life) factors is bathing/showering. Recently, bath/shower-assisting equipment is actively being introduced in care institutions to reduce the caregivers' care cost, but most of the domestic equipment was designed to imitate foreign products and rarely reflected the needs of care institutions. Method: Based on Korean elderly people's body information, the bed size(length: 1,900mm, width: 650mm) was set-up, and a variable headrest with a newly designed headform was developed to provide the comfort for the elderly and convenience for caregivers. To reduce caregivers' muscle burden on transferring and showering activities, a 3-step column lifting module equipped with dual actuators(lowest/highest levels from the ground: 600/1,100mm, Stroke: 500mm) was developed, and the wheelbase parameter(length: 1,250mm, width: 580mm) was defined securing the turn-over safety of the shower carrier. The drivability tests were performed for the prototype and foreign product, and the male and female subject's muscle activities were measured through the tests. Results: The structural stability of the shower carrier prototype was secured by finite element analysis, and the muscle activities of the subjects through the drivability tests largely decreased in the prototype, compared to the foreign product. Conclusion: In this study, a new shower carrier prototype was developed to possibly reduce caregivers' muscle burden and to increase use convenience based on the needs of long-term care institutions. It was expected that the drivability performance of the prototype could be relatively superior to that of the foreign product. Application: The results obtained from the study can be applied for the optimal development of a shower carrier including other equipment to effectively care for the elderly.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.47-51
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• 1992

Volatile organic rompounds(VOCs) present in the VOCs-contaminated water are released to air while showering and their air concentrations depend on the shower parameters, resulting in the variation of the VOCs breath concentration. The present study evaluated the key shower parameters(water temperature and inhalation duration) that affect the inhalation exposure to air chloroform while showering, by determining chloroform breath concentration. The chloroform breath concentrations increased with water temperature and inhalation duration increase. The two inhalation exposure conditions which resulted in the greatest chloroform breath contentration difference were a 5 min-inhalation exposure with warm water and a 15 min-inhalation exposure with hot water. The chloroform breath concentration was almost three times higher after later exposure. The mathematical model analyzing the relationship between two key shower parameters and breath concentration normalized to water concentration fits quite Ivell with the experimental data at a probability of p : 0.0001.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2008

Throughout the analysis of field data from water distribution system, valid parameters were determined that can be included in the water service and design plan. This study investigates water consumption patterns to understand the variation of water-demand structures utilizing the pattern analysis of domestic purpose water. Water use data were collected by a public water resources management firm in Korea, Kwater, for 140 houses monitored during three years. Flow meters were installed at the faucet for drinking water, the shower booth, the laundry machine, bathroom sink, toilet, and garden faucet. Data was filtered using multiple physically meaningful criteria to improve analysis credibility. Mann Kendall and Spearman's Rho tests were used to carry out the analysis. Distinct factors of water consumption patterns can be determined for both increasing and decreasing trends of water use. Throughout the data analysis, the characterization of terms was classified and analyzed by the condition of the location of water-demand. Analysis of this data provide a physical basis for the parameter configuration of a reasonable design for a domestic water demand prediction model.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.821-832
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate bathing habits and behaviors, and to find out consumers' needs for washcloth, which in this case refers to Korean exfoliating cloth for bathing purpose. Subjects of this study were females of 20s to 50s living in urban area. Four hundred and twenty-six (426) women were interviewed with a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed by ANOVA, factor analysis, correlation analysis, MDS. The results of this study are briefly summarized as follows: The most popular bathing type was shower (84.9%). Personal hygiene was one of the commonest purpose of bathing, and other purposes included health maintenance, stress alleviation, and beauty in order. Dimensions of consumer needs for washcloth were extracted from factor analysis as following properties: tactile, tough, aesthetic, constructive, and hygienic. The preference for washcloth type was related to skin type. "Non-skin damage property" was the most important parameter to choose washcloth and the other parameters included massage effect, tactile property, foaming property, and easy-to-use property.