• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2017

Background: Police work is generally sedentary although there may be situations that require physical endurance and strength, such as foot chases and arresting suspects. Factors such as excessive body fat can impede an officer's physical ability to deal with such occurrences. Our objective was to examine associations between officers' body fat percentage (BF%) and performance on a standardized fitness protocol. Methods: Data were obtained from fitness screening among 1,826 male and 115 female officers in a large US police agency. The screening consisted of a 2.4-km run, push-ups, sit-ups, and sit-and-reach test. Sex-specific body fat percentages were estimated from skinfold thickness measured using calipers. Linear regression models were used to examine unadjusted and adjusted mean scores of fitness tests across BF% tertiles. Results: The prevalence of overall fitness was 4.3 times greater in male officers and 3.6 times greater in female officers having the lowest BF% tertile compared with the highest tertile (30.3% vs 7.1% and 46.0% vs 12.8%, respectively). BF% was linearly and positively associated with the time of 2.4-km run (p < 0.001), and linearly and inversely associated with the number of push-ups (p < 0.001), sit-ups (p < 0.001), and the distance of sit-and-reach (p < 0.001) in men. Similar associations were observed in women with the exception of sit-and-reach (p = 0.122). Associations were independent of age, race/ethnicity, rank, and duty station. Conclusion: Overall, BF% was inversely associated with fitness levels in male and female officers. Future longitudinal studies should be initiated to explore the potentially causal relationship between BF% and fitness in law enforcement officers.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2015

The measurement of hydration level in the surface layer of the skin, stratum corneum (SC), gives important information on the biophysical properties and function of the skin barrier such as softness, flexibility, and healthiness of the skin. But it is difficult to measure a consistent hydration level from a sample to another sample due to individual variations and environmental changes. The aim of this study was to evaluate objective hydration after using various products in the SC. The SC Hydration was measured by capacitance (Corneometer$^{(R)}$, C+K, Germany) on the ventral site of forearm from 40 healthy volunteers. The skin surface was chronologically measured immediately after application of the test products and 3 and 6 hours later. We analyzed the averages of five measurements of each site and used the hydration increase rate for correction on untreated site variation. We found that most polyols including glycerol and butylenes glycol influenced directly the hydration increase rate in the SC previously. In this study, glycerol was used to prepare the standard products from 0 to 20 percents and applied to the same volunteers. The individual standard curve showed linear relation to glycerol concentrations. Based on the the standard curve, hydration of SC was converted into hydration increase rate to glycerol concentrations. The converted glycerol concentrations of products were repetitive and reproducible. In addition, the individual standard curve was used to relate the skin type of each individual. These results suggest that the hydration of the SC standardized regardless of external variation and individual skin condition can explain detailed skin state variation. Further studies will be conducted with other ingredients such as surfactants, lipids and aqueous materials, and with other methods for noninvasive measurement.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.75-89
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• 2012

This study attempted to analyze statistical characteristics of historical drought of Korea through trend, periodicity and drought spell analysis by using the drought indices. Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) were calculated using weather data of 59 weather stations under Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). As a result of analysis, SP13 and SP16 showed trend of drier spring, drier winter and wetter summer in all basin of Korea. However, SPI12 and PDSI showed different trends with shorter duration drought indices. In case of wavelet transform analysis for drought periodicities, in a band of 1~2 years or below 6 years showed significant spectrum. SP13 showed strongest power spectrum near the band of 1~2 year variance, and SPI12 and PDSI showed 6 years periodicities. The results from drought spell showed that Nakdong River Basin, Geum River Basin and Youngsan River Basin were appeared as severe drought vulnerable area of Korea.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.42-57
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• 1998

Background : It is increasing the concern for patient satisfaction as a customer information. This study was planned to investigate the activities related to patient satisfaction survey at the Korean hospitals. Methods : We performed the nationwide survey on 235 general hospitals by using the self-administrated checklist from Sep. 9 to Oct. 9, 1996. The response rate were 50.2%. We analyzed the descriptive statistics and chi-square test by SAS software on 118 hospitals. Results : First of all, 62.7% of study hospitals showed to conduct the patient satisfaction survey, and most of hospitals which did not conduct it had a plan to do it within 5 years. The reason that hospitals did not conduct satisfaction survey was due to a lack of administrator's interest or adequate questionnaire form. Second, the bigger, public and being more located in the big city or opened more than 10 years, the more hospitals conducted the patient satisfaction survey. Also, patient satisfaction survey was mainly handled by planning dept. or administrative team. Third, most hospitals had their own way of making questionnaires without proving reliability and validity. The results of the survey were applied to hospital management timely, and were mostly reported to top manager level. Most CEO concerned about the results of satisfaction survey. Fourth, the staffs in charge of survey had problems such as skill related to data analysis and development of questionnaire and they suggested that this problems could be solved through inducing the implementation of the survey results on hospital management, support for the development of standardized questionnaires and increasing the top manager's interests. Fifth, most questionnaires composed of lots of questioning items on hospital equipments and environment, and kindness of hospital employee to patients. Conclusions : Although this study had some limitations in generalization due to low response rate in big hospitals, it is meaningful to find the present state and the problems related to patient satisfaction survey of the general hospitals. We can conclude that there are increasing the concern for patient satisfaction survey among the hospitals nationwide, and it can be needed for technical support related to development of survey tool or method.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2009

A new mix design procedure for cold in-place recycling using foamed asphalt (CIR-foam) has been developed for Iowa Department of Transportation. Some strengths and weaknesses of the new mix design parameters were considered and modified to improve the laboratory test procedure. Based on the critical mixture parameters identified, a new mix design procedure was developed and validated to establish the properties of the CIR-foam mixtures. As part of the validation effort to evaluate a new CIR-foam mix design procedure, dynamic moduli of CIR-foam mixtures made of seven different reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) materials collected throughout the state of Iowa were measured and their master curves were constructed. The main objectives of this study are to provide: 1) standardized testing procedure for measuring the dynamic modulus of CIR-foam mixtures using new simple performance testing (SPT) equipment; 2) analysis procedure for constructing the master curves for a wide range of RAP materials; and 3) impacts of RAP material characteristics on the dynamic modulus. Dynamic moduli were measured at three different temperatures and six different loading frequencies and they were consistent among different RAP sources. Master curves were then constructed for the CIR-foam mixtures using seven different RAP materials. Based upon the observation of the constructed master curves, dynamic moduli of CIR-foam mixtures were less sensitive to the loading frequencies than HMA mixtures. It can be concluded that at the low temperature, the dynamic modulus is affected by the amount of fines in the RAP materials whereas, at the high temperature, the dynamic modulus is influenced by the residual binder characteristics.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.42
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• pp.37-57
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to verify goodness-of-fit by Many-Facets Rasch model for applying martial arts training satisfaction scale to security martial arts trainees. To achieve the purpose, 255 security martial arts trainees' data were used in the analysis. In addition, In addition, the AMOS 20.0 program was used for unidimensionality validation, and take advantage of the Facets 3.61 program for goodness-of-fit verification. Specific results are as follows: First, Unidimensionali test results showed that model fit, reliability and standardized ${\beta}$ value are suitable. Second, the analysis results of goodness-of-fit, items 1, 2, 3 are inadequate, 4, 8, 11, 13, 14 items once found to be over-fit questions. Also, analysis of item difficulty, item 1 has highest difficulty and item 7 was lowest. Third, According Facets item difficulty and response difference verification result, female group exhibited a high level of item difficulty compared to the male group, goodness-of-fit was all accurate. As the result of item difficulty and response difference verification based on Martial arts training flow, there is no response difference according to the training experience. On the other hands, less than 4 years to 5 years and less than 5 years to 6 years trainees represented over-fit features. Results of item difficulty and response difference verification by grade level, first grade was the most highly recognized the item difficulty and fourth grade was also recognized the lowest of item difficulty Fourth, the response category analysis showed that the six points response categories are not appreciate.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.324-329
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• 2015

The primary aim of this study was to investigate biosecurity practices in pig farms and to determine the major risk factors associated with PCV2 infection for a sampled swine population in Korea. To this end, we analyzed data from a cross-sectional study of 296 farrow-to-finish farms, which was conducted between March and September 2014 to explore the prevalence of swine disease at farm level. Face-to-face interviews by on-site visit of trained veterinarians were conducted with the farm owners or managers using a standardized questionnaires with information about basic demographical data and management practices. Farms were classified as negative or positive through the use of infection profiles that combined data on serological testing including PCR antigen test result, antibody titer and sero-conversion pattern at each age category taking into account vaccination status. Data were analyzed using multivariate ordinal logistic regression. Results from this study indicated that biosecurity level of the farms was considered not good given low compliance of the biosecurity programs and facilities in the farm: off-site removal of dead stocks (7%), off-site location of storage facility for incoming feeds (12.6%), off-site pick-up location for finishers (19.3%), restrictions on feed supplier vehicles for farm entrance (19.6%), restriction of finisher trucks entering the farm (22.4%), and restriction on manure disposal trucks entering the farm (26.4%). In the final model (n = 255), allowance of finisher truck driver to the pig unit had increased risk of infection (OR = 2.4, 95% CI 1.22-4.67) whereas farms with a sign forbidding the entrance had decreased risk of infection (OR = 0.19, 95% CI 0.10-0.58). Further comprehensive research with larger sample size is required to better understand the multifactorial characteristic that some predisposing risk factors that were not available in this study. To the best knowledge of the authors, this was the first study to use empirical data to report risk factors associated with PCV2 infection in the Korean pig farms. Results from the current study could be used to decide optimal biosecurity measures to reduce the impact of PCV2 infection to farmers and policy makers.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.260-265
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• 2007

This study was carried out to complement water quality standards and to establish new concept for water quality standards reflecting current state of water quality in small streams. By this purpose, discriminant analysis was performed and Water Quality Level Model (WQLM) was developed using the data such as EC, BOD, $COD_{Mn}$, SS, T-N, T-P, $NH_3-N$ in 224 agricultural streams. To give water quality level for water quality parameters, it divided into 20% respectively in the order of excellent water quality. On the basis of the lowest water quality level, water quality level of small streams is granted. As a result of it, number of stream corresponding to Level I was no, Level II was 2 streams, Level III was 22 streams, Level IV was 70 streams, and Level V was 130 streams. Average of water quality in each level was the highest in Level V. EC, SS, and T-N of 7 parameters were selected in variance concerned water quality level. By standardized canonical discriminant function coefficient, EC of three variances was the highest in 0.625 at the discriminant power. The next was T-N (0.509), SS (0.414). By discriminant function for water quality level, Level II was equal to $-2.973+19.376{\times}(EC)+0.647{\times}(T-N)+0.009{\times}(SS)$, Level III was equal to $-3.288+19.190{\times}(EC)+0.733{\times}(T-N)+0.041{\times}(SS)$, Level IV was equal to $-4.462+27.097{\times}(EC)+0.792{\times}(T-N)+0.053{\times}(SS)$, and Level V was equal to $-9.117+40.040{\times}(EC)+1.305{\times}(T-N)+0.111{\times}(SS)$. As a result of test at real agricultural watershed of Jeongan and Euidang in Gongju city, the fitness of WQLM was high to 88.78%. But, to get accomplished water quality assessment more exactly in agricultural streams, we had to concentrate and get vast data, and WQLM was modified and complemented continually.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2018

Purpose: Blood culture is an essential diagnostic tool and requires clear indications, proper techniques, and quality control. We aimed to investigate whether blood cultures in children are appropriate for indications, are performed correctly, and receive proper quality control. Methods: We conducted an online survey targeting pediatric infectious diseases (ID) specialists working in general hospitals and neonatologists (Neo) working at hospitals operating a neonatal intensive care unit in Korea. Results: Approximately 81.1% (30/37) of pediatric ID specialists and 72.2% (52/72) of Neo responded to the survey. Some of the respondents (33.3% of ID and 59.6% of Neo) performed blood culture as a regular test irrespective of the indication. Approximately 40% of ID and 65.4% of Neo ordered only one set of blood culture in patients suspected with bacteremia. The most commonly used disinfectant for skin preparation was povidone-iodine, while the skin preparation method varied by institution. Approximately two-thirds of the institutions were monitoring the blood culture contamination rate, whereas relatively few provided staff with feedback on that rate. In addition, less than half of the institutions were providing regular staff training on blood culture (40% of ID and 28.8% of Neo). Conclusions: The indication and methods of blood culture for children varied according to institution, and few hospitals exert effort in improving the quality of blood culture. Institutions have to strive constantly toward improvement of blood culture quality and evidence-based recommendations for pediatric blood cultures should be standardized.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.17-27
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• 2010

This study aimed to identify the problems of college students in reading the literature and on the basis of the identified problems, to suggest the approaches to solve the problems. To this end, time required for reading passages, reading patterns, understanding, memory and reading habits and attitudes were analyzed with the freshmen in A university. In accordance with the analysis results, 58% of subjects was good and 42% was not sufficient on the basis of the averages in Scholastic Aptitude Test. Second, 77% of subjects had the good patterns but 23% showed certain problems in reading patterns. Third, 69% and 67% of subjects illustrated good results in the analysis on understanding and memory, respectively. However, 31% and 33% were evaluated as being on the general level or requiring efforts in the analysis on understanding and memory, respectively. Next, according to the analysis on reading habits and attitudes, 77% had no problems but 23% required improvement. For solving the problems identified through the analysis, it is recommended to develop the scientific and standardized evaluation tools for evaluating the reading ability of college students. Second, it is necessary to evaluate the reading ability, habit and attitude during the screening process for admission or after admission. Finally, it is required to operate the Fundamental Academic Ability Learning Center(tentative name) to improve the ability of students who show the insufficient results in evaluation.