• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.258-266
• /
• 2011

Objectives: The aim of this study is to examine the possible changes over the past ten years in the estimated daily dietary lead intake (Pb-D) stemming from the variation of daily intake amounts for each food group. The following factors were considered; 1. time trends in Pb-D as the estimated values, 2. the time trend in Pb-D by food groups 3. the most influential food groups for dietary Pb intake. Methods: Estimated Pb-D was drawn from food consumption according to food groups reported in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey and the lead contents of each food group as reported in 23 prior publications. Results: The estimated Pb-D in a 2009 survey was 40.8 ${\mu}g/day$, of which 22.5 ${\mu}g/day$ (55.1%) was of plant origin and 18.3 ${\mu}g/day$ (44.9%) was of animal origin. Meats and poultry, fish and shellfish among foods of animal origin and beverages of plant origin had the largest contribution in Pb-D among the food groups. Conclusion: Over past ten years, daily lead intakes have slightly increased among men. Otherwise, no clear variation is apparent among women.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.685-709
• /
• 2014

Carbon nanotubes are due to their outstanding mechanical properties destined for a wide range of possible applications. Since the knowledge of the material behavior is vital regarding the possible applications, experimental and theoretical studies have been conducted to investigate the properties of this promising material. The aim of the present research is the calculation of mechanical properties and of the mechanical behavior of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The numerical simulation was performed on basis of a molecular mechanics approach. Within this approach two different issues were taken into account: (i) the nanotube geometry and (ii) the modeling of the covalent bond. The nanotube geometry is captured by two different approaches, the roll-up and the exact polyhedral model. The covalent bond is modeled by a structural molecular mechanics approach according to Li and Chou. After a short introduction in the applied modeling techniques, the results for the Young's modulus for several SWCNTs are presented and are discussed extensively. The obtained numerical results are compared to results available in literature and show an excellent agreement. Furthermore, deviations in the geometry stemming from the different models are given and the resulting differences in the numerical findings are shown. Within the investigation of the deformation mechanisms occurring in SWCNTs, the basic contributions of each individual covalent bond are considered. The presented results of this decomposition provide a deeper understanding of the governing deformation mechanisms in SWCNTs.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.9
• /
• pp.305-314
• /
• 2020

This paper investigates the impact of profit and loss sharing (PLS) contracts on non-performing financing of Islamic rural banks as Islamic small banks focus on small and medium enterprises at province level across country. Our study employs panel data, consisting of 142 Islamic rural banks and using quarterly data from 2013Q1 to 2018Q4, and splits them based on the bank's size and geographical area. Both static and dynamic panel regressions are then applied. The results obviously indicate that a high proportion of profit and loss sharing contracts leads to high financing risk. The large Islamic banks encounter a higher non-performing financing stemming from profit and loss contracts compared to small Islamic banks. Profit and loss contracts also produce higher financing risk for Islamic banks outside Java, as those areas are less developed areas than Java itself. A more efficient Islamic bank is less financing risk. Income diversification lessens the impaired financing and, more particularly, large Islamic banks and Islamic banks located in Java much benefit by diversifying income and financing to lower financing risk. Our study suggests that Islamic rural banks may consider the optimal level of profit and loss sharing contracts to minimize financing risk.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.489-498
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to identify reports of workplace violence, stress and turnover intention among perioperative nurses. Methods: The data were collected using questionnaire from 162 perioperative. Results: All of the nurses in the study reported incidents of violence within six months of the study. Doctors and specifically operating surgeons were cited as perpetrating workplace violence. The stated source of the violence was failure or shortage of surgical equipment or instrument and fall out of surgeon's preference. Subjects reported (87.7%) workplace abuse from nurses and most often from senior nurses. Nurse abuse was in the form of verbal abuse. Fatigue and stress stemming from heavy workload were cited as the source of the workplace violence. The subjects reported stress levels of 7.39 out of a possible ten points from workplace violence. A little more than thirty five percent of the subjects reported having intentions to leave because of workplace violence. These nurses reported higher level of stress and experienced more workplace violence from nurses and doctors as compared to those nurses who reported no turnover intention. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that a third of the employed nurses reported wanting to leave their positions due to workplace violence. Workplace violence is a serious problem for nurses whether it is from physicians or from other nurses.

• The Journal of Information Systems
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.25-46
• /
• 2014

As the use of smartphone has rapidly spread into the current society, the mobile instant messenger applications such as Kakaotalk, Tiktok, and Line have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. While, the mobile instant messenger has brought us many positive changes, social problems stemming from the dependency on the mobile instant messenger has been occurred. The dependency of the mobile instant messenger can negatively affect daily lives and lead to stress or addiction. Therefore, it is very important to examine how we can prevent such dependency and addiction. In this respect, the purpose of this study is to investigate determinants impacting on the mobile instant messenger dependency, barrier of living, and intention to digital break. The statistical analysis of survey results shows that enjoyment, identity, relationship commitment, critical mass and ease of use are significantly related to mobile instant messenger dependency, while media richness is not significantly related. Mobile instant messenger dependency have a positive effect on barrier of living, which then has a positive effect on digital break. Lastly, the moderating effect of perceived risk is significant. This research suggests theoretical and business implications to prevent mobile instant messenger dependency.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.321-344
• /
• 2017

Smart homes are the new generation of homes where pervasive computing is employed to make the lives of the residents more convenient. Human activity recognition (HAR) is a fundamental task in these environments. Since critical decisions will be made based on HAR results, accurate recognition of human activities with low uncertainty is of crucial importance. In this paper, a novel HAR method based on a difference of convex programming (DCP) problem is represented, which manages to handle uncertainty. For this purpose, given an input sensor data stream, a primary belief in each activity is calculated for the sensor events. Since the primary beliefs are calculated based on some abstractions, they naturally bear an amount of uncertainty. To mitigate the effect of the uncertainty, a DCP problem is defined and solved to yield secondary beliefs. In this procedure, the uncertainty stemming from a sensor event is alleviated by its neighboring sensor events in the input stream. The final activity inference is based on the secondary beliefs. The proposed method is evaluated using a well-known and publicly available dataset. It is compared to four HAR schemes, which are based on temporal probabilistic graphical models, and a convex optimization-based HAR procedure, as benchmarks. The proposed method outperforms the benchmarks, having an acceptable accuracy of 82.61%, and an average F-measure of 82.3%.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.1129-1133
• /
• 2010

The treatment of Atopic dermatitis and its untapped herbal elements are recognized as possible solutions to incurable diseases stemming from overdosage of chemical drugs. Synthesizing clinical results from the Oriental medicine with scientific results from the field of Molecular biology is in the mainstream. The main goal of this research is, by objectifying the methodology of abstracting information into a compendium, to establish knowledge-based database on natural materials mingling every single related information from both Oriental and Western medicine. The constructed system, ATODERM, is the first database system about the medical herb for the treatment of Atopic Dermatitis which bearing the integrated information on Oriental medicine and Western medicine. The construction of this database renders new ways of treatment and prescriptions for researchers in the field of the Oriental medicine. Using the database that has been intensively accumulated, the possibility of creating the plausible cure for the disease can be anticipated.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.185-202
• /
• 2000

Uncertainty and variability in Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) have been significant key issues in LCA methodology with techniques in other research area such as social and political science. Variability is understood as stemming from inherent variations in the real world, while uncertainty comes from inaccurate measurements, lack of data, model assumptions, etc. Related articles in this issues were reviewed for classification, distinguish and elaboration of probabilistic/stochastic health risk analysis application in LCA. Concept of focal zone, streamlining technique, scenario modelling and Monte Carlo/Latin Hypercube risk analysis were applied to the uncertainty/variability analysis of health risk in LCA. These results show that this general framework of multi-disciplinary methodology between probabilistic health risk assessment and LCA was of benefit to decision making process by suppling information about input/output data sensitivity, health effect priority and health risk distribution. There should be further research needs for case study using this methodology.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.23-47
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate social workers' personal experiences providing social support to multi-cultural family in a multi-cultural family center. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with 14 social workers at the multi-cultural family center, and were analyzed using a phenomenological research method. The major findings were as follows : The social workers' personal experiences with and understanding of social support were classified as 4 categories : 'source of emotional support to the multi-cultural family', 'diverse and systematic educational support', 'excessive demands on material support', and 'daily life support and connection with community network'. The social workers recognized emotional and educational support as essential factors in providing social support to multi-cultural family. However, the social workers' perceptions of material support derived from negative personal experiences stemming from excessive demands and misunderstanding for material support. These results showed that social workers at the multi-cultural family center provided multi-cultural families with social support and that they interacted with community support system and multi-cultural families to increase their satisfaction.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.317-328
• /
• 2009

Current maintenance operations and integrity checks on a wide array of structures require personnel entry into normally-inaccessible or hazardous areas to perform necessary nondestructive inspections. To gain access for these inspections, structure must be disassembled and removed or personnel must be transported to remote locations. The use of in-situ sensors, coupled with remote interrogation, can be employed to overcome a myriad of inspection impediments stemming from accessibility limitations, complex geometries, the location and depth of hidden damage, and the isolated location of the structure. Furthermore, prevention of unexpected flaw growth and structural failure could be improved if on-board health monitoring systems were used to more regularly assess structural integrity. A research program has been completed to develop and validate Comparative Vacuum Monitoring (CVM) Sensors for surface crack detection. Statistical methods using one-sided tolerance intervals were employed to derive Probability of Detection (POD) levels for a wide array of application scenarios. Multi-year field tests were also conducted to study the deployment and long-term operation of CVM sensors on aircraft. This paper presents the quantitative crack detection capabilities of the CVM sensor, its performance in actual flight environments, and the prospects for structural health monitoring applications on aircraft and other civil structures.