• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.268-278
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• 2015

Background: This study aimed to assess the whole-body vibration (WBV) exposure among large blast hole drill machine operators with regard to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recommended threshold values and its association with machine- and rock-related factors and workers' individual characteristics. Methods: The study population included 28 drill machine operators who had worked in four opencast iron ore mines in eastern India. The study protocol comprised the following: measurements of WBV exposure [frequency weighted root mean square (RMS) acceleration ($m/s^2$)], machine-related data (manufacturer of machine, age of machine, seat height, thickness, and rest height) collected from mine management offices, measurements of rock hardness, uniaxial compressive strength and density, and workers' characteristics via face-to-face interviews. Results: More than 90% of the operators were exposed to a higher level WBV than the ISO upper limit and only 3.6% between the lower and upper limits, mainly in the vertical axis. Bivariate correlations revealed that potential predictors of total WBV exposure were: machine manufacturer (r = 0.453, p = 0.015), age of drill (r = 0.533, p = 0.003), and hardness of rock (r = 0.561, p = 0.002). The stepwise multiple regression model revealed that the potential predictors are age of operator (regression coefficient ${\beta}=-0.052$, standard error SE = 0.023), manufacturer (${\beta}=1.093$, SE = 0.227), rock hardness (${\beta}=0.045$, SE = 0.018), uniaxial compressive strength (${\beta}=0.027$, SE = 0.009), and density (${\beta}=-1.135$, SE = 0.235). Conclusion: Prevention should include using appropriate machines to handle rock hardness, rock uniaxial compressive strength and density, and seat improvement using ergonomic approaches such as including a suspension system.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.448-452
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• 2018

A three-wavelength $Pr^{3+}:YLF$ laser at 604 nm, 607 nm and 640 nm simultaneously output by Fabry-Perot (F-P) etalon has been obtained. A 444 nm blue laser diode is used for pumping the $Pr^{3+}:YLF$ crystal, and a 0.1 mm F-P etalon is inserted in the resonator to select wavelength. The theoretical model of three-wavelength $Pr^{3+}:YLF$ laser is established, by adjusting the tilt angle of the etalon, the transmittances of the different wavelengths can be controlled, and the threshold values can be made to equalize by controlling the loss among different wavelengths. In the experiment, when the tilt angle of etalon is $9^{\circ}$ and the optimized length of resonator is 48 mm, the total output power of 25 mW at the three-wavelength is achieved at incident pump power of 7.5 W.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.157-163
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• 2011

In this study, after the target basin was divided into both overland and channel grids, the travel time from center of each grid cell to watershed's outlet was calculated based on the manning equation. Through this process, volumetric discharge was calculated according to the isochrones and finally, the direct runoff hydrograph was estimated considering watershed's hydrodynamic characteristics. Sanseong subwatershed located in main stream of Bocheong basin was selected as a target basin. The model parameters are only two: area threshold and channel velocity correction factor; the optimized values were estimated at 3,800 and 3.3, respectively. The developed model based on the tuned parameters led to well-matching results between observed and calculated hydrographs (mean of absolute error of peak discharge: 3.41%, mean of absolute error of peak time: 0.67 hr). Moreover, the analysis results regarding histogram of travel time-contribution area demonstrates that the proposed model characterizes relatively well hydrodynamic characteristics of the catchment due to effective rainfall.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.359-369
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• 2021

In underwater communications, to compensate performance degradation induced from rapidly changing channel transfer characteristic, multi-band communication method which allocate the same data to different frequency bands is used. However, the multi-band configuration may have worse performance than the single-band one because performance degradation in a particular band affects the output from the entire bands. This problem can be solved through a receiving end that analyzes error rates of each band, sets threshold values and allocates lower weights to inferior bands. Therefore, this paper proposed a weighting algorithm based on estimated Bit Error Rate (BER) which analyzes reliability of received data based on the performance difference between demodulated and decoded data. Employing turbo codes with coding rate of 1/3, we evaluate the performance of the proposed weighted multi-band transmission model in real underwater environments based on optimal simulation parameters. Through the sea trial experiment, we confirmed error performance was improved by applying the proposed weighting algorithm.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.682-689
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• 2019

This study aims to spatialize the gap between obesity levels through the body mass index, an objective indicator of the level of health among vulnerable people. Thus, areas where the BMI showed cluster patterns with spatial high and low values were extracted and the characteristics of the region were analyzed. The analysis showed that the I statistics for the obesity rate were 0.07 and the z-score was 4.39, confirming spatial autocorrelation. For z-score, it was much larger than the maximum threshold of 2.57. This means that the rate of obesity among the socially vulnerable is regional, and this gap is spatially significant. The results of comparing and analyzing the local environment for these areas of obesity and health care were found to be areas with poor public transportation, less readily available parks, and a concentration of single and multi-generation housing. The analysis results of this study are meaningful in that they provide spatial implications for the health of the socially vulnerable class that previous studies have neglected.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.139-150
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• 2019

This study aimed to determine the suitable point of sale and consumption of different quality grade (QG) Hanwoo short loin during aging period, based on physicochemical, sensory, and microbiological quality. Short loins obtained from the carcasses of 13 Hanwoo steers and 2 bulls with 5 different QGs (1++, 1+, 1, 2, and 3) were analyzed over 28 d. QG and aging time had significant effect on water holding capacity, color, shear force, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN) content, and sensory traits. Higher QG groups generally exhibited a lower shear force, nucleotide content, and water holding capacity, and higher $L^*$, $a^*$, and $b^*$ values. Acceptable tenderness (shear force <5.4 kg) in QG 1++, 1+, 1, and 2 was achieved on days 7, 14, 16, and 18, respectively, and QG 3 showed a shear force of 6.8 kg, even after 28 d. Regardless of QG, TVBN content below threshold levels (20-30 mg%) was observed throughout the 28 d aging period, while total plate counts above 7 Log CFU/g were seen at 21 d. In conclusion, it is recommended that Hanwoo beef with QG 1++, 1+, and intermediate QG (1 and 2) should be sold or consumed between 7 and 21, 14 and 21, 16 and 21 d, respectively. Beef with QG 3 should be sold or consumed within 21 d, based on microbial growth, even though it has not achieved desirable tenderness. For this reason, an additional tenderizing process is recommended before this beef is ready for consumption.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2019

Background: The present study aimed to evaluate the clinical association between cadmium exposure and hearing impairment among the Korean population. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study used the data obtained from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were used for our study. Finally, 3,228 participants were included in our study, which were then divided into quartiles based on their blood cadmium levels: first quartile (1Q), second quartile (2Q), third quartile (3Q), and fourth quartile (4Q) groups. The hearing thresholds were measured using an automatic audiometer at 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 kHz. Hearing loss (HL) was defined as >25 dB average hearing threshold (AHT). Results: All the groups had 807 participants each. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of cadmium level for HL were 0.634 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.621-0.646). The participants in the 4Q group had higher Low/Mid-Freq, High-Freq, and AHT values than those in the other groups in the multivariate analysis after adjusting for confounding factors. The logistic regression showed that the OR for HL per $1{\mu}g/L$ increase in cadmium was 1.25 (95% CI, 1.09-1.44; p=0.002) on the multivariate analysis. Moreover, the multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that the participants in the 4Q group exhibited a 1.59-, 1.38-, and 1.41-fold higher odds for HL than those in the 1Q, 2Q, and 3Q groups, respectively. Conclusion: High cadmium level quartile was associated with increased hearing thresholds and HL among the Korean adult population.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.66-81
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• 2021

The effects of directional fracture tensor components and first invariant of fracture tensor on deformation moduli and shear moduli of fractured rock masses is analyzed based on regression analysis performed between 3-D fracture tensor parameters and deformability of DFN blocks. Using one or two deterministic joint sets, a total of 224 3-D discrete fracture network (DFN) cube blocks were generated with various configurations of deterministic density and probabilistic size distribution. The fracture tensor parameters were calculated for each generated DFN systems. Also, deformability moduli with respect to three perpendicular direction of the DFN cube blocks were estimated based on distinct element method. The larger the first invariant of fracture tensor, the smaller the values for the deformability moduli of the DFN blocks. These deformability properties present an asymptotic pattern above the certain threshold. It is found that power-law function describes the relationship between the directional deformability moduli and the corresponding fracture tensor components estimated in same direction.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Next Generation Computing
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.15-29
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• 2018

This paper proposes an enhanced object tracking algorithm to compensate the lack of temporal information in existing particle swarm optimization based object trackers using the trajectory of the target object. The proposed scheme also enables the tracking and documentation of the location of an online updated set of distractions. Based on the trajectories information and the distraction set, a rule based approach with adaptive parameters is utilized for occlusion detection and determination of the target position. Compare to existing algorithms, the proposed approach provides more comprehensive use of available information and does not require manual adjustment of threshold values. Moreover, an effective weight adjustment function is proposed to alleviate the diversity loss and pre-mature convergence problem in particle swarm optimization. The proposed weight function ensures particles to search thoroughly in the frame before convergence to an optimum solution. In the existence of multiple objects with similar feature composition, this algorithm is tested to significantly reduce convergence to nearby distractions compared to the other existing swarm intelligence based object trackers.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to assess respirable crystalline silica (RCS) exposure levels in workers who collect and dispose used coal briquette ash (CBA) in sanitation companies that are subcontracted by one medium-sized local government on the collection of municipal household waste (MHW), and to analyze the quartz content in CBA. When the CBA powder that undergone specialized pretreatment in several steps were subjected to mineral identification and quantitative analysis using X-ray diffraction (XRD), it was found that quartz represented 18%, and in addition, mullite, and plagioclase were included. For two CBA collectors, samples were collected by the personal sampling evaluation method. After respirable dust was collected in accordance with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 7500 method, the concentration of quartz was analyzed using XRD. Meanwhile, a portable real-time dust monitor (Sidepak AM520, TSI Inc., USA) was also used to observe the dust exposure level for each time zone and job task. The RCS exposure level of one worker was as high as 0.024 mg/㎥, which was the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLV) level. The other worker also exhibited a concentration of 0.013 mg/㎥, which was more than half of TLV. The Sidepak results revealed that the work of collecting CBA and loading it onto a vehicle was hardly exposed to the dust of a significant level. It was found, however, that the work of transferring the collected CBA to a container through a conveyor belt was exposed to a very high average respirable dust concentration of 2.238 mg/㎥. The results of this study confirmed that quartz, which is crystalline silica and a carcinogen, is contained in CBA, one of municipal household waste (MHW), in high concentration. It was also confirmed that workers are exposed to high RCS concentrations while transferring collected CBA into a container. Although each local government in South Korea handles CBA in different ways, it is imperative to investigate the CBA exposure level of sanitation workers and improve their working conditions.