A roadmap to improve usage items to enhance the operational effectiveness of occupational safety and health management expense in Korean construction.

Occupational safety and health management expense (OSHE) in construction industry is a statutory expense used for the purpose of preventing occupational accident and health disorders for construction workers, and the detailed usage standard is stipulated in the law and regulations governed by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in Korea. Previous studies focused on improvement of the accounting rate of OSHE and institutional improvement to secure usage transparency, but analysis showed that the review of improvement directions for usage items was insufficient. Considering recent trends, such as the increase in industrial demand to improve existing usage items and the introduction of various smart safety products incorporating the Fourth Industrial Revolution technology, it is expected that it will be necessary to review ways to improve the usage items to enhance the operational efficiency of OSHE. Accordingly, this study collected opinions from various stakeholders, and presented a roadmap to improve usage items of OSHE through importance-performance analysis (IPA) based on the data. This study is expected to meet the needs demanded by industry, and to be utilized as a reference for policy preparation to enhance the safety of construction sites.

The effect of bridge exercise method on the strength of rectus abdominis muscle and the muscle activity of paraspinal muscles while doing treadmill walking with high heels.

[Purpose] The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of the method of bridge exercise on the change of rectus abdominis muscle and the muscle activity of paraspinal muscles while doing treadmill walking with high heels. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects of this research are healthy female students consisting of 10 persons performing bridge exercises in a supine group, 10 persons performing bridge exercises in a prone group, and 10 persons in a control group while in S university in Busan. Bridge exercise in supine position is performed in hook lying position. Bridge exercise in prone position is plank exercise in prostrate position. To measure the strength of rectus abdominis muscle, maintaining times of the posture was used. To measure the muscle activity of paraspinal muscles, EMG (4D-MT & EMD-11, Relive, Korea) was used. [Results] The strength of rectus abdominis muscle of both bridge exercises in the supine group and bridge exercises in the prone group increases significantly after exercise. The muscle activity of paraspinal muscle such as thoracic parts and lumbar parts in bridge exercises in the prone group decreases statistically while walking on a treadmill with high heels. Muscle activity of thoracic parts paraspinal muscle and bridge exercises in the supine group decreased significantly. [Conclusion] According to this study, we noticed that bridge exercise in a prone position is desirable for women who prefer wearing high heels as a back pain prevention exercise method.

Production of polyclonal antibodies against peptide antigens using polystyrene beads as a carrier.

We describe a method for producing polyclonal antibody (PAb) against peptide antigen (the epitope region of cytochromes P450 1A2 and 3A4, HA tag, FLAG tag, and c-myc tag) using a polymer bead as a carrier. Carboxylated polystyrene beads (0.05, 0.5, 1, and 2 microm diam) were conjugated with the peptide, which is known as an epitope region, using a chemical cross-linker and injected into rabbits with adjuvant. By immunizing the animals intradermally twice at two week intervals, an immunoblot assay with anti-sera showed the efficient generation of the PAb.