본 논문에서는 시야의 좌측과 우측만 가리는 시야 가리개를 이용하여 주변 시야 가림에 따른 집중력 향상 효과에 대한 연구를 수행하였다. 사용한 시야 가리개는 가로와 세로 5 cm x 4 .8 cm 의 사다리꼴 모양으로 안경의 좌측과 우측에 고정 클립으로 부착할 수 있도록 하였다. 재질은 검정색의 폴리프로필렌(Polyprolylene)소재를 이용하였으며 클립을 포함하여 무게는 2.3 gram이었다. 건강한 20대 대학생 50명을 대상으로 15일간 시야 가리개를 사용하도록 한 후 정성평가와 정량평가를 수행하였다. 정성평가는 집중력 향상과 시야 가리개의 구조에 대한 설문조사로 진행하였다. 정량평가를 위하여 주의력 집중이 필요한 학습 동영상을 시청하도록 하면서 뇌파를 측정하였고 전두엽(frontal lobe) 영역인 F4 위치에 대한 Mid β 밴드(15~20Hz) 신호의 파워(power)와 ERD/S 분석을 수행하였다. 분석 결과 50명 중 80%인 40명이 시야 가리개를 착용하였을 때 집중력이 향상되었다고 보고하였다. 정량평가 결과 시야 가리개를 착용하고 동영상을 시청하였을 때 ERS peak(p=.023)와 ERD+ERS peak 값이 유의(p=.017)한 차이를 나타내었다. 결론적으로 좌측과 우측의 시야 가리개만을 사용하여도 집중력이 향상되는 결과를 도출하였다. 시야를 모두 가리는 덮개 형태 또는 시야의 상측과 하측을 가리지 않더라도 집중력을 향상시킬 수 있기 때문에 향후 간편한 방법으로 집중이 필요한 다양한 환경에서 활용이 가능할 것으로 기대된다.

As contemporary society has become more complicated, specialized, and segmented, people are experiencing more diverse types of stress. In particular, while several factors associated with job stress have been examined among nurses, who belong to a professional group, the existing research has made no quantitative assessments of stress that reflect temporal differences in individuals. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand the effects of job stress on alpha-amylase with regard to the working hours of nurses, to assess the variations in jobs stress over time, and provide basic data to improve the quality of nursing services. Ninety nurses working in three shifts in general, emergency, and intensive care wards of a university hospital in D City participated in this study. Salivary alpha-amylase (SAA) was extracted and analyzed at two-hour intervals from 07:00 to 15:00 from nurses on the day shift and from 23:00 to 07:00 from those working the night shift. The SAA level was highest between 23:00 and 01:00 for nurses in general wards (mean±S.D. 39.00±14.88) and between 11:00 and 13:00 for those in both intensive care units and emergency wards (mean ± S.D. 67.50 ± 62.93 and mean ± S.D. 39.67±35.96, respectively). The characteristic variation in SAA was significant between 23:00 and 01:00 (p < 0.01) and for those in their fifties or older (p < 0.01). The activation ratio of alpha-amylase, a stress reactant, showed an increase when the sympathetic nervous system was activated by mental stress; in addition, job stress was manifested with the effect of awakening at different time segments and at different ages among the nurses. With the aim of raising the level of service based on the nurses maintaining their mental health, it is necessary to focus sharply on the time segment for critical control and to conduct repetitive studies to determine the divisions of eustress critical values as well as to expand the population.

The multi-tactile stimulation system was developed to analyze cognitive function characteristics. The developed system consists of three units; control unit, drive unit and actuator that simultaneously and separately supports the vibration, heat, and pressure stimulation. From the results, vibration stimuli have a wide frequency range of 0-300 Hz comprising 20 levels, and stimulation intensity comprising 40 levels. The control temperature and stimulation temperature used for heat stimulation comprise four and eight levels, respectively. Pressure stimuli in the range of 0-600 mmHg can be stimulated comprising 12 levels. Therefore, the developed stimulator can be used for integrative tactile perception and cognition studies on various vibration, heat and pressure sensations.

In this paper, we developed a power amplifier system for driving a solenoid coil. The developed system consists of three units; control unit, drive unit and coil. The control unit generates a drive signal of sinusoidal wave type, monitors an operating status of the drive unit and vibration characteristics of the coil. The drive unit drives a solenoid coil in response to command from the control unit. The coil was fabricated with the size of diameter in 1.5 cm and length in 1.7 cm using electric copper wire. 4 types of drive unit were tested with thermal and vibration characteristics of the coil using temperature sensor and 3-axis accelerometer, respectively. From the result, the developed system has many advantages with respect to simple control algorithm, small size, and operates stably up to 68 watts driving condition.

In this study, a tactile stimulator was developed to resolve some problems from the previous version of the system such as system configuration, inappropriate stimulation control and additional problems. The developed tactile stimulator consists of control unit, drive unit and vibrator unit. The control unit was controlled by E-Prime software to generate appropriate vibration pulses. The drive unit supplies enough energy to the vibrator to generate effective stimulation pulses. The vibrator unit consists of small coin type vibrator and velcro, and was made to be attached at the hand easily. The developed tactile stimulator was designed by small-size, light-weight, low-power, simple-fabrication, max 35 channels and little delay time from instruction signal of E-Prime software to vibrator. The duration and magnitude of stimulation was controlled by 10 grades and the problems concerning stimulation control were compensated by wideband frequency ranges. Additionally, the electrical safety was ensured by low voltage operation. Vibrator was made to be attached on finger as well as on any part of the subject. Since this tactile stimulator is developed based on E-Prime software which is widely used in cognitive science, it is believed that this stimulator be suitable for the wide application of cognitive science study.

Daily exposure of aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) was estimated in foods (rice, barley, soybean, peanut, soysauce, soybean paste) by ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) using polyclonal antibody R_(101). Before ELISA, a simple extraction method was applied for the quantitation of AFB₁ in foods using chloroform which showed high recovery (70± 12%). AFB₁ levels in foods were 0.32 ng/ml (rice), 0.24 ng/ml (barley), 0.22 ng/ml (peanut), 0.30-0.78 ng/ml (soysauce), and 0.2 ng/ml (soybean paste). Based on food consumption, we estimated that Koreans were exposed to AFB₁ at the level of 1.86±0.46 ng/kg/day and liver cancer incidence attributed to AFB₁ exposure (assuming that AFB₁ as a single hepatocarcinogenic agent) might be calculated to be 13.1 per 100,000 population. Our data demonstrate that AFB₁ levels in foods were below the regulation of 10 ppb in foods and might not be the major risk factor for the high incidence of liver cancer in Korea.