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Objective: To analyze duties, tasks, and task elements of health workers in charge of vaccination at public health centers in South Korea. Design: Descriptive study using a survey. Sample: Health workers in charge of vaccination for more than 1 year at 254 public health centers in South Korea. Of 631 health workers, 401 responded to the questionnaire, and 379 responses were included in the analysis after excluding 22 incomplete responses. Measurements: The Developing A Curriculum (DACUM) workshop was conducted to identify the frequency, importance, and difficulty of duties, tasks, and task elements. Results: Four duties (vaccination promotion, vaccination administration and symptom management, execution of vaccination, and vaccination education), 18 tasks, and 81 task elements were identified. "Execution of vaccination" exhibited the highest determinant coefficient. "Implementing the budget" exhibited the highest determinant coefficient among tasks, and "dealing with an emergency in the case of adverse events" exhibited the highest determinant coefficient among task elements. Conclusions: Duty, task, and task elements with high determinant coefficients have high educational needs. Education demands was higher for administrative work than for direct vaccination. Developing an educational curriculum based on DACUM results could contribute to the professional education of vaccine workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used a survey about the need for an educational training of infectious disease response staff in Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and officer in metropolitan cities and provincial government to conduct field epidemiological investigation. The survey was conducted from January 25 to March 15, 2016. A total of 173 participants were selected from four different groups as follows: 27 clinical specialists, 22 Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officers, 82 KCDC staff, and 42 local health department officials. Results revealed that 83% of KCDC staff and 95% of local health department officials agreed on the need for educational training to strengthen capability of personnel to conduct epidemic research and investigation. The level of their need for training was relatively high, while self-confidence levels of individuals to conduct epidemic research and investigation was low. It was concluded that there was a need to develop training programs to enhance the ability of public health officials, EIS officers, KCDC staff, and local health department personnel to conduct epidemic research and investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we present a new concept for offshore nuclear power plants (ONPP) with enhanced safety features. The design concept of a nuclear power plant (NPP) mounted on gravity-based structures (GBSs), which are widely used offshore structures, is proposed first. To demonstrate the feasibility of the concept, a large-scale land-based nuclear power plant model APR1400, which is the most recent NPP model in the Republic of Korea, is mounted on a GBS while minimizing modification to the original features of APR1400. A new total general arrangement (GA) and basic design principles are proposed and can be directly applied to any existing land based large scale NPPs. The proposed concept will enhance the safety of a NPP due to several aspects. A new emergency passive containment cooling system (EPCCS) and emergency passive reactor-vessel cooling system (EPRVCS) are proposed; their features of using seawater as coolant and safety features against earthquakes, Tsunamis, storms, and marine collisions are also described. We believe that the proposed offshore nuclear power plant is more robust than conventional land-based nuclear power plants and it has strong potential to provide great opportunities in nuclear power industries by decoupling the site of construction and that of installation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• The node configuration uncertainty has significant effect on the simulation results. • The coarse node uncertainty can overwhelm the physical model uncertainty. • The node configuration can cause bifurcation in the complex system analysis. In nuclear safety analyses, a 1-D thermal hydraulic system analysis code with the best estimate plus uncertainty (BEPU) approach is generally used. There are sources of uncertainty such as nodalization, physical models, and numerical scheme. Among them, the authors specifically focused on the node configuration uncertainty related to spatial discretization that is regarded as less dominant sources of uncertainty in the code previously. Furthermore, it was not easy to quantify the uncertainty from the node configuration. The authors quantified and analyzed the node configuration uncertainty to understand how much it affects the solution. In this study, the effect of spatial discretization are studied by discussing simulation results for various spatially discretized node systems. The discussion on the node configuration uncertainty will be presented by examples of SUbcooled BOiling (SUBO) test simulation and Loss Of Fluid Test (LOFT) simulation using Multi-dimensional Analysis of Reactor Safety (MARS) code developed in South Korea. From SUBO test simulation, it was found that when the number of nodes is small than the node configuration uncertainty can overwhelm the uncertainty from the physical model. From LOFT simulation, it was revealed that the node configuration can cause bifurcation in the complex nuclear system analyses. Thus, it is concluded that the node configuration uncertainty can be quite significant and has to be considered in the nuclear system analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]