• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.205-211
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• 2017

Background: Radiation is used in a variety of areas, but it also poses potential risks. Although radiation is often used with great effectiveness in many applications, people perceive potential risks associated with radiation and feel anxious about the possibility of radiation exposure. Various methods of measuring radiation doses have been developed, but there is no way for the general public to measure their doses with ease. Currently, many people use smartphones, which provide information about the location of an individual phone through network connections. If a smartphone application could be developed for measuring radiation dosage, it would be a very effective way to measure individuals' radiation doses. Thus, we conducted a survey study to assess the social acceptance of such a technology by the general public and their intent to use that technology to measure radiation doses, as well as to investigate whether such an intention is correlated with anxiety and attitudes toward the use of radiation. Materials and Methods: A nationwide online survey was conducted among 355 Koreans who were 20 years old or older. Results and Discussion: Significant differences were found between the genders in attitudes, perceptions of radiation risk, and fears of exposure to radiation. However, a significant difference according to age was observed only in the intent to use a smartphone dose measurement application. Attitudes towards the use of radiation exerted a negative effect on radiation risk perception and exposure anxiety, whereas attitudes towards the use of radiation, risk perception, and anxiety about exposure were found to have a positive impact on the intent to use a smartphone application for dose measurements. Conclusion: A survey-based study was conducted to investigate how the general public perceives radiation and to examine the acceptability of a smartphone application as a personal dose monitoring device. If such an application is developed, it could be used not only to monitor an individual's dose, but also to contribute to radiation safety information infrastructure by mapping radiation in different areas, which could be utilized as a useful basis for radiation research.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1874-1879
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• 2024

Owing to strict radiation safety management in Korean nuclear power plants (NPPs), most radiation workers receive very low radiation doses, even lower than the annual dose limit for the general public. However, the occupational dose distribution indicates that some Korean NPP workers receive a relatively higher dose than the average dose. This inequity in radiation exposure could be reduced by providing customized radiation protection measures, such as dose constraints, to workers receiving relatively higher doses. In this study, dose normalization was performed to identify the highest radiation exposure work in Korean pressurized water reactors (PWRs). The results show that most of the occupational exposure in Korean PWRs occurs during the planned maintenance period. Finally, the three highest radiation exposure tasks in Korean PWRs were identified: nozzle dam installation and removal, eddy current testing, and man-way opening and closing.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 1982

Authors made an experiment to know the relation of surface doses and multiple factors of exposure by using grids, fields, tube voltages objects and distances and obtained the results as follows: 1. Surface doses were increased in proportion to the thickness of objects. 2. Surface doses were more influenced when irradiated fields were small and tube voltages were low. 3. Surface doses were a logarthmic proportion to the focus-object distance. 4. Multiple factors of exposure by using grid were under the control of the thickness of objects, irradiated fields and tube voltages but the relation of them were not fixed.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.203-208
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• 2005

Thioacetamide (TA) is potent haptotoxincant that requires metabolic activation by mixed-function oxidases. Micrcarray technology, which is massive parallel gene expression profiling in a single hybridization experiment, has provided as a powerful molecular genetic tool for biological system related toxicant. In this study we focus on the use of toxicogenomics for the determination of gene expression analysis associated with hepatotoxicity in rat liver epithelial cell line WB-F344 (WB). The WB cells was used to assess the toxic effects of TA. WB cells were exposed to two concentrations of TA-doses which caused 20% and 50% cell death were chosen and the cells exposed for periods of 2 and 24 h. Our data revealed that following the 2-h exposure at the both of doses and 24-h exposure at the low doses, few changes in gene expression were detected. However, after 24-h exposure of the cells to the high concentration, multiple changes in gene expression were observed. TA treatment gave rise predominantly to up-regulation of genes involved in cell cycle and cell death, but down-regulation of genes involves in cell adhesion and calcium ion binding. Exposure of WB cells to higher doses of the TA gave rise to more changes in gene expression at lower exposure times. These results show that TA regulates expression of numerous genes via direct molecular signaling mechanisms in liver cells.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.170-179
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• 2017

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the occupational radiation exposures of emergency medical technicians(EMTs) in emergency medical centers in Korea. The results will provide a basis for developing prevention programs to minimize adverse health effects relating to radiation exposure among emergency medical technicians working in this area. Methods: Radiation exposure doses were measured for twenty-two EMTs working in six emergency medical centers. Thermo Luminescent Dosimeters(TLD) were placed on three representative body parts, including chest, neck, and a finger. Measurements were conducted over the entire working hours of the participants for foor weeks. Dosimeters were analyzed according to a standard method by a KFDA-designated lab. Detection rate, annual radiation exposure dose, and relative levels to dose limit were derived based on the measured doses from the dosimeters. SPSS/Win 18.0 software(IBM, US) was used for statistical analysis. Results: Detection rates were 45.5%, 36.4%, and 45.5% for the dosimeters sampled from chest, neck, and a finger, respectively. The average annual doses were $2.39{\pm}3.44mSv/year$(range 0.38-10.0 mSv/year) for the chest, $2.72{\pm}3.05mSv/year$(2.00-11.34) for the neck, and $20.98{\pm}17.57mSv/year$(1.25-53.50) for the hand dose. The average annual eye dose was estimated to $3.61{\pm}2.37mSv/year$(1.50-8.34). The exposure dose levels of EMTs were comparable to those of radiologists, who showed relatively higher radiation dose among health care workers, as reported in another study. Conclusions: EMTs working in emergency medical centers are considered to be at risk of radiation exposure. Although the radiation exposure dose of EMTs does not exceed the dose limit, it is not negligible comparing to other professionals in health care sectors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.987-994
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• 2019

Low energy x-rays that occur in the low tube voltage radiography of general radiography are absorbed strongly in the body and do not aid image quality enhancement. This study maintains titer in general radiography while using tube current that are proportional to density and the tube voltage 15% principle according to density to reduce patient exposure doses, and area doses and entrance surface doses were measured to compare patient exposure doses. In hand, knee, abdomen, and skull radiography, kVp was increased to 115% and mAs was decreased to 50% and kVp was decreased to 85% while mAs was increased to 200% and area doses and entrance surface doses were measured to compare relative doses. Also, 5 places in each image were set, density was measured, and Kruskal wallis H test was conducted to observe significance probabilities between groups. To fix density, kVp was increased to 115% and mAs was decreased to 50% and after measurements of mean area doses and entrance surface doses were made by each part, each decreased to 58.68% and 59.85% when standard doses were set to 100%, and each increased to 147.28% and 159.9% when kVp was decreased to 85% and mAs was increased to 200%. Comparisons of density changes showed that hand, knee, abdomen, and skull radiography all displayed significance probabilities>0.05, showing no changes in concentration. Radiography that increases kVp and lowers mAs through reasonable calculations within ranges that don't affect resolution and contrast seems to be a simple way to decrease patient exposure doses.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 2015

Research and investigation is required for the exposure dose of radiation workers to work in the dental hospital as increasing interest in exposure dose of the dental hospital recently accordingly, study aim to minimize radiation exposure by making a follow-up study of individual exposure doses of radiation workers, analyzing the status on individual radiation exposure management, prediction the radiation disability risk levels by radiation, and alerting the workers to the danger of radiation exposure. Especially given the changes in the dental hospital radiation safety awareness conducted the study in order to minimize radiation exposure. This study performed analyses by a comparison between general and dental hospital, comparing each occupation, with the 116,220 exposure dose data by quarter and year of 5,811 subjects at general and dental hospital across South Korea from January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2012. The following are the results obtained by analyzing average values year and quarter. In term of hospital, average doses were significantly higer in general hospitals than detal ones. In terms of job, average doses were higher in radiological technologists the other workes. Especially, they showed statistically significant differences between radiological technologists than dentists. The above-mentioned results indicate that radiation workers were exposed to radiation for the past 5 years to the extent not exceeding the dose limit (maximum $50mSv\;y^{-1}$). The limitation of this study is that radiation workers before 2008 were excluded from the study. Objective evaluation standards did not apply to the work circumstance or condition of each hospital. Therefore, it is deemed necessary to work out analysis criteria that will be used as objective evaluation standard. It will be necessary to study radiation exposure in more precise ways on the basis of objective analysis standard in the furture. Should try to minimize the radiation individual dose of radiation workers.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.442-444
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• 2002

Seedlings of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L. "King of Denmark" and "Minsterland") were grown with or without supplemental UV-B under field conditions for five or nine days when their fifth or sixth leaves were expanding. Except two leaves which were just expanded and expanding, all other leaves of each seedling were removed before tested. One of these two leaves was exposed to UV-B irradiation and the other leaf was covered with lumiror film (no transmission below 320 nm) to prevent it from UV-B exposure. l,l-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl scavenging activities (antioxidative activity) in leaves without covers were increased according to UV-B doses they were exposed to. And removal of UV-B exposure with lumiror decreased foliage antioxidative activities. This increase or decrease of activities in leaves did not dependent on the UV-B doses their paired leaves were exposed to in both two cultivars. The results demonstrated that spinach foliage antioxidants induced by UV-B exposure were not transported into another leaf.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2652-2660
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• 2021

The gamma-ray exposure doses in decontamination operation after a nuclear accident were evaluated with a consideration of various geometrical conditions and specific gamma-ray energies. The calculation domain is organized with three residence types and each form is divided into two kinds of geometrical arrangements. The position-wise air KERMA values were calculated with an assumption of evenly distributed gamma-ray source based on Monte Carlo radiation transport analysis using the MCNP code. The radioactivity is initially set to be unity to be multiplied by the deposition value measured in the actual accident condition. The workforce data set depending on the target object was determined by modifying the Fukushima report. The external exposure doses for decontamination workers were derived from the calculated KERMA values and the workforce analysis. These results can be used to efficiently determine the workforce required by the characteristics of the area and the structure to be decontaminated within the dose limits.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.167-175
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate airborne radon and thoron levels and estimate the effective doses of workers who made household goods and mattresses using monazite. Methods: Airborne radon and thoron concentrations were measured using continuous monitors (Rad7, Durridge Company Inc., USA). Radon and thoron concentrations in the air were converted to radon doses using the dose conversion factor recommended by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission in Korea. External exposure to gamma rays was measured at the chest height of a worker from the source using real-time radiation instruments, a survey meter (RadiagemTM 2000, Canberra Industries, Inc., USA), and an ion chamber (OD-01 Hx, STEP Co., Germany). Results: When using monazite, the average concentration range of radon was $13.1-97.8Bq/m^3$ and thoron was $210.1-841.4Bq/m^3$. When monazite was not used, the average concentration range of radon was $2.6-10.8Bq/m^3$ and the maximum was $1.7-66.2Bq/m^3$. Since monazite has a higher content of thorium than uranium, the effects of thoron should be considered. The effective doses of radon and thoron as calculated by the dose conversion factor based on ICRP 115 were 0.26 mSv/yr and 0.76 mSv/yr, respectively, at their maximum values. The external radiation dose rate was $6.7{\mu}Sv/hr$ at chest height and the effective dose was 4.3 mSv/yr at the maximum. Conclusions: Regardless of the use of monazite, the total annual effective doses due to internal and external exposure were 0.03-4.42 mSv/yr. Exposures to levels higher than this value are indicated if dose conversion factors based on the recently published ICRP 137 are applied.