• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.156-160
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• 2016

Background: Workers in pesticide manufacturing industries are constantly exposed to pesticides. Genetic biomonitoring provides an early identification of potential cancer and genetic diseases in exposed populations. The objectives of this biomonitoring study were to assess DNA damage through comet assay in blood samples collected from industry workers and compare these results with those of classical analytical techniques used for complete blood count analysis. Methods: Samples from controls (n = 20) and exposed workers (n = 38) from an industrial area in Multan, Pakistan, were subjected to various tests. Malathion residues in blood samples were measured by gas chromatography. Results: The exposed workers who were employed in the pesticide manufacturing industry for a longer period (i.e., 13-25 years) had significantly higher DNA tail length ($7.04{\mu}m$) than the controls ($0.94{\mu}m$). Workers in the exposed group also had higher white blood cell and red blood cell counts, and lower levels of mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), MCH concentration, and mean corpuscular volume in comparison with normal levels for these parameters. Malathion was not detected in the control group. However, in the exposed group, 72% of whole blood samples had malathion with a mean value of 0.14 mg/L (range 0.01-0.31 mg/L). Conclusion: We found a strong correlation ($R^2=0.91$) between DNA damage in terms of tail length and malathion concentration in blood. Intensive efforts and trainings are thus required to build awareness about safety practices and to change industrial workers' attitude to prevent harmful environmental and anthropogenic effects.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.357-364
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• 2018

Fly ash is a material used as a concrete admixture. When fly ash is used for concrete manufacturing, it is expected to improve the performance such as reduction of cement usage and increase of chemical resistance. However, fly ash have some problems such as unburned carbon content and amorphous film on the surface of fly ash particles. When concrete is manufactured using fly ash containing a large amount of unburned carbon, there is a problem that the slump is lowered due to adsorption of AE agent. In addition, the amorphous film on the surface of the particles prevents the reactive substances from leaching out of the fly ash. Therefore, a method of surface treatment of fly ash using plasma has been studied to remove such unburned carbon and amorphous films. However, plasma has the problem that $O_3$ is generated when $O_2$ is used as an active gas. $O_3$ is a harmful substance and adversely affects the health of the experimenter. In this study, the surface of fly ash was treatment by arc discharge. Experimental results show that the unburned carbon is removed when the surface of fly ash is treatment by arc discharge and the amorphous film was broken and the reactivity was improved. Therefore, it is considered that arc discharge can treatment the surface of fly ash and improve the quality of fly ash.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.624-629
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• 2022

Formaldehyde is an indoor pollutant that is harmful to humans, such as causing respiratory and skin diseases. Nitrogen plasma treatment was performed to introduce nitrogen groups on the surface of the activated carbon fibers (ACFs), and the adsorption characteristics of formaldehyde for the surface-modified ACFs were considered. As the nitrogen gas flow rate increased, the content of nitrogen functional groups introduced to the surface of the ACFs increased by about 7%, and the ratio of nitrogen functional groups to each type present was similar. Ultramicropores increased on the ACFs surface due to the etching effect of plasma treatment. The adsorption efficiency of formaldehyde on the modified ACFs surface was also enhanced. However, under the nitrogen flow rate of 120 sccm or more, the surface of the ACFs was excessively etched, and the specific surface area and the formaldehyde adsorption capacity decreased. Therefore, the content of the nitrogen groups is the main factor in the adsorption of formaldehyde on the nitrogen plasma-treated ACFs, but it can be found that the adsorption efficiency of formaldehyde is improved when the ACFs have a suitable pore structure.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.62-67
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• 2023

Due to the prolonged impact of COVID-19, the demand for Information Technology (IT) products is increasing, and their production facilities are expanded. Consequently, the use of harmful and dangerous chemicals are increased, the risk of fire(s) and explosion(s) is also elevated. In order to mitigate these risks, the government sets standards, such as KS C IEC 60079-10-1, and manages explosion-prone hazardous facilities where flammable substances are manufactured, used, and handled. However, using the standards of KS, it is difficult to predict the actual possibility of an explosion in a facility, because ventilation (an important factor) is not considered when setting up a hazardous work environment. In this study, the SEMI S6, Tracer Gas Test was applied to the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) facility, a major part of the display industry, to evaluate ventilation performance and to confirm the possibility of creating a less explosive environment. Based on the results, it was confirmed that the ventilation performance in the assumed scenarios met the standards stipulated in SEMI S6, along with supporting the possibility of creating a less explosive working condition. Therefore, it is recommended to use the prediction tool using engineering techniques, as well as KS standards, in such hazardous environments to prevent accidents and/or reduce economic burden following accidents.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.59-67
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• 2023

Background: This study aims to reevaluate natural radiation exposure, following up on our previous study conducted in 2019, and to assess the associated risk of lung cancer to the public residing in the gold mining areas of Betare-Oya, east Cameroon, and its vicinity. Materials and Methods: Gamma-ray spectra collected using a 7.62 cm×7.62 cm in NaI(Tl) scintillation spectrometer during a car-borne survey, in situ measurements and laboratory measurements performed in previous studies were used to determine the outdoor absorbed dose rate in air to evaluate the annual external dose inhaled by the public. For determining internal exposure, radon gas concentrations were measured and used to estimate the inhalation dose while considering the inhalation of radon and its decay products. Results and Discussion: The mean value of the laboratory-measured outdoor gamma dose rate was 47 nGy/hr, which agrees with our previous results (44 nGy/hr) recorded through direct measurements (in situ and car-borne survey). The resulting annual external dose (0.29±0.09 mSv/yr) obtained is similar to that of the previous study (0.33±0.03 mSv/yr). The total inhalation dose resulting from radon isotopes and their decay products ranged between 1.96 and 9.63 mSv/yr with an arithmetic mean of 3.95±1.65 mSv/yr. The resulting excess lung cancer risk was estimated; it ranged from 62 to 216 excess deaths per million persons per year (MPY), 81 to 243 excess deaths per MPY, or 135 excess deaths per MPY, based on whether risk factors reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, United Nations Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation, or International Commission on Radiological Protection were used, respectively. These values are more than double the world average values reported by the same agencies. Conclusion: There is an elevated level of risk of lung cancer from indoor radon in locations close to the Betare-Oya gold mining region in east Cameroon. Therefore, educating the public on the harmful effects of radon exposure and considering some remedial actions for protection against radon and its progenies is necessary.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.500-509
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• 2014

To prevent freezing of the road by fallen snow, Calcium chloride($CaCl_2$) as a deicer is used to very often and it can be harmful to roadside trees. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Calcium chloride($CaCl_2$) as a deicer on growth and physiological traits of Acer triflorum according to different concentration of $CaCl_2$. We measured growth, chlorophyll contents, gas exchangement characteristics, chlorophyll fluorescence and mineral nutrition concentration in plant and soil. The experimental group was composed of four treatments including 0mM(control), 9mM(0.5 %), 18mM(1.0 %), 54mM(3.0 %). Before germinating new shoot, the dissolution of $CaCl_2$ was irrigated twice interval of a week. At 30 days after treatment, all treatments decreased total cholorophyll content, photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and photochemical efficiency($F_v/F_m$) with increasing concentration of $CaCl_2$ and especially, they significantly reduced in 3.0 % treatment. In contrast, chlorophyll a/b ratio increased with an increase of $CaCl_2$ concentration and water use efficiency increased in 1.0 % and 3.0 % treatments. At 50 days after treatment, all treatments were decreased in chl a, chl b, total chlorophyll content, carotenoid content, photosynthetic capacity, photochemical efficiency($F_v/F_m$) and quantum yield of photosystem II(${\Phi}_{PSII}$) compared with control and 3.0 % treatments were withered. $Ca^{2+}$ and $Cl^-$ were accumulated in leaves and soil, which inhibited water absorption and electron transport and it caused the reduction of height growth rate more than 50 %. Although there was a little difference according to time and $CaCl_2$ concentration, all treatments decreased in growth rate and physiological activity slowed down. As time passed, these results got worse. Therefore we need to take a measure earlier in order to minimize damage of trees.

• Fiber Technology and Industry
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.490-508
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• 1998

One of the latest fields of research in the area of output devices is tactual display devices [13,31]. These tactual or haptic devices allow the user to receive haptic feedback output from a variety of sources. This allows the user to actually feel virtual objects and manipulate them by touch. This is an emerging technology and will be instrumental in enhancing the realism of wearable augmented environments for certain applications. Tactual displays have previously been used for scientific visualization in virtual environments by chemists and engineers to improve perception and understanding of force fields and of world models populated with the impenetrable. In addition to tactual displays, the use of wearable audio displays that allow sound to be spatialized are being developed. With wearable computers, designers will soon be able to pair spatialized sound to virtual representations of objects when appropriate to make the wearable computer experience even more realistic to the user. Furthermore, as the number and complexity of wearable computing applications continues to grow, there will be increasing needs for systems that are faster, lighter, and have higher resolution displays. Better networking technology will also need to be developed to allow all users of wearable computers to have high bandwidth connections for real time information gathering and collaboration. In addition to the technology advances that make users need to wear computers in everyday life, there is also the desire to have users want to wear their computers. In order to do this, wearable computing needs to be unobtrusive and socially acceptable. By making wearables smaller and lighter, or actually embedding them in clothing, users can conceal them easily and wear them comfortably. The military is currently working on the development of the Personal Information Carrier (PIC) or digital dog tag. The PIC is a small electronic storage device containing medical information about the wearer. While old military dog tags contained only 5 lines of information, the digital tags may contain volumes of multi-media information including medical history, X-rays, and cardiograms. Using hand held devices in the field, medics would be able to call this information up in real time for better treatment. A fully functional transmittable device is still years off, but this technology once developed in the military, could be adapted tp civilian users and provide ant information, medical or otherwise, in a portable, not obstructive, and fashionable way. Another future device that could increase safety and well being of its users is the nose on-a-chip developed by the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. This tiny digital silicon chip about the size of a dime, is capable of 'smelling' natural gas leaks in stoves, heaters, and other appliances. It can also detect dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. This device can also be configured to notify the fire department when a leak is detected. This nose chip should be commercially available within 2 years, and is inexpensive, requires low power, and is very sensitive. Along with gas detection capabilities, this device may someday also be configured to detect smoke and other harmful gases. By embedding this chip into workers uniforms, name tags, etc., this could be a lifesaving computational accessory. In addition to the future safety technology soon to be available as accessories are devices that are for entertainment and security. The LCI computer group is developing a Smartpen, that electronically verifies a user's signature. With the increase in credit card use and the rise in forgeries, is the need for commercial industries to constantly verify signatures. This Smartpen writes like a normal pen but uses sensors to detect the motion of the pen as the user signs their name to authenticate the signature. This computational accessory should be available in 1999, and would bring increased peace of mind to consumers and vendors alike. In the entertainment domain, Panasonic is creating the first portable hand-held DVD player. This device weight less than 3 pounds and has a screen about 6' across. The color LCD has the same 16:9 aspect ratio of a cinema screen and supports a high resolution of 280,000 pixels and stereo sound. The player can play standard DVD movies and has a hour battery life for mobile use. To summarize, in this paper we presented concepts related to the design and use of wearable computers with extensions to smart spaces. For some time, researchers in telerobotics have used computer graphics to enhance remote scenes. Recent advances in augmented reality displays make it possible to enhance the user's local environment with 'information'. As shown in this paper, there are many application areas for this technology such as medicine, manufacturing, training, and recreation. Wearable computers allow a much closer association of information with the user. By embedding sensors in the wearable to allow it to see what the user sees, hear what the user hears, sense the user's physical state, and analyze what the user is typing, an intelligent agent may be able to analyze what the user is doing and try to predict the resources he will need next or in the near future. Using this information, the agent may download files, reserve communications bandwidth, post reminders, or automatically send updates to colleagues to help facilitate the user's daily interactions. This intelligent wearable computer would be able to act as a personal assistant, who is always around, knows the user's personal preferences and tastes, and tries to streamline interactions with the rest of the world.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.201-210
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• 2019

Recently, due to the efforts to mitigate traffic congestion and expansion of space efficiency, the construction of underground roads has been increased in big-scale cities. Since tunnels in the city have a higher chance for a fire leading to a great tragedy during a severe traffic jam than mountain tunnels, it is highly likely that it will be constructed as a tunnel, having a small cross section, for small vehicles. However, if they are constructed as such small-vehicle tunnels, it would be possible to reduce the design fire intensity while the concentration of harmful gases would increase due to a reduction in the small cross sectional area, led by a decrease in the tunnel height. In this study, behaviors of fire smoke by the installation interval and format of large-scale exhaust-gas ports were examined and compared in the analysis of temperatures and CO concentrations of a tunnel and its results were as the following. Although there were no significant differences in the smoke spreading distance between installation intervals, but in this study, 100 m was found to be the most effective installation interval. The smoke exhaustion performance was found to be excellent in the order of $4m{\times}3m$, $6m{\times}2m$, and $3m{\times}2m$ (2 lane) of the smoke spreading distance. Although there was no significant difference in the smoke spreading distance between formats of large-scale exhaust-gas ports, it was found that the smoke spreading distance was larger than other cases when it was $3m{\times}2m$ in the fire growing process. The analysis of smoke spreading distances by the aspect ratio showed that a smoke spreading distance was shorted when its the smoke spreading distance was found to be shorter when its traverse distance was relatively longer than its longitudinal distance.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2022

Plasma refers to an ionized gas that is often referred to as "the fourth phase of matter", following solid, liquid, and gas. Plasma has traditionally been utilized for industrial applications such as welding and neon signs, but its promise in biomedical fields such as cancer treatment and dermatology has lately been recognized. Indeed, due to its beneficial effects in promoting collagen production, improving skin tone, and eliminating harmful bacteria in the skin, plasma treatment constitutes an important target for dermatological research. In this study, a plasma device for cosmetic manufacturing based on nitrogen, the main component of the atmosphere, was designed and assembled. Moreover, nitric oxide (NO) was selected since is easier to follow and evaluate than other nitrogen plasma active species, and its contents were measured to perform a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of plasma. First, an injection method, using different proximities labeled "sinking" and "non sinking" treatments, was performed to test the most efficient plasma treatment method. As a result, it was observed that the formulation obtained by a non sinking treatment was more effective. Furthermore, toner and ampoule were selected as cosmetics formulations, and the characteristics of the formulation and changes in the injected plasma state were observed. In both formulations, the successful injection of NO plasma was 2 times higher in toner formulation than ampoule formulation, and it gradually decreased with time, having dissipated after a week. It was confirmed that the nitrogen plasma used did not affect the stability of the toner and ampoule formulations at low temperature (4 ℃), room temperature (25 ℃), and high temperature (37 ℃ and 50 ℃) conditions. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of plasma cosmetics and highlight the importance of securing the stability of the injected plasma.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.214-223
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• 2013

BACKGROUND: This study focused on the development of an analytical method about dichlorprop (DCPP; 2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)propionic acid) which is a plant growth regulator, a synthetic auxin for agricultural commodities. DCPP prevents falling of fruits during their growth periods. However, the overdose of DCPP caused the unwanted maturing time and reduce the safe storage period. If we take fruits with exceeding maximum residue limits, it could be harmful. Therefore, this study presented the analytical method of DCPP in agricultural commodities for the nation-wide pesticide residues monitoring program of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. METHODS AND RESULTS: We adopted the analytical method for DCPP in agricultural commodities by gas chromatograph in cooperated with Electron Capture Detector(ECD). Sample extraction and purification by ion-associated partition method were applied, then quantitation was done by GC/ECD with DB-17, a moderate polarity column under the temperature-rising condition with nitrogen as a carrier gas and split-less mode. Standard calibration curve presented linearity with the correlation coefficient ($r^2$) > 0.9998, analysed from 0.1 to 2.0 mg/L concentration. Limit of quantitation in agricultural commodities represents 0.05 mg/kg, and average recoveries ranged from 78.8 to 102.2%. The repeatability of measurements expressed as coefficient of variation (CV %) was less than 9.5% in 0.05, 0.10, and 0.50 mg/kg. CONCLUSION(S): Our newly improved analytical method for DCPP residues in agricultural commodities was applicable to the nation-wide pesticide residues monitoring program with the acceptable level of sensitivity, repeatability and reproducibility.