• Title/Summary/Keyword: Risk assessment.

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Assessment of the Usefulness of an IMRT Plan Using a Shell-Type Pseudo Target with Patients in Stage III or IV of NSCLC (비소세포폐암 III, IV기 환자에 있어서 Shell-Type Pseudo Target을 이용한 세기 조절 방사선치료계획기법의 유용성 평가)

  • Lee, Sang-Bong;Park, Ki-Ju;Park, Du-Chan;Kim, Man-Wo;Kim, Jun-Gon;Noh, Sung-Hwan
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.95-106
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    • 2012
  • Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the usefulness of an IMRT treatment plan according to whether there was a shell-type pseudo target during radiation therapy for patients in Stage III or IV of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and Methods: After setting an IMRT (Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy, IMRT) plan for when there was a shell-type pseudo target (SPT) and when there was none (WSPT) with 22 patients in Stage III or IV of NSCLC, the investigator analyzed dose-volume histograms (DVHs) and made assessment with dosimetric comparisons such as homogeneity index (HI) inside the tumor target, conformity index (CI) of the tumor target, spinal cord maximum dose, Esophagus $V_{50%}$, mean lung dose (MLD), and $V_{40%}$, $V_{30%}$, $V_{20%}$, $V_{10%}$, $V_{5%}$. Results: The mean CI of WSPT and SPT was $1.22{\pm}0.04$ and $1.16{\pm}0.032$ ($.000^*$), respectively, and the mean HI of WSPT and SPT was $1.06{\pm}0.015$ and $1.07{\pm}0.014$ ($.000^*$), respectively. In SPT, the mean of each CI difference decreased by $-5.16{\pm}2.54%$, while HI increased by average $0.81{\pm}0.47%$. Esophagus $V_{50%}$ recorded $14.54{\pm}12.01%$ (WSPT) and $12.14{\pm}11.09%$ ($.000^*$, SPT) with the mean of SPT differences dropping by $-26.37{\pm}25.05%$. Mean spinal cord maximum dose was $3,898.44{\pm}1,075.0$ cGy (WSPT) and $3,810.8{\pm}1,134.9$ cGy ($.004^*$, SPT) with SPT dropping by average $-3.36{\pm}5.81%$. As for lung $V_{X%}$, the mean of $V_{5%}$ and $V_{10%}$ differences was $-1.62{\pm}2.29%$ ($.006^*$) and $-1.98{\pm}5.02%$ ($.005^*$), respectively with SPT making a decrease. The mean of V20%, V30%, and V40% differences was $-3.51{\pm}3.07%$ ($.000^*$), $-4.84{\pm}6.01%$ ($.000^*$), and $-6.16{\pm}8.46%$ ($.001^*$), respectively, with SPT making a decrease with statistical significance. In MLD assessment, SPT also dropped by average $-2.83{\pm}2.41%$ ($.000^*$). Those results show that SPT allows for mean 169 cGy (Max: 547 cGy, Min: 6.4 cGy) prescription dose. Conclusion: An IMRT treatment plan with SPT during radiation therapy for patients in Stage III or IV of NSCLC will help to reduce the risk of lung toxicity and radiation-induced pneumonia by cutting down radiation doses entering the normal lung, reduce the local control failure rate during radiation therapy due to increasing prescription doses to a certain degree, and increase treatment effects.

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Clinical Assessment and Cephalometric Characteristics in Patients with Condylar Resorption (하악과두흡수 환자의 임상적 평가 및 악안면 골격형태에 대한 연구)

  • Koo, Seon-Ju;Kim, Kyun-Yo;Hur, Yun-Kyung;Chae, Jong-Moon;Choi, Jae-Kap
    • Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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    • v.34 no.1
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    • pp.91-102
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    • 2009
  • Condylar resorption, or condylysis can be defined as progressive alteration of condylar shape and decrease in mass. Condylar resorption is a poorly understood progressive disease that affects the TMJ and that can result in malocclusion, facial disfigurement, TMJ dysfunction, and pain. The aim of this study was to investigate clinical assessment and cephalometric characteristics in 224 patients with condylar resorption, who visited in the Department of Oral Medicine Kyungpook National University Hospital at 2006, by use of panorama, transcranial view and lateral cephalometric radiograph. The results were as follows; 1. Clinical assessment 1) Total number of patients who visited with chief complaints of TMD were 2419 and 224 (9.3%) among them revealed the condylar resorption, Among patients group with condylar resorption, female was 183 and male was 41, females were predominant. 2) Patient's age ranged from 12 to 70 and mean age was 30.6 years old with a strong predominance for 10s and 20s. Distribution of a showed as follows; 10s was 26.3%, 20s was 34,8%, 30s was 13.8%, 40s was 11.2%, 50s was 7.1%, 60s was 6.3% and 70s was 0.4%. 3) Most of the patients had parafunctional habit. 4) The case of showing the pain in condylar resorption was 145, the case of not showing the pain was 79. 5) Treatment duration of the patients was relatively short. 2. Cephalometric Characteristics 1) ANB which means the retruding of the mandible increased significantly than normal group. The ANB of female was lager than male group as the means of ANB were 5.05 in female and 3.57 in male, 2) SN-GoMe and FMA increased in resorption patients, but FH-PP did not show any significant difference. The FMA of female was lager than male group as the means were 31.69 in female and 30.44 in male. 3) Total posterior facial height was significantly smaller and total anterior facial height showed no significant increase as compared with those of the normal group. Condylar resorption was predominant in young female which was caused by more vertical facial pattern in female than male and increase of parafunctional habit in young age. It was thought that the patients who have a risk factor increasing the compressive stress at condyle caused by obliquely inclined masseter and medial pterygoid show high prevalence of condylar resorption.

Dietary Habits, Body Weight Satisfaction and Eating Disorders according to the Body Mass Index of Female University Students in Kyungnam Province (경남 지역 일부 여대생의 비만도에 따른 식습관, 체중 만족도 및 섭식 장애에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Kyung-Ae
    • Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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    • v.19 no.6
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    • pp.891-908
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    • 2009
  • This study was performed to investigate the dietary habits, body weight satisfaction and eating disorder tendencies of female university students in Kyungnam province. Anthropometric measurements, dietary habits, body weight satisfaction, food preferences, disordered eating, and nutrient intakes were assessed in 132 female students at Kaya University. The results were analyzed with $x^2$- and ANOVA tests using the SPSS package program. The average age of the subjects was 20.1 years and average body mass index (BMI) were $21.1\;kg/m^2$. According to BMI, the percentages of students who were underweight, normal weight and overweight by BMI were 21.2, 55.3, and 23.5, respectively. Duration of exercise was significantly different by BMI. Index scores for a mini dietary assessment were significantly higher in the normal and overweight groups than in the underweight group. Scores for sweet, salty, and meat preferences were highest and scores for bean and vegetable preferences were lowest, in the underweight group. Satisfaction for present body weight was lowest, and self-perception of body image and weight control experiences were highest in the overweight group. All subjects in the overweight group wanted to be slim, and those in the normal and underweight groups, preferred to be more slim despite their current body weight being in the normal or below normal range. The percentage of the subjects who were at risk for eating disorders (based on scores from the Eating Attitude Test-26, EAT-$26{\geqq}20$) was 11.3%. Scores for EAT-26 were higher in the overweight group than in the underweight and normal weight groups. Nutrient intakes were not different among the groups. Therefore, dietary habits, taste and food preferences, satisfaction for present body weight, and disordered eating were significantly different according to BMI. These results suggest that overweight female university students need help correcting disordered eating, and nutrition counseling should be established to aid desirable weight control methods. Those who are underweight and normal weight need help establishing proper perceptions of their normal body weight and body image as well as nutrition counseling for health.

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Status and Management Strategy of Pesticide Use in Golf Courses in Korea (우리나라 골프장의 농약사용 실태 및 관리방안)

  • Kim, Dongjin;Yoon, Jeongki;Yoo, Jiyoung;Kim, Su-Jung;Yang, Jae E.
    • Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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    • v.57 no.3
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    • pp.267-277
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    • 2014
  • Objective of this paper is to assess the available data on the pesticide uses and regulations in the golf courses, and provide the nationwide systematic management options. Numbers of golf courses in Korea are rapidly increasing from 2000s and reached at 421 sites by the end of 2011. Accordingly pesticide usage has been increased with years in direct proportion to the increasing number of golf courses. Amounts of pesticide applied in 2011 were 118,669 kg as of an active ingredient and were in the orders of fungicides (54.9%) > insecticides (24.4%) > herbicides (13.3%) > growth regulators (0.1%). Average pesticide usages in 2011 were 280.9 kg per golf course and $5.4kg\;ha^{-1}$. Frequencies of the residual pesticide detections in green and turf were higher than those in fairway and soil, respectively. Residue of highly toxic pesticides was not detected in golf courses. Ministry of Environment in 2010 has developed the 'golf course pesticide monitoring and management system' which is the advanced online registry for kind and amount of pesticides applied in each golf course. This system is intended for monitoring of the pesticide uses and residual levels and protecting the environmental pollution from pesticides in the golf course. In 2009, management of pesticides in the golf courses became the task of Ministry of Environment, being merged from many federal agency and ministries. The protocol for the site-specific best management practices, on which to base results from the risk assessment, should be set for pesticides in the golf to minimize the environmental impacts.

Bereavement Care of Hospice Services in Korea (국내 호스피스 기관의 사별 관리 실태)

  • Ro, You-Ja;An, Young-Lan
    • Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.126-135
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    • 2000
  • Purpose : To evaluate the present status of bereavement care in Korean hospice service as a basic database for the effective bereavement care. Method : The data were collected two sets from September to October, 1999 and from November to December, 2000, 55 hospice institutions identified by the Hospice Education Institution, College of Nursing, Catholic University were contacted for a telephone survey. The researchers conducted telephone interviews with hospice administrators for 10 to 30 minutes. Result : 1) Among the 55 Korean Hospice institutions, 38 institutions(69.1%) provided bereavement services. 2) The contents of bereavement services consisted of telephone call 28 institutions(74.5%), bereaved family meeting 26 institutions(69.4%), home visiting 22 institutions(57.9%), mail 16 institutions(42.1%), personal counselling 7 institutions(18.4%). 3) The 26 hospice institutions(68.4%) which provided meetings for bereaved families met with the following frequency : Annually is 11 institutions(42.3%), biannually 6 institutions(23.1%), monthly 6 institutions(23.1%) and bimonthly 3 institutions(11.5%). 4) Only 4 hospice institutions(10.5%) used the assessment tool to screen for high risk of bereaved. 5) The major difficulties of current bereavement services were low attendance for the bereaved family meeting, shortage of professional managers and volunteers, limited accessibility to hospice institutions, little social awareness for the bereaved, and financial difficulties. 6) The hospice administrators expressed the need for the development of bereavement program, the education program for the bereavement services, trained professionals, the sufficient provision of human resource and financial support for more effective bereavement services. Conclusion : Although many hospice institutions(69.1%) provided bereavement services, they generally lacked capable bereavement professionals and various individualized bereavement services. In conclusion, it is required to develop the specified bereavement program and the training program for the staff and volunteers, so as to provide customized bereavement services based on individual needs. Further research will be necessary to evaluate the effects of customized bereavement services in Korea before applying to practice.

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The Content of Heavy Metals in Herbal Pills Used as General Processed Food and Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Intakes (유통 환(丸)제품의 중금속 함량 및 위해성 평가)

  • Kim, Sung-Dan;Jung, Sun-Ok;Kim, Bog-Soon;Yun, Eun-Sun;Chang, Min-Su;Park, Young-Ae;Lee, Young-Chul;Chae, Young-Zoo;Kim, Min-Young
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.39 no.7
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    • pp.1038-1048
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    • 2010
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate some heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg) in 52 commercial herbal pills used as general processed food, to identify weekly heavy metal intakes from herbal pills and to evaluate their potential health risks. The samples were digested with a microwave and determinations of heavy metal residues were carried out by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and mercury analyzer. The mean values of heavy metal contents for herbal pills used as general processed food were Pb 0.421 (0.032~1.630), Cd 0.157 (0.011~0.515), Cr 1.033 (0.112~9.933), Cu 6.923 (1.333~16.755), Hg 0.010 (0.001~0.088) mg/kg. Lead contents of herba and cadmium of algae, herba were high (ANOVA-test, p<0.05). Levels of cadmium concentrations exceeding WHO reference values (0.3 mg/kg) were observed in 10 samples (4 species). The significant correlation was observed between Pb and Cd (r=0.633, p<0.01). The weekly intakes of Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg from herbal pills were 1.112 (0.072~5.088), 1.614 (0.029~9.257), 3.000 (0.252~23.690), 0.182 (0.008~1.235), 0.220 (0.000~0.420)%, respectively, as compared with the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) established by Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee for food safety evaluation. Our data suggest regulations limiting heavy metals in herbal pills used as general processed food.

A Study on Detection Methodology for Influential Areas in Social Network using Spatial Statistical Analysis Methods (공간통계분석기법을 이용한 소셜 네트워크 유력지역 탐색기법 연구)

  • Lee, Young Min;Park, Woo Jin;Yu, Ki Yun
    • Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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    • v.22 no.4
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    • pp.21-30
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    • 2014
  • Lately, new influentials have secured a large number of volunteers on social networks due to vitalization of various social media. There has been considerable research on these influential people in social networks but the research has limitations on location information of Location Based Social Network Service(LBSNS). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a spatial detection methodology and application plan for influentials who make comments about diverse social and cultural issues in LBSNS using spatial statistical analysis methods. Twitter was used to collect analysis object data and 168,040 Twitter messages were collected in Seoul over a month-long period. In addition, 'politics,' 'economy,' and 'IT' were set as categories and hot issue keywords as given categories. Therefore, it was possible to come up with an exposure index for searching influentials in respect to hot issue keywords, and exposure index by administrative units of Seoul was calculated through a spatial joint operation. Moreover, an influential index that considers the spatial dependence of the exposure index was drawn to extract information on the influential areas at the top 5% of the influential index and analyze the spatial distribution characteristics and spatial correlation. The experimental results demonstrated that spatial correlation coefficient was relatively high at more than 0.3 in same categories, and correlation coefficient between politics category and economy category was also more than 0.3. On the other hand, correlation coefficient between politics category and IT category was very low at 0.18, and between economy category and IT category was also very weak at 0.15. This study has a significance for materialization of influentials from spatial information perspective, and can be usefully utilized in the field of gCRM in the future.

Evaluation of Fish Acute Toxicity and Preliminary Risk Assessment of Plant Extracts, Sophora, Neem and Derris (유기농업자재 고삼, 님 및 데리스 추출물의 어류에 대한 독성과 위해성 평가)

  • Park, Kyung-Hun;Oh, Jin-A;Paik, Min-Kyoung;Son, Mi-Yeon;Lim, Joung-Taek;Jin, Jung-hwa;Hong, Soonsung;Cho, Nam-jun;Han, Sang-Gyun;Kim, Byung-Seok
    • The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.255-263
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    • 2015
  • Promoting the organic farming, much of the plant extracts used for controlling pests and fungi have been imported from China, India and Myanmar. But, it is so worrisome that aquatic animals such as muddy loach inhabiting in paddy field and common carps in river exposed to the pests and fungi likely be harmed. This study was conducted in order to evaluate the risks of aquatic animals influenced by the three plant extracts, i.e. Sophora flavescens, Azadirachta indica and Derris elliptica. The toxicities of common carp (Cyprinus Carpio), muddy loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) and PEC (Predicted environmental concentration) exposed to the three plant extracts were estimated by the typical spray volume method. Risks were determined by the toxicity value as 48-hr $LC_{50}$ (Lethal concentration, median) or NOEC (No observed effect concentration) into PEC. 48-hr $LC_{50}$ of Common carp and NOEC by Sophora flavescens extracts was 7.9 and 6.2 mg/L, 26.8 and 21.8 mg/L by Azadirachta indica extracts and 47.0 and < 24.0 mg/L by Derris elliptica extracts, respectively. 48-hr $LC_{50}$ of Muddy loach and NOEC by Sophora flavescens extracts was 16.9 and 10.0 mg/L, 35.6 and 30.0 mg/L by Azadirachta indica extracts, and 73.9 and < 40 mg/L by Derris elliptica extracts, respectively. Therefore, acute toxicities of the three plant extracts for aquatic animals were proved to be very low level. PEC of Sophora flavescens extracts in paddy, drainage and river water was 68.0~3.0, 11.33~0.50 and 3.0~0.0018 mg/L, respectively. TER of Sophora flavescens extracts in the three water was 0.2~5.6, 1.5~33.8 and 2.6~4388.9, respectively. PEC of Azadirachta indica extracts in paddy, drainage and river water was 90.9~1.2, 15.2~0.2 and 4.8~0.00075 mg/L, respectively. TER of Azadirachta indica extracts in the three water was 0.4~29.7, 2.3~178.0 and 4.5~35733.3, respectively. PEC of Derris elliptica extracts in river water was 0.0063 mg/L. TER of Derris elliptica extracts in river water was 5222~15667.

Development of QSAR Model Based on the Key Molecular Descriptors Selection and Computational Toxicology for Prediction of Toxicity of PCBs (PCBs 독성 예측을 위한 주요 분자표현자 선택 기법 및 계산독성학 기반 QSAR 모델 개발)

  • Kim, Dongwoo;Lee, Seungchel;Kim, Minjeong;Lee, Eunji;Yoo, ChangKyoo
    • Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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    • v.54 no.5
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    • pp.621-629
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    • 2016
  • Recently, the researches on quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) for describing toxicities or activities of chemicals based on chemical structural characteristics have been widely carried out in order to estimate the toxicity of chemicals in multiuse facilities. Because the toxicity of chemicals are explained by various kinds of molecular descriptors, an important step for QSAR model development is how to select significant molecular descriptors. This research proposes a statistical selection of significant molecular descriptors and a new QSAR model based on partial least square (PLS). The proposed QSAR model is applied to estimate the logarithm of partition coefficients (log P) of 130 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and lethal concentration ($LC_{50}$) of 14 PCBs, where the prediction accuracies of the proposed QSAR model are compared to a conventional QSAR model provided by OECD QSAR toolbox. For the selection of significant molecular descriptors that have high correlation with molecular descriptors and activity information of the chemicals of interest, correlation coefficient (r) and variable importance of projection (VIP) are applied and then PLS model of the selected molecular descriptors and activity information is used to predict toxicities and activity information of chemicals. In the prediction results of coefficient of regression ($R^2$) and prediction residual error sum of square (PRESS), the proposed QSAR model showed improved prediction performances of log P and $LC_{50}$ by 26% and 91% than the conventional QSAR model, respectively. The proposed QSAR method based on computational toxicology can improve the prediction performance of the toxicities and the activity information of chemicals, which can contribute to the health and environmental risk assessment of toxic chemicals.

Qualitative PCR Detection of Stack Gene GM Rice (LS28 X Cry1Ac) Developed in Korea (국내개발 stack gene GM 벼(LS28 X Cry1Ac)에 대한 정성 PCR 분석)

  • Shin, Kong-Sik;Park, Jong-Hyun;Lee, Jin-Hyoung;Lee, Si-Myung;Woo, Hee-Jong;Lim, Sun-Hyung;Kim, Hae-Yeong;Suh, Seok-Cheol;Kweon, Soon-Jong
    • Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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    • v.52 no.1
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    • pp.1-7
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    • 2009
  • For the development of qualitative PCR detection method of genetically modified (CM) rice, rice species-specific gene, OsCc-1 (rice cytochrome c gene), was selected as suitable far use as an endogenous gene in rice. The primer pair OsCytC-5'/3'with 111 bp amplicon was used for PCR amplification of the rice endogenous gene, OsCc-1 and no amplified product was observed from 8 different crops as templates. Qualitative PCR method was carried out with stack traits of L528$\times$CryIAc1 GM rice developed in Korea. For the qualitative PCRs, some primer pairs were designed with a construct-specific and event-specific type based on T-DNA and junction sequences of T-DNA in GM rice. Actck-5'/3' amplifying between actin promoter and OsCK1 gene introduced in LS28 gave rise to an amplicon 306 bp; also, CrLB-5'/3' from CryIAcl and CKRB-5'/3'amplifying the junction region of T-DNA and genome sequence from LS28 as event-specific primers gave rise to an amplicon 142 bp and 91 bp, respectively. These primer pairs for the detection of event-specific targets not produced PCR amplicons on non-CM rice and various crops in contrast to event lines. Therefore, in this study we verified that event-specific primers were effective to specifically detect stack trait lines and demonstrated that this method presented could be provided with the detection-method data for risk assessment analysis of GM rice to be commercialized.