• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.252-261
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• 2019

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are a group of secondary metabolites that are produced by plants all over the world as a defense mechanism against herbivores. To date, over 660 PAs have been identified from more than 6,000 plant species that have been reported to be widely present in plants belonging to Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, and Fabaceae. This study describes an analytical method based on UPLC-MS/MS for the quantitation of 7 pyrrolizidine alkaloids (Lycopsamine, Echimidine, Retrorsine, Retrorsine N-oxide, Senecionine, Heliotrine, and Trichodesmine) in honey, and was applied to 84 honey samples for validation. Quantitation was performed based on a matrix-matched calibration to compensate for the matrix effect on the electrospray ionization. Good linear calibrations were obtained for all 7 PAs in the spiked honey samples (2.575-202.14 ㎍/kg; R² ≥ 0.998). The extraction recoveries for most of the PAs in the honey samples were in the range of 81 %-108 %. The analysis showed that 6 of the 84 honey samples were contaminated by the PAs with the mean total sum of PAs being 47.19 ㎍/kg, and the concentrations of the PAs were observed to be in the range of 1.76-202.1 ㎍/kg. The retronecine type compounds (Echimidine, Lycopsamine) were the most frequently found PAs in honey. These data provide useful information for the assessment of human risk posed by the consumption of honey contaminated PAs.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.153-163
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• 2005

This paper presents two case studies for tunnelling in Bangkok: a subway tunnel site and a flood diversion tunnel site. The first case study is related to ground displacement response for dual tunnel Bangkok MRT subway. The MRT subway project of Bangkok city consists of dual tunnels about 20 km long with 18 subway stations. The tunnels are seated in the firm first stiff silty clay layer between 15-22 m in depth below ground surface. The behavior of ground deformation response based on instrumentation is presented. The back analysis based on plain strain FEM analysis is also presented and agrees with field performance. The shear strain of FEM analysis is in the range of 0.1-1% and in accordance with the results of self boring pressuremeter tests. Meanwhile, the second case study is related to the EPB tunnelling bored underneath through underground obstruction. The Premprachakorn flood diversion tunnel is the shortcut tunnel to divert the flood water in rainy season into the Choapraya river. The tunnel was bored by means of EPB shield tunnelling in very stiff silty clay layer at about 20-24 m in depth. During flood diversion tunnel bored underneath the existing Bangkok main water supply tunnel and pile foundation of the bridge, instrumentation was monitored and compared with predicted FEM analysis. The prevention risk potential by means of predicting damage assessment is also presented and discussed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.4353-4356
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• 2016

Purpose: To study the prevalence of CIN2+ diagnosis in women with atypical Papaniculoau (Pap) smears to suggest appropriate management option for Thai health care. Materials and Methods: Data from all patients with liquid based cytology with human papillomavirus (HPV) testing between May 2013 - May 2016 were collected from medical records. Women with atypical cervical Pap smears were recruited. Results for age, HPV testing, HPV 16, 18, 45 and other genotypes tested, colposcopic examination and histopathological assessment were all collected. Atypical smears were defined as atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) and atypical squamous cells cannot be exclude high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (ASC-H). Results: A total of 2,144 cases were recruited. Twenty six women with ASC-US on cytology had high risk (HR) HPV detection while eight cases with ASC-H had HR-HPV (40.0% VS 72.7%, p=0.005). Among the 26 women with ASC-US cytology and positive HR-HPV, HPV type 16 (n=8, 30.8%), type 18 (n=1, 3.8%), type 45 (n=1, 3.8%) and other HPV types (n=17, 65.4%) were found. Eight women with ASC-H and positive HR-HPV demonstrated type 16 (n=6, 75%) and other HPV types (n=2, 25%). Fifty seven women with ASC-US had normal colposcopy, CIN1 and CIN2+ at percentages of 80.7 (46/57), 14.0 (8/57) and 5.3 (3/57), respectively. In the ASC-H group, 7 out of 10 women had normal colposcopy and three (30%) had CIN2+ results. Conclusions: In women with ASC-US cytology, immediate colposcopy is highly recommended. HPV testing can be performed if colposcopy is not an available option because there was high prevalence (5.3%) of CIN2+ in our findings. ASCCP recommendations for ASC-H that colposcopy should be performed on all ASC-H cases regardless of HPV result are thereby supported by the findings of this investigation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.sup3
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• pp.167-174
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• 2016

One of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in breast cancer patients is delay in seeking help. Leventhal's self-regulation model provides an appropriate framework to assess delay in seeking help. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between "illness perception" and "help seeking delay" in breast cancer patients based on Leventhal's self-regulation model. In this correlational descriptive study with convenience sampling conducted in 2013, participants were 120 women with breast cancer who were diagnosed in the last year and referred to chemotherapy and radiotherapy centers in Rasht, Iran. Data collection scales included demographic data, Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R)and a researcher made questionnaire to measure the delay in seeking help. Pre-hospital delay (help seeking delay) was evaluated in 3 phases (assessment, disease, behavior). The data were analyzed using SPSS-19. The mean (SD) age calculated for the patients was $47.3{\pm}10.2$. Some 43% of the patients had a high school or higher education level and 82% were married. The "pre-hospital delay" was reported ${\geq}3months$. Logistic regression analysis showed that none of the illness perception components were correlated with appraisal and behavioral delay phases. In the illness delay phase, "time line" (p-value =0.04) and "risk factors"(p-value=0.03) had significant effects on reducing and "psychological attributions" had significant effects on increasing the delay (p-value =0.01). "Illness coherence" was correlated with decreased pre-hospital patient delay (p-value<0.01). Women's perceptions of breast cancer influences delay in seeking help. In addition to verifying the validity of Leventhal's self-regulation model in explaining delay in seeking help, the results signify the importance of the "illness delay phase" (decision to seek help) and educational interventions-counseling for women in the community.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.118-124
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• 2020

Background: The poultry industry in Pakistan has flourished since the 1960s; however, there are scarce data regarding the impact of occupational exposure on the pulmonary health of farm workers in terms of years working in the industry. The objective of the present study was to assess the effect of poultry environment on the health of occupationally exposed poultry farmers in countries of warm climatic regions, such as Pakistan. This study will also show the effect of exposure to poultry facilities on the health of poultry farmers in the context of low-income countries with a relatively inadequate occupational exposure risk management. Materials and methods: The lung function capacity of 79 poultry workers was measured using a spirometer. Along with spirometry, a structured questionnaire was also administrated to obtain information about age, height, weight, smokers/nonsmokers, years of working experience, and pulmonary health of farm workers. The workers who were directly involved in the care and handling of birds in these intensive facilities were considered and divided into four groups based on their years of working experience: Group I (3-10 months), Group II (1-5 years), Group III (6-10 years), and Group IV (more than 11 years). The forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and the FEV1/FVC ratio were considered to identify lung function abnormalities. Statistical analysis was carried out using independent sample t test, Chi-square test, Pearson's correlation, and linear regression. Results: Based on the performed spirometry, 68 (86 %) of workers were found normal and healthy, whereas 11 (14 %) had a mild obstruction. Of the 11 workers with mild obstruction, the highest number with respect to the total was in Group IV (more than 11 years of working experience) followed by Group III and Group II. Most of the workers were found healthy, which seems to be because of the healthy survivor effect. For the independent sample t test, a significant difference was noticed between healthy and nonhealthy farmers, whereas Chi-square test showed a significant association with height, drugs, and working experience. Linear regression that was stratified by respiratory symptoms showed for workers with symptoms, regression models for all spirometric parameters (FVC, FEV1, and FEV1/FVC) have better predictive power or R square value than those of workers without symptoms. Conclusion: These findings suggest that lung function capacity was directly related to years of working experience. With increasing number of working years, symptoms of various respiratory problems enhanced in the poultry workers. It should be noted that most of the poultry workers were healthy and young, the rationale being that there is a high turnover rate in this profession. The mobility in this job and our finding of 86% of the healthy workers in the present study also proposed healthy worker survivor effect.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.13-21
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• 2016

Insolvency of construction companies that play the role of main contractors can lead to clients' losses due to non-fulfillment of construction contracts, and it can have negative effects on the financial soundness of construction companies and suppliers. The construction industry has the cash flow financial characteristic of receiving a project and getting payment based on the progress of the construction. As such, insolvency during project progress can lead to financial losses, which is why the prediction of construction companies is so important. The prediction of insolvency of Korean construction companies are often made through the KMV model from the KMV (Kealhofer McQuown and Vasicek) Company developed in the U.S. during the early 90s, but this model is insufficient in predicting construction companies because it was developed based on credit risk assessment of general companies and banks. In addition, the predictive performance of KMV value's insolvency probability is continuously being questioned due to lack of number of analyzed companies and data. Therefore, in order to resolve such issues, the Bayesian Probabilistic Approach is to be combined with the existing insolvency predictive probability model. This is because if the Prior Probability of Bayesian statistics can be appropriately predicted, reliable Posterior Probability can be predicted through ensured conditionality on the evidence despite the lack of data. Thus, this study is to measure the Expected Default Frequency (EDF) by utilizing the Bayesian Probabilistic Approach with the existing insolvency predictive probability model and predict the accuracy by comparing the result with the EDF of the existing model.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.133-142
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze the problems of the parties involved in the issuance of apartment housing development projects. The adapted research method selected four apartment housing development as PF ABCP projects. This study carried out the case about participant institution of PF ABCP funding project including developer, constructor, financial institution so as to draw problems by participant institution. On the basis of the selected case, this thesis proposes methods for involved parties to negotiate and work out problems of the PF ABCP. The results of this study are as follows 1) Launching long-term project financing should be developed, including operating funds and strengthen the ABS and ABCP issuance of credit assessment procedures, combined with the simplicity of the instruments. 2) The Low-risk contract for the construction of simple managerial focus should be the construction, financial institutions essentially dependent on project financing feasibility verification purpose loans to prevent the division a true story, the development should be of interest to be preserved. The proposed included, among other, partial guarantee based on the construction plan financial institutions' share-based investment, and the supplement of legal issues.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2004

The prevention of infectious disease from contaminated foods is very important in public health. Quantitative microbial risk assessment has been used in advance countries to achieve the safety of public health against hazardous microbial causing contaminated foods. This study was conducted to estimate maximum edible time without producing enterotoxin from Staphylococcus aureus in Kimbap selling at different domestic store using Food MicroModel and monitoring data and to compute maximum edible time by temperature with 99th percentile safety probability based on only restaurant data. For estimating maximum edible time, model operation conditions like reaching time at 2 ${\times}$ 10$^{7}$ , which enterotoxin was known as producing point from S. aureus, temperature of 28∼3$0^{\circ}C$, pH 5.2, NaCl 0.22%, aw(water activity) 0.99, and intaking one serving size of 171g in Kimbap were considered. Estimated maximum edible times by regarding outdoor temperature in summer were 3.9∼4.6 hrs in restaurant, 6.7∼7.9 hrs in department store and 7.4∼8.7 hrs in convenient store. Based on restaurant data, estimated maximum edible times with 99th percentile safety probability by temperature were 1.9 hrs in 3$0^{\circ}C$ and 17.7 hrs in 15$^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.280-295
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• 2021

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the characteristics of patients according to their nutritional status as assessed by five nutritional screening tools: Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA), NUTRISCORE, Nutritional Risk Index (NRI), Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), and Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) and to compare the agreement, sensitivity, and specificity of these tools. Methods: A total of 952 gastric cancer patients who underwent gastrectomy and chemotherapy from January 2009 to December 2012 at the Samsung Medical Center were included. We categorized patients into malnourished and normal according to the five nutritional screening tools 1 month after surgery and compared their characteristics. We also calculated the Spearman partial correlation, Cohen's Kappa coefficient, the area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity of each pair of screening tools. Results: We observed 86.24% malnutrition based on the PG-SGA and 85.82% based on the NUTRISCORE among gastric cancer patients in our study. When we applied NRI or CONUT, however, the malnutrition levels were less than 30%. Patients with malnutrition as assessed by the PG-SGA, NUTRISCORE, or NRI had lower intakes of energy and protein compared to normal patients. When NRI, PNI, or CONUT were used to identify malnutrition, lower levels of albumin, hemoglobin, total lymphocyte count, total cholesterol, and longer postoperative hospital stays were observed among patients with malnutrition compared to those without malnutrition. We found relatively high agreement between PG-SGA and NUTRISCORE; sensitivity was 90.86% and AUC was 0.78. When we compared NRI and PNI, sensitivity was 99.64% and AUC was 0.97. AUC ranged from 0.50 to 0.67 for comparisons between CONUT and each of the other nutritional screening tools. Conclusions: Our study suggests that PG-SGA and NRI have a relatively high agreement with the NUTRISCORE and PNI, respectively. Further cohort studies are needed to examine whether the nutritional status assessed by PG-SGA, NUTRISCORE, NRI, PNI, and CONUT predicts the gastric cancer prognosis.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.627-634
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• 2020

Belitung district in Bangka-Belitung Province, Indonesia with a population of 0.27 million is endemic for Brugia malayi and 5 rounds of mass drug administration (MDA) were completed by 2010. Based on the results of 3 transmission assessment surveys (TAS), the district is declared as achieving elimination of lymphatic filariasis (LF) in 2017. The findings of an independent survey conducted by the National Institute of Health Research and Development (NIHRD) in the same year showed microfilaria (Mf) prevalence of 1.3% in this district. In 2019, NIHRD conducted microfilaria survey in 2 villages in Belitung district. Screening of 311 and 360 individuals in Lasar and Suak Gual villages showed Mf prevalence of 5.1% and 2.2% with mean Mf density of 120 and 354 mf/ml in the respective villages. Mf prevalence was significantly higher among farmers and fishermen compared to others and the gender specific difference was not significant. The results of a questionnaire based interview showed that 62.4% of the respondents reported to have participated in MDA in Lasar while it was 57.7% in Suak Gual village. About 42% of the Mf positive cases did not participate in MDA. Environmental surveys identified many swampy areas supporting the breeding of Mansonia vector species. Persistence of infection is evident and in the event of successful TAS3 it is necessary to monitor the situation and plan for focal MDA. Appropriate surveillance strategies including xenomonitoring in post-MDA situations need to be developed to prevent resurgence of infection. Possible role of animal reservoirs is discussed.