• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.625-637
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• 2003

This study was performed to examine the relationship between air pollution exposure and mortality in Seoul for the years of 1998∼2001. Daily counts of death were analyzed by general additive Poisson model, with adjustment for effects of seasonal trend, air temperature, humidity, and day of the week as confounders in a nonparametric approach. Daily death counts were associated with CO (current day),O$_3$ (current day), PM$_{10}$ (current day), NO$_2$ (1 day before), SO$_2$ (1 day before). Increase of 41.71 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥ (interquartile range) in PM$_{10}$ was associated with 1.3% (95% CI = 0.7∼1.9％) increase in the daily number of death. $O_3$ concentrations resulted in an increased risk of 1.3% for 23.86 ppb in all-aged mortality [RR = 1.013 (1.004-1.023)1. This effect was greater in children (less than 15 aged) and elderly (more than 65 aged). After ozone level exceeds 25 ppb, the dose-response relationship between mortality and ozone was almost linear. We concluded that Seoul had 1∼5％ increase in mortality in association with IQR (interquartile range) in air pollutants. Daily variations in air pollution within the range currently occurring in Seoul might have an adverse effect on daily mortality. These findings also support the hypothesis that air pollution, at levels below the current ambient air quality standards of Korea, is harmful to sensitive subjects, such as children or elderly.rly.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.199-208
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• 2012

The computational human phantom including major radiation sensitive organs at risk (OARs) can be used in the field of radiotherapy, such as the variation of secondary cancer risks caused by the radiation therapy and the effective dose evaluation in diagnostic radiology. The present study developed a Korean adult female voxel phantom, VKH-Woman, based on serially sectioned color slice images of Korean female cadaver. The height and weight of the developed female voxel phantom are 160 cm and 52.72 kg, respectively that are virtually close to those of reference Korean female (161 cm and 54 kg). The female phantom consists of a total of 39 organs, including 27 organs recommended in the ICRP 103 publication for the effective dose calculations. The female phantom composes of $261{\times}109{\times}825$ voxels (=23,470,425 voxels) and the voxel resolution is $1.976{\times}1.976{\times}2.0619mm^3$ in the x, y, and z directions. The VHK-Woman is provided as both ASCII and Binary data formats to be conveniently implemented in Monte Carlo codes.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.3 s.54
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• pp.507-519
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• 1996

The objectives of this study are to investigate the prevalence of occupation related carpal tunnel syndrome(CTS) among workers in a condom industry : to analyse the sensitivity and specificity of clinical signs or symptoms such as hand diagram, Tinel's sign and Phalen's sign in carpal tunnel syndrome : and to test vibration threshold test using audiometry as a technically easy and noninvasive method in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome in stead of nerve conduction velocity (NCV). The study group was divided into exposed group(39 cases) and non-exposed group(48 cases) based on whether or not excessive use of wrist movements exsist. 1. There are stastically significant differences in symptoms and signs of carpal tunnel syndrome such as hand diagram, Tinel's sign and Phalen's sign between exposed and non-exposed group(p<0.05). 2. Six cases(9 hands) were comfirmed as carpal tunnel syndrome by NCV. Five cases(7 hands) belonged to exposed group, 1 case(2 hands) to nonexposed group. As there are significant differences in prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome between two groups(p<0.05), excessive use of wrist in occupation is a risk factor of carpal tunnel syndrome. 3. When we use NCV as a gold standard in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome, sensitivity and specificity of hand diagram, Tinel's sign and Phalen's sign is as followed; hand diagram , sensitivity 88.9%, specificity 84.2% Tinel's sign ; sensitivity 55.6%, specificity 72.8% Phalen's sign ; sensitivity 14.3%, specificity 88.4%. Among above clinical signs and symptoms, hand diagram is the best clinical screening test. 4. The differences of vibration threshold between median and ulnar nerve at the same time are useful in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome but the time change of vibration threshold of median nerve over time are not sensitive enough. It is concluded that vibration threshold between median and ulnar nerve at the same time can be used as a supplementary or alternative criterion to indicate that the nerve dysfunction is located in the carpal tunnel.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.955-960
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• 2019

The Computed tomography (CT) scan can have high radiation in a few tests, and this risk is significant given that it is often repeated in one patient. In children, the incidence of radiation-induced cancer is reported because organs are growing, are more sensitive to radiation. 3D printing has recently been studied to be applied to various applications as a research field for 3D printing applications, research on fabrication of radiation shields and materials has been conducted. The purpose of the 3D printer is to replace the existing panel-type shields and to make customized designs according to the shape of the human body. Therefore, research on 3D information processing to be input to the 3D printer is also necessary. In this study, 3D data of the human body surface, which is the preliminary step of the manufacture of patient-specific eye shield using stereo vision depth map technology, was studied. This study aims to increase the possibility of three-dimensional output. As a result of experimenting with this method, which is relatively simple compared with other methods of 3D information processing, the minimum coordinates for 3D information are extracted. The results of this study provided the advantages and limitations of stereo images using natural light and will be the basic data for the manufacture of eye shields in the future.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.736-751
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• 2008

Although a growing number of studies have commonly used a simple areal weighting interpolation method to quantify demographic characteristics of impacted areas in environmental equity analysis, the results obtained are inevitably imprecise because of the method's unrealistic assumption that population is evenly distributed within a census enumeration unit. Two alternative areal interpolation methods such as intelligent areal weighting and regression methods can account for the distributional biases in the estimation of impacted populations by making use of additional information about the geographic distribution of population. This research explores five areal interpolation methods for estimating the population characteristics of impacted areas in environmental equity analysis and evaluates the sensitivity of the outcomes of environmental equity analysis to areal interpolation methods. This study used GIS techniques to allow areal interpolation to be informed by the distribution of land cover types, as inferred from a satellite image. in both the source and target units. Independent samples t-test statistics were measured to verify the environmental equity hypothesis while coefficients of variation were calculated to compare the relative variability and consistency in the socioeconomic characteristics of populations at risk over different areal interpolation methods. Results show that the outcomes of environmental equity analysis in the study area are not sensitive to the areal interpolation methods used in estimating affected populations, but the population estimates within the impacted areas are largely variable as different areal interpolation methods are used. This implies that the use of different areal interpolation methods may to some degree alter the statistical results of environmental equity analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.46-52
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• 2017

Sediment exchange in river has been affected by artificial changes such as dredging and abnormal climate changes like intense rainfall. Over last decades in Korea, there were many constructions, restoration or rehabilitation in rivers. Therefore, deposition and erosion become more actively occurred than before, which may threaten the river safety such as flood defense. For safety's sake, the dredging of river bed, which is considered as the most typical measure, has been increased to extend hydraulic conveyance compared with previous conditions. However, since it might change the sediment mechanism, there would be another risk at which unexpected side effects such as headward erosion could be occurred. Particularly, sedimentation at abrupt expansion region is able to lead to hydraulic characteristics like water elevation in the upstream region in the beginning of dredging, which, however, has been barely studied in this field. Therefore in this study, the relationship between sediment mechanism at dredging section and hydraulic characteristics in upstream region were presented through numerical simulations in the idealized abruptly widen channel using Delft3D. The ideal channel of 2,000 m length with each side angle of 45 degrees at abruptly widen expansion region was employed to consider the sediment angle of repose. The sensitivity analysis was performed on the dimensionless factors consisted of upstream and downstream depths($h_u$, $h_d$), width($w_u$, $w_d$), water level(H), flow rate(Q) and discharge of sediment($Q_s$). And the sedimentation amount at dredging and the upstream hydraulic characteristics were investigated through that analysis. It showed that $h_d/h_u$, $H/h_u$ and $w_d/w_u$ were more influential in sequence of effect on sedimentation amount, while $h_d/h_u$, $w_d/w_u$ and $H/h_u$ on upstream region. It means that $h_d/h_u$ was revealed as the most significant factors on sedimentation, also it would most highly affect the rising of water level upstream.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2961-2966
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• 2012

Extremely low frequency electro magnetic fields (EMFs) have been classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. An increased number of chromosomal alterations in peripheral lymphocytes are correlated with elevated incidence of cancer. The aim of the present study was to assess occupationally induced chromosomal damage in EMF workers exposed to low levels of radiation. We used conventional metaphase chromosome aberration (CA) analysis and the micronucleus (MN) assay as biological indicators of non ionizing radiation exposure. In the present study totally 70 subjects were selected including 50 exposed and 20 controls. Informed written consent was obtained from all participants and the study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the approval of the local ethical committee. A higher degree of CA and MN was observed in exposed subjects compared to controls, the frequency of CA being significantly enhanced with long years of exposure (P<0.05). Moreover increase in CA and MN with age was noted in both exposed subjects and controls, but was significantly greater in the former. The results of this study demonstrated that a significant induction of cytogenetic damage in peripheral lymphocytes of workers occupationally exposed to EMFs in electric transformer and distribution stations. In conclusion, our findings suggest that EMFs possess genotoxic capability, as measured by CA and MN assays; CA analysis appeared more sensitive than other cytogenetic end-points. It can be concluded that chronic occupational exposure to EMFs may lead to an increased risk of genetic damage among electrical workers.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.10
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• pp.1076-1081
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• 2005

Purpose : Insulin resistance is the most important risk factor linked to the development of impaired glucose tolerance(IGT), diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases in childhood and adolescent obesity, The purpose of this study was to see whether insulin resistance of obese adolescent is higher than that of obese children. and to analyze gender difference and affecting factors of insulin resistance. Methods : Of the 9,837 school children from 5 to 16 tears old, 92 obese children and 187 adolescent, underwent a two-hour oral glucose tolerance test and plasma glucose, insulin, lipid profiles, leptin and high sensitive C-reactive protein(hs-CRP) were measure. Results : Plasma insulin levels of female were higher compared to those of males during oral glucose tolerance test(P<0.05). Four(4.3%) in obese children and twenty five(13.3%) in obese adolescents met the criteria of IGT. Female, leptin, adiponectin and triglyceride concentrations were strongly correlated with homeostatic model assessment insulin-resistance(HOMA-IR) by multiple linear regression analysis(P<0.05). Conclusion : Obese adolescents might have higher insulin concentrations compared to obese children and obese girls higher insulin concentrations than obese boys. Obese boys and children with impaired glucose tolerance have higher insulin concentrations than those with normal glucose tolerance. HOMA-IR was significantly correlated with female, plasma leptin, adiponectin and triglyceride concentrations.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.12 no.4 s.31
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• pp.3-12
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• 2004

It is necessary to manage water resources in rural areas in order to achieve proper development of new water resources, sustainable usage and reasonable distribution. This paper aims to analyze multi-temporal Landsat-7 ETM+data for soil moisture that is essential for crops in Ahnsung area. The ETM data was also fused with KOMPSAT-1 images in order to be used as backdrop watershed maps at first. Multi-temporal Images showed also the characteristics of soil moisture distribution. Images taken in April showed that rice paddy had as low reflectance as artificial features. Compared with April scenes, those taken in Hay and June showed wetness index increased in the rice paddies. The mountainous areas have almost constant moisture index, so the difference between the dates was very low while reservoirs and livers had dramatic changes. We can calculate total potential areas of distribution of moisture content within the basin and estimate the areas being sensitive to drought. Finally we can point out the sites of small rice paddies lack of water and visualize their distribution within the same basin. It can be said that multi-temporal Landsat-7 ETM+ and KOMPSAT data can be used to show broad drought with quick and simple analysis. Drought sensitiveness maps may enable the decision makers on rural water to evaluate the risk of drought and to measure mitigation, accompanied with proper data on the hydrological and climatic drought.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.142-148
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• 2008

To evaluate the antibiotic resistance of Enterococcus from salad and sprout, Enterococcus were isolated and identified from 47 salad samples and 37 sprout samples, and then their antibiotic resistances were analyzed. Ninety five Enterococcus, 41 strains from salad and 54 strains from sprout, were ultimately isolated. The frequent Enterococcus in salad and sprout were E. gallinarum, E. faecalis, E. faecium, E. hirae, and E. avium. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of the isolates for vancomycin were below $4{\mu}g/mL$, which were not high levels of resistance. All Enterococcus proved to be resistant to streptomycin and chloramphenicol. Twenty two percentage of the isolates were resistant to penicillin, however, almost the isolates were sensitive to tetracycline. Eighteen percentage of the isolates were resistant to erythromycin. All E. faecium and E. faecalis were found to be ampicillin-resistant, and seven E. faecalis and five E. faecium were resistant to rifampicin. Overall antibiotic resistances of Enterococcus isolates were relatively low and low resistance to vancomycin was similar to those evidenced by Enterococcus isolated from the other foods. Therefore, there may be no special risk from the antibiotics resistances of Enterococcus and especially vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus from the fresh-cut salads and the sprouts.