• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.258-267
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• 2000

The result of five year's experience on Inter-laboratory Comparison for Analyses of Heavy Metals and Organic Solvent Metabolites in Biological Samples was described. Since 1995, around a hundred laboratories in the Occupational Health have participated this program twice per year by the Industrial Safety and Health Law. Four metals in blood and five organic solvent metabolites in urine were examined. Reference samples were made by spiking standard materials to human blood or urine pools treated previously to give homogeneity and stability for a specific time periods. Some reference samples for organic solvent metabolites were made from workers' urine who were exposed to the organic solvents. Some items such as Lead in blood and Hippuric acid in urine showed good accordance between participants while the other items such as Mercury and N-methylformamide in urine showed poor proficient rate. The results were published in the internet or newspaper to help the consumer of the laboratory's service to get the information on them and to make competition between them. The inter-laboratory's comparison program have done greate role to improve the ability of analysis and reliability of analytical data produced from each laboratory.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.190-196
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• 2012

The human exposure of lead has usually detected the amount of lead in the whole blood, however, this method has a shortcoming to give the information on the short-term exposure to lead. In that sense, it is desirable to estimates the level of lead in plasma to draw the chronic bio-marker of lead exposure even though it is difficult to measure lead of several ng/L. An inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method was developed for determining lead in plasma as the chronic bio-marker of lead of workers. To minimize the contamination of lead from the environment, we constructed class 1,000 clean room and compared the amount of floating dust before and after the operation of the clean room. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) of lead in fetal bovine serum were 4.3 ng/L and 12.2 ng/L by NIOSH method (statistical calculation method) and 7.0 ng/L and 22.1 ng/L by signal/noise ratio, respectively. The accuracy was in a range of 92.3-101.3%, and the precision of the assay was less than 4% in the samples spiked in the concentration of 20 ng/L and 2,000 ng/L. The method was simple, reproducible and sensitive enough to permit reliable analysis of lead to the ng/L level in plasma and/or serum. The method was also useful for the biological monitoring of chronic exposure to lead.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.235-246
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• 2014

In the late 1980s, 5 new towns such as Bundang, Ilsan, Pyeongchon, Sanborn, Jungdong were constructed to solve housing problems and to disperse functions concentrated within Seoul. As the city got matured, it began to appear the initial signs of urban problems such as aging of high rise-density apartment sites, traffic congestion, lack of parking spaces and aging of infrastructure. Therefore, in order to cope with urban problems, it is very important to apprehend the process of urban growth, its change and the feature of physical/human elements. So, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze the changes in housing and population characteristics for past 20 years by use of Census data from 1995 to 2010. First, the new town's goal of population and housing plan at the time of construction was analyzed how it was achieved, and it is close to the performance of the goal. And the trend of changes in the population and household characteristics was analyzed by every five year's data. As the result of analysis, it shows socio-demographic changes such as aged and elderly population growth, rapid increase in one generation's household and single person household, highly educated city, monthly rent household's increase and charter household's reduction. Results of this analysis can be utilized to aforethought management of new towns. But it is required more sustained and systematic urban monitoring and data analysis because the one-off analysis of the city's characteristics alone is difficult enough to grasp them.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.293-298
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• 2017

BACKGROUND: Pyrethroids (PYRs) are a widely used insecticide in agriculture and household area. In mammals, PYRs such as deltamethrin is metabolized to 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA) in liver that is mainly excreted in urine. This study is designed to single exposure of deltamethrin to rats in a dose-dependent manner and identify the correlation between deltamethrin exposure and its metabolite (3-PBA) in urine. METHODS AND RESULTS: Exposure levels of deltamethrin were control (0 mg/kg bw), low (0.0705 mg/kg bw), medium (0.705 mg/kg bw) and high (7.05 mg/kg bw) dose. Low concentration was derived by ussing Korea predictive operator exposure model (KoPOEM). Dermal exposure persisted for 6 h, and urine specimens were collected for 24 h. The urine matrix was removed after a series of procedures and 3-PBA was analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. CONCLUSION: There was a strong correlation ($R^2=0.83$) between the amount of oral exposure to delta me thrin and urinary levelof3-PBAexcreted. In dermal exposure groups of deltamethrin except high-dose, also there was a good correlation between urinary 3-PBA and deltamethrin exposure, but not stronger than in oral deltamethrin exposure groups. Based on these results, therefore, the amount of 3-PBA in urine can be used as a good monitoring indicator that reflexing the exposure level of deltamethrin to human body.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.282-287
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• 2015

BACKGROUND: The current study was carried out to investigate Cd, Hg, Pb and As contaminations in 222 commercial medicinal plants and to estimate the potential health risk through dietary intake of commercial medicinal plants in Korea.METHODS AND RESULTS: The Cd, Hg, Pb, and As in medicinal plants were analyzed by ICP/MS and mercury analyzer.The potential health risk was estimated using risk assessment tools. Total amount of Cd in medicinal plants with 29% samples exceeded the standard limit legislated in 'Pharmaceutical Affairs Act' while all plant samples were lower than the standard limit value for As, Hg, and Pb. However, when applying the standard limit for root vegetable (fresh weight) in the Food Sanitation Act, four samples exceeded the standard limit of Pb. For health risk assessment, the values of cancer risk probability were 0.3~5.9×10^-7which were less than the acceptable cancer risk of 10^-6~10^-4for regulatory purpose. Also, Hazard quotientvalues were lower than 1.0.CONCLUSION: Therefore, these results demonstrated that human exposure to Cd, Hg, Pb, and As through dietary intake of commercial medicinal plants might notcause adverse health effects although some medicinal plants were higher than the standard limit values for Cd and Pb.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2007

Health functional foods refer to food which manufactured in the form of a tablet, capsule, granule or pill, using materials and ingredients with useful function for a human body in Korea. It needs to be confirmed as safe. Microbiological analyses on 37 samples of botanical raw materials used in the health functional food were performed. Microbiological analyses and probability of irradiation using PSL on 4 samples of aloe powder products were studied. In health functional food ingredients APC was $10^{3}-10^{6}\;CFU/g$ and coliform counts were $10^{2}-10^{5}\;CFU/g$. Among 37 samples B. cereus were found in 12 samples. Four samples of aloe powder products were tested for possible irradiation using preliminary PSL, Two samples of aloe powder products showed positive on preliminary PSL test for irradiation.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.339-346
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• 2018

This study was conducted to monitor the current status of pesticide residues in a total of 297 agricultural products for raw juice from January 2017 to September 2017. Pesticide residues in samples were analyzed by multiresidue method for the determination of multiclass pesticide with an aim to detect 220 pesticides using GC/ECD, GC/NPD, TOF/MS, LC/PDA, LC/FLD, and LC/MS-MS. The analysis revealed the presence of nine pesticides in 14 samples. The detected pesticides were chlorpyrifos, cyflufenamid, chlorothalonil, pendimethalin, azoxystrobin, pyridalyl, imazalil, fludioxonil and procymidone. The kinds of detected crops were mandarin, carrot, apple, celery, chicory, orange and grape. Risk assessment evaluated human health exposure with the ratio of EDI (Estimated daily intake) to ADI (Acceptable daily intake) of pesticides detected and the range of %ADI (the ratio of EDI to ADI) values was 0.0011~6.7087% and safety level.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2014

Aromatic hydrocarbons are toxic environmental pollutants that are detrimental to the ecosystem and human health. Among them, chlorotoluene and nitrotoluene are toxic to hydrobios and irritate the skin, eyes, and respiratory organs of humans. We herein report the development of recombinant microbial biosensors for cheap and rapid monitoring of chlorotoluene and nitrotoluene compounds. Plasmids were constructed by inserting the xylR regulatory gene for BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) degradation into upstream of Po' (the DmpR activator promoter Po with the deletion of its own upstream activating sequences) or Pu (the cognate promoter of XylR)::lacZ (the ${\beta}$-galactosidase gene) and transformed into Escherichia coli $DH5{\alpha}$. In the presence of inducers, the biosensor cells immobilized in agarose developed a red color in 1-2 h due to the hydrolysis of chlorophenol red ${\beta}$-D-galactopyranoside (CPRG), a substrate of ${\beta}$-galactosidase that was expressed by the inducers. Among BTEX, high responses were specifically observed with o-, m-, p-chlorotoluene ($0.1{\mu}M-100 mM$) and o-, m-, p-nitrotoluene (0.1 mM-100 mM). Po' demonstrated higher responses than those with Pu. The biosensors immobilized in agarose showed good stability after 21 days' storage at $4^{\circ}C$, and responses in untreated wastewater spiked with chlorotoluene and nitrotoluene, suggesting they can be used to detect compounds in wastewater.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1290-1298
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• 2017

Intestinal microbiota is an important factor in the development of immune defense mechanisms in the human body. Treatments with anticancer agents, such as 5-Fluorouracil, Cisplatin, and Oxaliplatin, significantly change the temporal stability and environment of intestinal bacterial flora. The anticancer treatment chemotherapy often depresses the immune system and induces side effects, such as diarrhea. This study investigated the effects anticancer agents have on the intestinal microbial ecosystems of patients with gastric cancer. An exploration of the diversity and temporal stability of the dominant bacteria was undertaken using a DGGE with the 16S rDNA gene. Researchers collected stool samples from patients zero, two and eight weeks after the patients started chemotherapy. After the treatment with anticancer agents, the bacteria strains Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Lactobacillus gasseri, Parabacteroides distasonis and Enterobacter sp. increased. This study focused on the survival of the beneficial microorganisms Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus in the intestines of cancer patients. The administration of antigastric cancer agents significantly decreased Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium populations and only moderately affected the main bacterial groups in the patients' intestinal ecosystems. The results showed the versatility of a cultivation independent-PCR DGGE analysis regarding the visual monitoring of ecological diversity and anticancer agent-induced changes in patients' complex intestinal microbial ecosystems.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.327-349
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• 2010

This study was carried out to investigate the distribution of vascular plants and their use from 2007 to 2009 in Mt. Unmum(Cheongdo-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-Do). The vascular plants were summarized as 605 taxa including 98 families, 304 genus, 514 species, 3 subspecies, 68 varieties, and 20 forma. Among the investigated 605 taxa, 21 rare and endangered plants, 29 Korean endemic plants were included. Based on the list of specially designated plants by Ministry of Environment, 70 taxa included Iris odaesanensis and Gastrodia elata were recorded in the investigated area. The naturalized plants were identified as 23 taxa and the percent of naturalized index(NI) was 3.8% of total 605 taxa vascular plants. Usage of 605 taxa were consists of 225 taxa(37.2%) of edible plants, 191 taxa(31.6%) of medicinal plants, 64 taxa(10.6%) of ornamental plants, 46 taxa(7.6%) of pasture plants, 18 taxa(3.0%) of timber plants, 14 taxa(2.3%) of fiber plants, and 3 taxa(0.5%) of industrial plants. To management of natural resource, we suppose that it is required to establish an ecological learning area to minimize human disturbance and an effective managemet strategy by continuous monitoring for ecosystem change.