• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.4 s.59
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• pp.741-751
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• 1997

Measurement of blood lead (PbB) and blood zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) are most common biological indices to identify the individual at risk for excess or the health sequences by lead exposure. Because PbB is known most important and reliable index of lead exposure, PbB is often regarded as a gold standard to detect lead exposure. But in Korea PbB is a secondary test item of detailed health check-up with positive finding of screening test in most occasion. Our lead standard requires all lead workers to take annual heath-check twice a year for investigation of their health effect due to lead exposure. Blood ZPP is one of most important index to detect high lead absorption in lead workers as a screening test. Measurement of blood ZPP is known ,well to correlate with PbB in steady state of exposure in most lead workers and is often used as a primary screening test to detect high lead absorption of lead workers with the advantage of simplicity, easiness, portability and low cost. The current cut-off criteria of blood ZPP for further detailed health check-up is $100{\mu}g/d\ell$ which is supposed to match the level of $40{\mu}g/d\ell$ of PbB according to our standard. Authors tried to investigate the validity of current criteria of cut-off level $(100{\mu}g/d\ell)$ of blood ZPP and possible another better cut-off level of it to detect the lead workers whose PbB level over $40{\mu}g/d\ell$. The subjects in our study were 212 male workers in three small scale storage battery industries. Blood ZPP, PbB and hemoglobin (Hb) were selected as the indices of lead exposure. The results were as follows. 1. The mean of blood ZPP, PbB and Hb in lead workers were $79.5{\pm}46.7{\mu}g/d\ell,\;38.7{\pm}15.1{\mu}g/d\ell,\;and\;14.8{\pm}1.2g/d\ell$, respectively. There were significant differences in blood ZPP, PbB and Hb by industry (P<0.01). 2. The percents of lead workers whose blood ZPP were above $100{\mu}g/d\ell$ in the group of work duration below 1, 1-4, 5-9 and above 10 years were 8.6%, 17.2%, 47.6%, and 50.0%, respectively. The percents of lead workers whose PbB were above $40{\mu}g/d\ell$ in those were 31.4%, 40.4%, 71.4%, and 86.4%, respectively. 3. The percents of lead workers whose PbB were below $40{\mu}g/d\ell$, $40-59{\mu}g/d\ell$ and above $60{\mu}g/d\ell$ were 54.7%, 34.9% and 10.4%, respectively. Those of lead workers whose blood ZPP were below $100{\mu}g/d\ell$, $100-149{\mu}g/d\ell$ and above $150{\mu}g/d\ell$ were 79.2%, 13.7% and 7.1%, respectively. 4. Simple linear regression of PbB on blood ZPP was statistically significant (P<0.01) and as PbB was $40{\mu}g/d\ell$, blood ZPP was $82.1{\mu}g/d\ell$. 5. While the highest sensitivity and specificity of blood ZPP test to detect lead workers with PbB eve. $40{\mu}g/d\ell$ were observed in the cut-off level of $50{\mu}g/d\ell$ and $100{\mu}g/d\ell$ of blood ZPP, respectively, the highest validity (sensitivity+specificity) of blood ZPP to detect lead workers with PbB over $40{\mu}g/d\ell$ was observed in the cut-off level of around $70{\mu}g/d\ell$ of blood ZPP. But even with optimal cut-off level of around $70{\mu}g/d\ell$ of blood ZPP, still 25.0% of false negative and 20.7% false positive lead workers were found. As the result of this study, it was suggested that reconsideration of current blood ZPP cut-off of our lead standard from $100{\mu}g/d\ell$ to somewhat lower level such as around $70{\mu}g/d\ell$ and the inclusion of PbB measurement as a primary screening test for lead workers was highly recommended for the effective prevention of lead workers.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.74-87
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• 2016

Potato phenology, growth, and yield are projected to be highly affected by global warming in the future. The objective of this study was to examine the responses of potato growth and yield to environmental elements like temperature, solar radiation, and daylength. Planting date experiments under open field condition were conducted using three cultivars differing in maturity group (Irish Cobbler and Superior as early; Atlantic as mid-late maturing) at eight different planting dates. In addition, elevated temperature experiment was conducted in four plastic houses controlled to target temperatures of ambient temperature (AT), $AT+1.5^{\circ}C$, $AT+3^{\circ}C$, and $AT+5^{\circ}C$ using cv. Superior. Tuber initiation onset was found to be hastened curve-linearly with increasing temperature, showing optimum temperature around $22-24^{\circ}C$, while delayed by longer photoperiod and lower solar radiation in Superior and Atlantic. In the planting date experiments where the average temperature is near optimal and solar radiation, rainfall, pest, and disease are not limiting factor for tuber yield, the most important determinant was growth duration, which is limited by the beginning of rainy season in summer and frost in the late fall. Yield tended to increase along with delayed tuber initiation. Within the optimum temperature range ($17^{\circ}-22^{\circ}C$), larger diurnal range of temperature increased the tuber yield. In an elevated temperature treatment of $AT+5.0^{\circ}C$, plants failed to form tubers as affected by high temperature, low irradiance, and long daylength. Tuber number at early growth stage was reduced by higher temperature, resulting in the decrease of assimilates allocated to tuber and the reduction of average tuber weight. Stem growth was enhanced by elevated temperature at the expense of tuber growth. Consequently, tuber yield decreased with elevated temperature above ambient and drop to almost nil at $AT+5.0^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 1989

Plants were exposed to different sub-optimal growth temperature regimes for hardening or sprayed with abscisic acid (ABA) before being placed at $10^{\circ}C$ for three days. Comparisons were made with non-treated plants for plant survival, photosynthetic activities and fatty acids composition of phospholipids. The level of endogenous ABA of the hardened seedlings was compared with that in control and ABA sprayed-seedlings. The results of the above experiment were summarized as follows: 1. Compared to non-treated plants, the hardening and ABA treatment resulted in higher plant survival rate and better seedling growth following earlier transplanting. The low temperature hardening which gradually increased the duration of the low temperature treatment at 2-day intervals was more effective than the controled temperature hardening which gradually decreased the temperature from $25^{\circ}C$ to $20^{\circ}C$ and $15^{\circ}C$. 2. The photosynthetic activities of rice leaves after 3-day exposure to $10^{\circ}C$ were higher in hardened and ABA sprayed seedlings than in non-treated plants. The root activities after low temperature treatment were also higher in hardened and ABA sprayed seedlings than in control. 3. Fatty acids of phospholipids in rice plants such as stearic acid and oleic acid were decreased and the highly unsaturated fatty acids, linoleic acid and lenolenic acid were increased by hardening or ABA treatments. It is assumed that the increase of cold tolerance in these plants was due to the higher ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids. Respectively, the ratio was 1.86, 1.97 and 1.80 in plants given controled temperature hardening, the low temperature hardening and ABA treatments. While in control plants, it was 1.17. 4. ABA content in rice seedling given the low temperature hardening treatment was 67.2 ng/g F.W which was approximately twice that of non-treated control, which was 33.9 ng/f F. W., in contrast, the ABA content of the ABA treated seedlings was 91.7 ng/g F. W.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.82-86
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• 2015

This study was carried out to develop the silkworm rearing technique in unused mulberry leaves after harvesting mulberry fruit. The growth of Gwasang No. 2 and Suhyang was very good compared to control cultivar Chungil in leaves size and new branch growth, but new branch and leaves of Daeshim was similar or small to control cultivar Chungil. The number of leaves of Gwasang No. 2 and Suhyang was lower than Chungil, but weight of leaves per tree was heavyer than Chungil. Mulberry leaf yield was Gwasang No. 2 521 kg/10a, Suhyang 189 kg/10a, Daeshim 73 kg/10a, Chungil 1,095 kg/10a. Content of mineral element of all three mulberry cultivars leaf for mulberry fruit production was higher than Chungil in N, P, K, Ca etc. Feeding quantity of silkworm of Gwasang No. 2 and Suhyang was much more than Chungil. Feeding quantity was highest at Suhyang in 96 kg/box. Growth duration of silkworm larvae was not different in all four mulberry culivars but weight of silkworms (5th instar 3rd day) was heavy at Gwasang No. 2 (2.07 g/head) and Suhyang (2.11 g/head) compared to control cultivar Chungil (1.92 g/head). Mortality of silkworms was 14.6% (Gwasang No. 2), 13.3% (Suhyang), 13.9% (Daesim), 12.6% (Chungil) and than higher at elder instar stage. The production amount of silkworm (5th instar 3rd day) was 35.4 kg/box (Gwasang No. 2), 36.6 kg/box (Suhyang), 35.0 kg/box (Daeshim), 33.6 kg/ box (Chungil). Amount of possible rearing silkworms was estimated 3.4box/10 a (Gwasang No. 2), 1.3box/10a (Suhyang), 0.5box/10a (Daeshim), 8.7box/10a (Chungil).

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.111-119
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• 2009

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical efficacy of clomiphene citrate (CC) and letrozole combined with gonadotropins for controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) in patients with CC-induced thin endometrium Methods: Fifty-one intrauterine insemination cycles performed in patients who previously had a thin endometrium (<8 mm) to ovulation induction using CC were included in this study. A CC 100 mg/day (CC+gonadotropin group, n=26) or letrozole 2.5 or 5 mg/day (letrozole+gonadotropin group, n=25) was administered on day 3~7 of the menstrual cycle, combined with gonadotropins at dose 75~150 IU every other day starting on day 5~7. We compared total dose of gonadotropin used, endometrial thickness, endometrial pattern, number of follicles ${\geq}14\;mm$ on hCG day, pregnancy rate and multiple pregnancy rate between the two groups, which were statistically analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test or Fisher's exact test, where appropriate. Results: There were no significant differences in clinical characteristics such as age, duration of infertility, number of previous IUI cycles, basal serum hormone levels and cause of infertility between the two groups. In both groups, the endometrium was significantly thicker than that of previous ovulation induction cycles using CC. No significant differences were found in the total dose of gonadotropin used, day of hCG administration, the rate of triple endometrium and pregnancy rate. The number of follicles ${\geq}14\;mm$ was significantly lower ($3.7{\pm}1.7$ vs. $2.8{\pm}1.7$, p=0.03) and the endometrium on hCG day was significantly thicker ($7.7{\pm}1.5$ vs. $9.1{\pm}1.7$, p=0.001) in letrozole+gonadotropin group compared to CC+gonadotropin group. Conclusion: The clomiphene citrate and letrozole combined with gonadotropins appear to avoid the undesirable effects on the endometrium frequently seen with CC for ovulation induction. However, in terms of adequate endometrial development or optimal follicular growth, letrozole may be more beneficial than CC for gonadotropin-combined COS in patients with CC-induced thin endometrium. Further prospective randomized controlled studies in a larger scale will be necessary to confirm our findings.