• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제34권2호
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• pp.125-134
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• 2015

Objective: In this review we discuss the health effects among office workers. Background: Even if office workers are not exposed hazardous or harmful environment frequently, some problems could be happened to the office workers. Although serious occupational diseases rarely occur to the office workers, it is important to consider occupational risk factors for the office worker because the portion of the office workers is relatively high in all industries. Method: We divided possible health effects for the office workers into three categories; musculoskeletal disorders, indoor environment, and cerebro-cardiovascular diseases. We reviewed related articles, textbooks, and statistical materials non-systematically and described risk factors, related illnesses, and prevention strategies on each category. Results: Office workers have various musculoskeletal disorders to be intervened. By medical treatment, improving working environment, and ergonomic intervention, office workers can be prevented from musculoskeletal injuries. Poor indoor environment can cause many building-related illnesses or sick building syndrome. Although the etiology of some problems by poor indoor environment is not clear, it helps to maintain adequate humidity, temperature, and clarity of indoor air. Cerebro-cardiovascular diseases are a rising issue because office workers in Korea tend to work for a lot of time. To prevent the diseases, it is needed to work for adequate time, lengthen activity level, and manage other medical risk factors for the diseases. Conclusion: There is no distinct occupational disease for office workers. However, there are some aspects to consider the health effects of office workers and it is important to prevent the possible health problems. Application: A strategy against occupational diseases among office workers can be established by reviewing this article.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.39-48
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• 2002

Cooling towers water has frequently been known as a source of infection in outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease and a source of indoor air pollution. However, there have been a few reports on the presence of Legionella in cooling towers water and aerosols of various public facilities. This study was carried out to investigate the indoor and outdoor dis-tribution of Legionella spp and microbe from 132 cooling towers water of public facilities detected 1. pneumophila in Seoul and Gyeonggi-Do areas. The results showed that the Lpneumophila among the selected 132 cooling towers was detected mostly in July (12.0%), followed by August (4.0%) and June, September no-detected. The 1. pneumophiia in public facilities was detected mostly in department store (27.3%), followed by hospital (8.7%), office building (5.9%), big market (5.0%) and hotel, subway no-detected. The pH values of cooling towers water with presence of 1. pneumophila showed mostly 8.0 or higher (9.5%), followed by 7.0～8.0 (6.8%), lower 7.0 no-detected. The tem-perature of cooling towers water with presence of L pnemophila showed mostly 30℃ or higher (9.8%), followed by 26～30℃ (6.9%), lower 25℃ no-detected. The turbidity of cooling towers water with presence of 1. pneumaphila showed mostly 1-2 M (8.8%), followed by above 2 NTU (5.9%), lower 1 NTU no-detected. The correlation coef-ficient between indoor and outdoor concentration of microbes in public facilities showed 0.67 in Legionella spy. (p>0.05), 0.93 in bacteria (p<0.01), 0.94 in fungus (p<0.01), 0.98 in coilform (p<0.01), respectively.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.394-407
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• 2011

Better understanding of the complex factors leading to human diseases will be necessary for both long term prevention and for managing short and long-term health problems. The underlying causes, leading to a global health crisis in both acute and chronic diseases, include finite global health care resources for sustained healthy human survival, the population explosion, increased environmental pollution, decreased clean air, water, food distribution, diminishing opportunities for human self-esteem, increased median life span, and the interconnection of infectious and chronic diseases. The transition of our pre-human nutritional requirements for survival to our current culturally-shaped diet has created a biologically-mismatched human dietary experience. While individual genetic, gender, and developmental stage factors contribute to human diseases, various environmental and culturally-determined factors are now contributing to both acute and chronic diseases. The transition from the hunter-gatherer to an agricultural-dependent human being has brought about a global crisis in human health. Initially, early humans ate seasonally-dependent and calorically-restricted foods, during the day, in a "feast or famine" manner. Today, modern humans eat diets of caloric abundance, at all times of the day, with foods of all seasons and from all parts of the world, that have been processed and which have been contaminated by all kinds of factors. No longer can one view, as distinct, infectious agent-related human acute diseases from chronic diseases. Moreover, while dietary and environmental chemicals could, in principle, cause disease pathogenesis by mutagenic and cytotoxic mechanisms, the primary cause is via "epigenetic", or altered gene expression, modifications in the three types of cells (e.g., adult stem; progenitor and terminally-differentiated cells of each organ) during all stages of human development. Even more significantly, alteration in the quantity of adult stem cells during early development by epigenetic chemicals could either increase or decrease the risk to various stem cell-based diseases, such as cancer, later in life. A new concept, the Barker hypothesis, has emerged that indicates pre-natal maternal dietary exposures can now affect diseases later in life. Examples from the studies of the atomic bomb survivors should illustrate this insight.

• Toxicological Research
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.21-28
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• 2010

As the frequency and the intensity of so called Asian dust (AD) events have increased, public concerns about the adverse health effects has spiked sharply over the last two decades. Despite the recent reports on the correlation between AD events and the risk for cardiovascular and respiratory disease, the nature of the toxicity and the degree of the risk are yet largely unknown. In the present study, we investigated the effects of the dichloromethane extract of AD (AD-X) and that of urban dust (NAD-X) collected during a non-AD period on gene expression in HL-60 cells using Illumina Sentrix HumanRef-8 Expression BeadChips. Global changes in gene expression were analyzed after 24 h of incubation with 50 or 100 ${\mu}g$/ml AD-X and NAD-X. By one-way analysis of variance (p < 0.05) and Benjamini-Hochberg multiple testing correction for false discovery rate of the results, 573 and 297 genes were identified as AD-X- and NAD-X-responsive, respectively. The genes were classified into three groups by Venn diagram analysis of their expression profile, i.e., 290 AD-X-specific, 14 NAD-X-specific, and 283 overlapping genes. Quantitative realtime PCR confirmed the changes in the expression levels of the selected genes. The expression patterns of five genes, namely SORL1, RABEPK, DDIT4, AZU1, and NUDT1 differed significantly between the two groups. Following rigorous validation process, these genes may provide information in developing biomarker for AD exposure.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.75-80
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• 2006

Biomarkers identify various stages and interactions on the pathway from exposure to disease. The three categories of biomarkers are those measuring susceptibility, exposure and effect. Susceptibility biomarkers are identifiable genetic variations affecting absorption, metabolism or response to environmental agents. Biomarkers of exposure indicate the amount of a foreign compound that is absorbed into the body. Biological measurements performed on human tissues are vastly expanding the capabilities of classical epidemiology, which has relied primarily on estimates of human exposure derived form chemical levels in the air, water, and other exposure routes. Biomarkers of exposure indicate the amount of a foreign compound that is absorbed into the body. Biological measurements performed on human tissues are vastly expanding the capabilities of classical epidemiology, which has relied primarily on estimates of human exposure derived form chemical levels in the air, water, and other exposure routes. The biomarker response is typical of chemical pollution by specific classes of compound, such as (i) heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, lead, zinc), responsible for the induction of metallothionein synthesis, and (ii) organochlorinated pollutants (PCBs, dioxins, DDT congeners) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which induce the mixed function oxygenase (MFO) involved in their bio transformations and elimination. Currently genomic researches are developed in human cDNA clone subarrays oriented toward the expression of genes involved in responses to xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes, cell cycle components, oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, DNA repair genes, estrogen-responsive genes, oxidative stress genes, and genes known to be involved in apoptotic cell death. Several research laboratories in Korea for kicking off these Environmental Genomics were summarized.

• 한국과학교육학회지
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.66-79
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• 1993

The purposes of this study are to analyse trend of STS movement in Korea and to collect basic data on application of STS to school science education. It investigated, from 1990 to March 1993, journals of 6 associations, a monthly magazine of science education, and printed materials of seminars or workshops about science education. It also surveied a question to 47 science teachers and 26 researchers who had experienced STS workshop. The results of the study are as follows: (1) The studies of STS increased since 1990, but they are made at a introduction or background of STS. (2) The 98.7% of the respondents want to apply STS in school science education. (3) They responded that a device for the application of STS which is added last part of each chapter or last chapter, will use the STS program that made by subject, still maintain current science curriculum. (4) They responded that the knowledge & compreshion domain and inquiry process domain contain more high than others. 5) The STS subjects for application to the school science education are as follows; Environment pollution, science for living, ethics of science, human health and disease, information communication, an ecosystem destruction, development and storage of natural resources. This study suggested that establishment of a research institute for systematic research of STS, in-service training, a new evaluation process, a balancing of other subjects and increasing learning hour and changing objectives.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.614-621
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• 2020

Antibiotic pollution is one of the factors contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment. Advanced oxidation and irradiation processes have been introduced to eliminate antibiotics from water and wastewater. However, few studies have reported the toxic effects of residual antibiotics and their byproducts induced by a treatment system. In this study, we compared the efficacies of chemical (high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)) and biological (antimicrobial susceptibility test) assays for measuring the concentrations of residual antibiotics after gamma irradiation for degrading amoxicillin, cephradine, lincomycin, and tetracycline. The concentrations of residual antibiotics estimated using the two assay methods were almost identical, except cephradine. In the case of cephradine, inhibited bacterial growth was observed that was equivalent to twice the concentration measured by HPLC in the samples subjected to gamma irradiation. The observed inhibition of bacterial growth suggested the generation of potentially toxic intermediates following antibiotic degradation. These results indicate that biological and chemical assays should be used in concert for monitoring antibiotic contamination and the toxic derivatives of antibiotic degradation. The results demonstrate that these four antibiotics can be decomposed by 2.0 kGy gamma-irradiation without toxic effects of their byproducts.

• 환경위생공학
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.60-66
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• 2002

Iksan city is planning to construct a waste incinerator on the site of about $110,000\textrm{m}^2$ in size that will be selected from a public bid(Oct.~Nov.2002)in the wake of expiration by June 2003 of use for Hamyeol fill-up ground. Science it has usually been difficult to find sites for filling-up or incinerating facilities owing to NIMBY phenomenon, it is badly requested to employ up-to-date technology for processing wastes without environmental pollution. The conflicts between the administrative authorities and community people with regard to construction of incineration facilities, fill-up ground and facilities for waste processing or recycling are not the matters of just today but are increasingly deepening and spreading countrywide. There seems to be no prospect for these conflicts to be amicably settled through dialogues. They rather become a social disease inflicting the whole country like an epidemic. It is therefore believed to be necessary to introduce measures to design and build environment-friendly facilities that may be accepted by residents as not abominable ones but be used as amusing place while they watch the daily operation of them as watchdogs. Iksan city's plan to construct environment-friendly waste incineration facilities of pyrolysis type without chimney has undergone the process of public hearings and explanatory gatherings from every class of Iksan citizens to get consensus but is still delayed due mainly to be the failure of inducing foreign investments. Pyrolysis technology has two advantages ; first, environment-friendly due to less emission of second pollutants ; second, production of by-products highly valuable as resources. It Is known that Germany has recently begun installation and operation of pyrolysis facility urban wastes, an evidence indicating that pyrolysis method will be widely applied to cope with the tightened regulation to preserve environment worldwide.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제48권4호
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• pp.203-215
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• 2015

Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the relationship between the incidence of national notifiable infectious diseases (NNIDs) and meteorological factors, air pollution levels, and hospital resources in Korea. Methods: We collected and stored 660 000 pieces of publicly available data associated with infectious diseases from public data portals and the Diseases Web Statistics System of Korea. We analyzed correlations between the monthly incidence of these diseases and monthly average temperatures and monthly average relative humidity, as well as vaccination rates, number of hospitals, and number of hospital beds by district in Seoul. Results: Of the 34 NNIDs, malaria showed the most significant correlation with temperature (r=0.949, p<0.01) and concentration of nitrogen dioxide (r=-0.884, p<0.01). We also found a strong correlation between the incidence of NNIDs and the number of hospital beds in 25 districts in Seoul (r=0.606, p<0.01). In particular, Geumcheon-gu was found to have the lowest incidence rate of NNIDs and the highest number of hospital beds per patient. Conclusions: In this study, we conducted a correlational analysis of public data from Korean government portals that can be used as parameters to forecast the spread of outbreaks.

• 한국유기농업학회지
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.133-149
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• 1997

Recently, the importance of management and cultivation of grasses has been increased in Korea. Among these cultural practices, the appropriate control of diseases is considered more important than other cultivation techniques such as fertilization and irrigation. The damages of brown patch and large patch caused by Rhizoctonia spp. and Pythium blight caused by Pythium spp. are serious in the major cultivation area of turfgrass in Korea. Since these diseases are difficult to control by agrochemicals, the damages are very serious if these are occured. The periodic spray of agrochemicals, to protect and control these diseases could make some problems of toxicity and environmental pollution as well as rising of non-target diseases. Therefore, the biological methods to control diseases have been required to decrease problems resulted from overuse of agrochemicals, to conserve natural ecosystem, and to control effectively diseases of grasses in the long period. The number of studies about biological control using antagonistic microorganisms have been increased for last half century. However, the application of biological control method has been very limited. In this study, thirteen isolates of R. cerealis, 8 isolates of R. solani and 3 isolates of Phthyn spp. have been isolated from diseased turfgrass in golf course and grass-culture area that have patch and wilting symptoms of zoysia grass and creeping bentgrass. Isolation frequency of R. cerealis and R. solani was high in especially zoysiagrass, while Pythym spp. was isolated from bent grass at low frequency but showed high pathogenicity. Totally, 205 isolates of soil microorganisms were isolated in this study as primary antagonistic microorganism by Herr's triple agar layer plate and dual culture method using rhizosphere of grasses, soil of crop field as the source of antagonistic microorganisms. Among the 205 isolates, 23 isolates were actinomycetes and 182 isolates were bacteria. All of the actinomycetes were isolated by Herr's method. Antagonistic effect of primary isolated microorganisms was tested for in vitro mycelial growth inhibition against pathogenic fungi isolated from grasses and for inhibition of disease occurrence in 24 well tissue culture plate and pot experiment. Then, four isolated of bacteria which are BG23, BG74, BG136 and BG171 were selected as antagonistic microorganisms against soil-born pathogenic fungi of bentgrass.