• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.56-62
• /
• 2003

The liver progenitor cells could form a potential target cell population fore both tumor-initiating and -promoting chemicals. Induction of drug-metabolizing and antioxidant enzymes, including AhR-dependent CYP1A1, NQO-1 and AKR1C9, was detected in the rat liver epithelial WB-F344 "stem-like" cells. Additionally, WB-F344 cells express a functional, wild-type form of p53 protein, a biomarker of genotoxic events, and connexin 43, a basic structural unit of gap junctions forming an important type of intercellular communication. In this cellular model, two complementary assays have been established for detection of the modes of action associated with tumor promotion: inhibition of gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) and proliferative activity in confluent cells. We found that the PAHs and PCBs, which are AhR agonists, released WB-F344 cells from contact inhibition, increasing both DNA synthesis and cell numbers. Genotoxic effects of some PAHs that lead to apoptosis and cell cycle delay might interfere with the proliferative activity of PAHs. Contrary to that, the nongenotoxic low-molecular-weight PAHs and non-dioxin-like PCB congeners, abundant in the environment, did not significantly affect cell cycle and cell proliferation; however both groups of compounds inhibited GJIC in WB-F344 cells. The release from contact inhibiton by a mechanism that possibly involves the AhR activation, inhibition of GJIC and genotoxic events induced by environmental contaminants are three important modes of action that could play an important role in carcinogenic effects of toxic compounds. The relative potencies to inhibit GJIC, to induce AhR-mediated activity, and to release cells from contact inhibition were determined for a large series of PAHs and PCBs and their metabolites. In vitro bioassays based on detection of events on cellular level (deregulation of GJIC and/or proliferation) or determination of receptor-mediated activities in both ?$stem-like^{\circ}{\times}$ and hepatocyte-like liver cellular models are valuable tools for detection of modes of action of polyaromatic hydrocarbons. They may serve, together with concentration data, as a first step in their risk assessment.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.297-306
• /
• 2022

Objectives: The incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is increasing in developing countries. This study aimed to decompose the socioeconomic inequality of CVD in Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional population-based study was conducted on 20 519 adults who enrolled in the Ardabil Non-Communicable Disease cohort study. Principal component analysis and multivariable logistic regression were used, respectively, to estimate socioeconomic status and to describe the relationships between CVD prevalence and the explanatory variables. The relative concentration index, concentration curve, and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition model were used to measure and decompose the socioeconomic inequality. Results: The overall age-adjusted prevalence of CVD was 8.4% in northwest Iran. Multivariable logistic regression showed that older adults, overweight or obese adults, and people with hypertension and diabetes were more likely to have CVD. Moreover, people with low economic status were 38% more likely to have CVD than people with high economic status. The prevalence of CVD was mainly concentrated among the poor (concentration index, -0.077: 95% confidence interval, -0.103 to -0.060), and 78.66% of the gap between the poorest and richest groups was attributed to differences in the distribution of the explanatory variables included in the model. Conclusions: The most important factors affecting inequality in CVD were old age, chronic illness (hypertension and diabetes), marital status, and socioeconomic status. This study documented stark inequality in the prevalence of CVD, wherein the poor were more affected than the rich. Therefore, it is necessary to implement policies to monitor, screen, and control CVD in poor people living in northwest Iran.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.607-618
• /
• 2023

Pervasive research underscores the direct correlation between an enhanced safety climate and a marked reduction in accidents. The intricacies of safety climate are governed by three pivotal strata: organizational management, on-site operations, and the broader enterprise framework. Within an organizational context, sustaining optimal performance across these layers poses a considerable challenge, often attributable to the constraints of available managerial bandwidth. It becomes imperative, then, to conceive a phased enhancement blueprint for the safety climate. To orchestrate this blueprint with precision, a discerning understanding of the hierarchy of safety climate metrics is essential, which subsequently guides judicious managerial resource allocation. This investigation is anchored in elucidating the hierarchical significance of safety climate metrics through the Analytical Hierarchy Process(AHP). Implementing the AHP framework, both a questionnaire was disseminated and a subsequent analysis undertaken, culminating in the extraction of relative priorities of safety climate determinants. Consequent to this analysis, "workers' safety prioritization and risk aversion" emerged as the foremost dimension, holding a significance weight of 0.1900. Furthermore, within the detailed elements, "unwavering adherence to safety mandates amidst demanding operational constraints" ranked supreme, manifesting a weight of 0.6663. The findings encapsulated in this study are poised to be foundational in sculpting improvements at an institutional level and devising policies, all with the end goal of fostering an exemplar safety climate within construction arenas.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.403-417
• /
• 2014

Increased frequency of climate extremes is another face of climate change confronted by humans, resulting in catastrophic losses in agriculture. While climate extremes take place on many scales, impacts are experienced locally and mitigation tools are a function of local conditions. To address this, agrometeorological early warning systems must be place and location based, incorporating the climate, crop and land attributes at the appropriate scale. Existing services often lack site-specific information on adverse weather and countermeasures relevant to farming activities. Warnings on chronic long term effects of adverse weather or combined effects of two or more weather elements are seldom provided, either. This lecture discusses a field-specific early warning system implemented on a catchment scale agrometeorological service, by which volunteer farmers are provided with face-to-face disaster warnings along with relevant countermeasures. The products are based on core techniques such as scaling down of weather information to a field level and the crop specific risk assessment. Likelihood of a disaster is evaluated by the relative position of current risk on the standardized normal distribution from climatological normal year prepared for 840 catchments in South Korea. A validation study has begun with a 4-year plan for implementing an operational service in Seomjin River Basin, which accommodates over 60,000 farms and orchards. Diverse experiences obtained through this study will certainly be useful in planning and developing the nation-wide disaster early warning system for agricultural sector.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.64-77
• /
• 2015

An effective method for produce munitions effectiveness data is to calculate weapon effectiveness indices in the US military's Joint Munitions Effectiveness Manuals (JMEM) and take advantage of the damage evaluation model (GFSM) and weapon Effectiveness Evaluation Model (Matrix Evaluator). However, a study about the Range Safety that can be applied in the live firing exercises is very insufficient in the case of ROK military. The Range Safety program is an element of the US Army Safety Program, and is the program responsible for developing policies and guidance to ensure the safe operation of live-fire ranges. The methodology of Weapon Danger Zone (WDZ) program is based on a combination of weapon modeling/simulation data and actual impact data. Also, each WDZ incorporates a probability distribution function which provides the information necessary to perform a quantitative risk assessment to evaluate the relative risk of an identified profile. A study of method to establish for K-Range Safety data is to develop manuals (pamphlet) will be a standard to ensure the effective and safe fire training at the ROK military education and training and environmental conditions. For example, WDZs are generated with the WDZ tool as part of the RMTK (Range Managers Tool Kit) package. The WDZ tool is a Geographic Information System-based application that is available to operational planners and range safety manager of Army and Marine Corps in both desktop and web-based versions. K-Range Safety Program based on US data is reflected in the Korean terrain by operating environments and training doctrine etc, and the range safety data are made. Thus, verification process on modified variables data is required. K-Range Safety rather than being produced by a single program, is an package safety activities and measures through weapon danger zone tool, SRP (The Sustainable Range Program), manuals, doctrine, terrain, climate, military defence M&S, weapon system development/operational test evaluation and analysis to continuously improving range safety zone. Distribution of this K-range safety pamphlet is available to Army users in electronic media only and is intended for the standing army and army reserve. Also publication and distribution to authorized users for marine corps commands are indicated in the table of allowances for publications. Therefore, this study proposes an efficient K-Range Safety Manual producing to calculate the danger zones that can be applied to the ROK military's live fire training by introducing of US Army weapons danger zone program and Range Safety Manual

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.57 no.1
• /
• pp.8-17
• /
• 2013

The objective of this study is investigation of contamination levels and transfer rate of heavy metals and assessment of health risk effects in animal medicines. A total of sixteen items with 148 samples were obtained for this investigation from major herbal medicine producing areas and herbal markets from 2011 to 2012. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer method was conducted for the quantitative analysis of Pb, Cd and As. In addition, the mercury analyzer system was conducted for that of Hg without sample digestion. The average contents of heavy metals in animal medicines were as follows : 1.55 mg/kg for Pb, 0.28 mg/kg for Cd, 0.70 mg/kg for As and 0.047 mg/kg for Hg respectively. The average contents of heavy metals in decoctions were as follows : 0.03 mg/kg for Pb, 0.01 mg/kg for Cd, 0.17 mg/kg for As and 0.003 mg/kg for Hg respectively. The average transfer rates of heavy metals from animal medicines to decoctions were 1.9% for Pb, 3.6% for Cd, 24.2% for As and 6.0% for Hg respectively. Cancer risks of animal medicines and decoctions through slope factor by ministry of environment republic korea and environmental protection agency was $1.36{\times}10^{-6}$ and $2.50{\times}10^{-8}$ for Pb and $7.46{\times}10^{-5}$ and $1.98{\times}10^{-5}$ for As (assuming that the total arsenic content was equal to the inorganic arsenic) respectively. The hazard index of heavy metals in animal medicines and decoctions was below recommended hazard index as 0.52 and 0.05 respectively. Taken together, cancer risks about Pb and hazard indexes of animal medicines and decoctions indicate that the majority of samples except for some samples with relative high contents of heavy metals were safe. But cancer risks about As of animal medicines indicate that the majority of samples were not relatively safe.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Conference
• /
• 2014.10a
• /
• pp.25-48
• /
• 2014

Increased frequency of climate extremes is another face of climate change confronted by humans, resulting in catastrophic losses in agriculture. While climate extremes take place on many scales, impacts are experienced locally and mitigation tools are a function of local conditions. To address this, agrometeorological early warning systems must be place and location based, incorporating the climate, crop and land attributes at the appropriate scale. Existing services often lack site-specific information on adverse weather and countermeasures relevant to farming activities. Warnings on chronic long term effects of adverse weather or combined effects of two or more weather elements are seldom provided, either. This lecture discusses a field-specific early warning system implemented on a catchment scale agrometeorological service, by which volunteer farmers are provided with face-to-face disaster warnings along with relevant countermeasures. The products are based on core techniques such as scaling down of weather information to a field level and the crop specific risk assessment. Likelihood of a disaster is evaluated by the relative position of current risk on the standardized normal distribution from climatological normal year prepared for 840 catchments in South Korea. A validation study has begun with a 4-year plan for implementing an operational service in Seomjin River Basin, which accommodates over 60,000 farms and orchards. Diverse experiences obtained through this study will certainly be useful in planning and developing the nation-wide disaster early warning system for agricultural sector.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.409-419
• /
• 2023

Okadaic acid (OA) group toxins, including OA and its analogs, such as dinophysis toxins (DTXs), have been reported to cause diarrheal shellfish poisoning (DSP). These toxins are primarily produced by dinoflagellates and are accumulated in bivalves. Recently, the presence of Dinophysis sp., a causative alga of DSP, has been reported along the coasts of Korea, posing a potential risk of contamination to domestic seafood and exerting an impact on both the production and consumption of marine products. Accordingly, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have established standards for the permissible levels of OA group toxins in marine products for safety management. Additionally, in line with international initiatives, the domestic inclusion and regulation of DTX2 among the substances falling under the purview of management outlined by the 2022 diarrheal shellfish toxin standard have been implemented. In this study, we reviewed the physicochemical properties of OA group toxins, their various exposure routes (such as acute toxicity, genotoxicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity), and the relative toxicity factors associated with these toxins. We also performed a comparative assessment of the methods employed for toxin analysis across different countries. Furthermore, we aimed to conduct a broad review of human exposure cases and assess the international guideline for risk management of OA group toxins.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2022

The effect of sediments in a waste dumping area on marine organisms was evaluated using sediment toxicity tests with a benthic amphipod (Monocorophium acherusicum) and bioluminescent bacterium (Vibrio fischeri) in accordance with the Korean Standard Method for Marine Wastes (KSMMW). Nine sites in the East Sea-Byeong, East Sea-Jeong, and Yellow Sea-Byeong areas were sampled from 2016 to 2019. The test results showed that the relative average survival rate (benthic amphipods) and relative luminescence inhibition rate (luminescent bacteria) were below 30%, which were judged to be "non-toxic." However, in the t-test, a total of 12 benthic amphipod samples (6, 1, 1, and 4 in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively) were significantly different (p<0.05) from the control samples. To identify the source of toxicity on benthic amphipods, a simple linear regression analysis was performed between the levels of eight heavy metals (Cr, As, Ni, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, and Hg) in sediments and the relative average survival rate. The results indicated that Cr had the highest contribution to the toxicity of benthic amphipods (p = 0.000, R2 = 0.355). In addition, Cr was detected at the highest concentration at the DB-85 station and exceeded the Marine Environment Standards every year. Although the sediments were determined as "not toxic" according to the ecotoxicity criteria of the KSMMW, the results of the statistical significance tests and toxicity identification evaluation indicated that the toxic effect was not acceptable. Therefore, revising the criteria for determining the toxic effect by deriving a reference value through quantitative risk assessment using species sensitivity distribution curves is necessary in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.131-138
• /
• 2016

Recently, the cultivated area is reduced, the ratio of upland-field in the total cultivated area is increasing relative appeared in 36.2% in 1990 from 43.7% in 2013. If upland-field can be applied well designed-infrastructure, good income crop production is possible, however, maintenance of infrastructure and a significant portion of the upland-field is maintained under insufficient infrastructure. While imports of agricultural products expanded since the 2000s in progress, looking at the self-sufficiency of upland-field crops, it is reduced to from 90% to 42% for the pepper, it is from 90% to 74% for the garlic, cereals is reduced from 42% by 26%. As a result of these conditions, the competitiveness of farmers has weakened, the risk to meet the challenges of this area of production and supply reduction increased. This study was the first to conduct a basic evaluation index, data analysis and evaluation of indicators to diagnose the agricultural production capacity of the upland field. 12 kinds classified index of producing conditions from the natural environment and eight factors for the cultivation and production capabilities have developed for the assessment of productivity of upland-field (especially Kimchi cabbage). Through this regional imbalance was found, based on the production capabilities conditions are good in Haenam, Gangneung, Pyeongchang. 3 Regions have been low and the lowest Youngwol to 0.8992. Climate(Cultivation conditions) indicators of Mungyeong region is the highest, relatively low areas were in Taebaek. In particular, it is determined to be preferred that the area required for the enhancing the production environment based on providing the convenience for the producing and maintenance of the first production area. It is necessary Increasing part of mechanization, agro-industrial competitiveness through aggressive management plans for facilities as required in the process of post-harvest storage, processing, distribution line can be improved.