• Title/Summary/Keyword: world risk society

Search Result 511, Processing Time 0.026 seconds

Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified Organisms (유전자변형 생물체의 위해성평가)

  • 김형진;김환묵
    • Toxicological Research
    • /
    • v.19 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-12
    • /
    • 2003
  • New breeding method by genetic engineering is expected as a key technology to solve food shortage due to the growing world population in the year 2000s. Many genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were already developed and the commercial cultivation had started. The first GMO, Flavr Savr tomato, which rotted at a much slower pace than ordinary ones, was developed in US in 1994. Since then, over than 70 different agricultural products including corn, cotton, soybean, papaya, potato, and squash made with genetically modified plants are reportedly on sale worldwide. Supporters favor the GMOs because they have greater yields, longer shelf lives and stronger resistance to disease and insects. On the other hand, opponents say that the supporters ignore a potential danger that they may damage the environment as well as human beings. To assure the safe development and use of GMOs as food and other biotech products, the possible risks on biological environment and human health should be throughly examined and regulated by developer and government. Because the biosafety problem is a global, environmental, and trade issue, a new international treaty is under development. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was adopted at the 1 st Extraordinary Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity which was held at Mont-real, Canada, Jan. 29th, 2000. The adoption of the Protocol is seen as a breakthrough in that it is based on the" Precautionary Principle" despite scientific uncertainties surrounding potential risks that GMOs may inflict on human health and the environment and that it has laid the ground for introduction of specific steps to handle international trading of GMOs. In this paper, the authors would like to introduce the current status and perspective of environmental and human risk assessment of GMOs.t of GMOs.

Development of Disaster Situation Specific Tailored Weather Emergency Information Alert System (재난 상황별 맞춤형 기상긴급정보 전달 시스템 개발)

  • Yong-Yook Kim;Ki-Bong Kwon;Byung-Yun Lee
    • Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
    • /
    • v.19 no.1
    • /
    • pp.69-75
    • /
    • 2023
  • Purpose: The risk of disaster from extreme weather events is increasing due to the increase in occurrence and the strength of heavy rains and storms from continued climate change. To reduce these risks, emergency weather information customized for the characteristics of the information users and related circumstances should be provided. Method: A first-stage emergency weather information delivery system has been developed to provide weather information to the disaster-risk area residents and the disaster response personnel. Novel methods to apply artificial intelligence to identify emergencies have been studied. The relationship between special weather reports from meteorological administration and disaster-related news articles has been analyzed to identify the significance of a pilot study using text analytic artificial intelligence. Result: The basis to identify the significance of the relations between disaster-related articles and special weather reports has been established and the possibility of the development of a real-world applicable system based on a broader analysis of data has been suggested. Conclusion: Through direct alert delivery of weather emergency alerts, a weather emergency alert system is expected to reduce the risk of damage from extreme weather situations.

Leptomeningeal Metastasis in Gliomas : Clinical Characteristics and Risk Factors

  • Jeyul Yang;Ji-Woong Kwon;Sang Hoon Shin;Heon Yoo;Kyu-Chang Wang;Sang Heyon Lee;Ho-Shin Gwak
    • Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
    • /
    • v.66 no.4
    • /
    • pp.465-475
    • /
    • 2023
  • Objective : Our objective is to analyze the occurrence, clinical course and risk factors for glioma patients with leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) according to different metastasis patterns and clinical variables. Methods : We retrospectively reviewed data from 376 World Health Organization (WHO) grade II-IV adult glioma patients who were treated in the National Cancer Center from 2001 to 2020. Patients who underwent surgery at other institutions, those without initial images or those with pathologically unconfirmed cases were excluded. LM was diagnosed based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytology. The metastasis pattern was categorized as nodular or linear according to the enhancement pattern. Tumor proximity to the CSF space was classified as involved or separated, whereas location of the tumor was dichotomized as midline, for tumors residing in the thalamus, basal ganglia and brainstem, or lateral, for tumors residing in the cerebral and cerebellar hemispheres. Results : A total of 138 patients were enrolled in the study. A total of 44 patients (38%) were diagnosed with LM during a median follow-up of 9 months (range, 0-60). Among the clinical variables, tumor proximity to CSF space, the location of the tumor and the WHO grade were significant factors for LM development in univariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, the midline location of the tumor and WHO grade IV gliomas were the most significant factor for LM development. The hazard ratio was 2.624 for midline located gliomas (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.384-4.974; p=0.003) and 3.008 for WHO grade IV gliomas (95% CI, 1.379-6.561; p=0.006). Conclusion : Midline location and histological grading are an important factor for LM in glioma patients. The proximity to the CSF circulation pathway is also an important factor for WHO grade IV glioma LM. Patients carrying high risks should be followed up more thoroughly.

Comparative Exploratory Research to Improve the Research Security System: Focusing on U.S Research Security Cases (연구보안제도 개선을 위한 비교탐색적 연구: 미국의 연구보안 사례를 중심으로)

  • Han, So Young;Chang, Hang Bae
    • The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
    • /
    • v.27 no.1
    • /
    • pp.111-126
    • /
    • 2022
  • As the technology hegemony war between the United States and China develops and the importance of R&D increases, countries around the world are increasing their R&D investment. In Korea, the size of R&D investment by the government and companies has steadily increased every year, and cutting-edge technologies are being developed in various fields as it shifts to the direction of creative technology development. However, the number of cases in which high-tech core technologies in Korea, which have invested a lot of budget, time, and effort, are illegally leaked overseas is also steadily increasing. Research security is an activity to safely protect protected objects in the research environment from risk factors such as leakage and deodorization, and laws and systems for research security are being reorganized not only in Korea but also in the United States and other countries around the world. In this paper we aims to derive Korea's research security policy direction, focusing on US research security cases which ranks first in R&D expenses around the world to improve the R&D system and actively discusses R&D policies and laws.

Evaluation of the Risk of Metabolic Syndrome for the Young Adults in Korean Students of a University (한국인 대학생군 대상의 청.장년층 대사이상증후군 위험성 평가)

  • Chung, Jae-Hun;Lee, Bo-Reum;Lim, Sung-Jin;Jang, Je-Kwan;Lee, Myung-Koo;Lee, Chong-Kil;Lim, Sung-Cil
    • YAKHAK HOEJI
    • /
    • v.53 no.1
    • /
    • pp.19-24
    • /
    • 2009
  • Metabolic syndrome, defined as the clustering of several metabolic disorders including obesity (waist circumference ${\geq}90$ if male or ${\geq}80$ if female, cm), dyslipidemia ($TG{\geq}150$ or HDL-C<40 if male or <50 if female, mg/dl), hypertension ($BP{\geq}130/85mmHg$) and hyperglycemia (fasting plasma $glucose{\geq}110mg/dl$), increases the cardiovascular risk of the general population. Recently, risk of this syndrome arises in young adults world widely. Therefore, we randomly selected and evaluated the risk of metabolic syndrome of total 43 people (group I-22, group II-21) for 2 years. Group I was 22 peoples (15 males, 7 females) with age of 22 thru 35 year old (average 28 year old) and group II was 21 people (19 male, 2 female) with age of 22 thur 32 years old (average 24 year old) in Cheongju area from March 1st thru 30th of 2008 in Cheongju area from September 1st thru 30th of 2007 in order to find out how serious this phenomenon is in young adult of Korea. 13.95% (n=7) of total people has a metabolic syndrome by NCEP/ATPIII definition among this group (group I-6, group II-1). Those of 6 have 3 or over risk factor for metabolic syndrome such as obesity, hypertension, fasting blood glucose and hypetriglyceridemia at the same time (group I-5, group II-1). Group I have more risk factor because of more higher age than group II. Therefore we need aggressively to monitor and provide them for early diagnosis, educational programs and assistance for lifestyle changes in order to prevent metabolic syndrome among young adults.

Hazardous Alcohol Use in 2 Countries: A Comparison Between Alberta, Canada and Queensland, Australia

  • Sanchez-Ramirez, Diana C.;Franklin, Richard;Voaklander, Donald
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
    • /
    • v.50 no.5
    • /
    • pp.311-319
    • /
    • 2017
  • Objectives: This article aimed to compare alcohol consumption between the populations of Queensland in Australia and Alberta in Canada. Furthermore, the associations between greater alcohol consumption and socio-demographic characteristics were explored in each population. Methods: Data from 2500 participants of the 2013 Alberta Survey and the 2013 Queensland Social Survey were analyzed. Regression analyses were used to explore the associations between alcohol risk and socio-demographic characteristics. Results: A higher rate of hazardous alcohol use was found in Queenslanders than in Albertans. In both Albertans and Queenslanders, hazardous alcohol use was associated with being between 18 and 24 years of age. Higher income, having no religion, living alone, and being born in Canada were also associated with alcohol risk in Albertans; while in Queenslanders, hazardous alcohol use was also associated with common-law marital status. In addition, hazardous alcohol use was lower among respondents with a non-Catholic or Protestant religious affiliation. Conclusions: Younger age was associated with greater hazardous alcohol use in both populations. In addition, different socio-demographic factors were associated with hazardous alcohol use in each of the populations studied. Our results allowed us to identify the socio-demographic profiles associated with hazardous alcohol use in Alberta and Queensland. These profiles constitute valuable sources of information for local health authorities and policymakers when designing suitable preventive strategies targeting hazardous alcohol use. Overall, the present study highlights the importance of analyzing the socio-demographic factors associated with alcohol consumption in population-specific contexts.

Users' Privacy Concerns in the Internet of Things (IoT): The Case of Activity Trackers (사물인터넷 환경에서 사용자 프라이버시 우려에 관한 연구: 운동추적기 사례를 중심으로)

  • Bae, Jinseok;Jung, Yoonhyuk;Cho, Wooje
    • Knowledge Management Research
    • /
    • v.16 no.3
    • /
    • pp.23-40
    • /
    • 2015
  • Despite much interest and investment in the Internet of Things (IoT) which expand the Internet to a ubiquitous network including objects in the physical world, there is growing concerns of privacy protections. Because the risk of privacy invasion is higher in IoT environments than ever before, privacy need to be a key issue in the diffusion of IoT. Considering that the privacy concern is a critical barrier for user to adopt information technologies, it is important to investigate users' privacy concerns related to IoT applications. From the triad perspective (i.e., risk on technology, risk on service provider, and trust on legislation), this study aims to examine users' privacy concerns in the context of activity trackers.

Concentration Response Functions for Particulate Matter related Health Risk Assessment in South Korea (입자상 대기오염물질의 건강 위해성 평가를 위한 국내 농도반응함수 도출)

  • Ha, Jongsik
    • Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
    • /
    • v.43 no.3
    • /
    • pp.202-213
    • /
    • 2017
  • Objectives: HRA (Health Risk Assessment) is an important tool for measuring the health impacts of air pollution. HRA is already being used widely as an important reference for crafting air pollution policies. However, the absence of a domestic CRF (Concentration Response Function) standard, which is a main component for HRA, could cause confusion amongst policy-makers. The purpose of this study is to tabulate a domestic CRF standard for a PM (Particulate Matter)-related HRA. Methods: This study suggested a domestic CRF standard for HRA thorough a literature review. The literature review for meta-analysis was limited to the English language for epidemiological studies published from January 1980 to March 2016. This meta-analysis was conducted by assuming both fixed- and random-effects of CRF. In addition, studies that reported HRA of air pollution for WHO (World Health Organization), the EC (European Commission), and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) were reviewed to compare the CRFs of South Korea to the recommended CRFs of WHO, the EC, or the EPA. Additionally, a domestic CRF standard was supplemented by these. Results: Nineteen studies were selected for the CRF for South Korea. Fifty-three CRFs were derived for meta-analysis. CRFs with a standard for PM-related HRA were divided according to the following four criteria: air pollution, exposure characteristics, type of health impact, and age group. Finally, a domestic CRF standard was created comprised of 21 CRFs. Among these, six CRFs were derived from the results of foreign HRA studies. Conclusions: This study is important in that a domestic CRF standard is first suggested. In addition, this study suggests a further area of study for using HRA as a policy tool and a direction of epidemiological study.

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Fatty Liver among Industrial Male Workers (산업장 남성 근로자의 지방간 유병율 및 위험요인 연구)

  • Paek, Yun-Mi;Choi, Tae-In;Kim, Yun-Jeong;Choi, Eun-Ok
    • The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
    • /
    • v.10 no.2
    • /
    • pp.141-146
    • /
    • 2007
  • Purpose: This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence rate, and related factors,of fatty liver in male industrial workers. Method: Fatty liver was diagnosed using ultrasonography. The data for abdominal ultrasonography, BMI, smoking, alcohol drinking, exercise, liver enzymes, and lipid profiles were collected in 4,604 male who were examined with a health screening program in 2005. Prevalence rate and associated factors of fatty liver were analyzed using SPSS v. 12.0. Results: Overall prevalence of fatty liver was 34.1% and higher in the 30-39 year male group. Age, body mass index(BMI), hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, HDL cholesterol, r-GTP level were independently associated factors with presence of fatty liver in logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: The prevalence of fatty liver and tendency of associated factors were similar to those in the western world. To prevent development of this hepatic disorder, which may result in end-stage liver disease, risk factors such as obesity and dyslipidemia must be monitored and controlled within normal levels. The results of this study suggested maintenance of a healthy lifestyle, including diet, exercise, and behavioral change, as fundamental rehabilitation nursing implications.

  • PDF

Genes and SNPs Associated with Non-hereditary and Hereditary Colorectal Cancer

  • Nassiri, Mohammadreza;Kooshyar, Mohammad Mahdi;Roudbar, Zahra;Mahdavi, Morteza;Doosti, Mohammad
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
    • /
    • v.14 no.10
    • /
    • pp.5609-5614
    • /
    • 2013
  • Background: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women in the world and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. The incidence of colorectal cancer has increased in Iran in the past three decades and is now considered as a serious problem for our society. This cancer has two types hereditary and non-hereditary, 80% of cases being the latter. Considering that the relationship between SNPs with diseases is a concern, many researchers believed that they offer valuable markers for identifying genes responsible for susceptibility to common diseases. In some cases, they are direct causes of human disease. One SNP can increase risk of cancer, but when considering the rate of overlap and frequency of DNA repair pathways, it might be expected that SNP alone cannot affect the final result of cancer, although several SNPs together can exert a significant influence. Therefore identification of these SNPs is very important. The most important loci which include mutations are: MLH1, MSH2, PMS2, APC, MUTYH, SMAD7, STK11, $XRCC_3$, $DNMT_1$, MTHFR, Exo1, $XRCC_1$ and VDR. Presence of SNPs in these genes decreases or increases risk of colorectal cancer. Materials and Methods: In this article we reviewed the Genes and SNPs associated with non-hereditary and hereditary of colorectal cancer that recently were reported from candidate gene y, meta-analysis and GWAS studies. Results: As with other cancers, colorectal cancer is associated with SNPs in gene loci. Generally, by exploring SNPs, it is feasible to predict the risk of developing colorectal cancer and thus establishing proper preventive measures. Conclusions: SNPs of genes associated with colorectal cancer can be used as a marker SNP panel as a potential tool for improving cancer diagnosis and treatment planning.