• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2016

To evaluate the applicability of cellular energy allocation (CEA) in the bivalves as a biomarker for the assessment of environmental contamination, the energy contents and energy consumption in several tissues of the Manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum were analyzed. The contents of lipid, glucose, protein and electron transport system (ETS) activity in the foot, siphons, gills, and body of R. philippinarum exposed to crude oil-spiked sediments were measured at 1, 2, 4, 7, 10 days after exposure. The reserved energy (energy available, EA) in the lipid, glucose and protein decreased as contamination level and exposure time increased. In contrast, the ETS activity (energy consumed, EC) showed the reverse tendency. The order of available energy contents were foot > siphons > gill > body. Significant differences in both EA and EC were found only at the highest contamination level (58.3 mg TPAHs/kg DW). EA decreased significantly in the foot and gill at 1 day, in the body at 2 and 7 days after exposure. EC increased significantly in the body at 4 days after exposure. CEA showed higher sensitivity to the contamination than EA or EC. Especially, CEA in the foot and body decreased significantly at lower ranges of contamination level (as low as 6.5 mg TPAHs/kg DW) during 1 to 7 days after exposure. The CEA is more useful than EA or EC alone for the assessment of sediment contamination at lower level that acute toxicity could not be detected. CEA analyses in the body of R. philippinarum after 4 days' exposure to contaminated sediments seem to be the most sensitive and reliable.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2014

A lot of radiation exposure for radiation workers who are engaged in Nuclear Power Plants, especially PWRs, have been caused during the outage by CRUD, such as $^{58}Co$, $^{60}Co$, in Reactor Coolant System. And therefore we need to know source terms to achieve optimization of protection for the radiation workers from radiation exposure at Nuclear Power Plants efficiently. This study analyzed source terms at domestic NPPs (PWRs) nearby Steam Generator with CZT semiconductor detector using by IN-VIVO method during the outage for the first time in the country. We checked difference for the detected source terms between old and new NPP. It was performed especially to see a change of source terms by water chemistry process as well. There was not any difference by water chemistry process both NPPs. The main source terms are $^{58}Co$ and $^{60}Co$ at all NPPs. $^{59}Fe$ only appears in the new NPP. $^{137}Cs$ and $^{95}Zr$ are shown in the old NPP. The fraction of $^{58}Co/^{60}Co$ in the new NPP is higher than the old NPP for increasing the specific activity of $^{60}Co$.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.19-25
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• 1998

By analyzing each part of expsure condition and the status of an entrance dose which is exposed to patients, this study reached the following conclusion. Since there is no standard in setting up an exposure condition, the technology practiced in each facility varies tremendously, and the entrance dose increased especially due to the improper selection of screen and grid and the shortage of a total amount of filtration in leaching the standard filtration amount. Entrance dose was, generally, turned out to be $2{\sim}3$ times as much as that of advanced countries, and there was big difference between facilities ; approximately 52 times inlateral of cervical vertebrae, 35 times in A-P of femur, 33 times in chest A-P, and 11 times in lumber A-P. Therefore, to minimize the entrance dose of a patient with thegreatest amount of image information, acquirement of technological know-how necessary for standardization of exposure condition for each part can be an important research task.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.151-161
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• 2013

The assessment of personal exposure is a critical component in population-based epidemiologic studies of air pollution. This study was conducted to apply and compare the four exposure estimation methods of individual-level to air pollution concentration in a cohort including 2,283 subjects in Gwangyang, Korea. Individual-level exposure of air pollution were estimated using multiple approaches, including average across all monitors, nearest monitor, and spatial interpolation by inverse distance weighting and kriging. The mean concentrations of $PM_{10}$, $NO_2$, $SO_2$, CO, $O_3$ by four exposure estimation methods were slightly different but not significantly different from each other. Cross-validation showed that kriging was more accurate than other exposure estimation methods because kriging has probably predicted individual exposure levels equivalent to residential locations after estimating the parameters of a model according to the spatial surface of air pollution concentration. These data support that spatial interpolation methods may provide better estimates than selecting the value from the nearest monitor and averaging across values from all monitors by reflecting spatial attributes of air pollution on personal level.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.55-64
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• 2009

In a pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR), radiation workers who have access to radiation controlled areas submit their urine samples to health physicists periodically; internal radiation exposure is evaluated by the monitoring of these urine samples. Internal radiation exposure at PHWRs accounts for approximately 20 $\sim$ 40% of total radiation exposure; most internal radiation exposure is attributed to tritium. Carbon-14 is not a dominant nuclide in the radiation exposure of workers, but it is one potential nuclide to be necessarily monitored. Carbon-14 is a low energy beta emitter and passes relatively easily into the body of workers by inhalation because its dominant chemical form is radioactive carbon dioxide ($^{14}CO_2$). Most inhaled carbon-14 is rapidly exhaled from the worker's body, but a small amount of carbon-14 remains inside the body and is excreted by urine. In this study, a method for dual analysis of tritium and carbon-14 in urine samples of workers at nuclear power plants is developed and a method for internal dose assessment using its excretion rate result is established. As a result of the developed dual analysis of tritium and carbon-14 in urine samples of radiation workers who entered the high radiation field area at a PHWR, it was found that internal exposure to carbon-14 is unlikely to occur. In addition, through the urine counting results of radiation workers who participated in the open process of steam generators, it was found that the likelihood of internal exposure to either tritium or carbon-14 is extremely low at pressurized water reactors (PWRs).

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.74-95
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• 2021

Background: A job-exposure matrix (JEM) is an important surrogate indicator to evaluate past exposure levels. Although a Korean asbestos JEM has been constructed previously, this JEM includes only a few industrial and occupational groups. This study aimed to reconstruct the JEM by integrating the latest organized data to improve its utility. Methods: We used recent Korean standard industry and occupation codes and extracted 36 articles from a systematic literature review to initiate the reconstruction of the previous Korean asbestos JEM. The resulting data consisted of 141 combinations of industrial and occupational groups. Data from the Netherlands's JEM were also reviewed and categorized into 70 industrial and 117 occupational groups by matching with the Korean data. We also utilized Germany's data, which consisted of 10 industrial and 14 occupational groups. Results: The reconstructed Korean asbestos JEM had 141 combinations of industries and occupations. The time periods are from the 1980s to the 2000s in 10-year intervals. Most of the data were distributed between the 1990s and the 2000s. Occupations with high exposure to asbestos included knitting and weaving machine operators, automobile mechanics or assemblers, ship mechanics or assemblers, mineral ore and stone products processing mechanics, and metal casting machine operators or mold makers. Conclusions: The reconstructed Korean asbestos JEM has expanded the type and duration of the occupational groups of the previous JEM and can serve as an important reference tool for evaluating asbestos exposure and designing compensation and prevention policies in Korea.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2022

Background: This study aims to derive the characteristics of each work type for industrial radiography based on empirical evidence through expert advice and a survey of radiation workers of various types of industrial radiography. Materials and Methods: According to a Korean report, work types of industrial radiography are classified into indoor tests, underground pipe tests, tests in a shielded room (radiographic testing [RT] room test), outdoor field tests, and outdoor large structure tests. For each work type, exposure geometry and radiation sources were mainly identified through the expert advice and workers' survey as reliable empirical evidence. Results and Discussion: The expert advice and survey results were consistent as the proportion of the work types were high in the order of RT room test, outdoor large structure test, underground pipe test, outdoor field test, and indoor test. The outdoor large structure test is the highest exposure risk work type in the industrial radiography. In most types of industrial radiography, radiation workers generally used ¹⁹²Ir as the main source. In the results of the survey, the portion of sources was high in the order of ¹⁹²Ir, X-ray generator, ⁶⁰Co, and ⁷⁵Se. As the exposure geometry, the antero-posterior geometry is dominant, and the rotational and isotropic geometry should be also considered with the work type. Conclusion: In this study, through expert advice and a survey, the external exposure characteristics for each work type of industrial radiography workers were derived. This information will be used in the reconstruction of organ dose for health effects assessment of Korean radiation workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2009

The proposal of the $CO_2$ ocean sequestration necessitates a thorough understanding of its consequences to aquatic organisms. This paper describes acute toxic responses to high $CO_2$ environment of a cephalopod, Octopus vulgaris. O. vulgaris was chronically cannulated in the abdominal aorta and recovered in a restrained chamber. Acid base variables as well as ion concentrations were estimated in samples of the blood collected from recovered O. vulgaris. 100% mortality occurred within 72h during exposure to 3%-$CO_2$ environment. Hemolymph pH significantly decreased after 30 min during exposure to 1%-$CO_2$ environment without any compensation thereafter. $[HCO_3^-]$ significantly increased from 2.2 mM at 0h to 7.8 mM at 8h, but gradually decreased thereafter. Hemolymph ions $([Cl^-],\;[Na^+],\;[K^+])$ showed no significant changes. O. vulgaris may be more sensitive than teleost, yellowtail, flounder and dogfish.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.493-499
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• 2022

Background: The purpose of this study is to construct a job-exposure matrix for lead that accounts for industry and work processes within industries using a nationwide exposure database. Methods: We used the work environment measurement data (WEMD) of lead monitored nationwide from 2015 to 2016. Industrial hygienists standardized the work process codes in the database to 37 standard process and extracted key index words for each process. A total of 37 standardized process codes were allocated to each measurement based on an automated key word search based on the degree of agreement between the measurement information and the standard process index. Summary statistics, including the arithmetic mean, geometric mean, and 95th percentile level (X95), was calculated according to industry, process, and industry process. Using statistical parameters of contrast and precision, we compared the similarity of exposure groups by industry, process, and industry process. Results: The exposure intensity of lead was estimated for 583 exposure groups combined with 128 industry and 35 process. The X95 value of the "casting" process of the "manufacture of basic precious and non-ferrous metals" industry was 53.29 ㎍/m³, exceeding the occupational exposure limit of 50 ㎍/m³. Regardless of the limitation of the minimum number of samples in the exposure group, higher contrast was observed when the exposure groups were by industry process than by industry or process. Conclusion: We evaluated the exposure intensities of lead by combination of industry and process. The results will be helpful in determining more accurate information regarding exposure in lead-related epidemiological studies.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.303-314
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• 2016

We tested the combined effects of increased partial pressure of $CO_2$ ($pCO_2$) and temperature on the reproduction and survival of the copepod Calanus sinicus from Asan Bay, the Yellow Sea under laboratory conditions to understand the impact of acidification on copepods. Egg production rate, survival rate, and fecal pellet production of C. sinicus were not affected by 1305 ppm $pCO_2$ or with combined treatments of temperature and $pCO_2$, including $8^{\circ}C$ and 289 ppm $pCO_2$ (ambient), $8^{\circ}C$ and 753 ppm $pCO_2$ (high $pCO_2$), $12^{\circ}C$ and 289 ppm $pCO_2$ (high temperature), and $12^{\circ}C$ and 753 ppm $pCO_2$ (greenhouse), for 5 or 10 d of exposure. However, egg hatching success of C. sinicus decreased significantly in the greenhouse treatment compared with the ambient or the high $pCO_2$ treatments. These results suggest that a combined treatment ($pCO_2$ and temperature) affected egg viability more than a single treatment($pCO_2$).