• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.95-114
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• 2023

During the decades after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) accident, ambient dose rates have markedly decreased when compared to those at the early state of the accident. Government projects have been continuously conducted by surveying the ambient dose rate and radiocesium distributions. Airborne surveys using crewed helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are the best methods for obtaining an overall picture of the distribution. However, ground-based surveys are required for accurate measurements near the population. The differences between these methods include the knowledge of the post depositional behavior of radionuclides in land use. The survey results form the basis for policy decisions such as lifting evacuation zones, decontamination, and other countermeasures. These surveys contain crucial findings regarding post-accident responses. This paper reviews the survey methods of government projects and current situation around the FDNPS. The visualization methods and databases of ambient dose rates are also reviewed to provide information to the population.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.176-176
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• 2023

The Tonle Sap is the richest and diverseness of freshwater ecosystem in Southeast Asia, receiving nurturing water flows from the Mekong and its immediate basin. In addition, the rapid development in the Tonle Sap Lake (TSL) Basin, and flood inundation may threaten the natural diversities and characteristics. The impacts of flood inundation in 11 sub-basins contributing to the Tonle Sap Lake were assessed using the Rainfall-Runoff-Inundation (RRI) model to quantify the potential magnitude and extent of the flooding. The RRI model is set up by using gauged rainfall data to simulate the information of river discharge and flood inundation of huge possible flood events. Moreover, two satellite precipitation products (SPPs), CHIRPS and GSMaP, within respectively spatial resolutions of 0.05° and 0.1°, are utilized as an input for the RRI model to simulate river discharge, flood depth, and flood extent for the great TSL Basin of Cambodia. This study used statistical indicators such as NSE, PBIAS, RSR, and R2 as crucial indices to evaluate the performance of the RRI model. Therefore, the findings of this study could provide promising guidance in hydrological modeling and the significant implications for flood risk management and disaster preparedness in the region.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.179-182
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• 2023

The Chemical Substances Control Act has been legislated to counter the risks posed by chemical substances to public health and the environment, but a number of small- and large-scaled incidents related to hazardous chemicals continue to occur every year. The Korean Ministry of Environment takes legal responsibility for prevention, preparedness, and response to nationwide chemical accidents under the Chemical Substances Control Act. The determination of chemical accidents that occur during hazardous chemical handling processes is based on the Article 2 (Definitions) of the law and the administrative criteria for judgement of chemical accidents. However, there are certain ambiguities in the scientific basis for determining chemical accidents under the current regulations. Whether or not a chemical accident has a direct influence on penalties and administrative measures for a workplace where an accident occurred, it is necessary to find reasonable criteria for determining chemical accident based on legal and scientific evidence.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.507-511
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• 2022

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) often encounter rapidly changing and uncontrolled situations that expose them to various hazards. A law enforcement agency requested an evaluation by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) when multiple LEOs reported illness after executing a search warrant and taking a suspect into custody. NIOSH investigators interviewed LEOs and reviewed medical records, forensic laboratory results for collected evidence, and environmental testing results of samples taken after the operation. Two-thirds (25 of 38) of LEOs who participated in the operation reported ≥1 symptom. Eleven LEOs met a case definition for influenza-like illness (ILI). Members of one unit were more likely to have ILI than non-members (prevalence ratio (PR), 4.1; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3-13.0; p = 0.01). Influenza vaccination was associated with a lower prevalence of ILI (PR, 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.9; p = 0.02). Preventing employees from working while ill and annual influenza vaccination might prevent similar occurrences.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.149-149
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• 2022

Accurate quantitative evaluation of baseflow contribution to streamflow is imperative to address seasonal drought vulnerability, flood occurrence and groundwater management concerns for efficient and sustainable water resources management in watersheds. Several baseflow separation algorithms using recursive filters, graphical method and tracer or chemical balance have been developed but resulting baseflow outputs always show wide variations, thereby making it hard to determine best separation technique. Therefore, the current global shift towards implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in water resources is employed to compare the performance of deep learning models with conventional hydrograph separation techniques to quantify baseflow contribution to streamflow of Piney River watershed, Tennessee from 2001-2021. Streamflow values are obtained from the USGS station 03602500 and modeled to generate values of Baseflow Index (BI) using Web-based Hydrograph Analysis (WHAT) model. Annual and seasonal baseflow outputs from the traditional separation techniques are compared with results of Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) and simple Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) models. The GRU model gave optimal BFI values during the four seasons with average NSE = 0.98, KGE = 0.97, r = 0.89 and future baseflow volumes are predicted. AI offers easier and more accurate approach to groundwater management and surface runoff modeling to create effective water policy frameworks for disaster management.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.220-230
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• 2023

Identification of the pathogens causing infection is important in terms of patient's health management and infection control. Synovial fluids could be used as clinical samples to detect causative pathogens of prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) using molecular diagnostic assays, therefore, normalization and validation of clinical samples are necessary. Microbial culture is considered the gold standard for all infections, including PJIs. Recently, molecular diagnostic methods have been developed to overcome the limitation of microbial culture. Therefore, guideline for validating clinical samples to provide reliable results of molecular diagnostic assays for infectious diseases is required in clinical field. The present study aimed to develop an accurate validating method of synovial fluid clinical samples using GAPDH gene as an internal control to perform the quantitative PCR TaqMan probe assay to detect pathogens causing PJIs.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2003

Objective: This study was conducted for the nationwide statistical survey of poison exposure to provide the rationale for establishing and developing the poison control center (PCC) in Korea. Design: Study group for Korea PCC in National Medical Center reviewed the medical literature on poison exposure of Korea from death reports of National Statistical Office (NSO), the toxic exposure statistics from the report of National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC), and poison related data from 119 ambulance services (FD) for the purpose of obtaining the poison and its related data. We also conducted questionnaire from the expert who work in emergency medicine department at the designated 320 emergency medical centers in Korea for the preparedness and acknowledgement about necessity of PCC and their need for that. Results: We reviewed the reliable data from the death report of NSO, poison exposure data from NHIC, and running report from FD. Poisoning death occured at home ($36.7\%$) and hospital ($46.3\%$). Poisoning are more common in rural area than the city area. Patients were seen more frequently in the local clinics than in any hospital. The drugs ($45.7\%$) and pesticide ($18.1\%$) are common poison. Common place to poison exposure were residential area ($39.9\%$), industry ($9\%$). mass residential area ($7\%$). and farm ($6\%$). The education level were primary school ($33.2\%$), high school ($23.7\%$), and middle schol ($21.3\%$) in order. We have to provide the poison guideline for lay public to understand easily, and for medical experts. The medical facilities need to be invested and have more interest for toxicology. All medical staff who work in the designated emergency medical center want PCC to establish. They want to have poison information from hospital ($91.3\%$), regional poison information center ($45.0\%$), regional poison control center ($52.5\%$), nationwide poison information center ($48.8\%$), nationwide poison control center ($46.25\%$), as a role of poison control center. They also want that pcc have poison epidemiologic study and statstics, training program for the experts, registration of rare case of posion on website, reflection of policies to activities for antidote production etc., speedy consultation system for poison analysis, public education, establishment of both regional and national pee, etc. Conclusion: Poison center must be established to provide poison information for all the public and medical experitise, focusing rural area and private clinic, to detoxify, to reduce the cost, time, morbity, and mortality through the whole country.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.337-345
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• 2011

In order to provide an effective preparedness for a nuclear or radiological emergency happening in the domestic or neighborhood countries and to solve the vague fear of the people for the ingestion of radioactive livestock products, the establishment of national guideline level for radionuclides in feed is urgently necessary. This is because it is important to secure the safety and to manage the crisis in the agricultural, fishery and food sector by performing the effective safety control during and after nuclear incident. This study was performed to investigate the report cases of international organizations and foreign countries to set up a domestic control standard for managing radioactive substances that may be contaminated in animal feeds due to the nuclear power plant incident. In addition, an attempt was made to provide a useful reference that can help prepare a domestic control standard, using a coefficient that can consider the transfer into livestock through the intake of radioactive contaminated animal feeds. The standard radioisotopes investigated were confined to radioactive cesium ($^{137+134}Cs$) and iodine ($^{131}I$). Guideline level for the radionuclides was calculated by using the transfer coefficient factor and the maximum daily intake of animal feed provided by IAEA. For example, the maximum daily intake of animal feed was set as $25kg\;d^{-1}$ for dairy cows, $10kg\;d^{-1}$ for beef cattle, $3.0kg\;d^{-1}$ for pigs and $0.15kg\;d^{-1}$ for chickens. The result values for radioactive cesium were calculated as $8,696Bq\;kg^{-1}$, $4,545Bq\;kg^{-1}$, $1,667Bq\;kg^{-1}$ and $2,469Bq\;kg^{-1}$, respectively. The results for radioactive iodine showed the ranges between $741Bq\;kg^{-1}$ and $76,628Bq\;kg^{-1}$. These data can be utilized as a scientific reference for the preparation of a crisis management manual for the emergency control due to nuclear power plant accident in Korea and neighboring country. These results will contribute to establish the safe feed management system at national level as manual for responding the radioactive exposure of agricultural products and animal feeds, which are currently not established.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.61-68
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• 2010

Korea is constructing the disaster management system to prevent various disasters and minimize damages. In spite of these efforts, however, Korea lately suffered from a number of diverse disasters. These disasters once again lead to the questions and criticisms concerning the effectiveness of the disaster management system. So research into how to quantify the disaster management system is very significant in securing the right of the people to lead a safe life, keeping human life and properties from being injured. The purpose of this study is to prioritize policies which can be considered for establishing and operating disaster management system. To do that, this study conducts a questionnaire survey, targeting for 282 fire man. The survey includes various factors according to four stages in disaster management process: prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. The method used is AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process) technique using expertchoice 2000. Results of the analysis are as follows. At the first stage of analysis, prevention is found as the most significant factor. The other significant factors are response, preparedness, and recovery factor in order. At the second stage of analysis, share of role among disaster facilities is the most significant factor. Reorganization of disaster facilities and connection of law are significant in order.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.80-86
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• 2019

In Korea, a total of 556 chemical accidents occurred from 2012 to 2018 caused by adverse reactions of two or more chemicals, which required significant amounts of time to identify the causative chemicals. Rapid analysis is required for effective incident response and probing. In this study, a quantum transition time-of-flight mass spectrometer was used to identify the causative agents of chemical accidents caused by adverse reactions. The analyzer enabled fast real-time analysis without the need for sample collection and pretreatment. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of most volatile organic compounds with high hydrogen affinity was performed to investigate the cause of the chemical accidents. In fact, in the month of 201◯, methanol and toluene were detected as causative agents of the accident using a quantum transition time mass spectrometer, and were also the cause of the reported odor.