• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.423-429
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• 2013

The present study aimed to find the most sensitive placement of the skull to perceive speech through the bone vibrator in various protection methods while being exposed to noise. Twenty young normal-hearing adults (10 male and 10 female) participated in the study. As stimulus, Korean spondee words were presented via one of five skull locations (i.e., jaw angle, condyle, temple, mastoid, and vertex), while the participants wore one of four protection methods (i.e., ear form, ear plug, ear muff, and ear form and muff together) against white noise in one of four noise directions (i.e., 0, 90, 180, 270 degrees). The results showed: 1) there was a significant difference among the five skull locations with condyle being the most sensitive placement; 2) there was a significant difference among the four protection methods, with the ear form plus ear muff condition (or dual protection) providing the lowest threshold; 3) when exposed to noise from 90 degrees, the significantly lowest threshold was found; 4) there was no significant difference in results by gender. The pattern of results suggests that the communicative condition via the condyle bone conduction and the dual protection of the air conduction under any noise direction might be ideal for preventing noise-induced hearing loss, although further studies should be undertaken in this area.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 1984

To assess the hearing conservation by the hearing protection devices in the field, 1,237 healthy female weavers of 16 to 24 year old were surveyed from April 1982 to January 1983. By reviewing the charts, their working durations, hearing threshold shift levels and whether wearing the ear plugs or not were checked. The hearing threshold levels were measured at 4,000Hz by audiometry AA-30A, RION Japan. They were divided into two groups: an experimental group with ear plug and the control group without it. The threshold shift level above 40dB in controls was 44.6% in left and 40.9% in right ear and that in experimental group 8.0% in left and 6.6% in right ear. The distribution of threshold shift levels between control and experimental group was significantly different in both ears, but that between left and right ear not significantly different in both groups. The longer the working durations were, the more the proportion of high threshold shift levels was and the larger the differences in the proportion of above 40dB between both groups were.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.273-284
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• 1996

Embryos and fetuses are more sensitive to various environmental agents than are adults or children. The biological effects such as intrauterine death and malformation are closely connected with prenatal exposure very various agents. The sensitivity of these embryonic/fetal effects depends on the stage of pregnancy. From the viewpoint of fetal development, embryonic and fetal stages can be divided into three stages : Preimplantation, organogenetic and fetal. Each stage corresponds to 0 to 4.5days, 4.5 to 13.5days, and 13.5days of gestation in mice, respectively. Many studies on the biologcal effects of mice irradiated by ${\gamma}-rays$ at various stages during organogenesis and fetal period have been performed. Based on these results, the dose-effect and dose-response relationships in malformations, intrauterine death, or retardation of the physical growth have been practically modeled by the ICRP(International Commission on Radiological Protection) and other international bodies for radiation protection. Many experimental studies on mice have made it clear that mice embryos in the preimplantation period have a higher sensitivity to radiation for lethal effects than the embryos/fetuses on other prenatal periods. However, no eratogenic effects of radiation at preimplantation stages of mice have been described in many textbooks. It has been believed that 'all or none action results' for radiation of mice during the preimplantation period were applied. The teratogenic and lethal effects during the preimplantation stage are one of the most important problems from the viewpoint of radiological protection, since the preimplantation stage is the period when the pregnancy itself is not noticed by a pregnant woman. There are many physical or chemical agents which affect embryos/fetuses in the environment. It is assumed that each agents indirectly effects a human. Then, a safety criterion on each agent is determined independently. The pregnant ICR mice on 2, 48, 72 or 96 hours post-conception (hpc), at which are preimplantation stage of embryos, were irradiated whole body Cesium-gamma radiation at doses of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1.5, and 2.5 Gy with dose rate of 0.2 Gy/min. In the embryos from the fetuses from the mice irradiated at various period in preimplantation, embryonic/fetal mortalities, incidence of external gross malformation, fetal body weight and sex ratio were observed at day 18 of gestation. The sensitivity of embryonic mortalities in the mice irradiated at the stage of preimplantation were higher than those in the mice irradiated at the stage of organogenesis. And the more sensitive periods of preimplantation stage for embryonic death were 2 and 48 hpc, at which embryos were one cell and 4 to 7 cell stage, respectively. Many types of the external gross malformations such as exencephaly, cleft palate and anophthalmia were observed in the fetuses from the mice irradiated at 2, 72 and 96 hpc. However, no malformations were observed in the mice irradiated at 48 hpc, at which stage the embryos were about 6 cell stage precompacted embryos. So far, it is believed that the embryos on preimplantation stage are not susceptible to teratogens such as radiation and chemical agents. In this study, the sensitivity for external malformations in the fetuses from the mice irradiated at preimplantation were higher than those in the fetuses on stage of organogenesis.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.88-98
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• 2024

This study provides basic data on the growth and production of seedlings produced in plant factories with artificial lighting by comparing seedling quality, growth and fruit characteristics, and production after transplanting cucumber seedlings according to environmental differences between plant factories with artificial lighting and conventional nurseries in greenhouse. The control group consisted of greenhouse seedlings (GH) grown in the conventional nursery before transplanting. Plant factory to greenhouse seedlings (PG) were grown for 9 days in a plant factory with artificial lighting and for 13 days in an conventional nursery. Plant factory seedlings (PF) were grown in a plant factory with artificial lighting for 22 days until planting. In terms of seedling quality, PFs had the highest relative growth rate and compactness and the best root zone development. After transplanting PFs tended to grow faster, the first harvest date was 2 days earlier than that of GHs, and the growing season ended 1 day earlier. The female flower flowering rate of the PFs was high, and the fruit set rate was of PF the lowest. The production per unit area was highest for PFs at 10.23kg Performance index on the absorption basis, the most sensitive chlorophyll fluorescence parameter, was highest at 4.14 for PFs at 4 weeks after transplantation. By comparing the maximum quantum yield of primary PS II photochemistry and dissipated energy flux per PS II reaction center electron at 4 weeks after transplantation, PFs tended to be the least stressed. PFs had the best seedling quality, growth, and production after planting, and fruit quality was consistent with that of greenhouse seedlings. Therefore, plant factory seedlings can be used in the field.