• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2023

In 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Approximately 70 000 Koreans are estimated to have been exposed to radiation from atomic bombs at that time. After Korea's Liberation Day, approximately 23 000 of these people returned to Korea. To investigate the long-term health and hereditary effects of atomic bomb exposure on the offspring, cohort studies have been conducted on atomic bomb survivors in Japan. This study is an ongoing cohort study to determine the health status of Korean atomic bomb survivors and investigate whether any health effects were inherited by their offspring. Atomic bomb survivors are defined by the Special Act On the Support for Korean Atomic Bomb Victims, and their offspring are identified by participating atomic bomb survivors. As of 2024, we plan to recruit 1500 atomic bomb survivors and their offspring, including 200 trios with more than 300 people. Questionnaires regarding socio-demographic factors, health behaviors, past medical history, laboratory tests, and pedigree information comprise the data collected to minimize survival bias. For the 200 trios, whole-genome analysis is planned to identify de novo mutations in atomic bomb survivors and to compare the prevalence of de novo mutations with trios in the general population. Active follow-up based on telephone surveys and passive follow-up with linkage to the Korean Red Cross, National Health Insurance Service, death registry, and Korea Central Cancer Registry data are ongoing. By combining pedigree information with the findings of trio-based whole-genome analysis, the results will elucidate the hereditary health effects of atomic bomb exposure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.19-28
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• 2006

Long-term field observations were performed in three excavation sites in order to investigate the displacement behavior of adjacent ground during overall excavation procedure, where the depths of deep excavations were 15 m$\∼$29 m. In this study, ground settlements and lateral displacements of braced wall measured during installation of retaining wall and removal of bracing were specially focused to evaluate the behavior quantitatively according to three-stage-divided procedure, i.e. pre-excavation, main excavation, and removal of bracing. Through field measurements on three excavation sites, lateral displacements induced during removal of bracing are approximate to 40$\%$ of the amount found during main excavation stage and additional adjacent ground deformation during post-excavation procedure ranges from 18$\%$ to 33$\%$ of that found during main excavation stage, based on the settlement volume. In conclusion, it was quantitatively identified in this study that the deformations of adjacent ground during pre- and post-excavation stage were not negligible.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.13-21
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• 2006

Geosynthetic damage has attracted a major attention since the introduction of geotextiles for civil engineering applications. In this study 3 pilot trial embankments were carried out to investigate the behaviours of reinforced embankments over soft cohesive soils and to find the optimum methodology of embankments over soft soils. As the seamed part of polyester mat (PET, tensile strength 15 ton) used in the first full-scale field test was ruptured under progressing rotational slope failure because of unexpectedly rapid construction of embankments, the excessive pore water pressures were measured. On the soil behavior where tension explosion of mat was continued, pore pressure larger than the one caused by embankment height was measured. Especially, at the depth of 5.0 m under the ground pore pressure increased over long term. It was discussed with respect to the height of embankment and heaving behavior of soft soils.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1D
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• pp.57-65
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• 2008

Joint of concrete pavement contributes to improvement of pavement performance by preventing occurrence of random cracking due to drying shrinkage and temperature changes of concrete slabs at early age. However, saw-cutting operations performed prior to sufficient concrete hardening develop micro-cracking of the concrete near the joints, which may develop to long-term distresses due to repetitious traffic and environmental loadings. To reduce the distresses, the joint crack inducers with heights of 100 mm, 150 mm, and 220 mm and the joint cracking slots with various depth were installed at a test section to investigate occurrence of the joint cracks and their behaviors over 5 months. As the results, higher efficiency of the crack inducing and larger behavior of the joint cracks were observed for the taller joint crack inducer. Higher efficiency of the crack inducing and improvement of the joint performance are warranted by additional investigation and reformation of the joint crack inducer.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5A
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• pp.823-832
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• 2006

To ensure the serviceability requirements of PSC composite girder bridges, it is essential to predict the stresses and deformations of the structure under service load conditions. Stresses and deformations vary continuously with time due to the effects of creep and shrinkage of concrete and relaxation of prestressing steel. The importance of these time-dependent effects is much more pronounced in precast prestressed concrete structures built in stages than in those constructed in one operation. In this paper, time-dependent analyses for PSC composite bridges using 30m standard girders have been conducted considering with the variation of the times of introducing initial prestressing forces and casting concrete. A computer program has been developed for the time-dependent analysis of simple or continuous PSC composite girders and parametric studies are conducted. Based on the numerical results, it is investigated the long-term behaviors of PSC composite girder bridges and discussed the limitations of the current codes for the prestress loss.

• CORROSION AND PROTECTION
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2013

Austenitic stainless steels and Ni-base alloys are widely used as structural materials for major components and piping system in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). These austenitic alloys are known to be susceptible to environmental assisted cracking (EAC), such as environmentally-assisted fatigue (EAF) and primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) during long-term exposure to PWR primary water environment. In this paper, the current understanding on the phenomena and mechanisms of these EAC are briefly introduced using experimental results and literature review. The mechanisms for EAF and PWSCC for austenitic stainless steels and Ni-base alloys are discussed. Currently, austenitic stainless steels are known to be more susceptible to EAF, while less susceptible to PWSCC than Ni-base alloys. The possible explanations to such behaviors are proposed and discussed in view of the role of hydrogen and internal oxidation.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.29-47
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• 2013

Distribution channel decisions involve long-term commitments with other firms that are very difficult to change or replace. In particular, marketing channel decisions in emerging markets are much more complicated due to unfamiliar conditions and problems such as lack of market data and distribution systems. Therefore, when a company considers changing or introducing a marketing channel in an area, it is much more difficult to judge its effectiveness in an emerging market than in a developed market. In this study, we investigate the development process of a new direct marketing channel of Hongfu Fertilizer Company (hereafter Hongfu), a medium-sized Chinese fertilizer manufacturer, and propose an approach to test the feasibility of this new marketing channel in the Chinese rural market. We measure the effectiveness of Hongfu's new marketing channel from two perspectives: i) from customers' perspective through direct responses of farmers, which showed that a new channel can increase the convenience and lower the purchasing costs for the farmers, and ii) from the company's perspective, by calculating the incremental profit of the company using the expansion factor (T/Q) method, which suggested that the execution of Hongfu's strategy to expand a new marketing channel will result in an increase in profits. The results of this study contribute to the development of a methodology to test the feasibility of a new direct marketing channel in the emerging markets such as the Chinese rural market. Traditional and indirect distribution channels in emerging markets are generally not very efficient and difficult to change. Especially, in emerging markets, like the Chinese rural market, the methods of testing channel feasibility must be different from that of developed markets. Considering market situations, market experiments can be more effective then systematic market surveys in testing channel feasibility in emerging markets. This study implies that managers must learn to cope with a transition from the traditional marketing channels in emerging markets. With the development in farmers' understanding of marketing concept, the transition from traditional marketing channel is unavoidable for all firms. Farmers in China are generally very conservative, however, their buying behaviors are changing. Therefore, fertilizer companies should try to adjust in accordance with farmers' demand characteristics that the efforts to meet the economic needs of farmers with new marketing channels as well as trust building are critical in the near future.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.289-302
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• 2023

Insulating glass units (IGUs) have been widely used in buildings in recent years due to their superior thermal insulation performance. However, because of the panel reciprocating motion and fatigue deterioration of sealants under long-term wind loads, many IGUs have the problem of early failure of watertight properties in real usage. This study aimed to propose a statistical method for wind-induced deflection of IGU panels during the whole life service period, for further precise analysis of the accumulated fatigue damage at the sealed part of the edge bond. By the estimation of the wind occurrence regularity based on wind pressure return period, the events of each wind speed interval during the whole life were obtained for the IGUs at 50m height in Beijing, which are in good agreement with the measured data. Also, the wind-induced deflection analysis method of IGUs based on the formula of airspace coefficient was proposed and verified as an improvement of the original stiffness distribution method with the average relative error compared to the test being about 3% or less. Combining the two methods above, the deformation of the outer and inner panes under wind loads during 30 years was precisely calculated, and the deflection and stress state at selected locations were obtained finally. The results show that the compression displacement at the secondary sealant under the maximum wind pressure is close to 0.3mm (strain 2.5%), and the IGUs are in tens of thousands of times the low amplitude tensile-compression cycle and several times to dozens of times the relatively high amplitude tensile-compression cycle environment. The approach proposed in this paper provides a basis for subsequent studies on the durability of IGUs and the wind-resistant behaviors of curtain wall structures.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.49-56
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• 2024

Purpose: The aims were to investigate potential differences in clinical assessments among acute pain-related temporomandibular disorder (TMD) with different concordance value (CV) between number of self-reported painful site (NSP) and number of painful sites on palpation (NPP), and if it makes sense to treat them differently. Methods: A total of 61 patients were divided into three groups according to CV: 10 patients (concordance poor [CP]), 19 patients (concordance moderate [CM]), and 32 patients (concordance high [CH]). Clinical assessments were conducted using a standardized method in diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders (DC/TMD). We compared collected information including sex, diagnosis, numerical rating scale (NRS), NPP, NSP, sleep duration, DC/TMD Axis II questionnaire, and perceived stress scale among three groups. Results: Among the clinical assessment, NRS, sleep duration, NPP, NSP, total scores of Oral Behaviors Checklist, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-15, PHQ-9 showed significant differences among 3 groups. NRS, NPP, NSP, PHQ-15, and PHQ-9 were higher in the CP group than in the CM and CH groups. Sleep duration was positively and NPP, NRS were negatively correlated with CV. Conclusions: While previous studies suggested differences between chronic and acute TMD in DC/TMD items, our findings propose the CV might be a key factor that could predict the severity and susceptibility of acute-TMD patients. However, Additional studies are required to determine whether their long-term prognosis was similar to that of chronic pain patients and what the response to treatment was among the three groups.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.179-188
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• 2016

Purpose: This cross-sectional study aimed to document the dietary behaviors, dietary changes, and health status of female marriage immigrants residing in Gwangju, Korea. Methods: The survey included 92 female immigrants attending Korean language class at a multi-cultural family support center. General characteristics, health status, anthropometric data, dietary behaviors, and dietary changes were collected. Results: Mean age of subjects was 31.3 years, and home countries of subjects were Vietnam (50.0%), China (26.0%), Philippines (12.0%), and others (12.0%). Frequently reported chronic diseases were digestive diseases (13.2%), anemia (12.1%), and neuropsychiatry disorder (8.9%). Seventeen percent of the subjects was obese ($BMI{\geq}25kg/m^2$). Dietary score by Mini Dietary Assessment was 3.45 out of 5 points. Dietary scores for dairy foods, meat/fish/egg/bean intake, meal regularity, and food variety were low, and those for fried foods and high fat meat intake were also low. Thirty-three percent of subjects answered that they have changed their diet and increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables after immigration. Length of residence in Korea was positively associated with BMI and waist circumference. Length of residence tends to be positively associated with dietary changes and obesity as well as inversely associated with disease prevalence. Conclusion: The study shows that length of residence is inversely related to disease prevalence. However, this association is thought to be due to the relatively short period of residence in Korea and thus the transitional phase to adapting to dietary practices. As the length of residence increases, disease patterns related to obesity are subject to change. Healthy dietary behaviors and adaptation to dietary practices in Korea in female marriage immigrants will not only benefit individuals but also their families and social structure. Therefore, varied, long-term, and target-specific studies on female marriage immigrants are highly needed.