• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.506-514
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• 2020

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that increasing dietary copper (Cu) to gravid ewes would enhance brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis in their offspring. Methods: Twin-bearing ewes were assigned on d 70 of gestation to diets containing 3, 10, or 20 ppm dietary Cu (n = 8 per group). Twin lambs were assigned at birth to a cold (6℃) or warm (28℃) environmental chamber for 48 h. Blood was collected from ewes and from lambs and perirenal BAT was collected after 48 h in the environmental chambers. Results: Prenatal Cu exposure increased ewe plasma triiodothyronine (T₃) and thyroxine concentration (T₄) (p<0.01) but prenatal Cu exposure had no effect on lamb plasma concentrations of T₃, T₄, glucose, or nonesterified fatty acid concentration (p≥0.08). The high level of prenatal Cu exposure depressed 48-h rectal temperature (p = 0.03). Cold exposure decreased BAT norepinephrine (NE) and increased BAT dopamine (p≤0.01), but prenatal Cu exposure had no effect on BAT cytochrome C oxidase activity or BAT NE or dopamine (p≥0.07). However, BAT of lambs from high-Cu ewes maintained higher uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1) gene expression than BAT of lambs from low- and medium-Cu ewes following warm or cold exposure in environmental chambers (p = 0.02). Cold exposure caused near depletion of BAT lipid by 48 h (p<0.001), increased BAT cytochrome c oxidase activity (p<0.01), and depressed plasma fatty acid concentrations (p<0.001). Conclusion: Although prenatal Cu exposure increased BAT UCP1 expression during warm and cold exposure, prenatal cold Cu exposure depressed 48-h rectal temperature. Cold exposure decreased BAT lipid content by over 80% and decreased lamb plasma fatty acid concentration by over 40%, indicating that fuel reserves for thermogenesis were nearly depleted by 48 h of cold exposure.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제40권5호
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• pp.397-406
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• 2014

Objectives: Perchloroethylene (PCE) is a volatile chemical widely used as a solvent in the dry-cleaning and textile processing industries. It was evaluated as Group 2 "probably carcinogenic to humans" by the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) of the United State Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) in 2012. In order to provide a scientific basis for establishing risk management measures for chemicals on the national priority substances list, aggregate risk assessment was conducted for PCE, included in the top-10 substances. Methods: We conducted the investigation and monitoring of PCE exposure (e.g., exposure scenario, detection levels, and exposure factors, etc.) and assessed its multi-media (e.g., outdoor air, indoor air, and ground water) exposure risk with a deterministic and probabilistic approach. Results: In human risk assessment (HRA), the level of human exposure was higher in the younger age group. The exposure level through inhalation at home was the highest among the exposure routes. Outdoor air or uptake of drinking water represented less than 1% of total contributions to PCE exposure. These findings suggested that the level of risk was negligible since the Hazard Index (HI) induced by HRA was below one among all age groups, with a maximum HI value of 0.17 when reasonable maximum exposure was applied. Conclusion: In conclusion, it was suggested that despite low exposure risk, further studies are needed considering main sources, including occupational exposure.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.51-57
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• 2022

Cosmic radiation exposure of the flight crews in Korea has been managed by Radiation Safety Management around Living Life Act under Nuclear Safety and Security Commission. However, the domestic flight crews are excluded from the Act because of relatively low route dose exposure compared to that of international flight crews. But we found that the accumulated total annual dose of domestic flight crews is far from negligible because of relatively long total flight time and too many flights. In this study, to suggest the necessity of management of domestic flight crews' radiation exposure, we statistically analyzed domestic flight crew's accumulative annual dose by using cosmic radiation estimation models of the Civil Aviation Research Institute (CARI)-6M, Nowcast of Atmospheric Ionizing Radiation for Aviation Safety (NAIRAS), and Korean Radiation Exposure Assessment Model (KREAM) and compared with in-situ measurements of Liulin-6K LET spectrometer. As a result, the average exposure dose of domestic flight crews was found to be 0.5-0.8 mSv. We also expect that our result might provide the basis to include the domestic flight crews as radiation workers, not just international flight attendants.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.237-246
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• 2023

Background: Arsenic is a metalloid of public health significance due to its unique material properties and toxicity and the widespread pollution in the environment. Arsenic exists as inorganic arsenic and organic arsenic with distinct chemical properties. Its toxicity varies depending on the properties. Objectives: Although the carcinogenicity of arsenic has been identified, the various diseases that occur after acute and chronic exposure to arsenic are not yet clearly known. Methods: Research on the effects of chronic exposure to arsenic on human health was searched and the results were summarized. Results: It has been found that cancer occurs due to exposure to high concentrations of arsenic in areas with elevated exposure to arsenic, but research results have recently been presented on health effects caused by chronic exposure to low concentrations of arsenic. Cancers have also been identified to be related to inorganic arsenic, including skin cancer, lung cancer, and bladder cancer. Significant relationships with neurological diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes mellitus have been suggested as well. Conclusions: Our results suggest that it is necessary to evaluate the health impact on residents around abandoned metal mines and industrial complexes in South Korea.

• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.26-33
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• 2001

The goal of this study was to evaluate the relationship between ambient hexavalent chromium concentration and the concentration of the chromium in whole blood, plasma, erythrocytes, and its urinary excretion of male rats after inhalation exposure of sodium chromate during 1, 2, and 3 weeks. 1. Differences of mean chromium concentration in urine, whole blood, erythrocytes, and plasma of male rats exposed to sodium chromate by exposure level were statistically significance, respectively. 2. At low and high exposure groups, differences of mean chromium concentration in urine, whole blood, erythrocytes, and plasma of male rats by duration of inhalation exposure were statistically significance, respectively. 3. Ratio of whole blood chromium to plasma chromium increased with the increased duration of inhalation exposure of sodium chromate. 4. Ambient hexavalent chromium was positively and strongly correlated with in erythrocyte chromium, and also erythrocyte chromium was strongly correlated with in whole blood chromium. In conclusion, this study showed that chromium in erythrocyte increased with the increased exposure level and exposure duration, therefore this study suggests that chromium in erythrocytes is a good biological exposure index of the internal dose from exposure to soluble hexavalent chromium compound.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.518-526
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• 2019

Background: Additive manufacturing (AM) is a rapidly expanding new technology involving challenges to occupational health. Here, metal exposure in an AM facility with large-scale metallic component production was investigated during two consecutive years with preventive actions in between. Methods: Gravimetric analyzes measured airborne particle concentrations, and filters were analyzed for metal content. In addition, concentrations of airborne particles <300 nm were investigated. Particles from recycled powder were characterized. Biomonitoring of urine and dermal contamination among AM operators, office personnel, and welders was performed. Results: Total and inhalable dust levels were almost all below occupational exposure limits, but inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry showed that AM operators had a significant increase in cobalt exposure compared with welders. Airborne particle concentrations (<300 nm) showed transient peaks in the AM facility but were lower than those of the welding facility. Particle characterization of recycled powder showed fragmentation and condensates enriched in volatile metals. Biomonitoring showed a nonsignificant increase in the level of metals in urine in AM operators. Dermal cobalt and a trend for increasing urine metals during Workweek Year 1, but not in Year 2, indicated reduced exposure after preventive actions. Conclusion: Gravimetric analyses showed low total and inhalable dust exposure in AM operators. However, transient emission of smaller particles constitutes exposure risks. Preventive actions implemented by the company reduced the workers' metal exposure despite unchanged emissions of particles, indicating a need for careful design and regulation of the AM environments. It also emphasizes the need for relevant exposure markers and biomonitoring of health risks.

• Toxicological Research
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.57-64
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• 2016

Recently several studies reported that the renal toxicity of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) may exist in even a low level exposure. In terms of the deterioration of tubular function, it affects the loss of divalent metals and leads to other complications, so renal tubular effect of heavy metals should be well managed. Considering the exposure to heavy metals in reality, it is hard to find the case that human is exposed to only one heavy metal. We designed a cross-sectional study using Korean Research Project on the Integrated Exposure Assessment (KRIEFS) data to investigate the renal effects of multiple metal exposure in general population. We used blood Pb and urinary Cd as exposure measures, and urinary N-acetyl-${\beta}$-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) and ${\beta}_2$-microglobulin (${\beta}_2$-MG) as renal tubular impairment outcome. We conducted linear regression to identify the association between each heavy metal and urinary NAG and ${\beta}_2$-MG. And then, we conducted linear regression including the interaction term. Of 1953 adults in KRIEFS (2010~2011), the geometric mean of blood Pb and urinary Cd concentration was $2.21{\mu}g/dL$ (geometric $SD=1.49{\mu}g/dL$) and $1.08{\mu}g/g\;cr$ (geometric $SD=1.98{\mu}g/g\;cr$), respectively. In urinary Cd, the strength of the association was also high after adjusting (urinary NAG: ${\beta}=0.44$, p < 0.001; urinary ${\beta}_2$-MG: ${\beta}=0.13$, p = 0.002). Finally, we identified the positive interactions for the two renal biomarkers. The interaction effect of the two heavy metals of ${\beta}_2$-MG was greater than that of NAG. It is very important in public health perspective if the low level exposure to multiple heavy metals has an interaction effect on kidney. More epidemiological studies for the interaction and toxicological studies on the mechanism are needed.

• 한국방사선학회논문지
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.497-506
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• 2023

의료기관의 방사선 업무 종사자의 경우 환자 보호와 정확한 시술을 위해 방사선 노출이 이루어져 저선량 피폭의 문제점을 안고 있다. 저선량 방사선 피폭은 주로 Apron 영역 이외에 신체 부분에서 발생되며, 가장 많은 곳이 손 등 피부이다. 특히, 의료인의 손은 시술 중 감각과 미세한 동작을 필요로 하기에 방사선 노출영역에서는 무방비 상태로 피폭의 위험성을 안고 있다. 납장갑 등 차폐체로 문제를 해결할 수 있지만, 이는 시술 중 손의 활동성을 제안하여 사용상의 어려움이 있다. 이러한 문제점을 해결하고자 기능성 방사선 보호효과를 얻을 수 있는 차폐크림을 개발하여 납당량 0.1 mmPb와 차폐성능을 비교하였다. 차폐크림 제조과정에서 크림의 밀도를 높이기 위해 기공을 줄이는 탈포과정을 추가하여 차폐성능을 개선하였다. 따라서 황산바륨을 주 재료로 사용한 차폐크림은 납 plate보다 차폐율이 낮은 실효에너지 영역에서는 59%, 높은 실효에너지에서는 37% 정도의 차이는 보여 기능성 방사선 방어효과가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 피부에 직접 사용할 수 있는 장점으로 상시 방어효과와 수술용 장갑 착용전에 사용이 가능한 것으로 사료된다.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.575-586
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• 2022

Uneven light in real-world causes visual degradation for underexposed regions. For these regions, insufficient consideration during enhancement procedure will result in over-/under-exposure, loss of details and color distortion. Confronting such challenges, an unsupervised low-light image enhancement network is proposed in this paper based on the guidance of the unpaired low-/normal-light images. The key components in our network include super-resolution module (SRM), a GAN-based low-light image enhancement network (LLIEN), and denoising-scaling module (DSM). The SRM improves the resolution of the low-light input images before illumination enhancement. Such design philosophy improves the effectiveness of texture details preservation by operating in high-resolution space. Subsequently, local lightness attention module in LLIEN effectively distinguishes unevenly illuminated areas and puts emphasis on low-light areas, ensuring the spatial consistency of illumination for locally underexposed images. Then, multiple discriminators, i.e., global discriminator, local region discriminator, and color discriminator performs assessment from different perspectives to avoid over-/under-exposure and color distortion, which guides the network to generate images that in line with human aesthetic perception. Finally, the DSM performs noise removal and obtains high-quality enhanced images. Both qualitative and quantitative experiments demonstrate that our approach achieves favorable results, which indicates its superior capacity on illumination and texture details restoration.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.187-200
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• 1995

본 연구는 극저주파대 전자기장(ELF)의 잠재적 건강위해를 문헌을 통해 고찰하였다. 최근의 연구는 주로 거주지 또는 직업적으로 전자기장에 노출된 사람의 암발생 및 출산결과 그리고 신경행동학적인 영향을 조사하기 위한 역학적 조사가 대부분이다. 또한, ELF의 생물학적 영향을 연구하기 위한 실험적 연구도 수행되고 있다. 현재까지의 연구결과를 보면 ELF가 암을 유발한다고 추정은 되지만 확정적으로 단정할 수 있는 증거가 부족하며 암 이외의 생물학적 영향도 추정은 되지만 암과의 연관성보다는 그 근거가 미약하다.