• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.297-302
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• 2003

This study was designed to determine whether selenium (Se) nutrition affects pulmonary glutathione peroxidase and alveolarization in the neonatal rat. Twenty-four female Sprague Dawley rats were bred and fed a semipurified Se-deficient (0.04 ppm, Se-) or a Se-adequate (0.5 ppm, Se+) diet through pregnancy and lactation. Pulmonary DNA synthesis was slightly higher in Se+ pups than in Se- pups on d 6 and d 9 of lactation, but significant difference was not found. As pulmonary alveolarization progressed, mean air space size decreased and internal surface area and lung volume increased. No difference in pulmonary alveolarization was found between Se- and Se+ pups by age. Pulmonary Se concentration was higher in Se+ pups than in Se- pups at all age. Glutathione peroxidase activity in lung tissur reflected Se status and was lower in Se- pups than in Se+ pups. In conclusion, selenium has no significant effect on alveolarization of neonatal lungs. but it is necessary for adequate supply of pulmonary antioxidant, glutathione peroxidase.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.272-280
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• 1996

This study was to evaluate the associations between urinary S-Phenyl-mercapturic acid(S-PMA) as a new indicator of biological monitoring for low level of exposure to benzene and independent variables such as the air concentration of benzene in the breathing zone of workers, the years of work, and smoking. In this study the subjects were the total of 145 drawn from 53 workers who were occupationally exposed to benzene and 92 workers who were not. The results were as follows: 1. In the workplace geometric mean concentration of benzene in the breathing zone of workers was 0.31 ppm(0.02 - 3.26 ppm) for the spraying workers and 0.25 ppm(0.02 - 3.95 ppm) for the printing workers. 2. The geometric mean of uninary S-PMA for non exposed group was $8.9{\mu}g/g$ creatinine($0.6-72.3{\mu}g/g$ creatinine), 80.3% (74 workers) of the total non-exposed workers indicated less than $20{\mu}g/g$ creatinine of uninary S-PMA. The difference of uninary S-PMA by sex, age, smoking was not significant. 3. The geometric mean of urinary S-PMA for workers who were exposed to benzene was $37.2{\mu}g/g$ creatinine, and was four times higher than that of workers who were not exposed. And 79.3% (42 workers) of the total exposed workers indicated more than $20{\mu}g/g$ creatinine of urinary S-PMA. 4. Regarding the level of benzene in the air, urinary S-PMA was the highest level of $147.9{\mu}g/g$ creatinine in the workers who were exposed to air concentration of 0.5 ppm of benzene and was higher as the level in the air was increased. 5. The correlation coefficient between log urinary S-PMA and log benzene concentration in the breathing zone was 0.80, and the following linear equation was found between urinary log S-PMA and log benzene concentration in the breathing zone : log S-PMA(${\mu}g/g$ creatinine) = 0.564 log benzene in air(ppm) + 0.192 (n=53, r=0.80, p=0.000) In conclusion, the concentration of S-PMA in urine proved to be good parameter for biological monitoring benzene exposure at the workplace even at low level of benzene in air.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.559-564
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• 1997

The New Hebrides Basin is an inactive non back-arc basin located at the convergent boundary of the Pacific and Info-Australian plates. This basin was formed from 46 Ma to 60 Ma. The basin has two spreading episodes with rates of 34 mm/a for 42 to 47 Ma and 17 mm/a for 47 to 60 Ma. The sediments covered in the basin has uniform thickness of 0.65 sec. The age-depth correlation curve of the New Hebrides Basin can be represented by the following equation: $Depth(m)=2689+312\sqrt{Age}(Ma)$ The coefficient of 312 in this equation is close to that for major oceans, 350. This suggests that the cooling processes of the lithospheres in the New Hebrides Basin and major oceans are similar to each other. Free-air gravity anomalies of the basin varying from -22.3 mgal to +59.0 mgal. The mean value is +30.2 mgal higher than those of the normal oceans. Moderately large free-air gravity anomalies in the New Hebrides Basin are presumably owing to its location on a marginal swell along the New Hebrides Trench. It is generally observed that the ocean floor is very gently uplifted in a zone about 200 km oceanward of the trench axis. Positive free-air gravity anomalies amounting to $50{\sim}60$ mgal are usually observed on the crest of the swell. This topography is presumably by bending of the oceanic lithosphere so as to dynamically maintain nonisostatic states for some duration.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.95-105
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• 1989

The records of 248 patients over 16 years of age who had undergone a surgical correction of a congenital cardiovascular malformation during the period of 10 years from August, 1978 to July, 1988 were reviewed. During this period, the incidence of congenital cardiovascular malformation in adult was 18.2% of 1376 total heart disease operated on and 25.5% of 986 congenital heart defects. Among them, there were 200 patients in acyanotic group and 48 patients in cyanotic group. Male versus female ratio was 1:1.28. The oldest patient was 59 years old female who had atrial septal defect. The mean age was 24.4 years old. The distribution of the lesions showed a large preponderance of atrial septal defects [37.19o] followed in frequency by ventricular septal defects [918.1%], patent ductus arteriosus [17.3%], tetralogy of Fallot [16.1%], and a variety of other complex malformations[3.2%]. In the pediatric age group, relative frequency was different from that of this adult group, showing ventricular septal defects, tetralogy of Fallot, patent ductus arteriosus and atrial septal defects in order of incidence. The hospital mortality and late mortality were 6.0% and 1.7% respectively. The causes of hospital death were low cardiac output in 10 patients, arrhythmia in 2, air embolism in 1, sepsis in 1 and respiratory failure in l. Clinical improvement upto NYHA functional class I or II postoperatively has been achieved and sustained in all patients following repair except the patients of late death and receiving reoperation. This result confirms that congenital heart defects in the adults can be corrected with a good outcome and an aggressive operative approach seems justified.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.42 no.10 s.200
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• pp.91-104
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences of clothing microclimates and the subjective sensations according to age, gender and clothing weight for $19^{\circ}C$ air temperature. This study was done to gain fundamental data related to saving heating energy and to improve health through wearing underwear (long johns) in lower indoor temperatures. The subjects were divided into four groups (6 young males, 5 young females, 6 old males, 6 old females), and our experiment consisted of three conditions; the first condition was wearing long underwear in $19^{\circ}C$ air (19CUW condition); the second condition was without wearing long underwear in $19^{\circ}C$ air (19C condition); and the third condition was without wearing underwear in $24^{\circ}C$ air (24C condition). The experiment showed that the clothing microclimate temperature and humidity was the lowest in the 19C condition and the highest in the 24C condition irrespective of age and gender. The clothing microclimate in the 19CUW condition was not significantly distinguishable from the other conditions. Clothing microclimate temperature and humidity when the subjects responded thermal comfort was $28\~34^{\circ}C$ and $15\~40\%$RH without any significant difference according to age and gender. For the thermal sensation, the 24C condition was regarded as the warmest environment by the four groups, and the next preference was the 19CUW condition (p<0.001). Young females and old males showed a tendency to feel colder than young males and old females. For the thermal sensation of hands and feet, the young groups felt the warmest in the 24C condition and the coolest in the 19 C condition (p<0.001). However, old males felt neutral for the foot thermal sensation without any significant difference between the three conditions. Old females felt neutral for both the hands and feet thermal sensations without any significant difference between the three conditions. Thermal preference was the highest in the 24C condition for the 4 groups. In the 19CUW condition, for the thermal preference, most young males and females responded 'No change'; on the other hand, mea of the old responded 'Warmer'(p<0.001). It was the 24C condition that the 4 subject groups felt the most thermally comfortable. In the 19CUW condition, over $80\%$ of responses of each group expressed satisfaction and in the 19C condition, over $80\%$ of responses of each group, except young females, expressed satisfaction. In conclusion, in view of the clothing microclimate and subjective sensations, the 24C condition was the condition that gave subjects the least cold stress and the best subjective preference. However, the 19C condition and the 19CUW condition was not such a cold stress as to give healthy subjects a thermal burden.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.359-365
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• 2005

Objective : The study investigates the extent of brain shift and its effect on the accuracy of the stereotaxic procedure. Methods : Thirty-five patients underwent 40stereotactic procedures between June 2002 and March 2004. There were 26 males, mean age 59years old. There were 34procedures for Parkinson's disease, 2 for essential tremor, 3 for cerebral palsy, 1 for dystonia. Patients were divided in four groups based on postoperative pneumocephalus : under 5cc [9 procedures], between $5{\sim}10cc$ [13procedures], between $10{\sim}15cc$ [11 procedures] and more than 15cc [7procedures]. The coordinates of the anterior commissure[AC], posterior commissure[PC], and target were defined in pre-and intraoperative magnetic resonance image scans and the amount of air volume was measured with @Target (BrainLab, Heimstetten, Germany]. Results : The mean AC-PC was 26.5mm for patients with less than 5cc, 26.9mm for $5{\sim}10cc$, 25.8mm for $10{\sim}15cc$ and 26.2mm for more than 15cc. The length of AC-PC line and coordinates of AC, PC was also not statistically different, Euclidean distance as well as ${\Delta}x$, ${\Delta}y$, ${\Delta}z$ of AC, PC, and target were also not statistically different among the groups [p>,1]. There was a variance in target of $0.7{\sim}7.6mm$, Euclidean distance of 2.5mm, related to electrophysiology but not to brain-shift. Conclusion : The amount of air accumulated in the intracranial space and compressing the cortical surface has no effect on the localization of subcortical stereotactic target and landmarks.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 1993

30 patients with spontaneous pneumothorax underwent videothoracoscopic treatment between March and July 1992. The patients ranged in age from 16 years to 62 years (mean age, 30.4 years) and the incidence according to age group was highest as 50 % in the adolescence between 21 and 30 years old. The indications of the therapeutic videothoracoscopy for spontaneous pneumothorax were recurrence (30.8％), persistent air leak (30.8％), visible blebs on the chest X-ray (20.4％), tension pneumothorax (15.4％), and bilaterality (2.6％). Intraoperative scopic findings were as follows; blebs (87.1％), pleural adhesion (45.2％), and pleural effusion (22.6％). The operation was performed under general anesthesia with one lung intubation guided by flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy. Procedures included bleb and/or wedge resection, tetracycline pleurodesis with mechanical abrasion, and parietal pleurectomy. Successful treatment was obtained in 66.7％ (20/30) and the mean postoperative hospital stay of the successful cases was 5 days. Videothoracoscopy also provided the benefits of lesser postoperative pain, rapid recovery, short hospitalization, and smaller scar of wound by reduced trauma on access. The total 13 postoperative complications were occured in 10 patients, which showed somewhat higher rate than that of other reports because of lack of experiences in the earlier period, however, it had decreased progressively as experiences were accumulated and instruments were improved in the later period. The operative mortality was absent. Conclusively, videothoracoscopy is a new interesting modality of surgical treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax and also can be extensively applicable in the diagnosis and treatment of other thoracic surgery.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.227-234
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• 2007

Recent epidemiologic studies show that gestational exposure to air pollution adversely affects pregnancy outcomes including low birth weight in preform birth. In this study, we evaluated the effect of air pollutants on LBW (low birth weight) on firstborn fetus throughout the gestational period using the birth cohort between 1999 and 2003 in Seoul. Using birth cohort data from the National Statistics Office of Korea we identified 288,346 firstborn births (excluded missing data on lack of information for birth weight and discordance between residential and certificated address from a total of 316,451) during 1999 to 2003 with complete covariate (gender, parity, date of birth, gestational age, parental age and educational level, maternal occupation etc.) and maternal residential history data. Our subjects were defined as more than 37 weeks and less than 44 weeks of completed gestation and we identified 5,457 persons (1.89%) by low birth weight (<2.5 kg) in this study. Using logistic regression, we estimated the risk of mean (entire pregnancy and trimester period) air pollution concentrations for CO, $O_3,\;PM_{10},\;NO_2\;and\;SO_2$. In terms of trimester-specific exposure, we found that some air pollutants exposure in each trimester would increase the risk for LBW. Results also showed that the effect size of air pollutants exposure during the first and third trimester is higher than during the second trimester. In all trimester, the estimated risk of LBW was 1.831 (95% CI=1.573-2.132) with unit increase for CO, 1.139 (95% CI=1.107-1.172) for 50, and 1.009 (95% CI=1.001-1.017) for $O_3$. Our results suggest that exposure during the gestation period to relatively low levels of some air pollutants may be associated with a reduction in birth weight on first-born fetus. These findings implicate the effective risk management strategies should be applied to minimize the public health impacts for pregnant women.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2021

Background: We aimed to investigate the characteristics of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) in adolescents and to analyze the relationship between the occurrence of PSP and air pollutants. Methods: Data pertaining to age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, initial pneumothorax volume, presence of bullae, treatment methods, and city of residence were retrospectively obtained from January 2010 to December 2014. We investigated the association between short-term exposure to air pollutants (SO2, NO2, O3, CO, and PM10) and the occurrence of PSP using a case-crossover design with conditional logistic regression. Results: We collected information from 598 patients who were admitted for PSP, with a mean follow-up duration of 62.9 months. The majority (91.1%) of the patients were male. In the case-crossover design, conditional logistic regression showed that no air pollutant was associated with the occurrence of pneumothorax. The results were consistent across all city subgroups (Anyang, Gunpo, Uiwang, and Gwacheon). Conclusion: In our study, the incidence rate of pneumothorax was 153.8 per 100,000 person-years in male adolescents and 16.7 per 100,000 person-years in female adolescents. The case-crossover design showed that PSP in adolescents is unlikely to be related to air pollution.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.365-371
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• 2007

To evaluate the effect of air pollution on respiratory health in children, We conducted a longitudinal study in which children were asked to record their daily levels of Peak Expiratory Flow Rate(PEFR) using potable peak flow meter(mini-Wright) for 4 weeks. The relationship between daily PEFR and ambient air particle levels was analyzed using a mixed linear regression models including gender, age in year, weight, the presence of respiratory symptoms, and relative humidity as an extraneous variable. The daily mean concentrations of $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ over the study period were $64.9{\mu}g/m^3$ and $46.1{\mu}g/m^3$, respectively. The range of daily measured PEFR in this study was $182{\sim}481\;l/min$. Daily mean PEFR was regressed with the 24-hour average $PM_{10}(or\;PM_{2.5})$ levels, weather information such as air temperature and relative humidity, and individual characteristics including sex, weight, and respiratory symptoms. The analysis showed that the increase of air particle concentrations was negatively associated with the variability in PEFR. We estimated that the IQR increment of $PM_{10}$ or $PM_{2.5}$ were associated with 1.5 l/min (95% Confidence intervals -3.1, 0.1) and 0.8 l/min(95% CI -1.8, 0.1) decline in PEFR. Even though this study showed negative findings on the relationship between respiratory function and air particles, it was worth noting that the findings must be interpreted cautiously because exposure measurement based on monitoring of ambient air likely resulted in misclassification of true exposure levels and this was the first Korean study that $PM_{2.5}$ measurement was applied as an index of air quality.