• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1851-1863
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• 2013

Diurnal variation of particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was investigated by collecting PM10 at three different sampling altitudes using high buildings in the city center of Chiang-Mai, Thailand, during the relatively cold period in late February 2008. At site-1 (12 m above ground level), B[a]P concentrations ranged from 30.3-1,673 pg $m^{-3}$ with an average of $506{\pm}477\;pg\;m^{-3}$ contributing on average, $8.09{\pm}8.69%$ to ${\Sigma}PAHs$. Ind and B[b]F concentrations varied from 54.6 to 4,579 pg $m^{-3}$ and from 80.7 to 2,292 pg $m^{-3}$ with the highest average of $1,187{\pm}1,058\;pg\;m^{-3}$ and $963{\pm}656\;pg\;m^{-3}$, contributing on average, $19.0{\pm}19.3%$ and $15.4{\pm}12.0%$ to ${\Sigma}PAHs$, respectively. Morning maxima were predominantly detected in all observatory sites, which can be described by typical diurnal variations of traffic flow in Chiang-Mai City, showing a morning peak between 6 AM. and 9 AM. Despite the fact that most monitoring sites might be subjected to specific-site impacts, it could be seen that PAH profiles in Site-1 and Site-2 were astonishingly homogeneous. The lack of differences suggests that the source signatures of several PAHs become less distinct possibly due to the impacts of traffic and cooking emissions from ground level.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.86-93
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• 2000

This study was conducted to find out the degree of tiredness, accumulated tendencies of fatigues in accordance with 3 types of circadian rhythms and 3 types of perceived fatigue signs such as physical, psychological and neurosensory aspects in before and after work at night. Samples were chosen from the 217 intensive care units nurses working in 13 general hospitals which had 3 shift rotating systems, Data were collected from November to December in 1999. Two hundreds seventeen respondents were classified by 3 circadian types such as 59 morning, 110 middle and 48 evening. Circadian type was measured by the circadian type scale which was designed by ${\ddot{O}}stberg$ and Home (1976). in order to estimate the level of tiredness, the investigator used the fatigue checklist designed by the Labor and Health Institute of Japan(1970). Analysis was done by frequency a percentages, ${\chi}^2$ test and repeated measures ANOVA test. The result of this study were as follow: 1. In the general characteristics of the subjects circadian types, moderate type had the large proportion at 50.7% and morning type had 27.2% and evening type had 22.1%. 2. According to the 3 types of fatigue signs, the highest general tendency was 'General weakness' and 'Feeling of headsore' for physically perceived sign, 'Drowsiness' for psychological sign, and 'Uncomfortableness in sight seeing' for neurosensory sign. 3. The most frequently complained fatigue were observed in physical symptoms among physical, mental, and neurosensual symptoms. The percentage of complained was higher after night work than before the work started. 4. There was not any statistical significant difference between the circadian type and the degree of physical, mental, neurosensory fatigue. 5. There was not any statistical significant difference in regarding to each date of night shift except difference between 1st and 2nd days of fatigue perceived physically. Therefore, the study concluded that the fatigue perceived by night shift nurses might be related with shift working condition rather than circadian types.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.234-246
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• 2002

Objective : Ankylosing spondylitic is a chronic inflammatory disease which most frequently the sacro-iliac joints of young men and known as rare disease. There was no clinical report on functional assessment of ankylosing spondylitis. In order to evaluate the effect of clinical treatment, it was necessary to apply valuable and useful of assessment. Methods : We evaluate 1 cases of diagnosed patient with askylosing spondylitis by AIMS2, M-HAQ, K-HAQ, BASFI, and BASDAI after a series of herbal acupuncture treatment.(Solution of herbal acupuncture is made of vaporizing extraction method from the prescription Sineumheo 1.) Results : Herbal acupuncture had relieved pain and morning stiffness successfully and recovered ankylosing spondylitis functionally. Conclusion : 1. Herbal acupuncture had relieved pain and morning stiffness of ankylosing spondylitis. 2. AIMS2 was not useful to evaluate ankylosing spondylitis because of long evaluation time and low specificity. 3. Although there is no translation version of them, BASFI, and BASDAI are clinically useful of assessment, because of short evaluation time and high specificity. 4. K-HAQ with M-HAQ is useful to evaluate the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis because of snort evaluation time and high specificity.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2007

Purpose: To find out the relationship between the shift work, and disrupted sleep and consequent fatigue symptoms. Methods: The questionnaires were given to 345 nurses of 4 hospitals with over 400 beds in Daejeon. Results: The shift workers showed worse subjective quality of sleep than the daytime workers, and had significantly higher frequency of "cannot get to sleep within 30 minutes", "wake up in the middle of the night" and "wake up in the early morning". The shift workers had significantly higher scores of subjective symptoms of fatigue than the daytime workers, and the fatigue was found to be the mental type. The subjective symptoms of fatigue scores were significantly higher in the group who had "cannot get to sleep within 30 minutes", "wake up in the middle of the night" and "wake up in the early morning". Conclusion: The study results indicated that the shift workers had the higher level of subjective symptoms of physical fatigue as well as the worse quality of sleep than the daytime workers. It is speculated that the factors attributable to the poor quality of sleep or sleep induction disorders of nurses of hospitals could be due in major part to adaptational difficulties resulting from frequent night shifts.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.59-63
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• 2007

Objectives : Nitrogen dioxide $(NO_2)$ has been inconsistently associated with gradual decreases in lung function. Here, we studied the effects of $NO_2$ exposure in asthmatics by examining the association between changes in lung function and concentrations of $NO_2$ which were personally measured. Methods : Peak expiratory flow (PEF) and daily personal exposures to $NO_2$ were recorded on 28 patients with asthma (confirmed by methacholine provocation test) over 4 weeks. We used generalized estimating equations to assess the relationship between personal $NO_2$ exposure and PEF, adjusting for potential confounders such as age, gender, outdoor particulate matter, temperature, humidity, and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Results : The personal $NO_2$ exposures were higher than the corresponding ambient levels. The mean personal: ambient ratio for $NO_2$ was 1.48. The personal $NO_2$ exposures were not associated with the morning PEF, evening PEF, or the diurnal PEF variability. However, environmental tobacco smoke was negatively associated with both the morning and evening PEF. Conclusions : Among the asthmatic adults who participated in this study, we found no apparent impact of personal $NO_2$ exposures on the peak expiratory flow.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 1988

Airborne dust and asbestos fiber concentrations were determined in subway stations located in Seoul area. Two stations, such as Eulchiro 4-Ka Station of Line #2, constructed during a period of 1980-1984 and Hyehwa Station of Line #4, opened in 1985, were selected. The results of the study are as follows. 1. Daily time-weighted average (TWA) concentrations of airborne dusts from 07:00 to 20:00 hours in Line #2 and Line #4 were 0.43$\pm$0.08 mg/m$^3$ and 0.37$\pm$0.12 mg/m$^3$, respectively. Thus, the dust levels in Line #2 were significantly higher than the levels in Line #4 (p < 0.05). 2. Dust levels in the morning (07:00-11:00 hours), noon (11:00-16:00 hours) and in the evening (16:00-20:00 hours) in Line #2 were 0.47$\pm$0.17 mg/m$^3$, 0.37$\pm$0.08 mg/m$^3$, and 0.46$\pm$0.07 mg/m$^3$ respectively. Thus, dust levels in the morning and evening (i.e., during rush hours) were significantly higher than levels in the noon (p < 0.02). However, there was no such difference in dust levels by time in Line #4. 3. Airborne total dust concentrations were well below the occupational health standard of 10 mg/m$^3$, however, the levels were exceeding the ambient air standard recommended by the Korean Environment Administration. 4. All of airborne asbestos fiber concentrations were equal to or below 0.005 fibers/cc. The levels are within both occupational health standards and U.S. EPA criteria. 5. A consideration should be given to the improvements of cleaning methods (such as use of vacuum cleaning instead of brushing) and the existing ventilation (such as more air change and filtration of supply air) for a reduction of dust levels. 6. It is recommended that routine monitoring of airborne dusts and asbestos fibers be conducted because more dusts and asbestos fibers can be produced in the air due to the deterioration of facilities by age and water damage in future.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.85-89
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• 2015

Background: We examined the usefulness of urine osmolality, as a predictive factor in the treatment of monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (NE) with combination therapy of imipramine and desmopressin. Methods: From May 2014 to April 2015, 59 monosymptomatic NE patients participated in this study. Early morning urine osmolality was measured at 1 week and 1 day before combination therapy of imipramine and desmopressin, and at 1 week and 2 weeks after therapy. The response to combination therapy was evaluated at 3 months after treatment. The mean period of combination therapy was $6.4{\pm}4.2weeks$. Therapeutic response was classified as complete (0-1 wet night/week), partial (over 50% reduction of night) and non-responders (less than 50% reduction of night). Results: The cumulative rate of the complete and partial responders was 76.3%. Among the 3 groups, the statistically lowest value of pre-treatment urine osmolality was observed in the complete responder group (p<0.001). Urine osmolality increased in all groups after treatment, however, statistically the greatest difference between pre and post-treatment urine osmolality was observed in the complete responder group (p=0.024). No serious side effects were observed. Conclusion: Early morning urine osmolality and change of urine osmolality between pre and post-treatment have predictive values in the response to combined imipramine and desmopressin for treatment of monosymptomatic NE.

• Atmosphere
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 2017

The effect of Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) observations on the short-range forecast in East Asia (EA) was investigated for the Northern Hemispheric (NH) summer and winter months, using the Forecast Sensitivity to Observations (FSO) method. For both periods, the contribution of radiosonde (TEMP) to the EA forecast was largest, followed by AIRCRAFT, AMSU-A, Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), and the atmospheric motion vector of Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) or Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT). The contribution of AMSU-A sensor was largely originated from the NOAA 19, NOAA 18, and MetOp-A (NOAA 19 and 18) satellites in the NH summer (winter). The contribution of AMSU-A sensor on the MetOp-A (NOAA 18 and 19) satellites was large at 00 and 12 UTC (06 and 18 UTC) analysis times, which was associated with the scanning track of four satellites. The MetOp-A provided the radiance data over the Korea Peninsula in the morning (08:00~11:30 LST), which was important to the morning forecast. In the NH summer, the channel 5 observations on MetOp-A, NOAA 18, 19 along the seaside (along the ridge of the subtropical high) increased (decreased) the forecast error slightly (largely). In the NH winter, the channel 8 observations on NOAA 18 (NOAA 15 and MetOp-A) over the Eastern China (Tibetan Plateau) decreased (increased) the forecast error. The FSO provides useful information on the effect of each AMSU-A sensor on the EA forecasts, which leads guidance to better use of AMSU-A observations for EA regional numerical weather prediction.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2016

Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in $PM_{2.5}$ were measured with Sunset OC/EC Field Analyzer at Taehwa Research Forest (TRF) near Seoul metropolitan area from May 2013 to April 2014. During the study period, the mean concentrations of OC and EC were $5.0{\pm}3.2{\mu}gC/m^3$ and $1.7{\pm}1.0{\mu}gC/m^3$, respectively. They showed clear seasonality reaching their maximum in winter ($6.5{\mu}gC/m^3$ and $1.9{\mu}gC/m^3$) and minimum in wet summer ($2.5{\mu}gC/m^3$ and $1.4{\mu}gC/m^3$). While OC showed greater seasonal variation, the diurnal variation was more noticeable for EC through all seasons with a clear maximum in the morning, which reveals the influence of vehicle emissions. In contrast, OC exhibited a broad second peak in the afternoon during May~June, when biological activities were the highest. Using the morning peaks of EC and OC, primary OC/EC ratio was assessed, which was assumed to be anthropogenic origin. It was the greatest in winter followed by spring and the lowest in wet summer. The seasonal difference in primary OC/EC ratio implies the influence of non-local sources of OC at the Mt. Taehwa.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.17-29
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• 2018

For the first time in the city of Riyadh, the formation of $O_3$ and its relationship with NO and $NO_2$ ($NO_x$) was investigated. Throughout the summer $O_3$, NO, and $NO_2$ were collected from three locations: residential, industrial, and rural areas. During the sampling period $O_3$ concentrations exceeded 1-hour local standards a few times yet remained consistent with the standards most of the time. The $O_3$ concentrations were observed highest in the rural location and lowest in the industrial area. The diurnal variation of NO followed a double peak: one in the morning and the other in the evening, representing the traffic pattern. Early morning NO peaks were observed in the rural location, which were attributed to the movement of NO from other locations. The $O_3$ concentrations depicted typical pattern, increasing after sunrise and reaching its maximum during midday. The highest $O_3$ concentrations were observed in the rural location followed by the residential and industrial. $NO_2$ photolysis rates were 3-4 times higher compared to other similar investigations, potentially due to intense solar radiation. A strong negative correlation was observed between $NO_x$ and $O_3$ values in the industrial location indicating photochemical activities around the industrial area were higher, likely due to additional $NO_x$ emissions from industries. Regression analysis of $NO_x$ and OX ($O_3+NO_2$) indicated that in residential and industrial locations at nighttime there were large $NO_x$ independent regional contributions which is attributed to VOCs. The Weekend Effect was observed in the city potentially due to the production of the OH radical and subsequent reactions with VOCs implying that the area is VOC-sensitive.