• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• 제42권5호
• /
• pp.293-301
• /
• 2016

Objectives: This paper presents the current development progress of environmental health indicators (EHIs) in the Republic of Korea and discusses the utilization, limitations and prospects of EHIs. Methods: The development process and assessment criteria of EHIs were established based on the DPSEEA (Driving force-Pressure-State-Exposure-Effect-Action) framework with reference to that of the World Health Organization-Europe. In order to explore the applicability of EHIs, a case study was performed to compare the atmospheric environmental health status between the Republic of Korea and European region countries using six indicators. Results: Through the development process, 23 indicators in five areas including air quality, indoor air quality, climate change, chemicals, and water quality were developed, mostly using national statistical data. As a result of the case study comparing environmental health indicators in air quality between the Republic of Korea and Europe, it could be useful to understand the different situation of air pollution source, emission, exposure and health effects. Conclusion: In order for EHIs to compare environmental health status and be used as an environmental health policy development tool for vulnerable areas and related factors, it is necessary to develop further indicators for various issues other than air quality and conduct additional research on their interpretation and related implications, such as policy implementation effects.

• Journal of KIISE
• /
• 제43권12호
• /
• pp.1396-1403
• /
• 2016

In streaming data analysis where underlying data distribution may be changed or the concept of interest can drift with the progress of time, the ability to adapt to concept drift can be very powerful especially in the process of incremental learning. In this paper, we develop a general framework for an adaptive incremental classifier on data stream with concept drift. A distribution, representing the performance pattern of a classifier, is constructed by utilizing the distance between the confidence score of a classifier and a class indicator vector. A hypothesis test is then performed for concept drift detection. Based on the estimated p-value, the weight of outdated data is set automatically in updating the classifier. We apply our proposed method for two types of linear discriminant classifiers. The experimental results on streaming data with concept drift demonstrate that the proposed adaptive incremental learning method improves the prediction accuracy of an incremental classifier highly.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• 제8권4호
• /
• pp.43-51
• /
• 2005

Due to rapid and reckless economic development, natural resources of the national land have been damaged and polluted. Accordingly, the necessity for environment-friendly development has been on the rise and many have made efforts to assess the environmental value of the national land. This study divides the conservation areas by means of using relative elevation, slope, and development of housing land based on environmental evaluation of the national land. The relative elevation is obtained by the difference of altitude at the edge of the forest patch extracted from the land cover classification map based on the ridgeline, and the slope is obtained by environment-oriented land suitability analysis. The development of housing land is classified in accordance with the progress of each project. Twenty-six evaluation criteria are divided into five different grades using the minimal indicator approach and then sub-divided into ten grades by means of using the following two scenarios. The first one uses the weight of input materials while the second one relies on the size of patches that are emphasized in landscape ecology. Consequently, such a study demonstrated the following results. The method relying on the weight of input materials revealed the limitation of emphasizing input materials excessively, whereas the method of considering the size of patches resulted in the division of conservation areas that embody regional characteristics. This study is meaningful in that it classifies the conservation areas by reflecting the regional characteristics and the ecological values of animals and plants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• 제29권8호
• /
• pp.944-949
• /
• 2007

The profiles of on-line sensors such as DO, ORP and pH can provide useful information about pollutant removal reaction in sequencing batch reactor. For detection of denitrification completion, the nitrate hee point from ORP profile has been considered as a main indicator of denitrification completion. However, many researchers pointed out that the nitrate knee usually disappeared been the progress of denitrification is so fast and it makes the fault at detection of denitrification completion. In this paper, dynamic time warping(DTW) method and discriminant analysis were used to detect and isolate the profiles of two cases, denitrification completed and uncompleted. As the results, proposed methods can detect state of denitrification successfully.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
• /
• 제42권5호
• /
• pp.301-306
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study is to report a rare case of mandibular adenocarcinoma that was diagnosed due to metastasis from the prostate. Numb chin syndrome (NCS), which was associated with this case, is also discussed. Computed tomography (CT) and an intraoral incisional biopsy of the left mandibular area were performed. Urology consultation, hormone therapy, chemotherapy and follow-up radiographic images were administered. Histological examination of the incised specimen revealed moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. The Gleason score was 8 (primary 4/secondary 4). Immunohistochemical features and radiographic results confirmed the diagnosis of metastasis from prostate adenocarcinoma, moderately differentiated. The patient's prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level was very high. After hormone treatment, the patient's PSA levels dropped gradually. Seventeen months later, in May 2015, the PSA level was elevated. The 18-month follow-up CT image indicated that the patient's condition was aggravated. Docetaxel chemotherapy was started in June 2015 (18 months later), and the sixth cycle of the therapy is in progress. Oral metastases that originate from prostate adenocarcinoma are rare and can induce various periosteal reactions. Hormone therapy, chemotherapy and close follow-up could be additional, appropriate treatment, and were applied in this case. Finally, NCS is a valuable indicator of metastatic disease in the mandible.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• 제14권11호
• /
• pp.6919-6924
• /
• 2013

Background: Between 1998-2009 South Korea experienced significant progress in reducing the male smoking rate from 66.3% to 46.9%. As part of a significant government effort in the area of smoking cessation intervention, the Korean government implemented the national "Smoking Cessation Clinics (SCC)" program in 2004. Materials and Methods: Data covered 804,334 adult male smokers participating in SCC program at 253 public health centers between 2006-2009. We examined participant cessation rates with the SCC program, their characteristics and program intervention components using health insurance status as a socioeconomic status (SES) indicator. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed correcting for intra-class correlations within public health centers. Results: The overall 6-month quit rate was high (46.8%). Higher odds of smoking cessation were positively associated with higher levels of behavioral counseling sessions, but not nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Cessation rates were lower for Medicaid participants than for regular health insurance participants. Disadvantaged younger smokers were less likely to participate in the program. Older smokers were more likely to quit regardless of SES. Stress was cited as major reason for failure. Conclusions: SES inequalities across different age groups exist in smoking cessation among Korean adult male smokers. There is a need for intervention programs specifically targeting sub-populations of SES by different age groups.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• 제16권4호
• /
• pp.1605-1608
• /
• 2015

Purpose: To investigate the expression of Ki67 protein in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma(PTMC), and to analyze its clinical significance. Materials and Methods: Ki67 protein expression was evaluated in the tissues of 108 human PTMC and 50 other benign papillary hyperplasia of thyroid specimens using immunohistochemistry. Results: The expression intensity of Ki67 in PTMC and benign papillary hyperplasia of thyroid specimens were $1.45{\pm}1.83%$ and $0.46{\pm}0.46%$.The positive expression rates were 46.3% and 14%. There were significant differences between these two groups (p<0.01). There was no significant variation of the expression intensity and positive expression rates of Ki67 in PTMC with gender, age, position of the tumor and the level of TSH pre-operation (p>0.05), but these parameters varied with tumor size, invasion by membrane and cervical lymph node metastasis (p<0.05 or p<0.01). Conclusions: The expression of Ki67 in PTMC was related to tumor size, invasion by membrane and cervical lymph node metastasis, and could be the important indicator for judging clinical progress and estimating prognosis.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• 제22권2호
• /
• pp.43-73
• /
• 2016

Purpose: The aims of this study were to assess the presence of core patient safety practices in Korean hospitals and assess the differences in reporting and learning systems of patient safety, infrastructure, and safe practices by hospital characteristics. Methods: The authors developed a questionnaire including 39 items of patient safety staffing, health information system, reporting system, and event-specific prevention practices. The survey was conducted online or e-mail with 407 tertiary, general and specialty hospitals. Results: About 90% of hospitals answered the self-reporting system of patient safety related events is established. More than 90% of hospitals applied incidence monitoring or root cause analysis on healthcare-associated infection, in-facility pressure ulcers and falls, but only 60% did on surgery/procedure related events. More than 50% of the hospitals did not adopted present on admission (POA) indicators. One hundred (80.0%) hospitals had a department of patient safety and/or quality and only 52.8% of hospitals had a patient safety officer (PSO). While 82.4% of hospitals used electronic medical records (EMRs), only 53% of these hospitals adopted clinical decision support function. Infrastructure for patient safety except EMRs was well established in training, high-level and large hospitals. Most hospitals implemented prevention practices of adverse drug events, in-facility pressure ulcers and falls (94.4-100.0%). But prevention practices of surgery/procedure related events had relatively low adoption rate (59.2-92.8%). Majority of prevention practices for patient safety events were also implemented with a relatively modest increase in resources allocated. Conclusion: The hospital-based reporting and learning system, EMRs, and core evidence-based prevention practices were implemented well in high-level and large hospitals. But POA indicator and PSO were not adopted in more than half of surveyed hospitals and implementation of prevention practices for specific event had low. To support and monitor progress in hospital's patient safety effort, national-level safety practices set is needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• 제15권2호
• /
• pp.137-147
• /
• 2012

GRS is an effective urban ecology restoration technique that can manage a variety of environmental functions such as ecological restoration, rainwater spill control and island heat effect from a low-impact development standpoint that can be utilized in new construction and retrofits. Recently, quantitative evaluation studies, both domestic and abroad, in the areas related to these functions, including near-earth surface climate phenomenon, heavy rainwater regulation, thermal environment of buildings, have been actively underway, and there is a trend to standardize in the form of technological standards. In particular, centered on the advanced European countries, studies of standardizing the specific insulation capability of buildings with green system that comprehensively includes the green roof, from the perspective of replacing the exterior materials of existing buildings, are in progress. The limitation of related studies in the difficulties associated with deriving results that reflect material characteristics of continuously evolving systems due in part to not having sufficiently considered the main components of green system, mechanisms of vegetation, soils. This study attempts to derive, through EnergyPlus, the effects that the vegetation-related indicators such as vegetation height, FCV, etc. have on building energy load, by interpreting vegetation and soil mechanisms through plant canopy model and using an ecological standard indicator LAI that represent the condition of plant growth. Through this, the interpretations that assume green roof system as simple heat insulation will be complemented and a more practical building energy performance evaluation method that reflects numerical methods for heat fluxes phenomena that occur between ecology restoration systems comprised of plants and soil and the ambient space.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• 제13권12호
• /
• pp.1023-1032
• /
• 2004

Rapid progress in urbanization has resulted in a change of the micro climate, especially in the urban area. In order to investigate the phenomenon of the heat island in the residential micro climate, a field survey was carried out by 4 sets of the residential type in Jeonju under typical winter synoptic condition. As analytic methode, it is used the comparison on the relation of the Land-to-Coverage Rate to Heat Island and Oxygen Concentration. And as a key question it is asked how stable characteristics of the micro climate will result from the survey of the Heat Island and the Oxygen Concentration, used as indicator. To ensure the trustworthy result of research, it is calculated the critical influence of the wind velocity and the Land-to-Covearage Rate. As a result of comparative analysis, it could be confirmed that the local temperatures in all sets of the residential type were higher than the average temperature in Jeonju. But the housing type A 'exclusive use for housing zone' has relativly the most stable and best living condition. On the contrary the residential type B and D has the worst toward the oxygen concentration in the time zone 9-12 a.m., which didn't reach the minimum of the oxygen concentration $20.5{\%}.$ It means that the higer the development and population density is, the worse is the situation of the Quality of Life in the residential types in accordance with the heat island and oxygon con­centration.