• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2013

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the health risk of workers exposed to butyl glycidyl ether to prevent them from developing occupational diseases. Methods: The workplaces that coat floor with epoxy were selected and the samples were collected and analyzed with NIOSH 1616 Method. We calculate workplace reference concentration using with NOAEL estimated by the study of Anderson et al. in 1978. Risk was calculated by the ratio of exposure to workplace reference concentration. Monte-Carlo simulation was performed to derivate the median, cumulative 90%, and cumulative 95% value by using Crystal Ball. Results: Butyl glycidyl ether is a skin, eye irritator and can result in central nervous system depression, allergic reaction. NOAEL was 38 ppm and workplace reference concentration was calculated as 0.73 ppm corrected with uncertainty factors. Geometric mean was 1.152 ppm and geometric standard deviation was 1.522 by the workplace environment measurement. The median, cumulative 90%, and cumulative 95% value of risk were calculated as 1.617, 1.934, and 2.092, respectively. Conclusions: Not only cumulative 90% and cumulative 95% value but also the median of risk is higher than 1.0 by the risk characterization, so it can do a lot of harm to workers. Therefore, the process of derivating workplace reference concentration and the appropriacy of the uncertainty factors should be re-examined.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1387-1402
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• 2005

Indian subcontinent is a rich source of diverse ovine germplasm, and only very few countries have such a large number of breeds with wide genetic diversity. This vast ovine biodiversity in India is being eroded rapidly and more than 50% of sheep breeds are currently under threat. It is noteworthy that the characterization of Indian sheep breeds was last done in the first half of the century since then no recent estimates are available and surveys in majority of the regions/breeds are far from complete. Starting in 1985 National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), Karnal, India, therefore, initiated activities aimed at determining the status and compiling information on indigenous farm animals including sheep. This report represents attempts made to date on the basis of field/literature surveys and additional activities on molecular characterization to ascertain their status including distribution, population changes, breed diversities and risk status. The need, mode and mechanisms of conservation are also described. Involvement of several agencies for evaluation, improvement, conservation programmes and recommendations made for effective characterization and conservation of sheep biodiversity are highlighted. This publication would promote action particularly at national level to improve the information base on domestic Indian breeds of sheep and provide input into national domestic sheep diversity conservation policy decisions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.432-442
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• 2023

Characterizing the behavior of nuclear reactor plate fuels is vital to the progression of advanced fuel systems. The states of pre- and post-irradiation plates need to be determined effectively and efficiently prior to and following irradiation. Due to the hostile post-irradiation environment, characterization must be completed remotely. Laser-based characterization techniques enable the ability to make robust measurements inside a hot-cell environment. The Laser Shock (LS) technique generates high energy shockwaves that propagate through the plate and mechanically characterizes cladding-cladding interfaces. During an irradiation campaign, two Idaho National Laboratory (INL) fabricated MP-1 plates had a fuel breach in the cladding-cladding interface and trace amounts of fission products were released. The objective of this report is to characterize the cladding-cladding interface strengths in three plates fabricated using different fabrication processes. The goal is to assess the risk in irradiating future developmental and production fuel plates. Prior LS testing has shown weaker and more variability in bond strengths within INL MP-1 reference plates than in commercially produced vendor plates. Three fuel plates fabricated with different fabrication processes will be used to bound the bond strength threshold for plate irradiation insertion and assess the confidence of this threshold value.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2012

While the ability to develop nanomaterials and incorporate them into products is advancing rapidly worldwide, understanding of the potential health safety effects of nanomaterials has proceeded at a much slower pace. Since 2008, Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) started an investigation to prepare "Strategic Action Plan" to evaluate safety and nano risk management associated with foods, drugs, medical devices and cosmetics using nano-scale materials. Although there are some studies related to potential risk of nanomaterials, physical-chemical characterization of nanomaterials is not clear yet and these do not offer enough information due to their limitations. Their uncertainties make it impossible to determine whether nanomaterials are actually hazardous to human. According to the above mention, we have some problems to conduct the human exposure risk assessment currently. On the other hand, uncertainty about safety may lead to polarized public debate and to businesses unwillingness for further nanotechnology investigation. Therefore, the criteria and methods to assess possible adverse effects of nanomaterials have been vigorously taken into consideration by many international organizations: the World Health Organization, the Organization for Economic and Commercial Development and the European Commission. The object of this study was to develop risk assessment principles for safety management of future nanoproducts and also to identify areas of research to strengthen risk assessment for nanomaterials. The research roadmaps which were proposed in this study will be helpful to fill up the current gaps in knowledge relevant nano risk assessment.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.219-227
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• 2021

By analysing the benzo(a)pyrene concentration using HPLC-FLD and LC-MS/MS, pollution levels of herbal medicines without permitted benzo(a)pyrene specification were investigated. Average benzo(a)pyrene concentrations were 38.30, 37.46 and 21.22 ㎍/kg for Amomi Tsao-ko Fructus, Mume Fructus and Coptidis Rhizoma, respectively, which are 4 to 7 times higher than maximum permitted benzo(a)pyrene concentration of Rehmanniae Radix Preparata and Rehmanniae Radix, i.e. 5.0 ㎍/kg. Proportion of detected samples exceeding 5.0 ㎍/kg benzo(a)pyrene concentration was 22% for Cimicifugae Rhizoma and Scrophulariae Radix, 44% for Forsythiae Fructus, 67% for Mume Fructus, 100% for Amomi Tsao-ko Fructus and Coptidis Rhizoma, and collectively 29% (36 out of 125 samples) in average. In terms of risk characterization results, human exposure of benzo(a)pyrene were 7.96, 3.49 and 1.61 ng/kg b.w./day and the margin of exposure(MOE) were 1.25 × 10⁴, 2.86 × 10⁴ and 6.20 × 10⁴ for Mume Fructus, Amomi Tsao-ko Fructus and Coptidis Rhizoma, respectively. MOE banding of those herbal medicines was categorized to 'low concern'. However, considering that human exposure of benzo(a)pyrene for food is legislated to 1.4~2.5 ng/kg b.w./day, it was urgent to set up the guideline of benzo(a)pyrene in herbal medicines.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.119-129
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• 2019

As the use of cosmetics has greatly increased in a daily life, safety issues with cosmetic ingredients have drawn an attention. Drometrizole [2-(2'-hydroxy-5'-methylphenyl)benzotriazole] is categorized as a sunscreen ingredient and is used in cosmetics and non-cosmetics as a UV light absorber. No significant toxicity has been observed in acute oral, inhalation, or dermal toxicity studies. In a 13-week oral toxicity study in beagle dogs, No observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) was determined as 31.75 mg/kg bw/day in males and 34.6 mg/kg bw/day in females, based on increased serum alanine aminotransferase activity. Although drometrizole was negative for skin sensitization in two Magnusson-Kligman maximization tests in guinea pigs, there were two case reports of consumers presenting with allergic contact dermatitis. Drometrizole showed no teratogenicity in reproductive and developmental toxicity studies in which rats and mice were treated for 6 to 15 days of the gestation period. Ames tests showed that drometrizole was not mutagenic. A long-term carcinogenicity study using mice and rats showed no significant carcinogenic effect. A nail product containing 0.03% drometrizole was nonirritating, non-sensitizing and non-photosensitizing in a test with 147 human subjects. For risk assessment, the NOAEL chosen was 31.75 mg/kg bw/day in a 13-week oral toxicity study. Systemic exposure dosages were 0.27228 mg/kg bw/day and 1.90598 mg/kg bw/day for 1% and 7% drometrizole in cosmetics, respectively. Risk characterization studies demonstrated that when cosmetic products contain 1.0% of drometrizole, the margin of safety was greater than 100. Based on the risk assessment data, the MFDS revised the regulatory concentration of drometrizole from 7% to 1% in 2015. Under current regulation, drometrizole is considered to be safe for use in cosmetics. If new toxicological data are obtained in the future, the risk assessment should be carried out to update the appropriate guidelines.

• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.257-266
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• 1995

Consider a p-variate $(p \geq 4)$ normal distribution with mean $\b{\theta}$ and identity covariance matrix. For estimating $\b{\theta}$ under a quadratic loss we investigate the behavior of risks of Stein-type estimators which shrink the usual estimator toward the mean of observations. By using concavity of the function appearing in the shrinkage factor together with new expectation identities for noncentral chi-squared random variables, a characterization of estimators with nondecreasing risk is obtained.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1223-1229
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• 2012

In this paper, we propose a generalized Kullback-Leibler (KL) information for measuring the distance between two distribution functions where the extension to the censored case is immediate. The generalized KL information has the nonnegativity and characterization properties, and its censored version has the additional property of monotonic increase. We also extend the discussion to the discrete case and propose a generalized censored measure which is comparable to Pearson's chi-square statistic.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.227-237
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• 2018

Objectives: This study was investigated the characteristics of small-scale water works (SWW) in Gyeongnam area and conduct a health risk assessment of water-quality inspection items unfitted for water-quality standards (WQS). Methods: The characteristics of SWW in Gyeongnam province were analyzed using the data of SWW in the last three years (2014~2016) published in National Waterworks Information System. In addition, the health risk assessment for inspection items unfitted for WQS was carried out in four steps: hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Results: The total number of SWW in Gyeongnam area was gradually decreased from 2014 to 2016. In addition, drinking water sources of SWW were in the order of ground water, valley water, spring water, surface water, and river-bed water. The number of points unfitted for WQS in SWW by year was 22, 45, and 18 in 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively, and a total of 112 points were found to unfit for WQS in SWW during 2014~2016. The hazard quotient (HQ) for fluoride, nitrate nitrogen, boron in the unfitted points for WQS was more than 1.0, and the mean values for turbidity and color in points unfitted for WQS were 2.38 nephelometric turbidity unit and 16.25 color unit, respectively. Conclusions: The HQ for fluorine, nitrate nitrogen and boron was more than 1.0 in points unfitted for WQS among SWW in Gyeongnam area, and the turbidity and the color degree exceeded WQS, which mean that there is a possibility of harmful impacts on the human health.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.599-606
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• 2012

The characterization of the whole genome of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) from cervical cancer specimens with multiple infections in comparison with single infection samples as the oncogenic potential of the virus may differ. Cervical carcinoma specimens positive for HPV16 by PCR and INNO-LiPA were randomly selected for whole genome characterization. Two HPV16 single infection and six HPV16 multiple infection specimens were subjected to whole genome analysis by using conserved primers and subsequent sequencing. All HPV16 whole genomes from single infection samples clustered in the European (E) lineage while all multiple infection specimens belonged to the non-European lineage. The variations in nucleotide sequences in E6, E7, E2, L1 and Long control region (LCR) were evaluated. In the E6 region, amino acid changes at L83V were related to increased cancer progression. An amino acid variation N29S within the E7 oncoprotein significantly associated with severity of lesion was also discovered. In all three domains of the E2 gene non synonymous mutations were found. The L1 region showed various mutations which may be related to conformation changes of viral epitopes. Some transcription factor binding sites in the LCR region correlated to virulence were shown on GRE/1, TEF-1, YY14 and Oct-1. HPV16 European variant prone to single infection may harbor a major variation at L83V which significantly increases the risk for developing cervical carcinoma. HPV16 non-European variants prone to multiple infections may require many polymorphisms to enhance the risk of cervical cancer development.