• Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.73-78
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• 2008

For a given soil-contaminated site, a level of soil contamination is characterized and decisions on risk may be made from the risk assessment. The study evaluated critical design factors for the determination of sample size in the sampling design plan and the assessment of soil contaminant- leaching to groundwater. Two variables, the minimum relative detectable difference (T) and coefficient of variation (CV) were evaluated for the sample size determination. The minimum number of samples can be appropriately determined by CV under a T value greater than or equal to 0.2. Soil-contaminant leaching to groundwater was evaluated by using the Soil Screening Level equation of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Risk Based Screening Level equation of American Society for Testing and Materials, with the same input parameters. The groundwater concentrations estimated from soil contaminant concentrations were significantly affected by the Darcy velocity of groundwater and the organic content of soil.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권16호
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• pp.6837-6842
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• 2014

Background: Northern Thailand is a region with a high cervical cancer incidence. Combined high-risk HPV (hrHPV) DNA testing and cytology (co-testing) has increasingly gained acceptance for cervical cancer screening. However, to our knowledge, data from a population-based screening using co-testing have not been available in this region. This study therefore aimed to evaluate the performance of cytology and hrHPV test in women in northern Thailand. Materials and Methods: Cervical samples were collected for hybrid capture 2 (HC2) testing and liquid-based cytology from women aged 30 to 60 years who were residents in 3 prefectures of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand between May and September 2011. Women with positive cytology were referred to colposcopy, while women with positive for HC2 only were followed for 2 years. Results: Of 2,752 women included in this study, 3.0% were positive in both tests, 4.1% for HC2 only, and 1.3% had positive cytology only. At baseline screening, positive HC2 was observed in 70.6% among cytology-positive women compared with 4.3% among cytology-negative women. The prevalence of positive HC2 or cytology peaked in the age group 35-39 years and was lowest in the age group 55-60 years. High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion or worse lesions (HSIL+) were histologically detected in 23.5% of women with positive baseline cytology and in 9.8% of women with positive baseline HC2 only on follow-up. All women with histologic HSIL+ had positive baseline HC2. Conclusions: The hrHPV test is superior to cytology in the early detection of high-grade cervical epithelial lesions. In this study, the prevalence of histologic HSIL+ on follow-up of women with positive hrHPV test was rather high, and these women should be kept under careful surveillance. In northern Thailand, hrHPV testing has a potential to be used as a primary screening test for cervical cancer with cytology applied as a triage test.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• 제1권3호
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• pp.10.1-10.5
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• 2009

Toxicity is usually investigated using a set of standardized animal-based studies which, unfortunately, fail to detect all compounds that induce human adverse events and do not provide detailed mechanistic information of observed toxicity. As an alternative to conventional toxicology, toxicogenomics takes advantage of currently advanced technologies in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics to gain a molecular level understanding of toxicity and to enhance the predictive power of toxicity testing in drug development and risk/safety assessment. In addition, there has been a renewed interest, particularly in various government agencies, to prioritize and/or supplement animal testing with a battery of mechanistically informative in vitro assays. This article provides a brief summary of the issues, challenges and lessons learned in these fields and discuss the ways forward to further advance toxicology using these technologies.

• 한국도로학회논문집
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• 제18권5호
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• pp.57-62
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• 2016

PURPOSES : The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of size and depth of cavities on the pavement failure using the full-scale accelerated pavement testing. METHODS : A full-scale testbed was constructed by installing the artificial cavities at a depth of 0.3 m and 0.7 m from the pavement surface for accelerated pavement testing. The cavities were made of ice with a dimension of 0.5 m*0.5m*0.3m, and the thickness of asphalt and base layer were 0.2 m and 0.3 m, respectively. The ground penetrating radar and endoscope testing were conducted to determine the shape and location of cavities. The falling weight deflectometer testing was also performed on the cavity and intact sections to estimate the difference of structural capacity between the two sections. A wheel loading of 80 kN was applied on the pavement section with a speed of 10 km/h in accelerated pavement testing. The permanent deformation was measured periodically at a given number of repetitions. The correlation between the depth and size of cavities and pavement failure was investigated using the accelerated pavement testing results. RESULTS : It is found from FWD testing that the center deflection of cavity section is 10% greater than that of the intact section, indicating the 25% reduction of modulus in subbase layer due to the occurrence of the cavity. The measured permanent deformation of the intact section is approximately 10 mm at 90,000 load repetitions. However, for a cavity section of 0.7 m depth, a permanent deformation of 30 mm was measured at 90,000 load repetitions, which is three times greater than that of the intact section. At cavity section of 0.3 m, the permanent deformation reached up to approximately 90 mm and an elliptical hole occurred at pavement surface after testing. CONCLUSIONS : This study is aimed at determining the pavement failure mechanism due to the occurrence of cavities under the pavement using accelerated pavement testing. In the future, the accelerated pavement testing will be conducted at a pavement section with different depths and sizes of cavities. Test results will be utilized to establish the criteria of risk in road collapse based on the various conditions.

• 대한간호학회지
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.300-306
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• 1990

Colorectal cancer is second only to lung cancer as a cause of death due to cancer in the united States. Studies have shown that fecal occult blood(FOB) tests are effective in detecting colorectal cancer in its early stages. To motivate worksite FOB testing, a randomized controlled trial was conducted. Employees 40 years or older from three federal agencies in Washington State were randomized to a control group(n＝139) which received a letter stating the availability of the FOB test at the worksite clinic or to an intervention group(n＝139) which received the letter about facts on colorectal cancer and a Colorectal Cancer Risk Appraisal. The Colorectal Cancer Risk Appraisal included a feedback on an individual's risk of developing colorectal cancer compared to his / her peers in terms of ‘normal’, ‘moderate’, or ‘high’ risk status. After 3 months, a follow-up questionnaire was sent to all participants to measure the effectiveness of the intervention. In the analysis of the three major outcomes, two possible confounding factors(dietary fat and family history of colorectal cancer) were controlled by logistic regression. Based on a review of the worksite clinic records, the Intervention group had 4.3% higher compliance rate with the FOB test during the follow-up period compared to the control group(p＝.10). The largest effect of the intervention was on the employees' intention to get a FOB test within the next year(62.6% in the intervention group vs. 36.2% in the control group, OR＝3.18, p＜.001). In the final Multivariate logistic model, the employees who were more likely to intend to get a FOB test within the next year were in the intervention group ; were at ‘moderate’ or ‘high’ risk of colorectal cancer ; knew more about the availability of the FOB test at the worksite clinic ; and had a FOB test during the last three years.

• 근관절건강학회지
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.31-42
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop an evidence-based dysphagia nursing care protocol for nursing home (NH) residents in Korea. Methods: The protocol was developed based on international guidelines and literatures. After testing content validity by experts, the protocol was applied to the intervention group (n=35) for 4 weeks at one NH in December, 2011, whereas the control group (n=34) received routine care. Results: The protocol was composed of one-page algorithm and detailed guidelines. Algorithm pathway was organized in 3 parts, including screening dysphagia risk, grouping by dysphagia risk level, and assigning nursing care into each group. The nursing care included positioning, oral care, meal time care, diet modification, providing exercise and maneuver, and checking dysphagia signs and symptoms. The experts verified the content validity. Protocol was revised to fit NH practice after the participant observation. Clinical validity was established upon evaluating usefulness, appropriateness, and convenience of the protocol by NH nurses. Dysphagia risk of the intervention group was significantly decreased. Conclusion: Developed protocol will improve the quality of dysphagia care in nursing homes as it can serve as a consistent and integrated standard for nursing care of residents with dysphagia.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제25권6호
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• pp.469-479
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• 2023

A probabilistic seismic damage analysis is an essential procedure to identify seismically vulnerable structures, prioritize the seismic retrofit, and ultimately minimize the overall seismic risk. To assess the seismic risk of multiple structures within a region, a large number of nonlinear time-history structural analyses must be conducted and studied. As a result, each assessment requires high computing resources. To overcome this limitation, we explore a deep learning-based metamodel to enable the prediction of the mean and the standard deviation of the seismic damage distribution of track-on steel-plate girder railway bridges in Korea considering the geometric variation. For machine learning training, nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses are performed to generate 800 high-fidelity datasets on the seismic response. Through intensive trial and error, the study is concentrated on developing an optimal machine learning architecture with the pre-identified variables of the physical configuration of the bridge. Additionally, the prediction performance of the proposed method is compared with a previous, well-defined, response surface model. Finally, the statistical testing results indicate that the overall performance of the deep-learning model is improved compared to the response surface model, as its errors are reduced by as much as 61%. In conclusion, the model proposed in this study can be effectively deployed for the seismic fragility and risk assessment of a region with a large number of structures.

• 보건교육건강증진학회지
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.1-10
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• 2014

Objectives: The effectiveness of Blood ${\beta}$-ketone testing by using self-monitoring strip on diabetic patients. Methods: Clinical effectiveness of blood ${\beta}$-ketone testing was assessed through correlation with reference test that measured blood ${\beta}$-ketone value through gas chromatography or enzyme method, diagnostic accuracy, time taken for the test and time taken for confirmative diagnosis of diabetic ketosis by selecting literatures on researches that conducted this test on ketosis(suspected) patients or diabetic ketosis(suspected) patients. Each of the stages from literature search to application of selection standards and extraction of data were carried out independently by the Subcommittee along with 2 researchers. Results: 7 reports were selected. ${\beta}$-ketone testing displayed high level of correlation in the range of r=0.92~0.99 with test using enzyme method as the reference standard. Regarding the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity of 0.82, specificity of 0.74. The time taken for the test was 30seconds for the index test, which is shorter than reference standard test. Conclusion: Blood ${\beta}$-ketone testing was assessed to be a safe and effective test to monitor ketosis and assess the level of risk of ketosis by measuring the blood ${\beta}$-ketone on ketosis patients and diabetic ketosis patients since it has high level of correlation with reference test and short period of testing.

• 한국지하수토양환경학회지:지하수토양환경
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.12-29
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• 2011

Risk-based screening levels (RBSLs) of some pollutants for residential adults were derived with risk assessment tools developed by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), and Korea Ministry of Environment (KMOE) and compared each other. To make the comparison simple, ingestion of soil, dermal contact with soil, outdoor inhalation of vapors, indoor inhalation of vapors, and inhalation of soil particulates were chosen as exposure pathways. The results showed that the derived RBSLs varied for every exposure pathway. For direct exposure pathways (i.e., ingestion of soil and dermal contact with soil), the derived RBSLs varied mainly due to the different default values for exposure factors and toxicity data. When identical default values for the parameters were used, the same RBSLs could be derived regardless of the assessment tools used. For inhalation of vapors and inhalation of soil particulates, however, different analysis methods for cross-media transfer rates were used and different assumptions were established for each tool, identical RBSLs could not be obtained even if the same default values for exposure factors were used. Especially for inhalation of soil particulates pathway, screening level derived using KMOE approach (most conservative) was approximately 5000~10000 times lower than the screening level derived using ASTM approach (least conservative). Our results suggest that, when deriving RBSL using a specific tool, it is a prerequisite to technically review the analysis methods for cross-media transfer rates as well as to understand how the assessment tool derives the default values for exposure factors.

• International Journal of Reliability and Applications
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.85-105
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• 2016

In this paper accelerated life testing is incorporated in quality control technique of acceptance sampling plan to induce early failures in high reliability products.Stress under accelerated condition can be applied in constant-stress, step-stress and progressive-stress or combination of such loadings. A ramp-stress results when stress is increased linearly (from zero) with time. In this paper optimum failure-censored ramp-stress accelerated life test sampling plan for log-logistic distribution has been formulated with cost considerations. The log-logistic distribution has been found appropriate for insulating materials. The optimal plans consist in finding optimum sample size, sample proportion allocated to each stress, and stress rate factor such that producer's and consumer's interests are safeguarded. Variance optimality criterion is used when expected cost per lot is not taken into consideration, and bilevel programming approach is used in cost optimization problems. The methods developed have been illustrated using some numerical examples, and sensitivity analyses carried out in the context of ramp-stress ALTSP based on variable SSP for proportion nonconforming.