• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.864-873
• /
• 2013

In developing countries, biogas energy production is seen as a technology that can provide clean energy in poor regions and reduce pollution caused by animal manure. Laboratories in these countries have little access to advanced gas measuring equipment, which may limit research aimed at improving local adapted biogas production. They may also be unable to produce valid estimates of an international standard that can be used for articles published in international peer-reviewed science journals. This study tested and validated methods for measuring total biogas and methane ($CH_4$) production using batch fermentation and for characterizing the biomass. The biochemical methane potential (BMP) ($CH_4$ NL $kg^{-1}$ VS) of pig manure, cow manure and cellulose determined with the Moller and VDI methods was not significantly different in this test (p>0.05). The biodegradability using a ratio of BMP and theoretical BMP (TBMP) was slightly higher using the Hansen method, but differences were not significant. Degradation rate assessed by methane formation rate showed wide variation within the batch method tested. The first-order kinetics constant k for the cumulative methane production curve was highest when two animal manures were fermented using the VDI 4630 method, indicating that this method was able to reach steady conditions in a shorter time, reducing fermentation duration. In precision tests, the repeatability of the relative standard deviation (RSDr) for all batch methods was very low (4.8 to 8.1%), while the reproducibility of the relative standard deviation (RSDR) varied widely, from 7.3 to 19.8%. In determination of biomethane concentration, the values obtained using the liquid replacement method (LRM) were comparable to those obtained using gas chromatography (GC). This indicates that the LRM method could be used to determine biomethane concentration in biogas in laboratories with limited access to GC.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.7
• /
• pp.3113-3118
• /
• 2012

Introduction: Cancer is the second cause of death in Kuwaiti people after cardiovascular diseases. This study is the first in the country to describe epidemiological measures related to cancer in this population. Methods: Data obtained from the Kuwait cancer registry included all Kuwaiti patients between years 2000-2009. Analyses were conducted using age-specific rates, the age-standardization-direct method, 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), cumulative risk by the age of 74 years, limited-duration prevalence, mortality and forecasting to year 2029. Results: It was noted that the commonest cancer sites were colorectal with an age standardized incidence rate (ASIR) of 16.1/100,000 in males and breast (49.4/100,000) in the female population. The trend of cancer incidence (1974-2009) showed no statistically significant change. First causes of death due to cancer were female breast 8(6.4-9.6)/100,000 and lung (males) 8.1/100,000 (6.6-10.0). The risk of developing cancer by the age of 74 was 13.4% (1/8) and 14.3% (1/7) in males and females respectively, and the risk of dying from cancer in the same age group was 1/17 and 1/23. By the end of 2009, prevalent cases represented 0.52% of the Kuwaiti population. In the year 2029, the total number of cancer cases is expected to reach 1200 cases compared to 889 cases in 2009. Conclusions and recommendations: The most common cancers in Kuwait (breast, colorectal and lung) are largely preventable. Prompt and effective interventional prevention programs that vigorously involve diet, anti-smoking and physical activity for both sexes are urgently required.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.10
• /
• pp.6181-6184
• /
• 2013

Background: Lung cancer is the most frequent cancer in males and the fourth most frequent site in females, worldwide. This study is the first to explore the profile of lung cancer in Kuwait. Materials and Methods: Cases of primary lung cancer (Kuwaiti) in Kuwait cancer Registry (KCR) were grouped in 4 periods (10 years each) from 1970-2009. Epidemiological measures; age standardized incidence rate (ASIR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), Standardized rate ratio (SRR) and Cumulative risk and Forecasting to year 2020-2029 used for analysis. Results: Between years, 2000-2009 lung cancer ranked the 4th and the 9th most frequent cancer in males and females respectively. M:F ratio 1:3. Mean age at diagnosis (95%CI) was 65.2 (63.9-66.4) years. The estimated risk of developing lung cancer before the age of 75 years in males is 1.8% (1/56), and 0.6 (1/167) in females. The ASIR for male cases was 11.7, 17.1, 17.0, 14.0 cases/100,000 population in the seventies, eighties, nineties and in 2000-2009 respectively. Female ASIR was 2.3, 8.4, 5.1, 4.4 cases/100,000 population in the same duration. Lung cancer is the leading cause cancer death in males 168 (14.2%) and the fifth cause of death due to cancer in females accounting for 6.1% of all cancer deaths. The ASMR (95%CI) was 8.1 (6.6-10.0) deaths/100,000 population and 2.8 (1.3-4.3) deaths/100,000 population in males and females respectively. The estimated Mortality to incidence Ratio was 0.6. Conclusions: The incidence of lung cancer between years 2000-2009 is not different from that reported in the seventies. KCR is expecting the number of lung cancer cases to increase.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.865-871
• /
• 2006

Signs of dental discolouration, difficulty in mastication, bony exostosis and debility were observed in cattle from Qingtongxia Ningxia, China where fluoride concentration in drinking water, soil, fodder, serum, bone, teeth, haircoat and urine were significantly higher than the corresponding health site. The problem of fluorosis in beef cattle is attributable to water containing toxic levels of fluoride. The objective of this paper was therefore to evaluate the influence of fluoride on erythrocyte parameters in cattle under high fluoride and low selenium conditions, as well as the protective efficacy of selenium exposure in feedstuff for bovine endemic fluorosis. Sixteen 6 to 7 year-old high fluoride beef cattle were randomly allotted into two groups each with eight cows: high fluoride control group, and supplemented with 0.25 mg/kg selenium per day for 83 days respectively. In addition, eight 6 to 7 year-old normal control beef cattle were selected from a non-high fluoride site. Blood samples were collected on day 0, 30 and 83 for erythrocyte parameters analysis and scanning electronic microscopy. The results indicated that erythrocytes, hemoglobin, packed cell volume values and $Na^+-K^+$ ATPase activity from affected cattle on the high fluoride site were significantly reduced during the period as compared with the corresponding samples of normal control cattle, a great number of echinocytes were present in peripheral blood, and subsequent anaemia. However, affected cattle exposed to selenium revealed increasable erythrocyte parameters, the extent of elevation in these values being dependent on the duration of supplementation with selenium. These findings suggest that fluoride exposure can cause erythrocyte damage, whereas selenium supplementation can antagonize fluoride-induced generation of free radicals and cumulative effects of lipid peroxidation in erythrocytes. Selenium supplementation may help to alleviate the possible hazards associated with bovine endemic fluorosis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.1107-1110
• /
• 2013

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), one of the primary liver cancers, is frequent in the northeastern part of Thailand. Surgical resection remains the best method of treatment, but patients suffering from ICC usually present at a late stage of the disease. Studies of survival and prognostic factors after surgery remain rare. The aim here was to evaluate the survival rate and factors affecting the survival of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma after surgery. The study used a retrospective cohort design. The subjects were 73 consecutive patients with ICC, who were admitted for surgery to Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University, during the period 2005-2009. The censoring date was 31 December, 2011, data being evaluated using uni- and multivariate analyses. Postoperative survival analysis was performed by the Kaplan-Meier method, and the Cox proportional hazard model was used to identify independent prognostic factors. The total follow-up time was 99 person-years. The total number of deaths was 59, giving a mortality rate of 59 per 100 person-years. The cumulative 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 52.1%, 21.7%, and 11.2%, respectively. The median duration of survival after resection was 12.4 months. Univariate analysis revealed stage of disease, lymph node metastasis, histological type, histological grade and macroscopic classification to be statistically significant (p-value<0.05) prognostic factors. In the multivariate analysis, only macroscopic classification was statistically significant (p-value<0.05). In conclusion, macroscopic classification was the only independent factor found to be significantly associated with survival following surgical treatment of ICC.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.33 no.8
• /
• pp.794-801
• /
• 2000

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of the aerobic exercise type on macronutrient self-selection. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were placed on a macronutrient self-selection diet for 4 weeks. For this purpose, mixed feeds were prescribed for the rats while they were forced to swim and run for 4 weeks. Animals were either swimming exercise or treadmill running exercised at 20m/min(60min/day). Cumulative daily energy and macronutrient intake were determined during this period. The running exercise group gained weight much more than the control group, while the swimming exercise group lost weight less than the control group. Such findings suggests that the former group took more feed. On the other hand, the dietary efficiency of the control group was higher, which implies that no physical exercise would result in a higher dietary efficiency. And there was significant difference of total dietary and calorie intakes among the three groups, Although insignificant in statistical means, it was found that the running group took feed most, which is attributable to the homeostasis requiring the supplementation of the calorie lost by exercise. Also, the running exercise group took the protein and carbohydrate most. while the control group took fat most. The decrease of fat intake by the running exercise group suggests the possibility that the in-body enzymes should adapt themselves to the changing in-body condition caused by the endurance exercise. In contrast, it is conceived that the more intake of the carbohydrate may be attributable to the need of supplementing the nutrient lost by the endurance exercise. As discussed above, the endurance exercise group took carbohydrate and protein and less fat than control group. In particular, it was found that the amount of feed intakes was affected much by types, intensity and duration of the exercises. All in all, such findings would apply to human beings. Now can increase the intakes of carbohydrate and decrease the intake of fat through an effective running exercise program and thereby, change our dietary patterns to the benefit of our body and simultaneously, prevent and adult\\`s diseases by decreasing the in % body fat level.(Korean J Nutrition 33(8) : 794-801, 2000)

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.294-299
• /
• 2006

The Ministry of Environment in Korea has introduced Total Pollution Load Management System (TPLMS) in major 4 large rivers to protect the water quality from possible pollutants. In order to successfully achieve the TPLMS, the nonpoint source should be controled by applying the best management practices in highly polluted areas. Of the various nonpoint sources, the highways are stormwater intensive landuses because of its high imperviousness and high pollutant mass emissions. The EMC (Event Mean Concentration) is an important parameter to correctly determine the pollutant mass loadings from nonpoint sources. However, it has wide ranges because of various reasons such as first flush phenomenon, rainfall and watershed characteristics. Even though the EMC is closely related to the first flush phenomenon, the relationship have not proven until present. Therefore, in this paper, the dynamic EMC method will be introduced to clearly make the relationship between EMC and first flush phenomenon. Also by applying the dynamic EMC method to monitored data, we found that the highly concentrated stormwater runoff was washed off within 20~50 minutes storm duration. The first flush criteria for economical treatment was also determined to 5~10 mm (mean=7.4 mm) as a cumulative rainfall.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.27 no.2 s.46
• /
• pp.299-312
• /
• 1994

This survey was performed to obtain the basic information for the prevention and management of occupational low back injury (LBI). The subjects of this survey were 952 workers (male, 892 ; female, 60) who had taken occupational LBI in some industries of Pusan area from January 1 to December 31, 1991. Observation period was 2.6 years from the beginning to the end of medical treatment. The obtained results were summarized as follows ; 1. The proportion of LBI workers was 15.9% of the workers who had taken any occpational injuries and 0.32% of all workers in this surveyed area. 2. 8.0% of the workers had taken LBI on the 1st day of employment and 55.2% of the workers were within one year, 91.4% of the workers were within 10 years according to cumulative frequency distribution. 3. Handling of heavy objects was the most common cause of LBI (32.0%) and fall down (26.9%) and slip down (16.3%) were the next in order. 4. The most common causes of both lumbar sprain and HNP were handling of heavy objects and that of lumbar fracture was fall down. 5. The mean duration for medical treatment of LBI workers was 143 days. 6. The total direct compensation cost for LBI workers was 6,736 million Won and the proportion of medical, resting, disability compensation costs were 25.0%, 37.0%, 38.0 % respectively. 7. The percentages of retreated workers and disabled workers were 11.9% (113 persons) and 22.9% (218 persons) of total LBI workers respectively.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.146-155
• /
• 1995

Jet lag can be defined as the cumulative physiological and psychological effects of rapid air travel across multiple time zone. The consequences of jet lag include fatigue, general malaise, sleep disturbances, and reductions of cognitive and psychomotor performance, all of which have been documented in experimental biological and air crew personnel studies. Thus authors tried to study the jet lag of natural travellers by modified self reporting sleep log. Total 61 healthy travellers was studied for 3 days before and 7 days after jet-flights across seven to ten time zone. The eastbound travelling group was 38 persons, aged 19 -70 and westbound travelling group was 23 persons, aged 13 - 69. Sleep onset time, wake-up time, sleep latency, awakening frequency on night sleep, awakening duration on night sleep, sleepiness at wake-up and nap length were evaluated. Our results suggested that the 7 to 10 time zone shift gave significant influence to traveller's sleep-wake cycles. The date which subjective physical condition was recovered on was $5.16{\pm}1.50$ day after arrivals for eastbound, while for westbound, $4.91{\pm}1.62$ day. In eastbound travelling, sleep onset time became later than baselines and could not recover until 7th day. But in westbound, it became earlier than baseline and could recover until 6th day. The mean score of 24-hour sleepiness was greater in eastboumd than westbound. Therefore the eastbound travelling caused more sleep-wake cycle disturbance and daytime dysfunction than westbound travelling. In other parameters, there was no definite difference between east and westbound. From our results, it was suggested that the symptom severity of jet lag was dependent on the travelling direction. To demonstrate more definite evidence, large sized data collections and comparision by age difference were needed.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.9-14
• /
• 2018

Purpose: Intravenous lipid emulsion (ILE) has been shown to have significant therapeutic effects on calcium channel blocker overdose in animal studies and clinical cases. In this preliminary experiment, we investigated the hemodynamic changes and survival in a rat model of verapamil intoxication. Methods: Fourteen male Sprague-Dawley rats were sedated and treated with ILE or normal saline (control), followed by continuous intravenous infusion of verapamil (20 mg/kg/h). Mean arterial pressure and heart rate of rats were monitored during the infusion. In addition, the total dose of infused verapamil and the duration of survival were measured. Results: Survival was prolonged in the ILE group ($32.43{\pm}5.8min$) relative to the control group ($24.14{\pm}4.3min$) (p=0.01). The cumulative mean lethal dose of verapamil was higher in the ILE group ($4.3{\pm}0.7mg/kg$) than in the control group ($3.2{\pm}0.5mg/kg$; p=0.017). Conclusion: ILE pretreatment prolonged survival and increased the lethal dose in a rat model of verapamil poisoning.