• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7613-7618
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• 2015

Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the most common hematologic malignancies which accounts for one fourth of all childhood cancer cases. Exposure to environmental factors around the time of conception or pregnancy can increase the risk of ALL in the offspring. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of prenatal and postnatal exposure to high voltage power lines on the incidence of childhood ALL. It also examines the role of various factors such as environmental factors and alpha-amylase as a marker in the development of leukemia.This cross-sectional case control study was carried out on 22 cases and 100 controls who born and lived in low socioeconomic families in Tehran and were hospitalized for therapeutic purposes in different hospitals ofrom 2013-2014. With regard to the underlying risk factors; familial history and parental factors were detected as risk factors of ALL but in this age, socioeonomic and zonal matched case control study, prenatal and childhood exposure to high voltage power lines was considered as the most important environmental risk factor (p=0.006, OR=3.651, CI 95% 1.692-7.878). As the population study was from low socioeconomic state, use of mobiles, computers and microwaves was negligible. Moreover prenatal and postnatal exposure to all indoor electrically charged objects were not detected as significant environmental factors in the present study. This work defined the risk of environmental especially continuous pre and postnatal exposure to high voltage power lines and living in pollutant regions through the parents or children as well as the previously described risk factors of ALL for the first time in low socioeconomic status Iranian population.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.1087-1091
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• 2006

This paper describes the current spatial patterns of the net primary productivity (NPP) of the terrestrial vegetation and carbon emission (C) in the world due to the burning of fossil fuels in order to clarify the amount of expansion of human activity. The C/NPP value varies spatially from almost zero to several tens of thousand times the local NPP. C/NPP is higher under the condition of extensive human activities due to a high human population density or when the local NPP is extremely low in severe climatic zones. In contrast, the low C/NPP areas are distributed mainly in sparsely populated districts, loading to a low impact of human activity. Although the area where C/NPP is less than 10% accounts for about 70% of the entire land area, one-third of these areas cannot contribute to carbon absorption because of low NPP with a shortage of climatic resources. Since more than half of the areas of the remaining areas are agricultural land and forest ecosystems with high NPP, the possible afforestation area was evaluated to be maximum of $30{\times}10^{6}\;km^{2}$; here only sequestrate carbons that correspond to 2% of the global total NPP are present. These analyses revealed that presently most of the areas where the NPP is high are those exclusively used by humans and that it is difficult for large-scale forest plantations to absorb a substantial amount of the carbon emitted annually by humans.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2012

The midge samples were undertaken at three streams, representing different surrounding environments, to investigate the contaminant exposure of midge. The content of heavy metals in midge collected in Singil stream were generally higher as a result of input to the industrial effluents with respect to other streams. Adsorption experiments were done to evaluate the possibility of removing contaminants from water with midge. Diazinon and heavy metals were contaminant target compounds in this study. The removal rate of diazinon in water by midge was 60-75%. In the case of Cu, the removal rate was reached around 90% at the lower initial concentration of 1.87 and 0.81 ppm rather than 4.25 ppm. The reduction of concentration of Cr and Cd according to the lapse of time was similar to the Cu, but their removal rates were shown 50% and 60-74%, respectively. The removal rate of Zn by midge represented relatively high level within the experimental condition. No change in concentration of Cr and As with time were occurred at all experimental conditions. It accounts for the fact that the reduction of Cr and As could not be achieved through the adsorption process, using midge.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.11-17
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• 2016

The purposes of this research are to estimate area of greenable roof and to monitor maintaining of green roofs using World-View 2 images. The contents of this research are development of World-View 2 application technologies for estimation of green roof area and development of monitoring and maintaining of green roofs using World-View 2 images. The available green roof areas in Gwangjin-gu Seoul, a case for this study, were estimated using digital maps and World-View 2 images. The available green roof area is approximately 12.17% ($2,153,700m^2$) of the total area, and the roof vegetation accounts for 0.46% ($80,660m^2$) of the total area. For verification of the extracted roof vegetation, Vworld 3D Desktop map service was applied. The study results may be used as a decision-making tool by the government and local governments in determining the feasibility of green roof projects. In addition, the project implementer may periodically monitor to see whether roof greening has maintained for efficient management of projects, and a vast amount of World-View 2 images may be regularly used before and after the projects to contribute to sharing of satellite images information.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.23-43
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• 2010

In this paper, a nonlinear model is developed using the component method in order to represent the response of steel connections under various loading conditions and temperature variations. The model is capable of depicting the behaviour of a number of typical connection types including endplate forms (extended and flush) and angle configurations (double web, top and seat, and combined top-seat-web) in both steel and composite framed structures. The implementation is undertaken within the finite element program ADAPTIC, which accounts for material and geometric nonlinearities. Verification of the proposed connection model is carried out by comparing analytical simulations with available results of isolated joint tests for the ambient case, and isolated joint as well as sub-frame tests for elevated temperature conditions. The findings illustrate the reliability and efficiency of the proposed model in capturing the stiffness and strength properties of connections, hence highlighting the adequacy of the component approach in simulating the overall joint behaviour at elevated temperature.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.59-64
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• 2011

The objective of the study is to develop life cycle inventory (LCI) database of dam, a major facility for irrigation water supply. The types of database developed are three out of nine dams according to the size of the wate r storage capacity: two kinds larger than 500,000 $m^3$ depending on gate for discharging (Type 1) and the other dam smaller than 500,000 $m^3$ (Type 2). According to the LCI analysis, type 1 larger than 500,000 $m^3$ storage capacity with gate has the lowest environment impact in the 6 impact categories. The impact of the type 1 accounts for 7~35 % of the type 2 for supplying irrigation water. Comparing with the environment impacts of water for other uses such as drinking and industrial water, the impacts of 1 $m^3$ irrigation water supply is 4~45 % of the one for industrial water supply and 1~16 % of the drinking water's. The three types of LCI DB on the irrigation water by dams will be useful in the application of Life Cycle Assessment in agricultural products and environmental labelling including carbon footprint since it is complied to the guidelines of LCI DB constr uction issued by Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.187-206
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• 2011

Accurate estimations of pre-failure deformations and post-failure responses of geostructures require that the simulation tool possesses at least three main ingredients: 1) a constitutive model that is able to describe the macroscopic stress-strain-strength behavior of soils subjected to complex stress/strain paths over a wide range of confining pressures and densities, 2) an embedded length scale that accounts for the intricate physical phenomena that occur at the grain size scale in the soil, and 3) a computational platform that allows the analysis to be carried out beyond the development of an initially "contained" failure zone in the soil. In this paper, a two-scale micropolar plasticity model will be used to incorporate all these ingredients. The model is implemented in a finite element platform that is based on the mechanics of micropolar continua. Appropriate finite elements are developed to couple displacement, micro-rotations, and pore-water pressure in form of $u_n-{\phi}_m$ and $u_n-p_m-{\phi}_m$ (n > m) elements for analysis of dry and saturated soils. Performance of the model is assessed in a biaxial compression test on a slightly heterogeneous specimen of sand. The role of micropolar component of the model on capturing the post-failure response of the soil is demonstrated.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.31-39
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• 1990

An analytical method for particulate carbon and other elements by using elemental analyzer was investigated. Carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen was determined as CO$_{2}$, H$_{2}$, and N$_{2}$, respectively. Organic was determined after scparation from elemental carbon(Cae) by volatilization and thermal decomposition in a heated helium flow. With organic materials examined in this reprot, more than 90% of carbon was detected as above 600$^{\circ}$C. But it is considered that a few percents of some compounds were charred above 550$^{\circ}$C. A small amount of Cae was oxidized in the inert atmosphere above 850$^{\circ}$C, but the reason was not explained clearly. Based on the thermal chracteristics of Cao it was found that the optimum temperature of heating in the helium flow of an elemental analyzer for Cao analysis is 630$^{\circ}$C. Carbon in a sample after removing Cao was assumed as Cae and the gramatom ratio of hydrogen to carbon in the sample was 0.4 and less. Rescovery of nitrogen derived from some ammonium salts and nitrates was 100% by two-step measurement with elemental analyzer. By the analytical method investigated in this report, carbon and other elements in suspended particulates(S.P) collected at an urban area in Seoul were measured. There was a good correlation between total nitrogen in SP measured by elemental analyzer and nitrogen estimated form ammonium ions and nitrate ions in SP. The nitrogen from these ions accounts for 80% of the total nitrogen. It is further suggested that the residue(20%) of the total nitrogen is attributed to the other nitrogeneous compounds.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2014

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by selective destruction of pancreatic ${\beta}$-cells resulting in insulin deficiency. The genetic determinants of T1D susceptibility have been linked to several loci, in particular to the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region, which accounts for 50% of the genetic risk of developing T1D. Multiple genes in the HLA region, which are in strong linkage disequilibrium, are thought to be involved. Another important locus, with a smaller effect on genetic predisposition to T1D, is the insulin gene. The advent of numerous single nucleotide polymorphism markers and genome screening has enabled the identification of dozens of new T1D susceptibility loci. Some of them appear to predispose to T1D independently of the HLA and may be important in families with T1D who lack strong HLA susceptibility. Other loci may interact with each other to cause susceptibility. The autoimmune response against ${\beta}$-cells can also be triggered by environmental factors in the presence of a predisposing genetic background. Deciphering the environmental and genetic factors involved should help to understand the origin of T1D and aid in the design of individualized prevention programs.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.235-252
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• 2014

An effective numerical technique to calculate the reactions of a multi-spanned transmission line conductor system, under arbitrary loads varying along the spans, is developed. Such variable loads are generated by High Intensity Wind (HIW) events in the form of tornadoes and downburst. First, a semi-closed form solution is derived to obtain the displacements and the reactions at the ends of each conductor span. The solution accounts for the nonlinearity of the system and the flexibility of the insulators. Second, a numerical scheme to solve the derived closed-form solution is proposed. Two conductor systems are analyzed under loads resulting from HIW events for validation of the proposed technique. Non-linear Finite Element Analyses (FEA) are also conducted for the same two systems. The responses resulting from the technique are shown to be in a very good agreement with those resulting from the FEA, which confirms the technique accuracy. Meanwhile, the semi-closed form technique shows superior efficiency in terms of the required computational time. The saving in computational time has a great advantage in predicting the response of the conductors under HIW events, since this requires a large number of analyses to cover different potential locations and sizes of those localized events.