• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.151-160
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• 2015

This study was conducted to monitor residual pesticides in perilla leaf & lettuce and to assess their risk to human health. The total number of perilla leaf & lettuce were 4,063 and 2,248 respectively and these products were collected at the Garak-dong Agricultural & Marine Products Market sold by auction from 2010 to 2012. Multi-residual analysis of 285 pesticides were performed by GC-ECD, GC-NPD, HPLC-DAD and HPLC-FLD. In perilla leaf, 61 pesticides were detected and detection rate was 20.0%. 28 pesticides were detected in case of lettuce and detection rate was 4.8%. In order to do risk assessment by perilla leaf & lettuce consumption, estimated daily intake of residual pesticides were determined and compared to acceptable daily intake, referring to hazard index (HI values). The range of % HI values of perilla leaf was from 0.000% to 0.049%. The range of % HI values of lettuce was from 0.000% to 0.095%. These results show that the risk caused by pesticide residues in perilla leaf & lettuce intake were very low and these vegetable intake was safe.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.170-178
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• 2014

Purpose: Delirium is a common and serious neuropsychiatric complication among terminally ill cancer patients. We investigated risk factors related to the development of delirium among hospice care patients. Methods: Between May 2011 and September 2012, we included patients who were mentally alert and had no psychiatric disease or drug addiction at the hospice ward of two local hospitals. Among them, participants who had been diagnosed with delirium by two doctors according to the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-4th edition) criteria were grouped as Delirium Group. We analyzed results of psychometric and other laboratory tests performed at the time of patient's admission - psychometric tests included cognitive function (mini-mental status examination, MMSE), depression (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI), anxiety, and insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index, ISI). Logistic regression analysis was used to compare delirium and the related factors. Cox's proportional hazard model was performed using significant factors of logistic regression analysis. Results: Of the 96 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 41 (42.7%) developed delirium. According to the logistic regression analysis, primary cancer site, cognitive impairment (MMSE < 24), depression ($BDI{\geq}16$), and insomnia ($ISI{\geq}15$) were significant factors related to delirium. Among the four factors, depression (OR 5.130; 95% CI, 2.009~13.097) and cognitive impairment (OR 5.130; 95% CI, 2.009~13.097) were found significant using Cox's proportional hazard model. Conclusion: The development of delirium was significantly related to depression and cognitive impairment among patients receiving hospice care. It is necessary to carefully monitor depression and cognitive function in hospice care.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2001

Risk assessment traditionally are conducted on individual chemicals; however, humans are exposed to multiple chemicals in daily life. The organophosphorus (OP) pesticides are considered in a single risk assessment because they act by a common mechanism of toxicity, and there is likely to be expose to multiple OP pesticides simultaneously or sequentially. The OP pesticides act by inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterasc (AChE) and have available extensive database. AChE is widely distributed throughout the body, most importantly in the nervous system. Inhibition of AChE results in accumulation of acetylcholine in the nervous system that results in clinical signs of cholinergic toxicity, including increased salivation and lacrimation, nausea and vomiting, muscle fasciculation, lethargy and fatigue, among others. To conduct an exposure assessment for pesticides in the diet, we need to know the food consumption patterns of the populations, and the pesticide residue levels in the foods that are consumed. This study was conducted to identify cumulative dietary risk due to multiple OP pesticides that can be exposed through various foods. Total 22 food samples including cereals, vegetables and fruits were collected randomly two times from food markets in several sites (4 cities). The subjected foods were selected by regarding of highly consumed foods to general Korean people. The 12 OP pesticides including Acephate, Azinphos-methyl, Chlorpyrifos, and Diazinon were monitored. For the exposure assessment, general adult group of 60 kg body weight was regarded as target population and food consumption data suggested by Lee et al. (2000) were used as consumed value of individual food. Analyses of samples for OP pesticides have been carried out according to the multiclass multiresidue analysis method and acephate and methamidophos analysis method of Korea Food Code. In general the levels of OP pesticides found in the food samples were very low or not detected.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2012

BACKGROUND: Many edible mushrooms are known to accumulate high levels of heavy metals. This research was focused on health risk assessment to investigate the mushrooms in Korea, arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) contaminations in edible mushrooms in cultivated areas were investigated, and health risk was assessed through dietary intake of mushrooms. METHODS AND RESULTS: The heavy metals in mushrooms were analyzed by ICP/MS after acid digestion. Probabilistic health risk were estimated by Monte-Carlo simulation techniques. The average contents of As, Cd, Pb, and Hg were $0.035{\pm}0.042$ mg/kg, $0.017{\pm}0.020$ mg/kg, $0.043{\pm}0.013$ mg/kg, and $0.004{\pm}0.004$ mg/kg, respectively. The results showed that contents of Cd and Pb did not exceed maximum residual levels established by European Uion regulation (Cd 0.20 mg/kg and Pb 0.30 mg/kg). For health risk assessment, estimated intakes in all age populations did not exceed the provisional tolerable daily intake of As and Hg, provisional tolerable monthly intake of Cd, provisional tolerable weekly intake of Pb. The Hazard Index (HI) were ranged from $0.03{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}0.01{\times}10^{-3}$ for As, $0.02{\times}10^{-3}{\sim}0.81{\times}10^{-3}$ for Cd, $0.06{\times}10^{-3}{\sim}0.38{\times}10^{-3}$ for Pb, and $0.08{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}0.14{\times}10^{-3}$ for Hg at general population. CONCLUSION: The HI from the ratio analysis between daily exposure and safety level values was less than 1.0. This results demonstrated that human exposure to heavy metals through dietary intake of mushrooms might not cause adverse effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.71-80
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• 2009

Although desire for living without hazardous damages grows these days, threats from natural disasters which we are currently exposed to are quiet different from what we have experienced. To cope with this changing situation, it is necessary to assess the characteristics of the natural disasters. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to suggest a methodology to estimate the potential property loss and assess the flood risk using a regional regression analysis. Since the flood damage mainly consists of loss of lives and property damages, it is reasonable to express the results of a flood risk assessment with the loss of lives and the property damages that are vulnerable to flood. The regional regression analysis has been commonly used to find relationships between regional characteristics of a watershed and parameters of rainfall-runoff models or probability distribution models. In our research, however, this model is applied to estimate the potential flood damage as follows; 1) a nonlinear model between the flood damage and the hourly rainfall is found in gauged regions which have sufficient damage and rainfall data, and 2) a regression model is developed from the relationship between the coefficients of the nonlinear models and socio-economic indicators in the gauged regions. This method enables us to quantitatively analyze the impact of the regional indicators on the flood damage and to estimate the damage through the application of the regional regression model to ungauged regions which do not have sufficient data. Moreover the flood risk map is developed by Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI) which is equal to the ratio of the estimated flood damage to the total regional property. Comparing the results of this research with Potential Flood Damage (PFD) reported in the Long-term Korea National Water Resources Plan, the exports' mistaken opinions could affect the weighting procedure of PFD, but the proposed approach based on the regional regression would overcome the drawback of PFD. It was found that FVI is highly correlated with the past damage, while PFD does not reflect the regional vulnerabilities.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.330-338
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• 2011

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to investigate the agricultural product (Pulses, Lettuces, Pumpkins, Apples, Pears and Tangerines) in Korea, monitoring of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) contaminations of agricultural products in cultivated areas and abandoned mine areas were investigated, and risk assessment was performed through dietary intake of agricultural products. METHODS AND RESULTS: The average contents of Cd and Pb ranged from 0.001 to 0.018 mg/kg and from 0.007 to 0.032 mg/kg respectively. The result was showed that contents of Cd and Pb did not exceed maximum residual levels established by CODEX except pumpkins and apples. The average daily intake were in the range of $1.06{\times}10^{-3}$ to $4.76{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/kg$ b.w./day at the mean and 95th percentile for Cd, $4.53{\times}10^{-3}$ to $8.35{\times}10^{-2}{\mu}g/kg$ b.w./day at the mean and 95th percentile for Pb for general population, based on the Korean public nutrition report 2008. The Hazard Index (HI) from the ratio analysis between daily exposure and safety level values was smaller than 1.0. CONCLUSION(s): This results demonstrated that human exposure to Cd and Pb through dietary intake of agricultural produces from abandoned mine areas might not cause adverse effect exceeding to those from non-contaminated areas.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.3773-3777
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• 2015

Background: This study aimed to establish a nomogram by combining clinicopathologic factors with overall survival of stage IA-IIB cervical cancer patients after complete resection with pelvic lymphadenectomy. Materials and Methods: This nomogram was based on a retrospective study on 1,563 stage IA-IIB cervical cancer patients who underwent complete resection and lymphadenectomy from 2002 to 2008. The nomogram was constructed based on multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazard regression. The accuracy and discriminative ability of the nomogram were measured by concordance index (C-index) and calibration curve. Results: Multivariate analysis identified lymph node metastasis (LNM), lymph-vascular space invasion (LVSI), stromal invasion, parametrial invasion, tumor diameter and histology as independent prognostic factors associated with cervical cancer survival. These factors were selected for construction of the nomogram. The C-index of the nomogram was 0.71 (95% CI, 0.65 to 0.77), and calibration of the nomogram showed good agreement between the 5-year predicted survival and the actual observation. Conclusions: We developed a nomogram predicting 5-year overall survival of surgically treated stage IA-IIB cervical cancer patients. More comprehensive information that is provided by this nomogram could provide further insight into personalized therapy selection.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.53-57
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• 2009

Heavy metal pollution may be one of the most serious challenges confront crop production and human health. Therefore, the selection of heavy metal tolerance cultivars which adapted to the contaminated fields will introduced a suitable solution for management this critical environmental risk. The objectives of this research is to assess human health risk using geochemical analyses and exposure assessment of heavy metals in rice cultivars. Risk for inhabitants in the closed mine area was comparatively assessed for As, Cd, Cu and Pb in 10 rice varieties as a major exposure pathway. The average daily dose (ADD) of each heavy metal was estimated by analyzing the exposure pathways to rice and soil. For the non-carcinogenic risk characterization, Hazard Quotient (HQ) and Hazard Index (HI) were calculated using toxicity indices provided by US-EPA IRIS. The different rice varieties revealed a wide range of HI values from 23.6 to 34.3, indicating that all rice varieties have a high potential toxic risk. The DA rice variety showed the lowest HI value while the TB rice variety the highest. The probabilities of cancer risk for As via rice consumption were varied with rice varieties ranging from 2.0E-03 to 3.5E-03 which exceeded the regulatory acceptable risk of 1 in 10,000 set by US-EPA. The DA rice variety also showed the lowest value while the TB rice variety gave the highest value. Our results indicate that risk assessment can be contribute to screen the pollution safe rice cultivars in paddy fields affected by the mining activity.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.489-495
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• 2023

In this study, we detected the presence of residual pesticides in 341 agricultural products collected from local food outlets in western Gyeonggi Province. Residual pesticides were detected in 105 (30.8%) samples. Six samples exceeded the legal limits for residual pesticides, resulting in a non-compliance rate of 1.8%, which was slightly higher than the average non-compliance rate of 1.4% in the last three years. Among the tested agricultural products, only fruits and vegetables were found to have pesticide residues, with 24 of 34 fruits (a detection rate of 70.6%) and 81 of 277 vegetables (a detection rate of 29.2%) testing positive. In total, 59 types of pesticides, including acetamiprid, which was detected 208 times, were detected and had a detection range of 0.01-2.38 mg/kg. Among the 105 agricultural products containing pesticide residues, a single pesticide was detected in 62 samples (59%) and two or more pesticides were detected in 43 samples (41%). In particular, 14 pesticides were detected in the same sample of peaches; dinotefuran was detected 21 times. Upon examining the toxicity of the detected pesticides, Class III pesticides (moderate toxicity) were detected 44 times (21.2%) and Class IV pesticides (low toxicity) were detected 164 times (78.8%). Class I, II, and III pesticides with fish toxicity were detected 68 (32.7%), 14 (6.7%), and 126 times (60.6%), respectively. Upon examining the exposure to high-frequency pesticide components detected five or more times, the hazard index was found to be ≤2.8%. Accordingly, the hazard of residual pesticides based on dietary intake was deemed insignificant.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.100-108
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• 2018

Background: The question of which type of prosthetic aortic valve leads to the best outcomes in patients in their 60s remains controversial. We examined the hemodynamic and clinical outcomes of aortic valve replacement in sexagenarians according to the type of prosthesis. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 270 patients in their 60s who underwent first-time aortic valve replacement from 1995 to 2011. Early and late mortality, major adverse valve-related events, anticoagulation-related events, and hemodynamic outcomes were assessed. The mean follow-up duration was $58.7{\pm}44.0$ months. Results: Of the 270 patients, 93 had a mechanical prosthesis (mechanical group), and 177 had a bioprosthesis (tissue group). The tissue group had a higher mean age and prevalence of preoperative stroke than the mechanical group. The groups had no differences in the aortic valve mean pressure gradient (AVMPG) or the left ventricular mass index (LVMI) at 5 years after surgery. In a sub-analysis limited to prostheses in the supra-annular position, the AVMPG was higher in the tissue group, but the LVMI was still not significantly different. There was no early mortality. The 10-year survival rate was 83% in the mechanical group and 90% in the tissue group. The type of aortic prosthesis did not influence overall mortality, cardiac mortality, or major adverse valve-related events. Anticoagulation-related events were more common in the mechanical group than in the tissue group (p=0.034; hazard ratio, 4.100; 95% confidence interval, 1.111-15.132). Conclusion: The type of aortic prosthesis was not associated with hemodynamic or clinical outcomes, except for anticoagulation-related events.