• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.13-26
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• 2023

Recently, as the development of underground spaces has become active due to rapid urbanization and population density, interest in the ground behavior according to the construction of underground spaces is increasing. In large cities with high population density and many buildings, ground subsidence has a great impact on structures and there may be a risk of collapse, so the analysis of ground behavior due to underground construction is essential. Previous studies have been conducted on the subsidence pattern of the surface and the deformation of the tunnel when constructing the tunnel, but analysis has rarely been conducted by using actual topographic information. Therefore, this study analyzed the difference in ground behavior between the actual topography and the flat topography. As a result, it was confirmed that ground settlement occurs at higher elevations, such as in mountainous topography, and when the numerical analysis is performed considering topographical information, the crown settlement of the tunnel is up to about approx. It showed a difference of 10 mm, and it was found that the sensitivity was less in the case of displacement of tunnel wall compared to the crown settlement and ground settlement. The numerical analysis considering the actual GIS-based topographic information presented in this study can be used to obtain more accurate surface subsidence data to understand the behavior of the upper structure due to tunnel excavation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3101-3103
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• 2016

Background: According to the most recent estimation of GLOBOCAN, Cambodia has the highest incidence and mortality rate of cervical cancer in Southeast Asia. A screen-and-treat strategy using visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA test) and cryotherapy has been implemented in Cambodia's national cervical cancer screening program since 2013. However, where resources are available, cervical cytology with or without high-risk HPV DNA testing is the preferred screening method used in this country. Aim: This study aims to calculate the prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology and explain the possible factors contributing to a reduced quality of cervical cytology among women participating in a hospital-based cervical cancer screening program in Cambodia. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was conducted using information from the cytology and pathology database in the Department of Pathology of Calmette Hospital between January 2012 and December 2015. Prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology, based on the Bethesda 2001 classification, was calculated. Data on the adequacy of cytological specimens were analyzed in order to explain the factors contributing to a reduced quality of cervical cytology interpretation. Results: Among 6,207 women who participated in the cervical cancer screening program at Calmette Hospital during 2012 and 2015, 388 (6.25%) had abnormal cytology, which could be classified into Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance (92 cases; 1.48%), Atypical Squamous Cells - Cannot Exclude High-Grade Intraepithelial Lesion (13 cases; 0.21%), Atypical Glandular Cells (11 cases; 0.18%), Low-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion (221 cases; 3.56%), High-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion (26 cases; 0.42%), and Squamous Cell Carcinoma (25 cases; 0.40%). Unsatisfactory smears made up 12.2% of the total cases. The most frequently identified factor leading to unsatisfactory smears was the absence of cells from the transformation zone. Conclusions: The present study showed an overall prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology of 6.25%, which is comparable to that in many large population-based studies in the Asia Pacific region. Nevertheless, the remarkably high rate of unsatisfactory smears in this study justifies further improvement in specimen sampling among Cambodian gynecologists.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.267-274
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• 2016

Increasing sugar intake of population has become a nutritional issue in Korea. Sweet taste perception may be related to behaviors such as eating sweet food including high sugars and total sugar intake. This study aimed to evaluate objective and subjective sweet taste perception and the association among objective sweet taste perception, dietary behaviors related to eating sweet snack food including high sugar, and total sugar intake from the snacks. Participants were 261 healthy female college students (mean age: $21.0{\pm}1.6years$), who were divided into three subgroups based on oral sweet taste evaluation using a sweet taste assessment tool provided by Ministry of Food and Drug Safety: sweet-seeker group (n=139), medium sweet-seeker group (n=54), and unsweet-seeker group (n=68). There was no significant difference in weight and body mass index (BMI) among the three groups; however, the sweet-seeker group had significantly higher sweet taste preference than that of the other groups. Though more people in the sweet-seeker group thought they tended to eat sweet foods than the medium sweet-seeker and unsweet-seeker groups, over half of the sweet-seekers did not think they tended to eat sweet foods. The sweet-seeker group was more likely to eat sweet snacks such as breads, chocolate products, sugar-sweetened milk, and so on than the unsweet-seeker group. Total sugar intake from the selected sweet snacks was 44.4 g for the sweet-seeker group, 34.4 g for the medium sweet-seeker group, and 28.0 g for the unsweet-seeker group with a significant difference. These results indicated the absence of relationship between objective sweet taste perception and the obesity index; however, significant associations were detected among objective sweet taste perception, eating sweet snacks and total sugar intake from the snacks. We also found high disagreement between objective and subjective sweet taste perception of the subjects. The present study provided the novel insight that measuring objective sweet taste perception may be useful for assessing the risk of high sugar consumption and undesirable dietary behaviors.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.570-582
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• 2020

Purpose: Obesity is a risk factor for various adult diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardio-cerebrovascular disease, and cancer. With an increasing obesity population worldwide, the prevention of obesity with natural components has emerged as an alternative health care strategy. Ramulus mori (Sangzhi, RM) is widely used as a traditional herbal medicine in East Asia. It contains various phytochemicals, including stilbenes and 2-arylbenzofurans. In this study, we compared the anti-obesity effects of RM extracts and its major stilbene components (mulberroside A [MSA] and oxyresveratrol [ORT]) in high fat diet (HFD)-fed obese mice. Methods: Five week-old, male C57BL/6J mice were grouped into 7 experimental groups: normal diet (ND), HFD, HFD + 1% RM water extracts (MW), HFD + 0.1% MSA, HFD + 1% RM ethanol extracts (ME), HFD + 0.1% ORT, and HFD + 1% Garcinia cambogia extracts (GC) as a positive control. All mice were fed experimental diet for 13 weeks. Results: Compared to the HFD group, total body weight and weekly body weight gain were significantly decreased in the ME, ORT, and GC groups. Glucose tolerance level was significantly decreased in all experimental groups, whereas plasma insulin level was decreased in MSA, ME, ORT and GC groups. Plasma glucose, triglyceride (TG), and total cholesterol levels were significantly decreased, whereas high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were increased in the MSA, ORT, and GC groups. Hepatic TG accumulation was also significantly decreased in the MSA, ME, ORT, and GC groups. Adipose tissue weight and size of adipocytes were significantly decreased in the MSA, ME and ORT groups, and were comparable to values obtained in the GC group. The levels of adiponectin and SREBP1c mRNA expressions were increased in the ORT and GC groups. Conclusion: These results indicate that ME, ORT and MSA exert significant anti-obesity effect, and have the potential to be developed as a weight control ingredient of functional foods.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.82-86
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• 2011

Objectives: The Berlin Questionnaire (BQ) has been used to help identify patients at high risk of having sleep apnea in primary care. But it has not been validated in a sleep clinic for Korean patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of the BQ as a screening tool for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) for Korean patients in a sleep clinic. Methods: The BQ was prospectively applied to 121 subjects with OSA suspicion who visited to our sleep clinic. All subjects performed overnight polysomnography. OSA was defined as an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ${\geq}5$. We investigated the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the BQ according to severity by AHI. Results: In 121 subjects, 73.6% were males, with a mean age of $48.8{\pm}13.0$ years. Twenty-five (20.6%) patients did not have OSA (AHI<5), 30 (25%) patients had mild OSA ($AHI{\geq}5$ and <15), 26 (21.4%) had moderate ($AHI{\geq}15$ and <30), and 40 (33%) had severe OSA ($AHI{\geq}30$). The BQ identified 69.4% of the patients as being at high risk for having OSA. The sensitivity and specificity of the BQ were 71.9% and 40%, for $AHI{\geq}5$, 75.8% and 38.2% for $AHI{\geq}15$, 77.5% and 34.6% for $AHI{\geq}30$, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values of the BQ were 82.1% and 27.0% for $AHI{\geq}5$, respectively. Positive and negative likelihood ratios were 1.2 and 0.7, and the overall diagnostic accuracy of the BQ was 65.3%, using an AHI cut-off of 5. Conclusion: Due to modest sensitivity and low specificity, the BQ does not seem to be an appropriate tool for identifying patients with obstructive sleep apnea in a sleep clinic population.

• 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.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.232-239
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• 1997

Purpose: The incidence of hepatitis A virus(HAV) infection has markedly decreased in the last 20 years due to industrialization and improvements in the standard of living and hygiene in Korea. The reduction in seroprevalence rates indicates infection potential for young adult population, and a need for vaccinations in high-risk adults and children groups has been suggested. In this study we evaluated the seroprevalence rates and natural infection rates of hepatitis A in children and adolescent to obtain the basic data for vaccination of hepatitis A. Methods: A total of 334 children and adolescent subjects below 20 years old in Kyonggi-do province were examined for HAV antibody and seroprevalence rates in each age group was investigated. In 584 elementary school students residing in Kyonggi-do province, serum samples collected in 1993 and 1996 from the same subjects for investigation of natural seroconversion rates. Method of testing antibody was enzyme immunoassay. Results: 1) The seropositive rate of HAV in 334 subjects aged below 20 years old was 5.4%. According to age, the seropositive rates were 27.3% in infant group, 0.0% in 1~4 year-old group, 0.0% in 5~9 year-old group, 2.9% in 10~14 year-old group and 15.0% in 15~19 year-old group. 2) In the study of 584 elementary school children, only one subject showed seropositive in 1993, and in 1996 three different subjects showed seropositive results(0.5%); the natural seroconversion rate during 3 years was 0.5%. 3) The seroprevalence rates of below 20 year-old subjects reported in previous studies were 63.8% in 1979 and 47.3% in 1989 while the present study showed the rate at 5.4%. Conclusion: Since natural antibody formation is rarely occurring, there is a high risk for apparent hepatitis A infection in adults. Therefore vaccination in high risk groups is essential at present, and in order to reduce the chance for hepatitis A infection in adults, vaccination in children may be needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.157-166
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• 2017

Background: Women with family history of breast cancer are more likely to be worried about having cancer and participate in breast cancer screening. However, few studies have examined relationship between family history, cancer worries, and participating in breast cancer screening in Korea. This study is to identify relationship between family history, cancer worries, and participating in breast cancer screening among women with and without family history of cancer. Methods: Respondents were 2,364 women who based on the 2013 Korean National Cancer Screening Survey which is done by National Cancer Center in Korea. Chi-square tests were performed to determine differences of cancer worries, undergoing of breast cancer screening and methods such as mammogram and ultrasonogram with and without cancer family history. Univariate and multiple logistic regression were performed to identify if family history and cancer worries are related factors on participating in breast cancer screening and methods. Stratified analysis was performed to confirm the effect of ultrasonogram on the dense breast by age. Results: Women with cancer family history frequently checked condition for conscious of having cancer (p=0.0299) and had highly perception of risk about having cancer in the future ($p{\leq}0.0001$). Women aged 30-49 did not perform significantly more ultrasonogram than women aged over 50 years old. Checking condition (moderate odds ratio [OR], 1.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20-2.08; frequently OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.08-1.76) and perception of risk (moderate OR, 3.12; 95% CI, 1.06-7.06; high OR, 2.74; 95% CI, 1.20-8.08) were related to participate in mammogram and ultrasonogram. A positive family history was related to 1.35 higher odds of performing only breast ultrasonogram (95% CI, 1.04-1.75). Conclusion: This study requires national education and publicity to reduce the unnecessary cost of screening, to be possible cost effective screening and to encourage women to receive more mammogram, especially women aged over 50 years old and with socioeconomic factors related to opportunistic screening.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.163-167
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• 2002

Purpose: Interleukin 1$\beta$ (IL-1$\beta$) polymorphisms are associated with hypochlorhydria, atrophic gastritis, and increased risk of gastric cancer in Caucasians. We tried to determine whether the IL-1.. and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1 RN) genetic polymorphisms contribute to the development of gastric cancer and the specific type of gastritis in Korean. Materials and Methods: The study population was comprised of 128 gastric cancer patients with histologically proven carcinoma and 63 normal healthy individuals. Sixty-eight carcinomas were of intestinal-type and sixty tumors were of diffuse-type. No patient had a familial gastric cancer history. The 511 bp and 31 bp polymorphisms in the IL-1.. were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism. The polymorphism of the IL-1 RN was analyzed with variable number tandem repeat after PCR. Results: The genotype of 511C/-31T of IL-1$\beta$ and allele 1 of IL-1 RN was dominant in the present subjects. The allelic frequencies of the C allele IL-1$\beta$, which is a high risk genotype for gastric cancer, were 0.551 and 0.429 in gastric cancer and normal controls, respectively. Statistically, significant difference in allelic frequencies of three polymorphic sites between gastric cancer patients and normal controls, and between intestinal-type and diffuse-type was not observed. Conclusions: These results suggest that the polymorphisms of IL-1$\beta$ and IL-1 RN may not contribute to the development of Korean gastric caner and that other endogenous or exogenous factors will be important for gastric carcinogenesis.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.319-328
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• 2013

Objectives: This study estimated the association of cardiovascular health behaviors with the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in middle-aged men in Korea. Methods: In total, 12 538 men aged 40 to 59 years were enrolled in 1993 and followed up through 2011. Cardiovascular health metrics defined the following lifestyle behaviors proposed by the American Heart Association: smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet habit score, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose. The cardiovascular health metrics score was calculated as a single categorical variable, by assigning 1 point to each ideal healthy behavior. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate the hazard ratio of cardiovascular health behavior. Population attributable risks (PARs) were calculated from the significant cardiovascular health metrics. Results: There were 1054 total and 171 CVD deaths over 230 690 person-years of follow-up. The prevalence of meeting all 7 cardiovascular health metrics was 0.67%. Current smoking, elevated blood pressure, and high fasting blood glucose were significantly associated with all-cause and CVD mortality. The adjusted PARs for the 3 significant metrics combined were 35.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 21.7 to 47.4) and 52.8% (95% CI, 22.0 to 74.0) for all-cause and CVD mortality, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratios of the groups with a 6-7 vs. 0-2 cardiovascular health metrics score were 0.42 (95% CI, 0.31 to 0.59) for all-cause mortality and 0.10 (95% CI, 0.03 to 0.29) for CVD mortality. Conclusions: Among cardiovascular health behaviors, not smoking, normal blood pressure, and recommended fasting blood glucose levels were associated with reduced risks of all-cause and CVD mortality. Meeting a greater number of cardiovascular health metrics was associated with a lower risk of all-cause and CVD mortality.