• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.133-173
• /
• 2011

Since mid-1960s the reports from the Surgeon General, the World Health Organization, and other health experts state that there is no risk-free level exposure to smoking and secondhand smoke. Tobacco smoke is made up of more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds are toxic, and at least 70 are carcinogens. The chemicals in tobacco smoke reach smoker's lungs quickly every time smoker inhale causing damages immediately. Inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke can also damage smoker's DNA, which can lead to cancers. Smoking is responsible for more than 87% of lung cancers, but there are a host of other chronic diseases directly related to exposure to tobacco smoke. It's also a major cause of heart disease, stroke, aortic aneurysm, peripheral arterial disease and most of the other diseases. In the United States, each year with more than from 440,000 to 520,000 deaths caused by smoking and exposure to involuntary smoke. They conclude that smoking is the single most important source of preventable morbidity and mortality. The United States of America have about 60-year history of tobacco litigation. Tobacco litigation has been an important tool in tobacco control strategies aimed at limiting the activities of tobacco companies and providing redress to people who have become ill as a result of their use of tobacco products. Tobacco litigation is a kind of tort litigation. Quite often, as in the asbestos and other mass tort litigation episodes, tobacco litigation can play an educational role, warning the public about the magnitude of health risks that might otherwise be less clearly perceived. Tobacco litigation allows smokers, their families or other victims of smoking to sue tobacco companies in order to be compensated for the harm they have suffered. Potential benefits of tobacco litigation include compensation for smoking-related damages, strengthening regulatory activity, publicity, documents disclosure and changing tobacco industry behavior. And also tobacco litigation can limit the political activities of tobacco industry, protect human rights of smokers and non-smokers, increase burden to tobacco price-up and enhance the effects of law and politics in public health.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.473-478
• /
• 2005

The gastric cancer takes the great part of the cancer occurrence and the mortality from cancer in Korea, and the early detection of gastric cancer is very important in the treatment and convalescence. This paper. for the early detection of gastric cancer, Proposes the analysis system of endoscopic image of the stomach that detects the abnormal region by using the change of color in the image and provides the surface tissue information to the detector. While the advanced inflammation and the cancer may be easily detected, the early inflammation and the cancer have a difficulty in detection and require the more attention lot detection. This paper, at first, converts the endoscopic image to the Image of IHb(Index of Hemoglobin) model and removes noises incurred by illumination, and next, automatically detects the regions suspected as cancer and provides the related information to the detector, or provides the surface tissue information for the regions appointed by the detector. This paper does not intend to provide the final diagnosis of the detected abnormal regions as gastric cancer, but provides the supplementary mean that reduces the load and mistaken diagnosis of the detector by automatically detecting the abnormal regions being not easily detected by human eyes and providing the additional information for the diagnosis. The experiments using practical endoscopic images for performance evaluation showed that the proposed system is effective in the analysis of endoscopic image of the stomach.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.62-65
• /
• 2010

Arowana (Scleropages formosus) is the most valuable group of ornamental fishes and very much in demand in the ornamental fish trade and commands high price ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars per fish. In this paper, we described a case of mortality of arowana from a private aquarium in Korea. A bacterial pathogen from fish organs (brain, kidney, liver) was cultured, identified and confirmed using Vitek System 2, API 20E test, multiplex PCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The morphological and biochemical properties of the bacterium isolated from the brain, kidney and liver of the fish were similar to Aeromonas sobria. Positive amplification products using the multiplex PCR assay for detection of A. sobria were obtained from these organs. The 16S rRNA gene of the isolates from fish was identical and exhibited 100% sequence similarity with A. sobria (AY987762.1) strain available from GenBank. This bacterium contained hemolysin gene, a virulence factor that plays an important role in outbreaks of disease and is pathogenic to humans as well as in fish. Although this opportunistic bacterium was isolated from a fish without any external symptoms, this pathogen may act as a reservoir and enhance chances of zoonosis to human such as during handling.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
• /
• v.40 no.5
• /
• pp.795-812
• /
• 2020

Novel food sources have enormous potential as nutritional supplements. For instance, edible insects are considered as an alternative food source due to their higher protein content; moreover, they are economically efficient reproducers and have high in nutritional value. In this study, we investigated the toxicity of the freeze-dried powder of Locusta migratoria (fdLM), known to contain rich proteins as well as fatty acids. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the subacute toxicity of fdLM in male and female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The SD rats were divided into four groups based on the dosage of fdLM administered: dosage of 0 (vehicle control), 750, 1,500, and 3,000 mg/kg/day were administered for 28 days. Toxicological assessments including observations on food consumption, body and organ weights, clinical signs, mortality, ophthalmologic tests, urinalyses, hematologic tests, clinical chemistry tests, gross findings, and histopathology tests were performed. Clinical signs, urinalyses, hematology, serum biochemistry tests, and organ weight examinations revealed no fdLM-related toxicity. The no-observed-adverse-effect level for fdLM was higher than 3,000 mg/kg/day in rats of both sexes; therefore, fdLM, in conclusion, can be considered safe as an edible alternative human and animal food source material.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.120-140
• /
• 2013

We investigated the occurrence of red tide, harmful algal blooms(HABs), at the end of 14th century until the beginning of 19th century recorded in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, which are the authentic and encyclopedic annual records of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. In total, 81 cases of HABs are recorded in the annals for which authors draw a table and maps. The number of HABs occurrence at each sea is as follows: 68 times at the South Sea; 50 times at the East Sea; and 23 times at the Yellow Sea. A region hit by red tide most frequently was Gyeongsang-do Province (over 80 times), which borders on both the South Sea and the East Sea. HABs written in the annals follow two distinctive occurrence patterns. The first pattern shows red tide started at Gangwon-do Province in March, spread north to Hamgyeongnam-do Province in April, and moved further north to Hamgyeongbuk-do Province in May and June. On the other hand, the second pattern shows red tide occurred in Gyeongsangnam-do Province in August and then expanded north to Gyeongsangbuk-do Province in September. HABs generally happened from March to September, culminating in August. Paralytic shellfish poisoning incidents involving human deaths were reported in Jinhae, Geoje and Tongyeong, occurring February to June. Fish mortality increased throughout Gyeongsang-do Province from July to September. HABs occurred on an extensive scale from 1394 to 1451 and again from 1654 to 1706. HABs also occurred on a lesser scale from 1493 to 1534 and again from 1588 to 1609. In general, vast HABs occurred in odd years (1399, 1403, 1413 and 1681).

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.57 no.4
• /
• pp.258-264
• /
• 2013

Herbal medicine has been traditionally used in Asian countries for a long time. Many pharmacological effects are identified in the herbs and these herbs are believed to be safe for human. However, the safety or adverse effect of some traditional herbal medicines has not been established. We have chosen Cyperi rhizoma based on the Korea Herbal Pharmacopoeia and which have been widely used for an anti-inflammatory effect in Korea. The object of the study was to evaluate safety of Cyperi rhizoma in rats. The aqueous extract of Cyperi rhizoma was prepared according to the standard hot water extraction method of the Korea Pharmacopoeia. In the sub-chronic study, the aqueous extract of Cyperi rhizoma was orally administered once daily as 0, 125, 250, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg/day to male and female F344 rats for 13 weeks. There were no treatment related abnormalities in mortality, clinical signs, food consumption, ophthalmologic examination, hematology, serum chemistry, urinalysis, gross observation, organ weight and histopathologic examination. In conclusion, The NOAEL (No Observed Adverse Effect Level) for Cyperi rhizoma aqueous extract was determined as more than 2000 mg/kg/day in the present experimental condition.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.51-72
• /
• 2002

This research was conducted to understand and analyze the health-related behaviors of middle school students and get fundamental research data essential to provide efficient student guidance and public health service at school. The interview using Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System(YRBSS). Translation and modification for Korean students of the YRBS. The Korean version of YRBS(Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System) that translation and modification for Korean students of the YRBS developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC)was used to assessment to health-related behaviors of youth. The interviewees were 1040 enrolled students at middle school in Daegu metropolitan city. YRBSS monitors six categories of priority health behaviors among youth and young adults behaviors that contribute to unintentional and intentional injuries; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use, sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases(STDs)(including human immunodeficiency virus infection); unhealthy dietary behaviors; and physical activity. The result shows that over 30% of students rarely or never used safety belt and almost students were rarely or never wore a bicycle helmet. During the 12 months preceding the survey, 21.9% female students had felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for $\geq$ 2weeks in a row that they stopped doing some usually activities 20.5% of male middle school students have ever tried cigarette smoking. 26.2% of male students and 27.2% do female students had had over one drinks of alcohol during their lifetime(lifetime alcohol use). 47% of male students had had over one drinks of alcohol on $\geq$ 1 of the 30 days preceding the survey(current alcohol use). Over one half of female student were thought they were overweight. These results suggest that some risk behaviors be very prevalent in a korean middle school students and priority health-risk behaviors, which contribute to the leading cause of mortality and morbidity among youth and adult, often are establish during middle school age, extend into adulthood, are interrelated. Among both children and adults, the leading causes of death are closely linked to these behaviors. Among adults, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes are the national leading killers. Practicing healthy behaviors, such as eating low-fat, high-fruit-and-vegetable diets, getting regular physical activity, and refraining from tobacco use, would prevent many premature deaths. Because health-related behaviors are usually established in childhood, positive choices need to be promoted before damaging behaviors are initiated or become ingrained.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.11
• /
• pp.550-560
• /
• 2018

Many countries have provided support for research and development and implemented policies for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) for enhancing the safety of vehicles. With such efforts, the toll of casualties due to traffic accidents has decreased gradually. Korea has exhibited the lowest toll of casualties due to traffic accidents and is ranked 32nd in mortality among the 35 OECD members. Traffic accidents typically fall into three categories depending on the cause of the accident: vehicle to vehicle (V2V), vehicle to pedestrian (V2P), and vehicle independent. Most accidents are caused by drivers' mistakes in recognition, judgment, or operation. ADAS has been proposed to prevent and reduce accidents from such human errors. Moreover, the global automobile industry has recently been developing various safety measures, but on-road tests are still limited and contain various risks. Therefore, this study investigated the international standards for evaluation tests with regard to the assessment techniques in braking capability to cope with the limitations of on-road tests. A theoretical formula for braking force and a control algorithm are proposed, which were validated by comparing the results with those from an on-road test. These results verified the braking force depending on the functions of ADAS. The risks of on-road tests can be reduced because the proposed theoretical formula allows a prediction of the tendencies.

• Laboraroty Animal Research
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.57-67
• /
• 2017

The inhibitory effects of Asparagus cochinchinensis against inflammatory response induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), substance P and phthalic anhydride (PA) treatment were recently reported for some cell lines and animal models. To evaluate the hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of A. cochinchinensis toward the livers and kidneys of ICR mice, alterations in related markers including body weight, organ weight, urine composition, liver pathology and kidney pathology were analyzed in male and female ICR mice after oral administration of 150, 300 and 600 mg/kg body weight/day saponin-enriched extract of A. cochinchinensis (SEAC) for 14 days. The saponin, total flavonoid and total phenol levels were found to be 57.2, 88.5 and 102.1 mg/g in SEAC, respectively, and the scavenging activity of SEAC gradually increased in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, body and organ weight, clinical phenotypes, urine parameters and mice mortality did not differ between the vehicle and SEAC treated group. Furthermore, no significant alterations were measured in alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and the serum creatinine (Cr) in the SEAC treated group relative to the vehicle treated group. Moreover, the specific pathological features induced by most toxic compounds were not observed upon liver and kidney histological analysis. Overall, the results of the present study suggest that SEAC does not induce any specific toxicity in the livers and kidneys of male and female ICR mice at doses of 600 mg/kg body weight/day.

• ALGAE
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.237-251
• /
• 2019

The dinoflagellate genus Alexandrium is known to often form harmful algal blooms causing human illness and large-scale mortality of marine organisms. Therefore, the population dynamics of Alexandrium species are of primary concern to scientists and aquaculture farmers. The growth rate of the Alexandrium species is the most important parameter in prediction models and nutrient conditions are critical parameters affecting the growth of phototrophic species. In Korean coastal waters, Alexandrium affine and Alexandrium fraterculus, of similar sizes, often form red-tide patches together. Thus, to understand bloom dynamics of A. affine and A. fraterculus, growth rates and nitrate uptake of each species as a function of nitrate ($NO_3$) concentration at $100{\mu}mol\;photons\;m^{-2}s^{-1}$ under 14-h light : 10-h dark and continuous light conditions were determined using a nutrient repletion method. With increasing $NO_3$ concentration, growth rates and $NO_3$ uptake of A. affine or A. fraterculus increased, but became saturated. Under light : dark conditions, the maximum growth rates of A. affine and A. fraterculus were 0.45 and $0.42d^{-1}$, respectively. However, under continuous light conditions, the maximum growth rate of A. affine slightly increased to $0.46d^{-1}$, but that of A. fraterculus largely decreased. Furthermore, the maximum nitrate uptake of A. affine and A. fraterculus under light : dark conditions were 12.9 and $30.1pM\;cell^{-1}d^{-1}$, respectively. The maximum nitrate uptake of A. affine under continuous light conditions was $16.4pM\;cell^{-1}d^{-1}$. Thus, A. affine and A. fraterculus have similar maximum growth rates at the given $NO_3$ concentration ranges, but they have different maximum nitrate uptake rates. A. affine may have a higher conversion rate of $NO_3$ to body nitrogen than A. fraterculus. Moreover, a longer exposure time to the light may confer an advantage to A. affine over A. fraterculus.