• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2017

'The worstest environment disaster', 'World's first biocide massacre', 'Home-based Sewol ferry disaster' are all phrases attached to the recent humidifier disinfectant disaster. In the spring of 2011, four of 8 pregnant women including 1 adult man passed away at a university hospital in Seoul due to breathing failure. Epidemiologic investigation conducted by the Korean CDC soon revealed the inhalation of humidifier disinfectant, which had been widely used in Korea during the winter, to be responsible for the disease. As well as lung fibrosis hardening of the lungs, other diseases including asthma, rhinitis, skin disease, liver disease, fetal disease or cancers have been researched for their relation with exposure to the products. By February 9, 2017, 5,342 cases had registered for health problems and 1,131 of them were already dead (20.8% mortality rate). Based on studies by government agencies and a telephone survey of the general population by Seoul National University and civic groups, around 20% of the general public of Korea has used these products. Since the market release of the first product by SK Chemical in 1994, over 7.1 million items from around 20 brands were sold up to 2011. Most of the products were manufactured by well-known large conglomerates such as SK, Lotte, Samsung, Shinsegye, LG, and GS, as well as some European companies including UK-based Reckitt Benckiser and TESCO, the German firm Henkel, the Danish firm KeTox, and an Irish company. Even though this disaster was unveiled in 2011 by the Korean government, the issue of the victims was neglected for over five years. In 2016, an unexpected but intensive investigation by prosecutors found that Reckitt Benckiser manipulated and concealed animal tests for its own brand and brought several university experts and company employees to court. The matter was an intense social issue in Korea from May to June with a surge in media coverage. The prosecutor's investigation and a nationwide boycott campaign organized by victims and environmental groups against Reckitt Benckiser, whose product had been used by more than 70% of victims, led to the producer's official apology and a compensation scheme. A legislative investigation organized after the April 2016 national election revealed the producers' faults and the government's responsibility, but failed to meet expectations. A special law for the victims passed the National Assembly in January 2017 and a punitive system together with a massive environmental epidemiology investigation are expected to be the only solutions for this tragedy. Sciences of medicine, toxicology and environmental health have provided decisive evidence so far, but for the remaining problems the perspectives of social sciences such as sociology and jurisprudence are highly necessary, similar to with the Minamata disease and Wonjin Rayon events. It may not be easy to follow this issue using unfamiliar terminology from medical and chemical science and the long, complicated history of the event. For these reasons the author has attempted to write this article in a question and answer format to render it easier to follow. The 17 questions are: Q1 What is humidifier disinfectant? Q2 What kind of health problems are caused by humidifier disinfectant? Q3 How many victims are there? Q4 What is the analysis of the 1,112 cases of death? Q5 What is the problem with the government's diagnostic criteria and the solution? Q6 Who made what brands? Q7 Has there been a recall? What is still on sale? Q8 Was safety not checked by any producers? Q9 What are the government's responsibilities? Q10 Is it true that these products were sold only in Korea? Q11 Why and how was it unveiled only in 2011 after 17 years of sales? Q12 What delayed the resolution of the victim issue? Q13 What is the background of the prosecutor's investigation in early 2016? Q14 Is it possible to report new victim cases without evidence of product purchase? Q15 What is happening with the victim issue? Q16 How does it compare with the cases of Minamata disease and Wonjin Rayon? Q17 Are there prevention measures and lessons?

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.65-73
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to compare the Mean Radiant Temperature(MRT) under two landscaping shade membranes, white and black, with those of natural outdoor spaces at summer midday. An additional perforated black shading net was applied and compared for the consideration of the practical application. The average MRT at the height of 2.4m, 10cm below the membranes of black, white, and perforated black were $49.1^{\circ}C$, $41.6^{\circ}C$ and $36.8^{\circ}C$ respectively, while that of open sky was $41.8^{\circ}C$. This indicates that a closer position to the darker membrane caused a higher MRT. At the height of 1.1m and 1.7m, the difference of MRT between the black and the white membranes was slight, while the value of white was unexpectedly higher than the black. The MRT of black perforated net showed the lowest value at every height. The black membrane absorbed more solar radiation than the white, which caused the greater release of long wave radiation and higher temperature near the membrane itself. In spite of the higher albedo of the white membrane, the higher solar radiation transmittance rate of which seemed to cause the slightly higher MRT than the black at the hight of 1.1m and 1.7m. In summary, the performance of the black membrane was slightly better than the white in terms of the air conditioning of the human related space around the height of 1.1m and 1.7m, when the shading membranes were at 2.5m height.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.321-327
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• 2019

When Aphidius colemani mummies were stored at four different temperatures (6, 8, 10 and 12 ± 1℃), they could be stored at 8℃ for 10 days with over 50% adult emergence. A number of mummies of Rhopalosiphum padi parasitized by A. colemani adults emerged from mummies after 8℃ storage clearly reduced with increasing duration of storage and especially declined with storage longer than 13 days showing < 20% parasitism. However, there were no differences in aphid parasitisms by A. colemani on 3 to 10 days after storage. Over 3 day storage at 8℃ was adversely affected on survival of A. colemani adults. Therefore, cold storage of A. colemani adults is considered as an unsuitable method for mass production of biological control agent. When 2-day-old Meteorus pulchricornis cocoons were stored at 6, 8 and 10 ± 1℃, it was possible to be stored up to 63 days at 8℃, showing the highest emergence. With increasing of cold storage duration at 8℃, parasitism on 2^nd and 3^rd larval instar of Spodoptera litura by stored M. pulchricornis significantly reduced. However, parasitic rate by M. pulchricornis stored for 2 weeks was similar to that by 1 week stored ones. Therefore, M. pulchricornis cocoons could be stored up to 2 weeks at 8℃ for stockpiling before release.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.507-515
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• 1996

Background : Potassium channel opener (K-opener) opens ATP-sensitive K'-channel located at cell membrane and induces potassium efflux from cytosol, resulting in intracellular hyperpolarization. Newly synthesized K-opener is currently examined for pharmacologic potency by means of rubidium release test from smooth muscle strip pre-incubated with Rb-86. Since in-vivo behavior of thallium is similar to that of rubidium, we hypothesized that K-opener can alter T1-201 kinetics in vivo. Purpose : This study was prepared to investigate the effects of pinacidil (one of potent K-openers) on the T1-201 uptake and clearance in cultured myocyte, and in-vivo biodistribution in mice. Methods : Spontaneous contracting myocytes were prepared to imitate in-vivo condition from 20 hearts of 3-5 days old Sprague-Dawley rat and cultured for 3-5 days before use ($5{\times}10^5$ cells/ml). Pinacidil was dissolved in 10% DMSO solution at a final concentration of 100nM or l0uM and was co-incubated with T1-201 in HBSS buffer for 20-min to evaluate its effect on cellular T1-uptake, or challenged to cell preparation pre-incubated with T1-201 for washout study. Two, 40 or $100{\mu}g$ of pinacidil was injected intravenously into ICR mice at 10 min after $5{\mu}Ci$ T1-201 injection, and organ uptake and whole body retention rate were measured at different time points. Results : Co-incubation of pinacidil with T1-201 resulted in a decrease in T1-201 uptake into cultured myocyte by 1.6 to 2.5 times, depending on pinacidil concentration and activity of T1-201 used. Pinacidil enhanced T1-201 washout by 1.6-3.1 times from myocyte preparations pre-incubated with T1-201. Pinacidil treatment appears to be resulted in mild decreases in blood and liver activity in normal mice, in contrast, renal and cardiac uptake were mildly decreased in a dose dependent manner. Whole body retention ratios of T1-201 were lower at 24 hour after injection with $100{\mu}g$ of pinacidil than control. Conclusion : These results suggest that treatment with K-opener may affect the interpretation of T1-201 myocardial images, due to decreasing thallium accumulation and enhancing washout from myocardium.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.101-112
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• 1992

The natural killer cell activity of splenocytes and TBC, active NK cells, recycling capacity of natural killer cells were observed by means of both the 51Cr-release cytotoxicity assay and single cell cytotoxicity assay against YAC-1. CSH/HeJ mice were infected intranasally with $1{\times}10^4{\;}or{\;}1{\times}10^5$ trophosoites of pathogenic Acanthamoeba culbertsoni. The infected mice showed mortality rate of 34% in $1{\times}10^4$ group and 65% in 1{\times}10^5 group, and mean survival time was $16.40{\pm}3.50$ {\;}and{\;}3.20{\pm}4.09$ days respectively. The cytotoxic activity of natural killer cells of the 2 groups was significantly higher than that of non-infected mice from the 12th hour to the 2nd day after infection, showing the highest on the first day. On the l0th day after infection, the cytotoxic activity of natural killer cells was significantly suppressed as compared with that of the control. There was no significant difference in NK cell cytotoxicity between two infected groups. The targetbinding capacity and active NK cells of natural killer cells in $1{\times}10^5$ trophosoite infected mice was significantly increased on the 12th hour and the first day after infection as compared with the control group. Maximal recycling capacity (MRC) was not changed during the observation period. The present results indicated that the elevation of natural killer cell activity in the mice infected with A. culbertsoni was due to elevation of target.binding capacity and increased active NK cells of natural killer cells, and not due to the maximal recycling capacity of the individual NK cell, and there was no difference between two experimental dose groups.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.112-120
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• 1993

The use of fertilizer N is essential for maximum economic yield of crops. Meanwhile, enrichment of $NO_3^-$in the environment has to be avoided. Winter barley crop has a short duration of growth before winter, but is used to receive N greater than 60 kg/ha at seeding. Experiments were performed to determine the quantitative aspect of the fate of soil applied urea N among the residual, leached, and uptaken by winter barley (cv. Olbori), and to evaluate the effect of soil temperature on nitrification. Four levels of urea (0, 40, 80, and 120 kg N/ha) was basal-dressed to Olbori. $NH_4^+$ appeared dominant in the soil until 40 days after seeding, whereas $NO_3^-$ did thereafter. Nitrification rate at $5^{\circ}C$ of soil temperature was 40 to 50% of that at $15^{\circ}C. Linear increases in the number of ammonia oxidizing and nitrite oxidizing bacteria of the soil was present as the level of urea fertilization was higher. Less than 60% of N applied at seeding was uptaken by winter barley until mid-March but 50% was lost from death of older barley leaves during overwintering. Thereby only 10% of the applied N remained in the barley in spring. Only 15% of the applied N was present in the rhizosphere. The 17 to 20% of the soil applied N leached out as $NO_3^-$ the rhizosphere. Nitrogen leaching during winter was estimated to be 16 and 20 kg/ha when the basal application level of urea fertilization was 80 and 120 kg/ha, respectively.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.9
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• pp.971-976
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• 2008

Purpose : Surveillance for detecting and managing latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is a key component of tuberculosis control. The classic surveillance tool, the tuberculin skin test (TST), may have some limitations when used in the Bacillus Calmette-$Gu{\acute{e}}rin$ (BCG)-vaccinated population. The object was to perform a blood test $QuantiFERON^{(R)}$-TB Gold In Tube (QFT-G IT) based on the detection of interferon-$\gamma$ ($IFN-{\gamma}$) released by T cells in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigens, and to compare the efficacy of this new diagnostic tool for LTBI with that of TST. Methods : For six months, between October 1, 2006 and April 30, 2007, data were collected from 111 patients under 15 years of age at Severance Children's Hospital. TST and QFT-G IT tests were performed with children with or without contact histories of tuberculosis. In addition to these tests, we examined comparative data from 29 adults who had tuberculosis, to detect false negative rates in the QFT-G IT method. Results : Thirty-three children had household contact histories. In this group, 15% and 42% of cases were found to be positive using the QFT-G IT assay and TST, respectively. Agreement was low between these two tests (${\kappa}=0.39$). In the adult active tuberculosis group, the QFT-G IT false negative rate defined as a positive culture and a negative QFT-G IT result was 12.5%. Conclusion : In diagnosing LTBI in children, the usefulness of a whole-blood $IFN-{\gamma}$ assay employing TB-specific antigens will be revealed only by examining additional longitudinal clinical data; this study serves as a starting point in that process.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.350-363
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• 2009

Inter- and intra-specific differences in removal activities, filtering rates (FR) and production of feces-and pseudo-feces (PF) between a native freshwater bivalve in Korea, Anodonta woodiana Lea and Unio douglasiae Griffith et Pidgeon, were compared using a continuous removal of organic matters (CROM) system. The CROM system comprised five steps; input of polluted water, control of water flow, mussel treatment, analysis of water quality and discharge of clean water. The study was designed to compare the removal activity of organic matters between A. woodiana and U. douglasiae, and the intra-specific differences between density and length in A. woordiana. Results clearly indicate that two kinds of mussels had obvious removal activities of seston in the eutrophic reservoir. First, if both are similar in shell length, there were no significant inter-specific differences in removal activity between A. woordiana and U. douglasiae (P>0.5), but FRs of U. douglasiae was relatively high due to low ash-fee dry weight. Second, if both are same in animal density, the smaller mussels (1$\sim$2 years old) showed a higher filtering rate and production of feces- and pseudo-feces and less release of ammonium than the larger mussels. Third, if both are same in biomass, FRs and PF of mussels were higher in the low-density tank than the high-density tank, While the Concentration of $NH_4$-N and $PO_4$-P released WRS similar to each other (P>0.5). Therefore, these results suggest that CROM system using a young bivalve A. woordiana can be applied to control the nuisance seston in eutrophic lake system, if a relevant species and density were selected. Additional pilot tests to optimize the age and density of domestic bivalves were needed for the generalization of CROM operation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.5
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• pp.1258-1273
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• 2021

Purpose The balloon-stent technique (BST) has certain strengths as an assisted technique for the treatment of complex aneurysms. After Atlas release, the BST can be executed without an exchange maneuver of the balloon to the stent-delivery catheter. The purpose of this article is to share our experience with the BST using the Scepter-Atlas combination. Materials and Methods Device inspection led us to a simple method to avoid failure in loading Atlas to the Scepter. From March 2018 to December 2019, 57 unruptured distal internal carotid artery (dICA) aneurysms were treated with coil embolization; among which, 25 aneurysms in 23 patients were treated with BST. Clinical and angiographic data were retrospectively collected and reviewed. Results The technical success rate of the Scepter-Atlas combination increased from 50% to 100% after careful inspection. BST angiographic results were comparable to the stent-assisted coil (SAC) group treated during the immediately post-embolization same period (modified Raymond-Roy classification [MRRC] 1 & 2 84% in BST, 96.3% in SAC) and during short-term follow-up (MRRC 1 & 2 95.8% in BST, 88.4% in SAC). A small number of patients showed periprocedural complications, but none had clinical consequences. Conclusion BST using the Scepter-Atlas combination can provide an effective and safe method for the treatment of dICA aneurysms. Scepters can be used as delivery catheters for Atlas.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.65-78
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• 2021

Jagyeokru, an automatic striking water clock described in the Sejong Sillok (Veritable Records of King Sejong) is essentially composed of a water quantity control device and a time-signal device, with the former controlling the amount or the flow rate of water and the latter automatically informing the time based on the former. What connects these two parts is a signal generating device or a power transmission device called the 'Jujeon' system, which includes a copper rod on the float and ball-racked scheduled plates. The copper products excavated under Gongpyeong-dong in Seoul include a lot of broken plate pieces and cylinder-like devices. If some plate pieces are put together, a large square plate with circular holes located in a zigzag can be completed, and at the upper right of it is carved 'the first scheduled plate (一箭).' Cylinder-like devices generally 3.8 cm in diameter are able to release a ball, and have a ginkgo leaf-like screen fixed on the inner axis and a bird-shaped hook of which the leg fixes another axis and the beak attaches to the leaf side. The lateral view of this cylinder-like device appears like a trapezoid and mounts an iron ball. The function of releasing a ball agrees with the description of Borugak Pavilion, where Jagyeokru was installed, written by Kim Don (1385 ~ 1440). The other accounts of Borugak Pavilion's and Heumgyeonggak Pavilion's water clocks describe these copper plates and ball releasing devices as the 'Jujeon' system. According to the description of Borugak Pavilion, a square wooden column has copper plates on the left and right sides the same height as the column, and the left copper plate has 12 drilled holes to keep the time of a 12 double-hours. Meanwhile, the right plate has 25 holes which represent seasonal night 5-hours (Kyeong) and their 5-subhours (Jeom), not 12 hours. There are 11 scheduled plates for seasonal night 5-hours made with copper, which are made to be attached or detached as the season. In accordance with Nujutongui (manual for the operation of the yardstick for the clepsydra), the first scheduled plate for the night is used from the winter solstice (冬至) to 2 days after Daehan (大寒), and from 4 days before Soseol (小雪) to a day before the winter solstice. Besides the first scheduled plate, we confirm discovering a third scheduled plate and a sixth scheduled plate among the excavated copper materials based on the spacing between holes. On the other hand, the width of the scheduled plate is different for these artifacts, measured as 144 mm compared to the description of the Borugak Pavilion, which is recorded as 51 mm. From this perspective, they may be the scheduled plates for the Heumgyeonggak Ongru made in 1438 (or 1554) or for the new Fortress Pavilion installed in Changdeokgung palace completed in 1536 (the 31^st year of the reign of King Jungjong) in the early Joseon dynasty. This study presents the concept of the scheduled plates described in the literature, including their new operating mechanism. In addition, a detailed model of 11 scheduled plates is designed from the records and on the excavated relics. It is expected that this study will aid in efforts to restore and reconstruct the automatic water clocks of the early Joseon dynasty.