• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.3139-3147
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• 2015

The aim of this study was to investigate the condition surrounding attempted suicide and related factors among middle and high school students in Korea. Methods : Data from 72,435 participants of 2013 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Based Survey were analyzed. Statistical analyses were conducted on weighted data using SPSS 21 software to account for the complex sampling designs. Results : Complex samples logistic regression analysis, school level, socioeconomic status, drinking alcohol, drug use, experience of school bullying were associated with an increased proportion of attempted suicide for boys and girls. Particularly, male students was associated with living type. Conclusion : The results of this study highlight the important of developing a program that focuses on enhancing suicidal prevention & respect life program with life skills program, to effectively reduce the likelihood of attempted suicide among adolescents in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.273-284
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• 2019

Objective: This study was performed to estimate the number of those who used humidifier disinfectants (HDs) and experienced health effects from exposure to HDs in Korea between 1994 and 2011. Methods: A nationwide interview survey was conducted for the representative sample to identify the proportion of those who used HDs among the general population (n=3,001). Another online survey was conducted for those exposed to HDs to find the proportion of those who experienced health effects among those who were exposed to HDs (n=3,993). Statistics for population size by region and year (1994-2011) were used to estimate the cumulative number of those exposed to HDs and those who experienced health effects. In terms of the proportion of those exposed to HDs, those less than 30 years of age were excluded due to an issue related to information bias. Various approaches for estimation included the capture-recapture method for estimation of those who experienced health effects. Results: The cumulative proportion of those exposed to HDs was 6.7% among the general population, and the proportion of those who experienced health effects among those who were exposed to HDs was 13.9%. Based on these factors, it was estimated that 3.5 to 4.0 million people were exposed to HDs and 350 to 400 thousand experienced health effects at least requiring visiting a hospital. Conclusion: It is suggested that a nationwide representative sample may be essential for population size estimation of those exposed to environmental risk factors and of those who experienced health effects.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2012

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of the average volume of alcohol consumption and binge drinking with arterial stiffness. Methods: The study population consisted of 5944 community-dwelling healthy adults aged 50 years and older. Average volume of alcohol consumption was calculated and frequency of binge drinking defined as the consumption of 7 or more drinks for men and 5 or more for women on a single occasion, was assessed using a structured interview. High brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), a marker of arterial stiffness, was defined as the highest gender-specific quartile of maximal baPWV distribution in the study population. Results: Compared to never drinkers, the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of men who consumed 0.1-10.0, 10.1-20.0, 20.1-40.0, and >40.0 g/day was 0.93, 1.18, 1.38, and 2.36, respectively. The OR was 0.90, 0.97, 1.45, and 1.82 in women consuming 0.1-5.0, 5.1-10.0, 10.1-20.0, and >20.0 g/day, respectively. Binge drinking of <1 day/week (OR=1.66, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.13-2.42) and ${\geq}1$ day/week (OR=1.61, 95% CI=1.04-2.50) were associated with increased risk for high baPWV in men, and binge drinking of ${\geq}1$ day/week (OR=3.12, 95% CI=1.16-8.34) was associated with increased risk for high baPWV in women. Conclusions: A J-shaped relationship between the average volume of alcohol consumption and high baPWV was observed, suggesting the detrimental effects of heavy alcohol drinking on arterial stiffness. Binge drinking was also significant risk factors for increased arterial stiffness, independently of the average volume of alcohol consumption.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.235-241
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• 2012

A huge marine accident causes a loss of valuable lives, property and the serious marine environment pollution. IMO adopted resolution A.949(23) to provide Places of Refuge(PoR) to 'Ship in need of assistance', which is to minimize the secondary environmental pollution caused by marine accidents. If the level of risk exceeds a certain range, it is necessary to be designated as Places of Refuge(PoR) after evaluation of potential risk, which is based on the database of several marine environmental factors. Also, it is necessary to develop skills about quantification/standardization of vessel traffic safety, complexity and risk. Because there is the close relation between the problem of designating Places of Refuge(PoR) and the policy of nation for protecting the natural environment of coastal state, it is important to prepare related legislation. In this paper, introduction of Places of Refuge(PoR) in domestic areas have been suggested based on the analysis of several foreign designating cases.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.4963-4968
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• 2014

Background: We evaluated whether providing health risk appraisal for Koreans (KHRA) in terms of 'health age' during smoking cessation program would effectively help smokers quit smoking or not. Materials and Methods: A total of 332 male smokers aged between 30-65 years old, registered for a smoking cessation program in a public health center in a city, were recruited and underwent a baseline survey from January 2010 to February 2011. They were then prospectively randomized to a conventional counseling group (n=165) or a KHRA group (n=167), and received conventional counseling or KHRA-based counseling for six months. Abstinence rates were identified through carbon monoxide measurement (at the $4^{th}$ and $24^{th}$ weeks) or urinary cotinine level (at the $12^th$ week). Results: The abstinence rate confirmed by exhaled carbon monoxide was significantly higher in the KHRA group (61.1%) than the control group (49.1%) at the $4^{th}$ week (absolute difference 12.0%, 95% CI: 1.4%-22.6%). However, there was no difference in abstinence rates between the two groups at the 12th and 24th weeks. The predicting factors of 24 week's smoking cessation success were age, older than 50 years old (OR 2.02, 95% CI: 1.16-3.52), lower Fagerstr$\ddot{o}$m Test for Nicotine Dependence score less than 4 (OR 1.84, 95% CI: 1.03-3.29), and higher Self Efficacy/Temptation score (OR 1.79, 95% CI: 1.05-3.06). Conclusions: Smoking cessation counseling with KHRA could be effective compared to conventional counseling in the short period of smoking cessation. Further study is needed to evaluate the long-term efficacy of KHRA in tobacco dependence treatment and to establish the indication and target population of this tool.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.47 no.10
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• pp.879-889
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• 2014

In this study, to estimate loss of life considered flood characteristics using the relationship derived from analysis of historical dam break cases and the factors determining loss of life, the loss of life module applying in LIFESim and loss of life estimation by means of a mortality function were suggested and applicability for domestic dam watershed was examined. The flood characteristics, such as water depth, flow velocity and arrival time were simulated by FLDWAV model and flood risk area were predicted by using inundation depth. Based on this, the effects of warning, evacuation and shelter were considered to estimate the number of people exposed to the flood. In order to estimate fatality rates based on the exposed population, flood hazard zone is assigned to three different zones. Then, total fatality numbers were predicted after determining lethality or mortality function for each zone. In the future, the prediction of loss of life due to dam break floods will quantitatively evaluate flood risk and employ to establish flood mitigation measures at downstream applying probabilistic flood scenarios.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.15
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• pp.6035-6039
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• 2014

Background: Substantial evidence from epidemiological studies has suggested that increased levels of calcium may play a protective role against colorectal cancer (CRC). Given the vital role of calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) in the maintenance of calcium homeostasis, we explored whether the rs1801725 (A986S) variant located in exon 7 of the CaSR gene and the rs6256 variant located in exon 3 of PTH gene might be associated with CRC risk. Materials and Methods: In this study 860 subjects including 350 cases with CRC and 510 controls were enrolled and genotyped using PCR-RFLP methods. Results: We observed no significant difference in genotype or allele frequencies between the cases with CRC and controls for both CaSR and PTH genes either before or after adjustment for confounding factors including age, BMI, sex, smoking status, and family history of CRC. Furthermore, no evidence for effect modification of any association of rs1801725 and rs6256 variants and CRC by BMI, sex, or tumor site was observed. In addition, there was no significant difference in genotype and allele frequencies between the normal weight (BMI < $25kg/m^2$) cases and overweight/obese (BMI ${\geq}25kg/m^2$) cases for the two SNPs. Conclusions: These data indicated that the CaSR gene A986S variant is not a genetic contributor to CRC risk in the Iranian population. Furthermore, our results suggest for the first time that PTH gene variant does not affect CRC risk. Nonetheless, further studies with larger sample size are needed to validate these findings.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.507-528
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• 2011

Agricultural workers who mix/loads and spray pesticide in fields expose to pesticide through dermal and inhalation routes. In such situation, exposed amount should be measured quantitatively for reasonable risk assessment. Patch, gloves, socks and mask will be good materials for monitoring for dermal exposure while personal air monitor equipped with solid adsorbent and air pump will be a tool for inhalation exposure. For extrapolation of absorbed amount in dermal exposure matrices and of trapped amount in solid sorbent to total deraml or inhalation exposure, Korean standard body surface area and respiration rate were proposed in substitution of EPA data. Important exposure factors such as clothing and skin penetration ratio of dermal and inhalation exposure were suggested based on Spraying time for exposure monitoring must be long enough that the amount of pesticide to get absorbed/trapped in exposure matrices results in reasonable analytical value. In domestic case for the both of speed sprayer and power spray machine, spraying time of 20~40 minutes (0.1~0.2 ha) will be reasonable per single replicate before extrapolating to 4 hours a day with triplicates experiment.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.123-129
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• 2006

Objectives : The incidence of colorectal cancer increased greatly among the elderly in Korea, but the relationship between smoking and colon cancer remains controversial. Few studies have targeted Asian elderly people. We analyzed the smoking status, the amount smoked, and the smoking duration as risk factors of colorectal cancer to determine their association and causality. Methods: The cohort members (n=14, 103) consisted of 4,694 males and 9,409 females, and they were derived from the Korea Elderly Phamacepidemilogic Cohort (KEPEC), which was a population-based dynamic cohort. They were aged 65 years or more and they lived in Busan Metropolitan City between from 1993-1998; they were beneficiaries of the Korean Medical Insurance Corporation (KMIC). The baseline information was surveyed by a self-administered mailed questionnaire; after 8.7 person-years of mean follow up period, 100 cases of colorectal cancer occurred. The adjusted relative ratio (aRR) of smoking status, the smoking amount and the smoking duration were calculated from the Cox's proportional hazard model with the never-smokers as a reference group and the Cox model controlled for age, gender, precancerous lesions of CRC, medication history of NSAIDs & antibiotics, the alcohol drinking status and BMI. Results : Compared with the never smokers, the aRRs were 2.03 (95% CI=1.02-4.03) and 1.36 (95% CI=0.80-2.32) for the ex-smokers and current smokers, respectively. Statistical significant trends were not observed for the dose-relationship among the elderly, either for the mean daily amount smoked (p for trend=0.28) or for the total amount (p for trend=0.15). Still, the aRRs were 1.51 (95% CI=0.97-2.34) for the elderly who smoked less than 40 years and 2.35 (95% CI=1.16-4.74) for the elderly who had 40 years or more of smoking (p for trend=0.06). Smokers who started smoking before the age 20 had an increased aRR of 2.15 (95% CI=1.17-3.93) compared to the never smokers. Conclusions : After controlling for age, gender, precancerous lesion of CRC, medication history of NSAIDs & antibiotics, the alcohol drinking status and BMI, smoking increases the risk of colorectal cancer among elderly people. The age when starting smoking is also important.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.41-66
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• 2013

IS outsourcing has an important meaning to the Korean SME's (Small and Medium Enterprises) which want to use the IS Services. The objective of this research is to manage IT risks occurred during IS outsourcing project process. This study tries to identify these risks using real option methodology. In order to perform this objective, this study set up the research model which is composed of two main concepts. The first one is the risk factors occurred during IS outsourcing project process: User's Risks, Supplier's Risks and Transaction's Risks. All of these risks are based on Transaction Cost Theory. The second one is the intention to get (or buy) Real Options to manage the risks. In the research model, two types of real option are included: option to abandon (put option) and option to defer (call option). This study uses questionnaires and statistics methodology (PLS) to analyze the hypotheses proposed in the research model. Compared with prior studies, this study is different in two ways. First, this study restricts the range of IT risks. Prior researches of IT Risk management in MIS area cover various range of IT risks, but this study focuses on the Korean SME's IT outsourcing risks on the basis of Transaction Cost Theory. This study tests the relationship between the risks and real option types. Second, this study tries to test the moderating effect of user's risks and supplier's risks on the relationship between transaction's risks and real option types. In IT outsourcing research area, almost studies focus on the direct relationships between IT risks and outsourcing success. But in reality, the co-relationship among IT risks may occur. There are some findings according to the research analysis. First, risks related with user's risks have strong causal relationships with the intention to get option to abandon (put) and option to defer. But risks related with supplier's risks have causal relationships only with option to abandon (put). Second, user's risks and supplier's risks have no moderating effect on the relationship between transaction's risks and real option types. According to the research results, this research have some important and interesting implications on the IS outsourcing business area. First, this study identifies the effective types of real option to minimize the risks occurred during the IT outsourcing projects. So IS outsourcing service users can manage (or minimize) effectively the risks, which occurred during outsourcing projects, using real options. Second, real option gives benefits to suppliers and users at the same time (i.e., win-win strategies between IS outsourcing service providers and users). Vendors (:IS outsourcing service providers) can offer users the real options which can minimize the occurrence of risks in time. "IN TIME" means that before the IS outsourcing project starts, vendors can offer users the opportunity to buy real options in appropriate prices to manage the possibility of the risks of IS outsourcing project. And users also have chance to minimize the IT outsourcing risks occurred during the project process using real options.