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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between occupational radiation exposure and circulatory disease (CD) mortality among medical radiation workers. METHODS: The study included 53 860 male diagnostic medical radiation workers enrolled in the National Dosimetry Registry (NDR) between 1996 and 2011 in South Korea. NDR data were linked with mortality data obtained from the national registry at the end of 2019. Observed CD mortality rates in this population were compared to those in the general population using the standardized mortality ratio (SMR). The relative risk (RR) for occupational history was estimated by use of internal comparisons, and the excess relative risk (ERR) was used to quantify the radiation dose–response relationship. RESULTS: A total of 320 deaths due to CD were identified among 53 860 male medical radiation workers. The SMR of CD was significantly lower among male workers than the general population. A linear dose–response model provided an estimated ERR per 100 mGy for CD [0.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.11–1.82], ischemic heart disease (1.18, 95% CI -0.69–3.05), and cerebrovascular disease (0.23, 95% CI -0.48–0.94) with a 10-years lag, showing no statistical evidence of a radiation dose–response relationship. Additional adjustments for non-radiation factors did not affect the findings on occupational radiation risk for CD mortality. Sensitivity analyses excluding workers employed

Introduction Data integration is the process of merging information from multiple datasets generated from different sources, which can obtain more information in comparison to to one data source. All diagnostic medical radiation workers were enrolled in National Dose Registry (NDR) from 1996 to 2011, linked with mortality and cancer registry data. (https://kdca.go.kr/) Survey was conducted during 2012-2013 using self-reported questionnaire on occupational radiation practices among diagnostic medical radiation workers. Methods Data integration of NDR and Survey was performed using the multivariate imputation by chained equations (MICE) algorithm. Results The results were compared by sex and type of job because characteristics of target variables for imputation depend on these variables. There was a difference between the observed and pooled mean for the frequency of interventional therapy for nurses due to different type of medical facility distribution between observed and completed data. Concerning the marital status of males and females, and status of pregnancy for females, there was a difference between observed and pooled mean because the distribution of the year of birth was different between the observed and completed data. For lifetime status of smoking, the percentage of smoking experience was higher in the completed data than in the observed data, which could be due to reasons, such as underreporting among females and the distribution difference in the frequency of drinking between the observed and completed data for males. Conclusion Data integration can allow us to obtain survey information of NDR units without additional surveys, saving us time and costs for the survey.

Abstract Background The use of fluoroscopically-guided interventional (FGI) procedures by orthopedic surgeons has been increasing. This study aimed to investigate the occupational radiation exposure among orthopedic surgeons in South Korea. Methods A nationwide survey of orthopedic surgeons was conducted in South Korea in October 2017. The dosimetry data of the participants were obtained from the National Dosimetry Registry. The orthopedic surgeons were categorized by job specialty [spine or trauma specialists, other orthopedic specialists, and residents], and descriptive statistics for the demographics and work-related characteristics were presented. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the risk factors for the orthopedic surgeons who were not linked with the dosimetry data. Results Among the total participants (n = 513), 40.5% of the orthopedic surgeons spent more than 50% of their time working with the FGI procedures when compared with their overall work. The average frequency of the FGI procedures among the orthopedic surgeons was 12.3 days per month. Less than 30% of the participants were regularly provided with radiation monitoring badges. The proportion of subjects who always wore lead aprons and thyroid shields were 52 and 29%, respectively. The residents group experienced more unfavorable working conditions of radiation exposure than the other specialists. The dosimetry data were not significantly linked among the residents (odds ratio [OR] 2.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11–3.95) and orthopedic surgeons working at small hospitals (OR 4.76, 95% CI 1.05–21.51). Conclusions Although orthopedic surgeons often performed FGI procedures, they wore protective gear less frequently, and a large proportion of orthopedic surgeons were not monitored by the national radiation dosimetry system. As the number of radiation procedures performed by the orthopedic surgeons increases, more intensive approaches are needed to reduce radiation exposure, especially for spine and trauma surgeons.

Abstract Background Timely assessment of cancer risk from current radiation exposure among medical radiation workers can contribute to the development of strategies to prevent excessive occupational radiation exposure. The purpose of the present study is to estimate the lifetime risk of cancers induced by occupational radiation exposure among medical radiation workers. Methods Using estimated organ doses and the RadRAT risk assessment tool, the lifetime cancer risk was estimated among medical radiation workers who were enrolled in the Korean National Dose Registry from 1996 to 2011. Median doses were used for estimating the risk because of the skewed distribution of radiation doses. Realistic representative exposure scenarios in the study population based on sex, job start year, and occupational group were created for calculating the lifetime attributable risk (LAR) and lifetime fractional risk (LFR). Results The mean estimated lifetime cancer risk from occupational radiation exposure varied significantly by sex and occupational group. The highest LAR was observed in male and female radiologic technologists who started work in 1991 (264.4/100,000 and 391.2/100,000, respectively). Female workers had a higher risk of radiation-related excess cancer, although they were exposed to lower radiation doses than male workers. The higher LAR among women was attributable primarily to excess breast and thyroid cancer risks. LARs among men were higher than women in most other cancer sites. With respect to organ sites, LAR of colon cancer (44.3/100,000) was the highest in male radiologic technologists, whereas LAR of thyroid cancer (222.0/100,000) was the highest in female radiologic technologists among workers who started radiologic practice in 1991. Thyroid and bladder cancers had the highest LFR among radiologic technologists. Conclusions Our findings provide an assessment of the potential cancer risk from occupational radiation exposure among medical radiation workers, based on current knowledge about radiation risk. Although the radiation-related risk was small in most cases, it varied widely by sex and occupational group, and the risk would be underestimated due to the use of median, rather than mean, doses. Therefore, careful monitoring is necessary to optimize radiation doses and protect medical radiation workers from potential health risks, particularly female radiologic technologists.

Natural Language Generation (NLG) has improved exponentially in recent years thanks to the development of sequence-to-sequence deep learning technologies such as Transformer-based language models. This advancement has led to more fluent and coherent NLG, leading to improved development in downstream tasks such as abstractive summarization, dialogue generation, and data-to-text generation. However, it is also apparent that deep learning based generation is prone to hallucinate unintended text, which degrades the system performance and fails to meet user expectations in many real-world scenarios. To address this issue, many studies have been presented in measuring and mitigating hallucinated texts, but these have never been reviewed in a comprehensive manner before. In this survey, we thus provide a broad overview of the research progress and challenges in the hallucination problem in NLG. The survey is organized into two parts: (1) a general overview of metrics, mitigation methods, and future directions, and (2) an overview of task-specific research progress on hallucinations in the following downstream tasks, namely abstractive summarization, dialogue generation, generative question answering, data-to-text generation, and machine translation. This survey serves to facilitate collaborative efforts among researchers in tackling the challenge of hallucinated texts in NLG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We investigated the association between protracted low-dose ionising radiation and the risk of cancer in medical radiation workers, the largest group of workers with occupational radiation exposures.Methods: Data of all South Korean diagnostic medical radiation workers enrolled at the National Dose Registry during 1996-2011 were merged with the death and cancer incidence data until 31 December 2017. SIRs, relative risks and excess relative risks (ERRs) for cancer were calculated to quantify the radiation dose-response relationship using Poisson regression models.Results: A total of 3392 first primary cancer cases were identified among 93 920 diagnostic medical radiation workers. The mean cumulative badge dose in the cohort was 7.20 mSv. The ERRs for solid cancer with a 5-year lag and haematopoietic cancers with a 2-year lag for all workers were 0.15 per 100 mGy (95% CI -0.20 to 0.51) and 0.09 per 100 mGy (95% CI -2.02 to 2.20), respectively. The ERRs for cancers did not significantly vary by job title, different lag years or after excluding thyroid and lung cancers. Sensitivity analyses restricted to workers employed for at least 1 year, or who were employed in or after 1996, or who had exposure to a cumulative badge dose of 1 mSv or more showed similar results.Conclusions: Occupational radiation doses were not significantly associated with cancer incidence among South Korean diagnostic medical radiation workers. However, cautious interpretation of ERRs is needed due to the limitations of short follow-up and low cumulative radiation doses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We investigated the association between low-dose external occupational radiation exposure and circulatory disease morbidity among diagnostic medical radiation workers.Methods: A cohort of 11 500 diagnostic medical radiation workers was linked with the National Dosimetry Registry data and the National Health Insurance Service data. Relative risks (RRs) were calculated to explore the association between occupational factors and circulatory disease morbidity, and excess relative risks per 100 milligray (ERR/100 mGy) were estimated to quantify the radiation dose-response relationship.Results: Overall, there were 2270 cases of circulatory diseases during 93 696 person-years of observation (average follow-up=8.1 years). RRs for hypertension were significantly increased for individuals who started working before 2000 compared with those who started in 2005 and later. ERR/100 mGy for all circulatory diseases was 0.14 (95% CI -0.57 to 0.99). Radiation risks of cerebrovascular diseases and ischaemic heart disease were non-significantly increased with estimates of individual cumulative doses to the heart (ERR/100 mGy=3.10 (-0.75 to 11.59) and 1.22 (-0.71 to 4.73), respectively). However, ERR estimates were generally more strongly positive for female versus male workers and for younger workers versus more than 50-year-old workers.Conclusions: This study provides little evidence in support of a positive association between occupational radiation exposure and the overall risk of circulatory disease over a short follow-up period among medical radiation workers in South Korea. However, significantly increased RR with earlier year first worked, elevated ERR in female workers and young workers should be further followed up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Suicide is a leading cause of death in the working-age population. We investigated suicide mortality among diagnostic medical radiation workers in relation to their demographic and occupational factors in South Korea.Methods: The study population consisted of all diagnostic medical radiation workers enrolled in the National Dosimetry Registry from 1996 to 2011. The registry data were linked with mortality data through the end of 2017. We calculated age-standardised suicide rates, standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) and rate ratios (RRs) by demographic and occupational factors.Results: A total of 207 suicides were identified among 94 367 medical radiation workers, exhibiting a suicide rate of 14.0 per 100 000 person-years. Compared with the general population, suicide rates were lower for both male and female workers (SMR 0.49, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.42 to 0.57; SMR 0.54, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.70, respectively). Similarly, decreased SMRs were observed across job titles and other work-related factors. However, a shorter duration of employment was positively associated with RRs for suicide; risks were 2.74 (95% CI 1.56 to 4.81) and 4.66 (95% CI 1.53 to 14.20) times higher in male and female workers with less than 1 year of employment, respectively, than in those with at least 10 years of employment.Conclusions: Diagnostic medical radiation workers in South Korea showed lower suicide rates than in the general population. However, a shorter duration of employment was associated with higher risk of suicide. Suicide prevention efforts could target workers engaged in short-term employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to estimate the radiation organ doses from occupational exposure in 94 396 Korean medical radiation workers. Data on badge doses (i.e. personal dose equivalent at 10 mm) between 1996 and 2011 obtained from a national dosimetry registry, survey data from 2012 to 2013, and organ dose conversion coefficients provided by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) were used for the estimation. The highest mean cumulative badge doses (26.87 mSv) were observed in radiologists, followed by radiologic technologists (15.96 mSv). Male workers exhibited higher mean cumulative badge doses, across occupational groups. The estimated organ doses showed similar trends with those of badge doses. Organs located outside the apron's coverage such as the thyroid showed higher mean organ doses than those protected by the apron. Our findings could contribute to future radiation epidemiologic studies to investigate health effects from occupational radiation exposure in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The cancer risk of radiation exposure in the moderate-to-high dose range has been well established. However, the risk remains unclear at low-dose ranges with protracted low-dose rate exposure, which is typical of occupational exposure. Several epidemiological studies of Korean radiation workers have been conducted, but the data were analysed retrospectively in most cases. Moreover, groups with relatively high exposure, such as industrial radiographers, have been neglected. Therefore, we have launched a prospective cohort study of all Korean radiation workers to assess the health effects associated with occupational radiation exposure. Methods and analysis Approximately 42 000 Korean radiation workers registered with the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission from 2016 to 2017 are the initial target population of this study. Cohort participants are to be enrolled through a nationwide self-administered questionnaire survey between 24 May 2016 and 30 June 2017. As of 31 March 2017, 22 982 workers are enrolled in the study corresponding to a response rate of 75%. This enrolment will be continued at 5-year intervals to update information on existing study participants and recruit newly hired workers. Survey data will be linked with the national dose registry, the national cancer registry, the national vital statistics registry and national health insurance data via personal identification numbers. Agespecific and sex-specific standardised incidence and mortality ratios will be calculated for overall comparisons of cancer risk. For dose-response assessment, excess relative risk (per Gy) and excess absolute risk (per Gy) will be estimated with adjustments for birth year and potential confounders, such as lifestyle factors and socioeconomic status. Ethics and dissemination This study has received ethical approval from the institutional review board of the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (IRB No. K-1603-002-034). All participants provided written informed consent prior to enrolment. The findings of the study will be disseminated through scientific peer-reviewed journals and be provided to the public, including radiation workers, via the study website (http://www. rhs. kr/) and onsite radiation safety education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Although fluoroscopically guided procedures involve a considerably high dose of radiation, few studies have investigated the effects of radiation on medical workers involved in interventional fluoroscopy procedures. Previous research remains in the early stages and has not reached a level comparable with other occupational studies thus far. Furthermore, the study of radiation workers provides an opportunity to estimate health risks at low doses and dose rates of ionising radiation. Therefore, the objectives of this study are (1) to initiate a prospective cohort study by conducting a baseline survey among medical radiation workers who involve interventional fluoroscopy procedures and (2) to assess the effect of occupational radiation exposure and on the overall health status through an in-depth cross-sectional study. Methods and analysis Intervention medical workers in Korea will be enrolled by using a self-administered questionnaire survey, and the survey data will be linked with radiation dosimetry data, National Health Insurance claims data, cancer registry and mortality data. After merging these data, the radiation organ dose, lifetime attributable risk due to cancer and the risk per unit dose will be estimated. For the cross-sectional study, approximately 100 intervention radiology department workers will be investigated for blood tests, clinical examinations such as ultrasonography (thyroid and carotid artery scan) and lens opacity, the validation of badge dose and biodosimetry. Ethics and dissemination This study was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of Korea University (KU-IRB-12-12-A-1). All participants will provide written informed consent prior to enrolment. The findings of the study will be disseminated through peer-reviewed scientific journals, conference presentations, and a report will be submitted to the relevant public health authorities in the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help with the development of appropriate research and management policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To evaluate the risk for all-cause and cause-specific mortality in diagnostic medical radiation workers in South Korea.Methods: The study population included all diagnostic medical radiation workers enrolled in the National Dosimetry Registry (NDR) between 1996 and 2011. NDR data were linked with mortality data obtained from national registries through 2015. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) and relative standardised mortality ratios (rSMRs) were calculated for external comparison and for adjustment of the cohort's overall healthiness.Results: A total of 1099 deaths (974 in men and 125 in women) were reported from among 80 837 medical radiation workers. The SMRs for all causes of death were significantly lower than expected in both men (SMR 0.45, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.48) and women (SMR 0.49, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.58). No excesses were observed for any specific cause of death. The findings were similar by job title, calendar year of entry and year of birth. However, relative to all causes of death, mortality from all cancers (rSMR 1.60, 95% CI 1.41 to 1.82), leukaemia, colon cancer, stomach cancer and diseases of the circulatory system increased significantly among male workers. The results for female workers were limited due to small number of deaths; however, the rSMR for all cancers was significantly elevated (rSMR 1.70, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.46).Conclusions: This cohort showed lower mortality among diagnostic medical radiation workers than in the general population. However, occupational factors may have been involved in the increased relative mortality for several causes of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]