• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 1997

This is an effort to confirm changes biological monitoring according to changes in levels of exposure to styrene for industrial workers. This study was conducted on 108 workers, including male of 64 and female 44 who were working at factories of FRP, dipping, and coating. An improved passive monitor method(organic vapor monitor; OVM) was employed to determine levels of exposure. The biological monitoring include blood styrene concentration, urinary mandelic acid(MA), and urinary phenylglyoxylic acid(PGA). Biological monitoring were made through the Collection of blood and urine. The mean value of exposure to styrene was 21.0ppm, which is measured by organic vapor monitor, one of improved passive monitors. The highest exposure level was observed among workers in boat factories, laminating procedure workers, processing workers, respectively(p<0.01). For exposure level, 11% of subjects under study showed over 50ppm which is time weighted average(TWA). The correlation coefficient between biological specimens and the exposure level was 0.62 for blood styrene concentration, 0.58 for MA corrected by creatinine, and 0.70 for PGA corrected by creatinine, respectively(p<0.01). The regression analyses found exposure level relative importance in explaining variance in biological monitoring. In additional to that, gender was a significant factor in explaining variance of MA and MA+PGA. Almost half of variance(49%) in blood styrene concentration was explained by predictors, including exposure level, age, gender, duration, and drinking volume during the last week(p<0.01). The very high correlation(higher than 0.95 was found when a comparison was made among three types of corrected methods, including uncorrected specific gravity and creatinine. In conclusion, these findings suggest OVM to represent levels of exposure to styrene for industrial workers. A discussion was made on possible use of specific gravity sample for biological monitoring. Exposure level may be predicted on MA, PGA in urine, which could be applied to represent biological monitoring.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.71-84
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• 2003

The metallic shell of soil-steel structures are so weak in bending moment that it should sustain the applied load by the interaction of the backfill soil around the structures. The shell can be subjected to excessive bending moment during side backfilling or under live-load when the soil cover is less than the minimum value. The current design code specifies the allowable deformation and Duncan(1979) and McGrath et al.(2001) suggested the strength analysis methods to limit the moments by the plastic capacity of the shell. However, the allowable deformation is an empirically determined value and the strength analysis methods are based on the results of FE analysis, hence the experimental verification is necessary. In this study, the full-scale tests were conducted on the high-profile arch to investigate its behaviors during backfilling and under static live-loads. Based on the measurements, the allowable deformation of the tested structure could be estimated to be 1.45% of rise, which is smaller than the specified allowable deformation. The comparison between the measurements and the results of two strength analyses indicate that Duncan underestimates the earth-load moment and overestimates the live-load moment, while McGrath et al. predicts both values close to the actual values. However, as the predicted factors of safeties using two methods coincide with the actual factor of safety, it can be concluded that both methods can predict the structural stability under live-loads adequately when the cover is less than the minimum.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.111-122
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• 2008

This study was conducted to assess the usefulness of the temperature characteristics of the tidal flat sediments during low tide as a environmental factor, and burrowing behaviour, fatness, total hemocyte counts(THCs) and differential hemocyte counts(DHCs) of hard clam Meretrix lusoria as biological activity indices for the management of hard clam farms located in Taean(Chungnam province) and Gimje(Jeonbuk province) tidal flat in Korea. Temperature ranges of the sediment at 1cm depth during spring(March to May) and summer(June to August) in Taean(where the exposure time was about $5.5{\sim}6$ hours during low tide) were $8.7{\sim}26.8^{\circ}C\;and\;27.6{\sim}32.8^{\circ}C$, respectively. Even though there was no significant difference(P>0.05), temperatures of the surface sediment where submerged with remained seawater were generally higher than that of uncovered with seawater. Burrowing depths of normally digged hard clams were 0.9{\sim}3.6cm from March to October, 2002. In the field experiment performed at Taean farming ground covered with seawater, burrowing times of the clams under natural water temperatures were $41.6{\pm}10minutes$ in February and $5.4{\pm}1.3minutes$ in August, respectively, and these were influenced by water temperatures. Fatness of hard clams began to decrease from May(at Taean tidal flat) and June(at Gimje tidal flat), showed the lowest level in August and increased again from September. Total hemocytes counts in the hemolymph of the hard clams were decreased to the lowest level in July($24.7{\times}10^4cells/mL$, at Taean tidal flat) and August($28.2{\times}10^4cells/mL$, at Gimje tidal flat), and significantly increased again from September(at Taean tidal flat, P<0.01) and October(at Gimje tidal flat, P<0.001), respectively. We observed three types of hemocytes from the hemolymph of hard clams according to whether hemocytes retain the granules or not and the size of the granules. As a results, we could found that periodical monitoring of the sediment temperatures, clam burrowing behaviour and hemocyte parameters were very helpful for the management of hard clam farming.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.31-47
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• 2004

This study was carried out to examine the development of physical knowledge in children. Eighty children aged 3- to 11-year-old and 16 adults were participated in this study. Participants' knowledge about failing, sliding and sinking/floating objects was investigated to understand what kind of knowledge they had, whether their knowledge was organized as theory and what was the nature of the developmental change in physical knowledge. Results showed that, for falling object task children of all age had correct knowledge about object's falling phenomena. However, there were age differences in children's understanding of the cause of object's falling. As the children's age decreased, the frequency of explanation referring to the absence of supper rather than the gravity as the cause of falling phenomena increased. For the sliding object task, children of all age could predict the motion of sliding object correctly. But only a few 9- and 11-year-old children could understand the effect of object weight and relations between gravity, frictional force and their interactions. Children under age 7 showed no evidence of possessing these knowledge. For sinking or floating object task, children of all age and even adults showed difficulties in understanding the sinking or float phenomena per se. For the cause of these phenomena although a few 9- and 11-year-old children referred to buoyancy as the cause, they had no correct knowledge about the buoyancy. This was also true for the adults. As a conclusion, the results of this study suggested that, not 3, but as young as 5-year-old children's physical knowledge exited as a form of naive theory in terms of their use as a causal devise in explaining the cause of object motion. However, even the theory of 9- and 11-year-old children was lack of the abstractness and coherence, which were also important characteristics of a theory. Finally, developmental change in physical knowledge proceeded toward more frequent and consistent use of physical knowledge as causal device and more abstract and coherently organized theory.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 1990

The ultimate objective of our experiment is to obtain the precise distribution of temperature in malignant tumors occurring in cerebral parenchyme of human beings when we will carry out interstitial hyperthermia in the near future. To achieve this purpose, first of all, it is necessary to make an attempt at performing interstitial hyperthermia in vivo under the similar condition of human beings. Therefore, we chose cats as materials much alike tissue characteristics of human beings. Moreover, it is also necessary to get the basic data from dynamic phantom in order to standardize and compare results obtained from interstitial hyperthermia carried out in cats. By having performed these experiments we got the following results. 1) On doing interstitial hyperthermia with 915 MHz microwave, the possible treated volume was 2 cm by 2 cm by 6 cm according to $50\%$ specific absorption rate (SAR). 2) The distribution of temperature within non-circulated static phantom was much the same as power density in air, but we observed that the temperature, within $5\~10$ minutes, rose to more higher than $55^{\circ}C$ not measured with Ga-As fiberoptic thermistor which was not impeded by microwave after performing interstitial hyperthermia. 3) Within dynamic phantom in which normal saline was circulating, temperature reached steady state which was maintained for more than 45 minutes through transit period in 5 minutes after starting interstitial hyperthermia. 4) When we interrupted circulation in the dynamic phantom, we observed that temperature rose to the same level as in the static phantom. 5) We could carry out interstitial hyperthermia safely when we used the generating power below 5 watts. Abrupt interruption of circulation caused a rapid increase in temperature. Times taking to rise to maximum $55^{\circ}C$ were 15.2 minutes (SE 0.4),9.7 minutes (SE 0.3), and 6.3 min-utes (SE 0.4) respectively with generating powers of 5,10, and 15 watts.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.164-169
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• 1999

Background and Objectives : The intracordal cysts are more increasingly diagnosed and treated due to advanced laryngeal stroboscopy and laryngeal microsurgical technique. The intracordal cysts are frequently misdiagnosed as vocal polyp or nodule The purpose of this study is to evaluate clinical features of intracordal cysts. Materials and Methods : In the present series, 83 cases of the intracordal cysts treated with laryngeal microsurgery are reported. The intracordal cysts are diagnosed preoperatively with indirect laryngoscopy, laryngeal endoscopy, laryngeal stroboscopy and confirmed with laryngeal microsurgical findings and biopsies. Results : Intracordal cysts are 83 of 1900 patients treated with laryngeal microsurgery(4.4%)-ductal cysts are 56 cases and epidermoid cysts are 27 cases. Intracordal cysts are more frequent in women, forties and the frequent site is an anterior third of the true vocal cord. With the indirect laryngoscopic examination, the ductal cysts are frequently misdiagnosed as vocal polyps or nodules but the epidermoid cysts are relatively easily diagnosed. The etiologic factors of the intracordal cysts are suspected as voice abuse and upper respiratory infection. The degree of postoperative voice satisfaction is similar to that of the vocal polyps. Conclusion : Intracordal cysts are frequently misdiagnosed as polyps or nodules, therefore preoperative stroboscopic findings and laryngeal microsurgical findings is important. An ideal treatment is to enucleate the cysts avoiding rupture of cyst and injury of lamina propria of the vocal cord.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.530-536
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• 2008

To investigate the molecular mechanism of the airway inflammation by Pseudomonas fluorescens, effects on the inflammatory mediators such as interleukin-8 (IL-8), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), macophage inhibitory cytokine 1 (MIC-1) were assessed in the human alveolar epithelial cells. Exposure to P. fluorescens and its recombinant bacteria suppressed cellular viability in the A549 epithelial cells and pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-8 production. However, pro-inflammatory prostaglandin-producing COX-2 protein was not altered by P. fluorescens though its mRNA was slightly elevated. As the inhibitory cytokine for the pro-inflammatory mediators, MIC-1 expression was monitored in A549 cells. MIC-1 gene induction was not significantly enhanced but the protein processing was changed by exposure to P. fluorescens. Pro-protein form of MIC-1 (${\sim}40\;kD$) was cleaved into active form mature MIC-1 (${\sim}15\;kD$) and propeptide (${\sim}28\;kD$) by the bacteria exposure. MIC-1 activation can contribute to the suppression of cellular viability by P. fluorescens and can retard IL-8-induced monocyte recruitment. However, sustained activation of MIC-1 can mediate the tissue injury by P. fluorescens exposure.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.423-433
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• 2018

Particulate matter air pollution is a serious problem affecting human health and visibility. The variations in $PM_{10}$ concentrations are influenced by not only local emission sources, but also atmospheric circulation conditions. In this study, we investigate the temporal features of $PM_{10}$ concentrations in South Korea and the atmospheric circulation patterns associated with high concentration episodes of $PM_{10}$ during winter (December-January-February) 2001-2016. Based on those analyses, a Korea Particulate matter Index (KPI) is developed to represent the large-scale atmospheric pattern associated with high concentration episodes of $PM_{10}$. The atmospheric patterns are characterized by persistent high-pressure anomalies, weakened lower-level north-westerly anomalies, and northward shift of the upper-level meridional wind anomalies near the Korean Peninsula. To evaluate the change in occurrence of high concentration episodes of $PM_{10}$ under a possible future warmer climate, we apply KPI analysis to CMIP5 climate simulations. Here, historical and two representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) are used. It is found that the occurrence of atmospheric conditions favorable for high $PM_{10}$ concentration episodes tends to increase over South Korea in response to climate change. This suggests that large-scale atmospheric circulation changes under future warmer climate can contribute to increasing high $PM_{10}$ concentration episodes in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.227-239
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• 2019

Heavy snowfall events frequently occur in the Gangwon province, and the snowfall amount significantly varies in space due to the complex terrain and topographical modulation of precipitation. Understanding the spatial characteristics of heavy snowfall and its prediction is particularly challenging during snowfall events in the easterly winds. The easterly wind produces a significantly different atmospheric condition. Hence, it brings different precipitation characteristics. In this study, we have investigated the microphysical characteristics of snowfall in the windward and leeward sides of the Taebaek mountain range in the easterly condition. The two snowfall events are selected in the easterly, and the snow particles size distributions (SSD) are observed in the four sites (two windward and two leeward sites) by the PARSIVEL distrometers. We compared the characteristic parameters of SSDs that come from leeward sites to that of windward sites. The results show that SSDs of windward sites have a relatively wide distribution with many small snow particles compared to those of leeward sites. This characteristic is clearly shown by the larger characteristic number concentration and characteristic diameter in the windward sites. Snowfall rate and ice water content of windward also are larger than those of leeward sites. The results indicate that a new generation of snowfall particles is dominant in the windward sites which is likely due to the orographic lifting. In addition, the windward sites show heavy aggregation particles by nearby zero ground temperature that is likely driven by the wet and warm condition near the ocean.