• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.169-180
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• 2012

The ESBs (Environmental Specimen Banks) have monitoring functions for the contemporary environmental qualities and also offer the future generation tangible information on the past environment by preserving the specimens. This entails the sampling of the representative specimen for each distinctive ecosystem, which is performed under a strict and stipulated procedure and a condition that does not allow any change in the component so that a retrospective analysis can be readily done even in the distant future. It has been more than 30 years that some developing countries started collecting a broad spectrum of specimens to vindicate the effectiveness of an environmental policy and to monitor the long-term variations of background concentrations of environmental pollutants. Though being late, the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), Korea, has successfully launched the National Environmental Specimen Bank (NESB) in 2009 equipped with its state-of-the-art automated cryogenic tanks. Since then, the researchers at the NESB have been doing their best to excel the existing ESBs around the world by learning and improving the expertise. To do so, they conducted a pilot study for developing and testing their own Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) based on the analysis of the examples of the other ESBs. The problems from the pilot study had been reviewed to improve the SOP to meet the requirements for an ESB, that is to say, preserving representative environmental specimens in cryogenic condition and enhancing the analytical method. Furthermore, they also need to prepare themselves to address the future challenges by providing some additional functions, which makes it distinguishable from the other ESBs. If successful, this will be a step further to be recognized as a full-fledged member of the ESB society of the world.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.532-541
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• 2016

The National Environmental Specimen Bank (NESB) has been collecting broad leave samples to monitor environmental pollution from five different designated sampling areas. In order to ensure the reproducibility and comparability of the results, all the procedures from selecting trees and pooling leaves to make the representative sample are defined in the standard operation procedures(the SOP). The representative samples were subjected to the chemical analyses for some heavy minerals and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons(PAHs). The uncertainty levels involved in each step of the SOP, that is, the sampling and the chemical analysis, were derived using the Robust ANOVA, which enables the relative comparison among the different levels of pollutants concentrations with confidence. Furthermore, the effect of the varying degrees of precipitation on the pollutants concentration of the leaves was also examined. Overall, the biological difference estimated from the duplicate samples was found to exceed the variation across the site, implying even aerial deposition over site. Samples from Gwanak Mt. showed highest heavy metal concentrations than the other sites. Washing off effect of the pollutants adhering in the form of particles on the leaf surface was found to be affected by the cumulative precipitation.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.3 s.172
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• pp.221-236
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• 2005

In order to investigate the contamination levels and dispersion patterns of heavy metals such as Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn by urbanization, soils beneath roadside-trees and leaves of Ginkgo biloba were collected from Seoul area during October to November in 2001. All tree leaves were grouped into washed and unwashed ones. The pH of most soil ranges from 6 to 9 indicating a weak acidic and alkaline. The element couples of Cd-Co, Cr-Ni and Zn-Cu-Pb have good correlation in soils, and contamination sources of Cd-Co, Cr-Ni and Zn-Cu-Pb could be similar. High correlation coefficients among Pb, Cu and Zn in G. biloba indicates that these elements show the similar behavior during the metabolism processes. From the results of pollution index calculation for soils, industrialized and heavy traffic area were severly polluted by heavy metals such as Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn. By the discriminant analysis, industrialized and heavy traffic areas are enriched in the order of Ni> Cr> Pb. Cadmium is useful to discriminate between industrialized and heavy traffic areas, Co and Pb are highly enhanced in heavy traffic area.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.607-618
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• 2015

Five years have passed since the first set of environmental samples was taken in 2011 to represent various ecosystems which would help future generations lead back to the past environment. Those samples have been preserved cryogenically in the National Environmental Specimen Bank(NESB) at the National Institute of Environmental Research. Even though there is a strict regulation (SOP, standard operating procedure) that rules over the whole sampling procedure to ensure each sample to represent the sampling area, it has not been put to the test for the validation. The question needs to be answered to clear any doubts on the representativeness and the quality of the samples. In order to address the question and ensure the sampling practice set in the SOP, many steps to the measurement of the sample, that is, from sampling in the field and the chemical analysis in the lab are broken down to evaluate the uncertainty at each level. Of the 8 species currently taken for the cryogenic preservation in the NESB, pine tree samples from two different sites were selected for this study. Duplicate samples were taken from each site according to the sampling protocol followed by the duplicate analyses which were carried out for each discrete sample. The uncertainties were evaluated by Robust ANOVA; two levels of uncertainty, one is the uncertainty from the sampling practice, and the other from the analytical process, were then compiled to give the measurement uncertainty on a measured concentration of the measurand. As a result, it was confirmed that it is the sampling practice not the analytical process that accounts for the most of the measurement uncertainty. Based on the top-down approach for the measurement uncertainty, the efficient way to ensure the representativeness of the sample was to increase the quantity of each discrete sample for the making of a composite sample, than to increase the number of the discrete samples across the site. Furthermore, the cost-effective approach to enhance the confidence level on the measurement can be expected from the efforts to lower the sampling uncertainty, not the analytical uncertainty. To test the representativeness of a composite sample of a sampling area, the variance within the site should be less than the difference from duplicate sampling. For that, a criterion, ${i.e.s^2}_{geochem}$(across the site variance) <${s^2}_{samp}$(variance at the sampling location) was proposed. In light of the criterion, the two representative samples for the two study areas passed the requirement. In contrast, whenever the variance of among the sampling locations (i.e. across the site) is larger than the sampling variance, more sampling increments need to be added within the sampling area until the requirement for the representativeness is achieved.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.311-316
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• 2013

In order to maximize an efficient management of human cell resource under the cryogenic environments, in this paper, a middleware is introduced to support the function for multiple-perceiving RFID tags of intelligent sample case which can share medical information between sensor network devices. Optimized user interface is also designed for that. On based of the designing, special tasks required of a genetic resource working process can be processed on Complex Machine.

• Proceedings of the Korean Information Science Society Conference
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• 2003.10b
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• pp.88-90
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• 2003

병원, 은행과 같이 중요한 정보를 다루는 조직체들은 그들 데이터를 보호하기 위해 기업 환경과 어플리케이션 특성에 맞는 특별한 데이터베이스 보안 정책을 사용하고 있다. 이러한 대규모의 조직체에서는 업무가 다양하고 복잡하므로 보안정책에 대한 변경이 빈번하게 발생한다. 따라서 보안정책의 무결성을 보존하면서 수시로 변경되는 보안 요구사항을 반영하고 효율적으로 보안관리를 할 수 있는 보안 시스템이 요구된다. 본 연구에서는 조혈계 질환 시료정보관리시스템을 대상으로 IRH(Improved Role Hierarchy)를 이용한 유연성 있는 데이터베이스 보안 시스템을 구현하였다. 데이터 접근은 MAC 방식으로 통제하며, RBAC의 역할계층(Role Hierarchy)을 개선한 IRH를 사용하여 유연성 있는 접근제어를 제공하고 효과적인 보안관리를 할 수 있다. 본 시스템은 보안정책이 바뀔 경우 분산된 보안관리 방식으로 IRH를 수정함으로써 정책 변경이 용이하고 주체의 보안등급이 고정되지 않은 상태에서 IRH을 통해 사용자와 세션이 맺어질 때 결정되므로 정책이 바뀐 후에도 변경된 보안정책이 유연하게 적용된다.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.225-233
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• 2008

An Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) is an archive for samples that can be used to document and assess the quality of the environment in which we live. An ESB program looks at changes in the concentration of human and environmental specimens over long periods of time through retrospective analysis of archived samples of a particular area collected at regular intervals. The idea of ESB was first proposed by German and American scientists in the early 1970s and has been established since 1979 in Germany, USA, and Japan. Korea plans to establish a National Environmental Specimen Bank (NESB) in 2010. The NESB will be able to assess and improve the quality of analytical measurements as well as to compare the past and current environmental quality as a time capsule. The concept and design for the NESB facility was developed and its Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) are being developed based on an evaluation of ESBs and SOPs of Germany, USA, and Japan. Environmental specimens proposed for banking are based on typical representatives of every level of the food chain from each type of ecosystem that are widely distributed thus enabling comparisons between different sampling areas. Through retrospective analysis of environmental specimens, the NESB will improve the reliability of environmental monitoring, ecological risk assessment, and health impact assessment.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.327-338
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• 2012

Environmental specimen banks provide the baselines for the scientists and decision makers to do research using the past and present specimens to expect the possible contaminant implications of the future. Many chemicals that are considered harmless now but not found may be found and pose threats in the future. Collected specimens of animals and plants should be conserved without contamination for future analysis. To ensure the availability of samples for the retrospective analysis, the establishment and maintenance of specimen banks in the developing and developed nations has become absolutely necessary. National Environmental Specimen Bank (NESB) established at National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) in 2009. For the application of NESB, several activities such as standard operating procedures (SOPs) development have been prepared. This study applied the guidelines for sampling and sample treatment of five environmental specimens which had been prepared from 2007 to 2009. The target species were shoots of red pine and Korean pine, leaves of Mongolian oak, eggs of domestic pigeon and muscles and livers of common carp. The NESB will enhance the quality of environmental assessment and environmental monitoring based on real time and retrospective analysis.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.745-751
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• 2013

Environmental Specimen Banks (ESBs) have been established widely in the world since 1979 for monitoring long-term bio-accumulation of environmental pollutants. The ESBs perform the retrospective analysis of representative biological samples collected regularly and store them in cryogenic condition. In Korea, National Environmental Specimen Bank (NESB) was established in 2009. Since then, NESB had prepared the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the seven kinds of specimens (Red Pine (Pinus densiflora), Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio), and etc.) for monitoring the effect of environmental pollution on the terrestrial ecosystem and river ecosystem. In 2012, NESB added Black-tailed Gull (Larus crassirostris)'s eggs to the list of the environmental specimen for monitoring marine environmental pollution. In this study, we sampled the eggs of the Black-tailed Gull on two islands (Baekryeongdo of the West Sea and Hongdo of the South Sea). Especially, we selected eggs which remained in the early stages of embryo development for certifying the consistent and stable monitoring for environmental pollutants in egg contents. However, it was not considered to classify an order of eggs per clutch in this study. It is known that the concentration variations of pollutants exist among eggs in one clutch. Therefore, it is needed to consider the positions of eggs in the laying sequences to meet the objective of bioaccumulation monitoring. We collected 30 eggs in each site but the amount may be insufficient to achieve storage target (over 2,000 g). Therefore, we need to consider an optimal sampling size.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.823-839
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• 2012

Environmental Specimen Banks (ESBs) are playing pivotal role in monitoring the effect of environmental pollution on the ecosystem based on the retrospective analysis of the representative samples collected regularly and stored in cryogenic condition. In Korea, National Environmental Specimen Bank (NESB) was established in 2009 and the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for sampling, and cryogenic milling and storage had been prepared during 2007-2010. Since then, the tentative SOPs for the seven kinds of specimens (shoots of Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) and Korean Pine (Pinus koraiensis), leaves of Mongolian Oak (Quercus mongolica) and Zelkova Tree (Zelkova serrata), eggs of Feral Pigeon (Columba livia var. domestica), muscles and organs of Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio), and Freshwater Bivalve (Unio (Nodularia) douglasiae)) have been put to test in the field and laboratory as well against the practicality and feasibility. The SOPs were improved by reflecting the findings from the research and the following discussion regarding the selection of specimen (Feral Pigeon suffering from a control management), sample size (a problem of decreasing number of sampling trees related to increasing sampling time) and period (a problem related to a bud growth), and sampling methods etc.. In addition, barcoding system for the management of the specimen information, and monitoring system of the cryogenic storage to regulate the optimum temperature and the liquid nitrogen level were also developed for the efficient and effective control of the samples. Lastly, the safety guide and emergency protocol were augmented to guarantee a safe work environment with the cryogenic facility. These improvements of the SOPs are expected to contribute to more stable operation of the NESB.