• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.389-406
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• 2011

As part of a feasibility study for introducing carbon labeling of fruit products in Korea, we explore the use of carbon footprints for Korean kiwifruit from Gyeongnam region as a case study. In Korea, the Korean Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) is responsible for the carbon footprint labeling certification, and has two types of certification programs: one program focuses on climate change response (carbon footprint labeling analysis) and the other on low-carbon products (reduction of carbon footprints analysis). Currently agricultural products have not yet been included in the program. Carbon labeling could soon be a prerequisite for the international trading of agricultural products. In general the carbon footprints of various agricultural products from New Zealand followed the methodology described in the ISO standards and conformed to the PAS 2050. The carbon footprint assessment focuses on a supply chain, and considers the foreground and the background systems. The basic scheme consists of four phases, which are the 'goal', 'scope', 'inventory analysis', and 'interpretation' phases. In the case of the carbon footprint of New Zealand kiwifruit the study tried to understand each phase's contribution to total GHG emissions. According to the results, shipping, orchard, and coolstore operation are the main life cycle stages that contribute to the carbon footprint of the kiwifruit supply chain stretching from the orchard in New Zealand to the consumer in the UK. The carbon emission of long-distance transportation such as shipping can be a hot-spot of GHG emissions, but can be balanced out by minimizing the carbon footprint of other life cycle phases. For this reason it is important that orchard and coolstore operations reduce the GHG-intensive inputs such as fuel or electricity to minimize GHG emissions and consequently facilitate the industry to compete in international markets. The carbon footprint labeling guided by international standards should be introduced for fruit products in Korea as soon as possible. The already established LCA methodology of NZ kiwifruit can be applied for fruit products as a case study.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.502-513
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• 2016

In this study, heavy metal distributions in the tissues of feral pigeon (Columba livia) were characterized using samples collected from bio-monitoring sites (Hangang Park and Hampyeong Park) of the NESB (National Environmental Specimen Bank), Korea, in order to evaluate the feasibility of feral pigeons as an indicator for the environmental monitoring. Cadmium (Cd) was analyzed to be accumulated in kidneys at higher concentration than in the other tissues. Such trend can also be found in the reviews on the Cd accumulations of the 34 cases including 17 avian species which showed that 31 cases had the highest Cd concentrations in the kidney among tissues. However, lead (Pb) was found to be richest in the bones in this study. 17 cases out of 30 reviewed cases had the highest Pb concentration in bones, whereas other 10 cases showed the highest concentration in kidneys, and 3 cases in livers. Therefore, kidneys together with bones can be a main target organ to test cadmium exposure to different habitat environments depending on physiological traits of birds. Zinc (Zn) was found to be the highest concentration in the pigeon livers of Hangang Park, but not in the bones. In contrast, the 13 cases of 16 reviewed cases had the highest Zn concentration in bones, and the 3 cases in livers. In addition, the heavy metal distribution patterns in relations to the metal accumulation mechanisms (a competition between Pb and Ca, a function of methallothionein protein, and etc.) were discussed.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.351-363
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• 2014

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a reliable measurement tool to assess the urban food environment, particularly focusing on food stores in Korea. Methods: The items for the measurement tool were selected through systematic literature reviews and adjusted to the Korean food environment. A total of 25 food stores in an urban area were recruited for the pilot test to evaluate the time required for completion of the survey, ease of response, willingness to participate, difficulties in conducting the survey, and appropriateness, and 34 food stores were recruited for assessment of the reliability of the tool using percent agreement and kappa value. Results: The measurement tool is composed of questions regarding food store characteristics, accessibility, and food availability. On average, 26 minutes was required to survey a single food store, and the subjects and interviewers answered that the process was not difficult for the survey. The percent agreement for the inter-rater and test-retest reliability ranged from 93.9~98.8% and 91.9~97.9, respectively. The kappa values ranged from 0.78 to 0.97, which was very high. Percent agreement and kappa value of food with healthy option were lower than those of the general food in the inter-rater reliability (p = 0.0027, p = 0.0095 respectively) as well as in the test-retest reliability (p = 0.0081, p = 0.0290, respectively), although they were still high enough (86.4~98.0% for percent agreement, 0.64~0.96 for kappa value). Conclusion: The newly developed measurement tool for assessment of food store environment appears to be feasible and reliable; therefore, it can be applied to research on the association between food environment and dietary behaviors as well as health outcomes.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.53-59
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• 2001

There is a lot of method to manage the insanitary landfill but vertical cutoff walls have been widespreadly used and were installed into the subsurface to act as a barrier to horizontal groundwater flow, The stabilized material such as specialized cement or mixed soil with additives has been generally applied for the materials of the deep soil mixing barrier in korea. The amount of the stabilized material is dependent on the field conditions, because the mixing ratio of the material and the field soil should achieve a requirement in the coefficient of permeability, lower than 1.0$\times$$10^{7}$cm/sec. This study determined the quantity and optimized function ratio of the stabilized material in the formation process of the mixed barrier that was added with stabilized material on the field soil classified into SW-SC under USCS (Unified Soil Classification System). After that the fly ash and lime were selected as an additives an that could improve the function of the stabilized material and then the method to improve the functional progress in the usage of putting into the stabilized material as an appropriate ratio was studied and reviewed. The author used the flexible-wall permeameter for measuring the permeability and unconfined compressive strength tester for compressive strength, and in the view of environmental engineering the absorption test of heavy metals and leaching test regulated by Korean Waste Management Act were performed. As the results, the suitable mixing ratio of the stabilized material in the deep soil mixing barrier was determined as 13 percent. To make workability easy, the ratio of stabilized material and water was proven to be 1 : 1.5. With the results, the range of the portion of the additives(fly ash : lime= 70 : 30) was proven to be 20-40% for improving the function of the stabilized material, lowering of permeability. In heavy metal absorption assessment of the mixing barrier system with the additives, the result of heavy metal absorption was proved to be almost same with the case of the original stabilized material; high removal efficiency of heavy metals. In addition, the leaching concentration of heavy metals from the leaching test for the environmental hazard assessment showed lower than the regulated criteria.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.439-446
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• 2011

In this research, enhanced land-cover classification methods using high-resolution satellite image (HRSI) and GIS in terms of practicality and accuracy was proposed. It aims for understanding non-point pollutant origin/loading, assessment the efficiency of rainfall storage/infiltration facilities and sounds water-environment management. The result of applying enhanced land-cover classification methods to the urban region verifies that roof and road area are including various vegetations such as roof garden, flower bed in the median strip and street tree. This accounts for 3% of total study area, and more importantly it was counted as impervious area by GIS alone or conventional indoor work. The feasibility of the method was assessed by applying to rainfall-runoff analysis for three weak rainfall in the range of 7.1-10.5 mm events in 2000, Chiba, Japan. A good agreement between simulated and observed runoff hydrograph was obtained. In comparison, the hydrograph simulated with land-use parameters by the detailed land-use information of 10m grid had an error between 31%~71%, while enhanced method showed 4% to 29%, and showed the improvement particularly for reproducing observed peak and recession flow rate of hydrograph in weak rainfall condition.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.377-386
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• 2010

Introduction of TBELs into Korean environmental regulatory system for wastewater may require very careful considerations and appropriate modifications of the TBELs applied in US. The Korean regulations for wastewater are based on uniform regulatory criteria for wastewater effluent discharge and are quite different from the individual permit system in US. In addition, the toxic pollutants regulated in Korea are much less than those in US. Therefore, the effects of TBELs application on the pollutants reduction and the economic feasibility should be carefully assessed for different categories of wastewater sources. In this study, the applicability of TBELs for the industrial categories of Korea was discussed. The TBELs were derived for a sample category, the pulp paper paperboard manufacture, based on the previously reported analytical data from 52 facilities of the domestic pulp paper paperboard manufacture in Korea. It was suggested that the BAT effluent limitations were BOD 30 mg/L, $COD_{Mn}$ 40 mg/L, SS 40 mg/L, T-N 30 mg/L and T-P 4 mg/L and that the allowable effluent loads were $0.31{\sim}1.75kgCOD_{Mn}/ton$-products. Due to the limitation of insufficient data, there were difficult to obtain the important factors to derive more systematic and accurate limitation standards for the pollutants such as the 'Long Term Average (LTA)', the 'Product Normalized Discharge Flow (PNDF)', and the 'Variability Factor (VF)'. However, as the first trial of TBELs determination based on the all available analytical data reported, the procedure and the outcome of the study may provide valuable insight on application of TBELs in Korea.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.9-16
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• 2015

As electricity is an indispensable input to human's existence and industrial production, economic benefits arise from consumption. The economic benefits of the electricity consumption are useful information in various fields of electricity-related policy. Therefore, this study attempts to value the economic benefits from electricity use. The economic benefit of electricity consumed is the area under the demand curve which made of the sum of the actual consumer expenditure and the consumer surplus. Consumer expenditure can be easily observed but the information on price elasticity of demand is necessarily required to compute consumer surplus. This study derives the estimates for price elasticities through literature review. The price elasticities of the electricity demand for residence, industry, and commercial are estimated to be -0.332, -0.351, and -0.263, respectively. Because the consumer surplus of the electricity consumption for residence, industry, and commercial are computed to be 191.54, 143.44, and 231.91 won per kWh, respectively. Given that average prices of electricity use were 127.02, 100.70, and 121.98 won per kWh for the year 2013, the economic benefit are calculated to be 318.56, 244.14, and 353.89 won per kWh, respectively. We can convert the values to 321.96, 246.75, and 357.67 won per kWh in 2014 constant price, respectively, using consumer price index. They can be used in the economic feasibility analysis of a new electricity supply project.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2010

Background and Objectives : Transient minor voice changes after thyroidectomy are not infrequent complaints even in cases without any evidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve damage. However, clinical course, diagnosis and management of such voice changes are not fully understood. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics of minor voice changes after thyroidectomy. We also tried to assess the significance and feasibility of superior laryngeal nerve monitoring and to find out the optimal evaluation tools for such voice changes after thyroidectomy. Materials and Method : Nine adult patients who received total thyroidectomy without evidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury were enrolled for this prospective study. Voice evaluations were performed preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively ; acoustic analyses including voice range profile, aerodynamic study, stroboscopic evaluation and subjective voice assessment with questionnaires. The external branch of superior laryngeal nerve was monitored by nerve stimulator after ligation of superior thyroidal vessels. Results: Four of nine patients complained their voice change at 3 months after the surgery. Three of them reported complete recovery of their voice at 6 months after the surgery. Acoustic analysis revealed significant decrease in their phonatory range especially with high tone loss. Questionnaires related to singing was more sensitive than previously well-known "voice handicap index". Stimulation of the superior laryngeal nerve was feasible in most of the cases (94.4%), but it failed to show any correlation with minor voice changes after thyroidectomy. Conclusion : Minor voice changes were not rare events during the first 6 month after thyroidectomy. Decrease in phonatory range with high tone loss and therefore, discomfort in singing was the most common finding. Superior laryngeal monitoring was feasible but it was not a sensitive tool for the prediction of minor voice change after thyroidectomy.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.133-142
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze the problems of the parties involved in the issuance of apartment housing development projects. The adapted research method selected four apartment housing development as PF ABCP projects. This study carried out the case about participant institution of PF ABCP funding project including developer, constructor, financial institution so as to draw problems by participant institution. On the basis of the selected case, this thesis proposes methods for involved parties to negotiate and work out problems of the PF ABCP. The results of this study are as follows 1) Launching long-term project financing should be developed, including operating funds and strengthen the ABS and ABCP issuance of credit assessment procedures, combined with the simplicity of the instruments. 2) The Low-risk contract for the construction of simple managerial focus should be the construction, financial institutions essentially dependent on project financing feasibility verification purpose loans to prevent the division a true story, the development should be of interest to be preserved. The proposed included, among other, partial guarantee based on the construction plan financial institutions' share-based investment, and the supplement of legal issues.

• (The)Korea Educational Review
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.5-33
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze leading teachers' opinions on key competencies and subject competencies presented in the 2015 revised national curriculum and to draw implications for competency-based curriculum development and implementation. The research findings show that leading teachers are generally positive about the introduction of key competencies, subject competencies setting and its feasibility and recognize that the key competencies are highly related to the subject competencies of each subject. However, it is judged that the key competencies and subject competencies are not embodied well in every aspect of the curriculum documents. They also recognize that in the practice of competency education, supporting the development of teachers' ability to conduct student-centered classes in a culture that enables voluntary research efforts of the teacher community can be the biggest issue rather than external support such as development of competency-centered textbooks or consulting and supervision. Finally, we propose the need for support and policy that enable voluntary efforts for interdisciplinary cooperation and strengthening teacher capacity rather than developing competency-centered textbooks; specification of competency education in educational content, pedagogical methods and assessment; reconsideration of subject competencies setting; maintaining the relationship between key competency and items that guide educational goals.