• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 1999.04a
• /
• pp.149-156
• /
• 1999

In the United States (U.S.), the monitored natural attenuation (MNA) approach has been used as an alternative remedial option for organic and inorganic compounds retained in soil and dissolved in groundwater. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines the MNA as“in-situ naturally-occurring processes include biodegradation, diffusion, dilution, sorption, volatilization, and/or chemical and biochemical stabilization of contaminants and reduce contaminant toxicity, mobility or volume to the levels that are protective of human health and the environment”. The Department of Soil Environment. National Institute Environmental Research (NIER) is in the process for demonstrating the MNA approach as a potential remedial option for the BTEX contaminated site in Uiwang City. The project is charactering the research site in terms of the nature and extend of contamination, biological degradation rate, and geochemical and hydrological properties. The microbial-degradation rate and effectiveness of nutrient and redox supplements will be determined through laboratory batch and column tests. The geochemical process will be monitored for determining the concentration changes of chemical species involved in the electron transfer processes that include methanogenesis, sulfate and iron reduction, denitrification, and aerobic respiration. Through field works, critical soil and hydrogeologic parameters will be acquired to simulate the effects of dispersion, advection, sorption, and biodegradation on the fate and transport of the dissolved-phase BTEX plume using Bioplume III model. The objectives of this multi-years research project are (1) to evaluate the MNA approach using the BTEX contaminated site in Uiwang City, (2) to establish a standard protocol for future application of the approach, (3) to investigate applicability of the passive approach as a secondary treatment remedy after active treatments. In this presentation, the overall picture and philosophy behind the MNA approach will be reviewed. Detailed discussions of the site characterization/monitoring plans and risk-based decision-making processes for the demonstration site will be included.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.67-77
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to investigate the change in ecological footprint made by the eco-friendly consumer education program, and ultimately, to help the high school students, future consumers, have eco-friendly attitude. This study will be contributed to helping them to understand the importance of the eco-friendly consumption and the seriousness of the environmental problems arising from their bad consumption habit, to get interested in the environmental problems in daily lives, and to reduce the ecological footprint through the eco-friendly habit acquired when young. This study is designed to have 60 high school students experience the eco-friendly consumer education program for 10 months and compare the levels of each ecological footprint though two different Questionnaires in five sections: housing, food, transportation, purchase, and waste. The program used in this research consists of three parts: eco-friendly attitude education for consumers, eco-friendly citizen education for consumers, and eco-friendly resource management education for consumers. The data are analyzed by SPSS Window 10.0 program. The findings are as follows: First. The eco-friendly consumer education is more likely to help the students develop critical thought and eco-friendly attitude, unlike the economy-related consumer education. Second. The level of ecological footprint is significantly decreased in the group with the eco-friendly consumer education program. compared to the group without it. Third. Experiencing the eco-friendly consumer education program helps the students have the positive attitude on ecology and lead an environmentally sustainable consumer life. The results show that eco-friendly consumer education can make a contribution to raising the good citizens who have eco-friendly attitude and behavior, lead sustainable consumer life, and try to reduce the level of ecological footprint.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.84-94
• /
• 2018

Background: This paper describes a simple-to-use and reliable screening tool called Critical Task Exposure Screening (CTES), developed by a chemical company. The tool assesses if the exposure to a chemical for a task is likely to be within acceptable levels. Methods: CTES is a Microsoft Excel tool, where the inhalation risk score is calculated by relating the exposure estimate to the corresponding occupational exposure limit (OEL) or occupational exposure band (OEB). The inhalation exposure is estimated for tasks by preassigned ART1.5 activity classes and modifying factors. Results: CTES requires few inputs. The toxicological data, including OELs, OEBs, and vapor pressure are read from a database. Once the substance is selected, the user specifies its concentration and then chooses the task description and its duration. CTES has three outputs that may trigger follow-up: (1) inhalation risk score; (2) identification of the skin hazard with the skin warnings for local and systemic adverse effects; and (3) status for carcinogenic, mutagenic, or reprotoxic effects. Conclusion: The tool provides an effective way to rapidly screen low-concern tasks, and quickly identifies certain tasks involving substances that will need further review with, nevertheless, the appropriate conservatism. This tool shows that the higher-tier ART1.5 inhalation exposure assessment model can be included effectively in a screening tool. After 2 years of worldwide extensive use within the company, CTES is well perceived by the users, including the shop floor management, and it fulfills its target of screening tool.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.265-276
• /
• 2018

Background: Resilience engineering is a paradigm for safety management that focuses on coping with complexity to achieve success, even considering several conflicting goals. Modern sociotechnical systems have to be resilient to comply with the variability of everyday activities, the tight-coupled and under-specified nature of work, and the nonlinear interactions among agents. At organizational level, resilience can be described as a combination of four cornerstones: monitoring, responding, learning, and anticipating. Methods: Starting from these four categories, this article aims at defining a semiquantitative analytic framework to measure organizational resilience in complex sociotechnical systems, combining the resilience analysis grid and the analytic hierarchy process. Results: This article presents an approach for defining resilience abilities of an organization, creating a structured domain-dependent framework to define a resilience profile at different levels of abstraction, and identifying weaknesses and strengths of the system and potential actions to increase system's adaptive capacity. An illustrative example in an anesthesia department clarifies the outcomes of the approach. Conclusion: The outcome of the resilience analysis grid, i.e., a weighed set of probing questions, can be used in different domains, as a support tool in a wider Safety-II oriented managerial action to bring safety management into the core business of the organization.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
• /
• v.42 no.5
• /
• pp.74-82
• /
• 2010

Curtain stability without curtain contraction is critical for a successful operation in curtain coating, and this can be influenced by the change in particle dynamics and rheological properties of coating colors. In this study, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) were added to control the rheology of GCC based curtain coating colors. Surface tension was increased slightly with increasing content of cobinder. Shear-thinning of viscosity was more pronounced for the CMC containing GCC coating colors. Complex modulus decreased when small amount of PVA was used as a cobinder, but it increased in other coating colors. Extensional viscosity was increased with increasing of the cobinder content, but CMC was more effective. Results indicate that pigment interaction with PVA is different from that with CMC. Dispersibility of coating colors was improved due to steric stabilization when small amounts of PVA was used, but flocculation occurred by bridging when the amount of PVA was increased. Dispersibility of coating colors was improved when small amount of CMC was added, while flocculation was observed by depletion effect when the concentration of CMC was increased in coating colors. Addition of cobinders at proper levels gave positive effects both in rheological properties and curtain stability. On the other hand, excessive amount of cobinders caused particle flocculation and this resulted in rheological and curtain stablity problems.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2012.05a
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2012

Throughout much of the world, many ecological problems have arisen in watersheds where a significant portion of stream flows are diverted to support agriculture production. Within endorheic watersheds (watersheds whose terminus is a terminal lake) these problems are magnified due to the cumulative effect that reduced stream flows have on the condition of the lake at the stream's terminus. Within an endorheic watershed, any diversion of stream flows will cause an imbalance in the terminal lake's water balance, causing the lake to transition to a new equilibrium level that has a smaller volume and surface area. However, the total mass of Total Dissolved Solids within the lake will continue to grow; resulting in a significant increase in the lake's TDS concentration over time. The ecological consequences of increased TDS concentrations can be as limited as the intermittent disruption of productive fisheries, or as drastic as a complete collapse of a lake's ecosystem. A watershed where increasing TDS concentrations have reached critical levels is the Walker Lake watershed, located on the eastern slope of the central Sierra Nevada range in Nevada, USA. The watershed has an area of 10,400 sq. km, with average annual headwater flows and stream flow diversions of 376 million $m^3/yr$ and 370 million $m^3/yr$, respectively. These diversions have resulted in the volume of Walker Lake decreasing from 11.1 billion m3 in 1882 to less than 2.0 billion $m^3$ at the present time. The resulting rise in TDS concentration has been from 2,560 mg/l in 1882 to nearly 15,000 mg/l at the current time. Changes in water management practices over the last century, as well as climate change, have contributed to this problem in varying degrees. These changes include the construction of reservoirs in the 1920s, the pumpage of shallow groundwater for irrigation in the 1960s and the implementation of high efficiency agricultural practices in the 1980s. This paper will examine the impacts that each of these actions, along with changes in the region's climate, has had on stream flow in the Walker River, and ultimately the TDS concentration in Walker Lake.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.103-111
• /
• 2003

This study proposes methodology deterimining a basic pedestrian crossing capacity that plays a critical role in the installation of pedestrian signal at the crosswalks. The methodology is based on the pattern of vehicle arrived at the crosswalks. Erlang distribuion is used as headway distribution that can cover the various levels of flow rate. Models using Erlang distribution are represented by Erlang parameter (K) of 1, 2, or 3 at 2-, 4-, or 6-lane roadway in both directions. In addition, this study considered the only type of road with a pedestrian refuge area in the median that is used to wait for the allowable gap provided by the flow of another direction. As a result, the pedestrian capacity decreases as flow rate increases and Erlang parameter increases for the road with the pedestrian refuge. This study develops the models to determine the pedestrian capacity under a variety of flow rates and the outcomes of this study could be used as the criteria for the determination of the installation of pedestrian signal or for the provision of pedestrian refuge in the median of road.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.353-360
• /
• 2017

Background: A critical features of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is cognitive dysfunction, which partly arises from decreased in acetylcholine levels. AD afftected brains are characterized by extensive oxidative stress, which is thought to be primarily induced by the amyloid beta ($A{\beta}$) peptide. In a previous study, Cinnamomum loureiroi tincture inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AchE) activity. That study identified AChE inhibitor in the C. loureiroi extract. Furthermore, the C. loureiroi extract enhanced memory in a trimethyltin (TMT)-induced model of cognitive dysfunction, as assessed via two behavioral tests. Rosa laevigata extract protected against oxidative stress-induced cytotoxicity. Administrating R. laevigata extracts to mice significantly reversed $A{\beta}$-induced learning and memory impairment, as shown in behavioral tests. Methods and Results: We conducted behavioral to examine the synergistic effects of C. loureiroi and R. laevigata extracts in inhibiting AChE and counteracting TMT-induced learning and memory losses. We also performed biochemical assays. The biochemical results showed a relationship between increased oxidative stress and cholinergic neurons damage in TMT-treated mice. Conclusions: A diet containing C. loureiroi and R. laevigata extracts ameliorated learning and memory impairments in the Y-maze and passive avoidance tests, and exerted synergistic inhibitory effect against AChE and lipid peroxidation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.113-126
• /
• 2009

In the recent years, health effect of dimethylformamide(DMF) has been one of critical industrial hygiene issues. There might be many factors to increase the exposure level of DMF. Among those factors, industrial ventilation would be one of the main factors. In this study, industrial ventilation systems of printing processes in synthetic leather factories were thoroughly surveyed and the improved ventilation systems were proposed. 7 synthetic leather factories were selected for this study. After the ventilation systems were visually inspected, each component of the system was tested by using the appropriate instruments. Hood face velocities, fan exhaust flow rates, fan static pressures, fan rotation rates, etc were measured. In addition, flow visualization techniques were used to observe flow patten around hoods and inside the factory buildings. After gathering all qualitative and quantitative information, the test results were analysed to see if any improvement might be necessary. For the system to be improved, the re-design plans were made by using computational fluid dynamics softwares. The softwares used in this study were AIRPAK and STAR-CD. The effectiveness of the several improvement options were tested, then the best cost effective option was selected. Finally, the standard ventilation systems were proposed to minimize the exposure levels of DMF.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.150-156
• /
• 2016

Extract of Broussometia kazinoki Rhizodermatis has been traditionally used for geopoong, diuresis, hwalhyeol. In the present study, the apoptotic effect of methanol extract of Broussometia kazinoki (MBK) were investigated. Cell viability of A549 cells was measured by MTT assay. Apoptosis-related protein and MAPK protein levels were measured by Western blot. Chromatin condensation of A549 cells was stained with DAPI. MBK inhibited cell proliferation of A549 cell. Based on DAPI staining, MBK-treated cells manifested nuclear shrinkage, condensation and fragmentation. Treatment of A549 cells with MBK resulted in activation of the caspase-3, -8, -9 and cleavage of poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP). In the upstream, MBK increased the expressions Bax and Bak, decreased the expression of Bcl-2, and augmented the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. MBK-induced apoptosis was accompanied by sustained phosphorylation of JNK, p38 MAPK and apoptosis signal-regulating kinase (ASK)-1. These results suggest that MBK induced apoptosis in A549 cells through Bcl-2 family protein-mediated mitochondria/caspase-3 dependent pathway. In addition, MBK increased the activation of ASK-1, which are critical upsteam signals for JNK/p38 MAPK activation in A549 cancer cells.