• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.745-756
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to evaluate representativeness of fuel-based emission factors. Twelve light-duty diesel vehicles which meet Euro-3 to 5 legislative emission limits were selected for emission tests. Second-by-second modal emission rates of vehicles were measured on a standard laboratory chassis dynamometer system. An off-cycle driving cycle was developed as a representative Korean real-world on-road driving cycle. Fuel-based emission factors were developed for short trip segments that involved in the selected driving cycle. Each segment was defined to have unit travel distance, which is 1 km, and characterized by its average speed and Relative Positive Acceleration (RPA). Fuel-based $NO_x$ emission factors demonstrate relatively good representativeness in terms of vehicle operation conditions. $NO_x$ emission factors are estimated to be within ${\pm}20%$ of area-wide emission factor under more than 40% of total driving situations. This result implies that the fuel-based $NO_x$ emission factor could be practically implemented into the on-road emission management strategies, such as a remote sensing device (RSD). High emitting vehicles as well as high emitting operating conditions heavily affect on the mean values and distributions of CO and THC emission factors. Few high emitting conditions are pulling up the mean value and biasing the distributions, which weaken representativeness of fuel-based CO and THC emission factors.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2014

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, has seen a boom in construction in recent years. The old Baku city has been rapidly transforming into a new hub of high-rise buildings and lively cultural centers hosting the Euro Vision Song Contest in 2012 and European Games in 2015. A major population shift to Baku from its suburbs and the countryside has resulted in the doubling of Baku's population in the 4 years between 2009 and 2013. As of January 2013, Baku's population reached four million people, 43% of the citizens in Azerbaijan according to The State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan. With this trend, the city needs more high-rise buildings to accommodate rapidly increasing demands for more housing and business space. Until the Azerbaijan Seismic Building Code was published in 2010 and became effective, many different seismic criteria, in terms of building codes and seismic intensities, were used for all new high-rise projects in Baku. Some designers used the SNIP (Russian) code with seismic level 9 or level 8 with 1 point penalty. Others used the Turkish code with Seismic Zone 1, UBC 97 with Zone 2 through 4, or IBC with Sa = 0.75 g through 1.0 g. The seismic intensity is now clarified with the Azerbaijan Seismic Building Code. However, the Azerbaijan Seismic Building Code is appropriate for low-rise buildings applications but may be inappropriate for high-rise project applications. This is because the code-defined response spectrum yields unrealistically conservative seismic forces for high-rise buildings with long periods, as compared to those determined by other internationally accepted building codes. This paper provides observations and recommendations for code-based seismic load assessment of high-rise buildings in the Baku area.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.312-322
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• 2019

Background: Since 2003, Korea has consistently shown the highest suicide rate among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, and suicide remains the major cause of death. In particular, men are 2-3 times more likely to commit suicide than women, which called the 'gender paradox of suicide.' The areas with frequent suicide have spatially clustered patterns because suicide with a social contagion spreads around the neighborhood. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to estimate the hotspot areas of age-standardized male suicide mortality from 2008 to 2015. The second was to analyze the relationship between the hotspot areas and the regional characteristics for study years. Methods: The data was collected through the Korean Statistical Information Service. The study areas were 227 si gun gu administrative districts in Korea. The hotspot area was used as a dependent variable. Socio-demographic variables (number of marriages per 1,000 population, number of divorces per 1,000 population, and urbanization rate), financial variables (financial independence and social security budget), and health behaviors (EuroQol-5 dimension [EQ-5D], and depression experience rate) were used as independents variables. Results: The hotspot areas were commonly located in Gangwon-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Chungceongbuk-do. According to the results of panel logit regression, the number of divorces per 1,000 population, social security budget, and EQ-5D were statistically significant variables. Conclusion: The results of hotspot analysis showed the need for establishing a prevention zone of suicide using hotspot areas. Also, medical resources could be considered to be preferentially placed in the prevention zone of suicide. This study could be used as basic data for health policymakers to establish a suicide-related policy.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.349-368
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• 2011

The emergence of new multipolar world economy along with the predominant growth of emerging economies encourages these emerging countries to internationalize their currencies. Currently the discrepancy between qualification and status of international currency is easily observed, and the emerging market currencies are no doubt underestimated considering their share of the world's economic size and trade volume. This paper studies the determinant factors of currency internationalization for five key currencies (US Dollar, Yen, Euro, Pound, and Swiss Franc). The analysis shows economic size, trade volume, and the stability of price and exchange rate are most important. Based on this result, Chinese Yuan is forecast to become a new international currency in the near future. Therefore, Korea needs to preempt the issue of regional economic integration, and even currency integration, by taking into account the possibility of internationalized Yuan.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.100-106
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• 2019

Background: In Korean medicine, carpal tunnel syndrome is treated by stimulating the acupoints around the wrist. Although a deep understanding of anatomy and guidance is needed to stimulate these acupoints to avoid undesirable side-effects, currently there are no published guidelines for acupotomy treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of fluoroscopy-guided acupotomy compared with conventional acupotomy treatment. Methods: This is a randomized, patient-assessor, patient blind, parallel clinical trial. A total of 30 patients will be enrolled at Wonkwang University Gwangju Hospital, and will be allocated to either an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group will be treated using fluoroscopy-guided acupotomy and the control group will be treated using the conventional acupotomy method. Results: The primary outcome measure will be identification of a cross-section area of the median nerve measured by ultrasonography, and the secondary outcome measure will be the alleviation of pain measured by the Visual Analogue Scale, improvement in the Nerve Conduction Study, Tinel test, Phalen's test, EuroQol 5-dimension scale, and Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire score. Safety components will be measured by monitoring vital signs, electrocardiographs, blood tests, general chemical tests, urine tests and pregnancy tests. In addition, observations for adverse effects will be performed during the trial. Conclusion: This study will provide a more effective, and less harmful way of treating carpal tunnel syndrome compared with conventional acupotomy. Fluoroscopy-guided acupotomy will help practitioners to be accurate in direction and depth of the needle for treating carpal tunnel syndrome.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.361-368
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• 2002

The valley forests located at the east-facing slope and the west facing slope in Hambaeksan area were studied to investigate forest structure in relation to aspect and altitude of the slope. There was little difference in density. mean DBH and basal area of the tree layer between east-facing slope and west-facing slope. The importance percentages of Tilia amurensis and Betula costata in west-facing slope were higher than those in east-facing slope. However, the importance percentages of Quercus mongilica and Fraxinus rhynchophylla in the west facing slope were lower than those in east-facing slope. Species diversity of the west-facing slope was 1.415 and that of the east-facing slope was 1.328. Elevation trends were also found for forest structure. As elevation Increased basal area and mean height of the tree layer decreased in both of east-facing slope and west-facing slope. There was a tendency that number of species, species diversity and evenness decreased with increasing elevation. The importance percentage of Quercus mongolica increased with increasing elevation while those of Betula costata and Maackia amurensis decreased. The result of cluster analysis for the tree and subtree layer indicated that the studied forests were classified into the mixed forest community of broad-leaved tree species at west-facing slope and the low and middle elevation belts of east-facing slope and Quercus mongolica community at the high elevation belt of east-facing slope. Quercus mongolica was significantly and positively correlated with Symplocos chinensis for. pilosa, Acer tschonoskii var. rubripes and deutzia glabrata. Betula costata was significantly and negatively correlated with Quercus mongolica and Acer pseudo-sieboldianum.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.719-730
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• 2004

The International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) was established and its foundation were published by the Euro-Asian Astronomical Society (EAAS), in order to spread astronomical knowledge, promote international cooperation in astronomical education area, and recognize the importance of astronomy in far-reaching field of science and human culture. In 1996, the first IAO was held at the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) of the Russian Academy of sciences (RAS) located in the north Caucasus of Russia. Since then, it has been held every year. Here, we will describe the present status of the International Astronomy Olympiad, its major results by year, related institutions, organizations, and the main regulations regarding its operation. In order to measure the levels of scientific knowledge and thinking abilities, we develop a rubric to analyze the characteristics of problems in the IAO with regards to cognitive aspects of scientific inquiry. These problems require high levels of content knowledge and scientific method knowledge. Also high order thinking abilities and high levels of convergent thinking skills, instead of divergent, are needed to solve these problems. Thus, the problems presented are set a high difficulty. Through this analysis, we can understand main purpose of the International Astronomy Olympiad and explore the future direction of the Korea Astronomy Olympiad.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.71-105
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• 2013

Now that fiscal soundness is increasingly important influenced by the euro area fiscal crisis, early budget execution has been under the spotlight as a tool for economy control, other than typical expansionary method, such as supplementary budget. Basically, early budget execution is a fiscal policy instrument that reponses to economic fluctuations through modifying the inter-temporal allocation of fiscal expenditure within budget, without affecting fiscal soundness. This study empirically examines how effective the intert-temporal reallocation of fiscal expenditure is in economy control. Using Korea's Consolidated Fiscal data, the size of inter-temporal reallocation of fiscal expenditure is defined as changes of fiscal expenditure for one year excluding seasonal factors and used to explain real economic growth rate, a dependent variable. The result shows that the macroeconomic effect of the inter-temporal reallocation turns out meaningful in general, though some policy time lag exists. Meanwhile, a simulation using macroeconomic model finds that overall effect on economic growth is not large because increase in fiscal expenditure allocation at a certain point of time is canceled by the opposite direction within the same fiscal year. However, the inter-temporal reallocation is found to reduce volatility of key macroeconomic variables so as to contribute to partially stabilizing macroeconomy. In particular, such effect of economic stabilization seems to be highly apparent at the time of financial crisis, but not very noticeable in normal economic cycle.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.203-211
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• 2010

Purpose: We aimed to test the validity of the EQ-5D (Euro-Quality of Life-5 Dimension), a brief and simple instrument, in measuring health related quality of life in the patients with osteoarthritis. Methods: 183 participants attending the education programs for osteoarthritis patients at the Health Centers located in Seoul and Gyunggi province area during the periods of June to December in 2009 were interviewed with the EQ-5D and KWOMAC (Korean version of Western Ontario and McMaster Scale). The data were analysed with Spearman correlation coefficents and t-test by using of SPSS/WIN 12.0 version. Results: There was a negative correlation between knee pain, stiffness and difficulty in usual activity of sub category items of KWOMAC and EQ-5Dindex, while there was no correlation between these categories and EQ-VAS. Moreover, as a result of comparing the score of physical function measured by KWOMAC according to the severity degree of the EQ-5Dindex, the group of advanced stage having moderate and severe symptoms reported significantly higher scores of physical function than those of groups having no health problems. Conclusion: The EQ-5D is an acceptable and valid instrument for measuring health-related quality of life in patients with osteoarthritis.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.111-117
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• 2009

Considering the entire critical path, underground works in construction projects occupy a large part of the total construction period, as well as a large part of the construction costs. Particularly in the downtown area, the scale of underground work has been increasing every year. Currently, underground retaining walls, which are built at construction sites, require many skilled workers, and the works are being undertaken by means of the Euroform+Soldier system, which is quite disadvantageous in terms of the construction period. In order to complement this, forms made of new materials and new construction methods have been developed. Now more than eyer, the shortening of construction periods and the reduction of construction costs is required. Considering this, in this study, the researcher has tried to compare the Euroform+Soldier system, which has been the system most frequently used on construction sites, to the non-supporting form system, which has been used on the sites of civil engineering work. The results of the research revealed that although the Euroform+Soldier system was advantageous from the perspective of material costs, it was disadvantageous in terms of labor costs. It is thought that an additional study on a method for reducing the material costs is required, so as to revitalize the application of non-supporting forms to the construction site.