• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.310-317
• /
• 2022

BACKGROUND: The salt in soil interrupts crop growth. Therefore, water resources are used to remove any salt found in the soil. However, water resources have been reduced by global warming; thus, a new study is required into reducing the salt in soil. Recently, the bottom ash (BA) of a biomass power plant was found to be similar to biochar. Hence, it can be used to remove heavy metals and wastewater through the adsorption characteristics of BA. The objective of this study was to evaluate the improvement effects on crop growth in saline soil containing the BA from biomass power plants. METHODS AND RESULTS: The effect on crop growth in the saline soil supplemented with BA was studied with the crop-planted pots, which were packed by reclaimed greenhouse soils collected from Byolyang, Suncheon. The BA application level was 25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 kg/10a (referred as BA25, BA50, BA100, BA200, and BA400, respectively). The BA increased the fresh weights of the leaf and root, while nitrogen uptake increased by approximately 24-102% and 54-77%, respectively for the lead and root. The phosphorous uptake increased by 38%, although only in the leaf of the lettuce. In the case of soil, BA increased water content, pH, EC, CEC, and NH₄⁺ and the SAR of the soil decreased by 5-15%. The bottom ash increased the contents of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺, and fixed the amount of Na⁺. CONCLUSION(S): It was confirmed the bottom ash of a biomass power plant, based on wood pellets, improved crop growth, and increased the nutrient uptake of crops in saline soil. In addition, bottom ash, which has a wide range of porosity and high values of pH and EC, improved properties of the saline soil. However, the BA has a large amount of B, As, and heavy metals. Finally, it may require a study on the safety and contamination of heavy metals contained in the bottom ash, which would be applied in soil for a long time.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.322-332
• /
• 2022

Objective: CT plays a central role in determining the resectability of pancreatic cancer, which directs the use of neoadjuvant therapy. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of CT in predicting circumferential resection margin (CRM) involvement in patients with resectable or borderline resectable pancreatic head cancer. Materials and Methods: Seventy-seven patients who were scheduled for upfront surgery for resectable or borderline resectable pancreatic head cancer were prospectively enrolled, and 75 patients (38 male and 37 female; mean age ± standard deviation, 68 ± 11 years) were finally analyzed. The CRM status was evaluated separately for the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and posterior and superior mesenteric vein/portal vein (SMV/PV) margins. Three independent radiologists reviewed the preoperative CT images and evaluated the resection margin status. The reference standard for CRM status was pathologic examination of pancreaticoduodenectomy specimens in an axial plane perpendicular to the axis of the second portion of the duodenum. The diagnostic accuracy of CT was assessed for overall CRM involvement, defined as involvement of the SMA or posterior margins (per-patient analysis), and involvement of each of the three resection margins (per-margin analysis). The data were pooled using a crossed random effects model. Results: Forty patients had pathologically confirmed overall CRM involvement in pancreatic cancer, while CRM involvement was not seen in 35 patients. For overall CRM involvement, the pooled sensitivity and specificity were 15% (95% confidence interval: 7%-49%) and 99% (96%-100%), respectively. For each of the resection margins, the pooled sensitivity and specificity were 14% (9%-54%) and 99% (38%-100%) for the SMA margin, 12% (8%-46%) and 99% (97%-100%) for the posterior margin; and 37% (29%-53%) and 96% (31%-100%) for the SMV/PV margin, respectively. Conclusion: CT showed very high specificity but low sensitivity in predicting pathological CRM involvement in pancreatic cancer.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.432-445
• /
• 2000

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of various kinds of composts on the change of nutrition loss in upland soils. Field experiments were conducted in the loam and sandy loam soils, while the clay loam and sandy loam soils were used for laboratory experiments. Various kinds of composts such as poultry manure compost(PMC), cow manure compost(CMC), human excrement sludge(HES), and food industrial sludge compost(FISC) were applied annually at rates of 0, 40, and $80mg\;ha^{-1}$ to soils grown with soybean and maize plants for 4 years during 1994 to 1997. The results of this study were as follows : The loss of nutrients in the form of cation and anion by run-off water increased with the increase of compost application rate. Compared with bare soils, maize cultivation decreased the nutrient loss by run-off from soils by 43% in anionic form and 32% in cationic form. Amount of cation loss were ordered $K^+$ > $Ca^{2+}$ > $Na^+$ > $Mg^{2+}$ > $NH_4{^+} $ and that of anion loss were ordered $SO_4{^{2-}}$ > $NO_3{^-}$ > $Cl^-$ > $PO_4{^{3-}}$. Nutrient loss of sand loam soil in the cation and anion by percolation water increased 1.7 times compared with loam soil. $NO_3{^-}-N$ contents in percolated water were high at the initial stage after compost application, and the amounts were higher in sandy loam soil than loam soil. The maize cultivation also decreased the $NO_3{^-}-N$ contents in percolated water by 82% in loam soil, and 58% in sand loam soil. Soil pH of composts determined by laboratory incubation test increased pH 6.1~6.8 application with poultry and cow manure compost but application with human excrement sludge decreased pH 4.5~4.7. Soil EC were increased initially composts application and decreased up to 2 weeks, thereafter kept a certain level. Nitrogen mineralization rates of composts determined by laboratory incubation test at $25^{\circ}C$ were 39~76% in sandy loam soil, and 16~48% in clay loam soil.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.253-260
• /
• 2005

Salt accumulation in the plastic film house soils under continuous cultivation condition causes problems such as salt damages to plants, nitrate accumulation in vegetables, groundwater contamination, etc. due to excess application of fertilizers. Objective of this research was to find an optimum adsorbent to reduce salt concentration in the soil solution of plastic film house soils, where crop injuries have been observed due to the salt accumulation. The soils were significantly high in available P $(1,431{\sim}6,516mg\;kg^{-1}),\;NO_3-N\;(117.60{\sim}395.73mg\;kg^{-1})$, exchangeable Ca $(4.06{\sim}11.07\;cmol_c\;kg^{-1})$ and Mg $(2.59{\sim}18.76\;cmol_c\;kg^{-1})$, as compared to those of the average upland soils in Korea. Soils were treated with each of adsorbent such as ion-exchange resin, zeolite, rice bran, etc. at 2% level and prepared into saturated-paste samples. After equilibrium, soil solution was vacuum-extracted from the soil and measured for changes of the pH, EC, and concentrations of $Ca^{2+},\;Mg^{2+},\;K^+,\;Na^+,\;{NH_4}^+,\;{PO_4}^{3-}\;and\;{NO_3}^-$. Rice bran effectively removed ${PO_4}^{3-}\;and\;{NO_3}^-$ in the soil solution up to 100%. Efficiency was decreased in the orders of rice bran > ion-exchange resin > zeolite. Removal efficiencies of zeolite and ion-exchange resin for $Ca^{2+}$ were ranged from 1 to 65% and from 7 to 61%, respectively. Ion-exchange resin was also effective for removing $Mg^{2+},\;K^+,\;Na^+,\;and\;{NH_4}^+$. Overall results demonstrated that rice bran and ion-exchange resin could be applicable for salt accumulated soil to remove the respective anion and cation.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.336-342
• /
• 2012

Inorganic materials were commonly used as container media in domestic plant factories. Objective of this research was to secure the information in soil physical and chemical properties of inorganic materials such as vermiculites and perlites. To achieve this, 12 gold and silver vermiculites from China, Zimbabwe, and South Africa and 5 perlites from China were collected based on the marketing grades (MG) in particle sizes and analyzed for determination of their characteristics. The percentage of particles larger than $710{\mu}m$, in China perlite MG 3~5 mm, China silver vermiculites MG > 8 mm and MG 3~8 mm were 99.9%, 99.8%, and 99.7%, respectively, which were much higher than 28.4% in China gold vermiculite MG 0.3~1.0 mm, 14.0% in perlite MG < 1.0 mm, and 12.6% of Zimbabwe silver vermiculite MG < 1.0 mm. The container capacities of perlite MG < 1.0 mm and South Africa silver vermiculite MG 0.25~1.0 mm were 72.0% and 71.1%, respectively. The air space in China silver vermiculite MG 3~8 mm was 49.3% which was higher than other materials tested. However, the China gold and silver vermiculites MG 0.3~1 mm had 3.5% and 2.4% in air space indicating that possible problems could occur in soil aeration when they are used for container media. The percentage of easily available and buffering water of China gold vermiculite MG 0.3~1 mm and perlite MG < 1.0 mm were the highest among test materials. The ranges of pH and electrical conductivity were 6.36 to 10.7 and 0.032 to $0.393dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ in vermiculites and 7.78 to 8.62 and 0.030 to $0.041dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ in perlite, respectively. The cation exchange capacity of China silver vermiculite MG 0.3~1 mm were $14.7cmol{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ that was 10 times as high as $0.34cmol{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ in perlite MG 1~2.5 mm. The vermiculites had the higher contents of exchangeable cations such as Ca, K, and Na, than those of perlites.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.185-193
• /
• 1999

The long term trend of studensts' science achievement is a very important factor to check the effectiveness of science educational policy. However, up to date no such effort to understand the trend of Korean students' science achievement has been put into action. Recently, the Science Education Center in Korea National University of Education has been attempted to collect nation wide data for students' science achievement. The first part of the effort was to develop item pools. This study was the second part to collect nation wide data and to check any change during the two year time interval. In this study, the item pools developed by Kwon et. al.(1998) were used with some modification. The data were collected two times; February 1997 and March 1999. The subjects collected nationally were 8,766 students in 1997 and were 4,398 in 1999. The subjects were collected randomly but stratified by region and sex. As the results, the trends of achievement change during the two years were different from elementary to high school. The achievement scores were decreased in elementary schools and increased in high school. In case of middle schools, the change was not significant. However, even in elementary schools the knowledge on theory was increased significantly while knowledge on facts and principles were decreased. In contrast, the knowledge on fact showed the most increase in high schools. In this study, the data were analysed in light of region, sex, behavioral objective levels(ability) and context of test items. The science achievement monitoring system developed by the Science Education Center in Korea National University of Education can be an effective tool for monitoring students' achievement on the national level.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.63-72
• /
• 2016

The objective of this study was to identify the life form characteristics, naturalized degree and introduction period of naturalized plants on upland fields in South Korea. The survey sites were selected in 222 upland fields over 9 provinces where are relatively dry soil conditions and are disturbed continuously by farming practices. It seemed that these uplands maintain good condition for the invasion and settlement of alien plants. Field surveys were carried out twice from May to June and from August to September in 2013. The vascular plants of the upland fields were listed into 539 taxa which contain 103 families, 320 genera, 448 species, 2 subspecies, 74 varieties and 15 forms. Ninety nine taxa were naturalized plants composed of 23 families, 64 genera, 91 species and 8 varieties. The urbanization index and naturalized index is 30.65% and 18.37%, respectively. Among total 99 naturalized plants, Compositae (30 taxa) was the most dominant family, and followed by Gramineae (14 taxa). On the basis of dormancy form, 78 taxa were belong to Th (Therophyte). In radicoid form, $R_5$ plants (86 taxa) and $R_3$ plants (14 taxa) were dominantly distributed. In disseminule form, $D_4$ including 63 taxa and $D_2$ containing 26 taxa were dominant. On the basis of growth form, erect form (e) containing 26 taxa was dominant. In conclusion, life form spectrum was $Th-R_5-D_4-e$ type. According to life form analysis, naturalized degree and introduction period, alien plants with unique characteristics may have high ability to settle and spread nationwide after inflow into South Korea. It needs further to observe some plant species with or without ecological features such as widely disseminated seeds by wind or water, high seed productivity, long life-span seeds, high germination rate of seeds, or non-dormant germinable seed.

• International Journal of Vascular Biomedical Engineering
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.19-24
• /
• 2006

Background: Pulse wave velocity (PWV), which is inversely related to the distensibility of an arterial wall, offers a simple and potentially useful approach for an evaluation of cardiovascular diseases. In spite of the clinical importance and widespread use of PWV, there exist no standard either for pulse sensors or for system requirements for accurate pulse wave measurement. Objective of this study was to assess the reproducibility of PWV values using a newly developed PWV measurement system in healthy subjects prior to a large-scale clinical study. Methods: System used for the study was the PP-1000 (Hanbyul Meditech Co., Korea), which provides regional PWV values based on the measurements of electrocardiography (ECG), phonocardiography (PCG), and pulse waves from four different sites of arteries (carotid, femoral, radial, and dorsalis pedis) simultaneously. Seventeen healthy male subjects with a mean age of 33 years (ranges 22 to 52 years) without any cardiovascular disease were participated for the experiment. Two observers (observer A and B) performed two consecutive measurements from the same subject in a random order. For an evaluation of system reproducibility, two analyses (within-observer and between-observer) were performed, and expressed in terms of mean difference ${\pm}2SD$, as described by Bland and Altman plots. Results: Mean and SD of PWVs for aorta, arm, and leg were $7.07{\pm}1.48m/sec,\;8.43{\pm}1.14m/sec,\;and\;8.09{\pm}0.98m/sec$ measured from observer A and $6.76{\pm}1.00m/sec,\;7.97{\pm}0.80m/sec,\;and\;\7.97{\pm}0.72m/sec$ from observer B, respectively. Between-observer differences ($mean{\pm}2SD$) for aorta, arm, and leg were $0.14{\pm\}0.62m/sec,\;0.18{\pm\}0.84m/sec,\;and\;0.07{\pm}0.86m/sec$, and the correlation coefficients were high especially 0.93 for aortic PWV. Within-observer differences ($mean{\pm}2SD$) for aorta, arm, and leg were $0.01{\pm}0.26m/sec,\;0.02{\pm}0.26m/sec,\;and\;0.08{\pm}0.32m/sec$ from observer A and $0.01{\pm}0.24m/sec,\;0.04{\pm}0.28m/sec,\;and\;0.01{\pm}0.20m/sec$ from observer B, respectively. All the measurements showed significantly high correlation coefficients ranges from 0.94 to 0.99. Conclusion: PWV measurement system used for the study offers comfortable and simple operation and provides accurate analysis results with high reproducibility. Since the reproducibility of the measurement is critical for the diagnosis in clinical use, it is necessary to provide an accurate algorithm for the detection of additional features such as flow wave, reflection wave, and dicrotic notch from a pulse waveform. This study will be extended for the comparison of PWV values from patients with various vascular risks for clinical application. Data acquired from the study could be used for the determination of the appropriate sample size for further studies relating various types of arteriosclerosis-related vascular disease.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.286-293
• /
• 2013

Purpose : The objective of this study was to analyze the brain volume according to the brain image of healthy adults in the 20s taken with different inversion time (TI). Materials and Methods: Brain images of healthy adults in the 20 s were acquired using magnetization prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo (MPRAGE) pulse sequence with 1.5 mm thickness of pieces and four inversion times (1100 ms, 1000 ms, 900 ms, 800 ms). The acquired brain images were analyzed to measure the volume of white matter (WM), gray matter (GM), intracranial volume (ICV). The statistical difference according to brain volume and gender was analyzed for each TI. Results: The brain volume calculated using Freesurfer was WM$486.52{\pm}48.64cm^3$ and GM=$646.83{\pm}57.12cm^3$ in mean when adjusted by mean ICV=$1278.94{\pm}154.92cm^3$. Men's brain volume(WM, GM, ICV) was larger than women's brain volume. In the intrarater reliability test, all of the intraclass correlation coefficients were high (0.992 for WM, 0.988 for GM, and 0.997 for ICV). In the repeated measures analysis of variance, GM and ICV did not show a significant difference at each TI (GM p=0.143, ICV p=0.052), but WM showed a significant (p=0.001). In the linear structure relation analysis, all of the Pearson correlation coefficients were high. Conclusion: WM, GM, and ICV indicated high reliability and solid linear structure relations, but WM showed significant differences at each TI. The brain volume of healthy adults in the 20s could be used in comparison with that of patients for reference purposes and to predict the structural change of brain. It would be needed to conduct additional studies to examine the contract, SNR, and lesion detection ability according to variable TI.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.10-18
• /
• 2006

Objective : The aims of this study were to explore the relations of internet addiction to depression, impulsivity, and obsessive-compulsivity in adolescents. Methods : 1410 high school students (male=611, female=799 : mean age=$16.2{\pm}0.7$) were included in this study. The questionnaire consisted of items on demographic characteristics and internet use pattern. We assessed the level of internet addiction using Young's internet addiction scale (IAS) Barratt impulsiveness scale (BIS) and Maudsley obsessive compulsive inventory (MOCI) were also self-rated. In this study, We defined upper 25% of IAS as 'addiction group' and lower 25% as 'non-addiction group'. Results : The results were as follows ; 1) Male students had significantly higher mean scores on Internet addiction scale than females and there was significantly higher rate of male students in addiction group. 2) The addiction group spent more time for internet use, especially for games than non-addiction group. 3) The addiction group showed significantly higher total scores on BDI, BIS, and MOCI than non-addiction group. 4) Significant associations have been found between the level of internet addiction and depression, impulsivity, and obsessive-compulsivity, respectively. Conclusion : Depression, impulsivity, and obsessive-compulsivity could be significant factors predicting internet addiction. Especially, direct effect of impulsivity could be the most significant to explain internet addiction. Adolescents with high impulsivity may be vulnerable to internet addiction.