• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.353-353
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• 2017

Rice yield of South Korea in 2015 was the highest of the last 30 years. It is important issue to establish food policy whether the historically highest yield in 2015 can be continued or just one-off event. Therefore, it is necessary to understand whether such a high yield as 2015 will be reoccurred. The aim of this study was to find out what climatic factor affect rice yield and how often these climatic factor could occur. For this study, the yield monitoring data from National Institute of Crop Science, Rural Development Administration and the meteorological data provided by Korea Meteorological Administration are used to identify the weather conditions could cause high yield, and how often these conditions occurred in the past. Our results indicated that such as high yield as 2015 could occur only when the mean sunshine hours of July and the mean sunshine hours from the end of August to early September was more than 5.1 hours and 6 hours, respectively. Mean sunshine hour of July may be related to grain number. The mean sunshine hour from the end of August to early September was presumed to relate to grain filling ratio. The relationship between monthly mean temperature and yield or yield component was not clear in this study. In this study, any cycle of high weather condition was not found. Therefore, the probability of high yield weather condition was expressed by frequency. The frequency of the sunshine hour, could make high yield, were 8/35 (23%) over the past 35 years. And the frequency of two years consecutive sunshine hour condition, which could cause high yield, was 1/35 (2.9%). The frequency of recurrence of sunshine hour making high yield within the next 5 years or 10 years after high yield weather condition were 4/35 (11.4%). After all, the high yield as much as yield of 2015 could not be one-off event. But it was not also consecutive event.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.39 no.5 s.180
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• pp.615-626
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• 2006

The natural resources and material life-cycle include all human activities related to resources and material extraction, transportation, processing, use, recovery and disposal. Sustainable material management (SMM) is an integrated set of policy approaches targeted on economic agents throughout the material life-cycles and designed to result in economically efficient and environmentally effective material use. The material flows of industrial mineral, ores and fossil fuels have also long been a focal area for environmental policies because of the high environmental pressures associated with extraction, processing, consumption, and final disposal of these materials. OECD work on material flow is to improve the quantitative and analytical knowledge bases about natural resource and material flows within and among countries, so as to better understand the importance of material resources in member countries' economies. In several EU Member States, material flow accounts are part of official statistics. Material flow analysis (MFA) is a valuation method which assesses the efficiency of use of materials using information from material flow accounting. Material flow analysis helps to identify waste of natural resources and other materials in the economy which would otherwise go unnoticed in conventional economic monitoring systems. Resource use and resource efficiency has emerged as a major issue for long-term sustainability and environmental policy.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.217-223
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• 2012

BACKGROUND: Increase of heavy metals in agricultural ecosystem has become a social issue nationwide as it is related to public health. This study was performed to find out the status and long-term trends with consecutive application with the commercial liquid pig manure in the agricultural fields. METHODS AND RESULTS: Heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc were analyzed in the 41 samples of paddy fields and 54 samples of upland fields consecutively applied with commercial liquid pig manure for 0 to 16 years. Heavy metal accumulation were not increased statistically at the both paddy and upland fields as the consecutive application year of commercial liquid pig manure were increased. However, some of surveyed upland soils exceeded the criteria of cadmium, copper, and zinc designated by the Soil Environmental Conservation Act in Korea. CONCLUSION: Therefore, analysis of heavy metals, specially copper and zinc, in agricultural fields is absolutely necessary before liquid pig manure application to the fields. In addition, heavy metal accumulation in agricultural fields following to the long-term application of liquid pig manure will be monitored periodically considering with bioavailability of copper and zinc to the crops as an essential nutrients.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.375-385
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• 2015

This study analyzed international case studies on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) follow-up and suggested implications based on the study's findings to aid implementation of SEA follow-up in Korea. SEA requires follow-up in order to identify unforseen adverse effects and enable appropriate remedial action to be taken. Tool kits and methodological framework for effective SEA follow-up are only being researched recently. Based on the study's findings, following implications for implementing SEA follow-up in Korea were drawn. First, the system of carrying out SEA follow-up would be different depending on the PPP topic. During the scoping stage, significant impacts should be identified according to the PPP topic, and thus help determine the indicators to be developed in the later stage. Secondly, responsibility, method, time, intervals and actions from SEA follow-up may vary depending on the target SEA consultation. Thirdly, the indicators of SEA follow-up may be considered together with various environmental standards and current political, social and economic indicators which are a big issue in society. Fourthly, SEA follow-up can be used as an integration system of its target planning and environmental planning. Finally, SEA feedback system should be needed. The result of SEA follow-up should be used for target PPP. These would lead to improvements to the target PPP. If SEA follow up is successfully implemented and actively carried out for domestic PPPs, Korea can be a step closer to realization of sustainable development.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2006

Understanding characteristics of claypan soils has long been an issue for researchers and farmers because the high-clay subsoil has a pronounced effect on grain crop productivity. The claypan restricts water infiltration and storage within the crop root zone, but these effects are not uniform within fields. Conventional techniques of identifying claypan soil characteristics require manual probing and analysis which can be quite expensive; an expense most farmers are unwilling to pay. On the other hand, farmers would be very interested if this information could be obtained with easy-to-use field sensors. Two examples of sensors that show promise for helping in claypan soil characterization are soil profile strength sensing and bulk soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa). Little has been reported on claypan soils relating the combined information from these two sensors with grain crop yield. The objective of this research was to identify the relationships of sensed profile soil strength and soil EC with nine years of crop yield (maize and soybean) from a claypan soil field in central Missouri. A multiple-probe (five probes on 19-cm spacing) cone penetrometer was used to measure soil strength and an electromagnetic induction sensor was used to measure soil EC at 55 grid site locations within a 4-ha research field. Crop yields were obtained using a combine equipped with a yield monitoring system. Soil strength at the 15 to 45 cm soil depth were significantly correlated to crop yield and ECa. Estimated crop yields from apparent electrical conductivity and soil strength were validated with an independent data set. Using measurements from these two sensors, standard error rates for estimating yield ranged from 9 to 16%. In conclusion, these results showed that the sensed profile soil strength and soil EC could be used as a measure of the soil productivity for grain crop production.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.174-181
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• 2009

The present study is a preliminary attempt to effectively incorporate the environmental issue of coastal erosion into the environmental assessment process of Korea. We assess the status of the environmental assessment on coastal erosion for the previous development plans and provide potential directions for the improvement. The considerable project plans should be screened for the impact of coastal erosion, which occupies about 20% of the total project plans reviewed, and the ratio increased with project scale. In addition to screening process, most process including scoping, baseline study, impact assessment, and follow-up need to be improved. The potential directions of improvement are provided in terms of appropriate guideline development, employment of cumulative impact assessment, follow-up improvement and rearrangement of the preparation regulation of environmental assessment. Emphasis is given for follow-up process to review post-monitoring period, to employ science compensation, and to consider the establishment of relevant institution. Final suggestion is made for the establishments of comprehensive national plan to manage coastal erosion and streamlined environmental process from strategic to project levels based on the national plan.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2016

Ecosystems have functions of providing, supporting, regulating and cultural services. In particular, there is an increasing attention to the importance of regulating ecosystem services in carbon sequestration function, since it is closely related to the issue of climate change. In this study, to quantify benefits of climate regulating ecosystem services, the carbon storage was defined as an indicator. Nine major Korean ecosystems were classified and research papers on carbon storage were analyzed. The collected carbon storage data were categorized according to classified ecosystems, methodologies, and carbon storage components. For each category, the mean, standard error and coefficient of variation were calculated. The carbon storage indicator was highest in vegetation biomass of deciduous forest ecosystems. The uncertainty was also estimated by the IPCC 2006 guidelines. The estimations of the uncertainty differed by methodologies and carbon storage components. With exception of forest ecosystems, the limited number of studies were available which might have hindered to conduct accurate estimations. These findings indicate that there are needs for further clarification in the measurement standards by different ecosystems.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.216-225
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• 2017

Recently, steel casing became an interesting issue when applying controlled-source electromagnetic (EM) method to various fields because effects of steel casing on EM responses are not negligible. This study employed an approach that approximates the steel casing as a series of electric dipole sources in order to develop the numerical algorithm for the efficient simulation of EM responses in the presence of steel casing. After verifying the validity of the developed algorithm, we analyze effects of steel casing on EM responses with the synthetic model simulating geothermal reservoir environment. The analysis showed that the effects of steel casing on EM responses are localized near the casing and increase as the transmitter becomes close to the casing. In addition, through the analysis on the EM responses by the injection of clean water, we confirm that the effects of casing are negligible when interpreting the after-injection data acquired using the transmitter located far enough from the casing. Considering the difference in EM responses between before and after injection in inversion, the effects of the casing can be neglected although after-injection data shows considerable difference due to the close distance between the transmitter and casing. To investigate this kind steel casing effect, the precise analysis on EM responses should be preceded. The algorithm introduced in this study will contribute to the reliable calculations of EM responses distorted by the conductive steel casing.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.650-656
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• 2013

Endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) plays a pivotal role in augmenting Protein C activation through the thrombin-thrombomodulin complex. EPCR activity is markedly changed by ectodomain cleavage and released as the soluble protein (sEPCR). EPCR shedding is mediated by tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ converting enzyme (TACE). Lycopene found in tomatoes and tomato products has anti-oxidant, anti- cancer and anti-inflammatory effects. However, little is known about the effects of lycopene on EPCR shedding. We investigated this issue by monitoring the effects of lycopene on the phorbol-12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$, interleukin (IL)-$1{\beta}$ and on the cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-mediated EPCR shedding. Data showed that lycopene potently inhibited the PMA, TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-$1{\beta}$ and CLP-induced EPCR shedding by suppressing TACE expression. Furthermore, lycopene reduced PMA-stimulated phosphorylation of p38, extracellular regulated kinases (ERK) 1/2 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK). Given these results, lycopene should be viewed as a candidate therapeutic agent for the treatment of various severe vascular inflammatory diseases via inhibition of the EPCR shedding.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.136-145
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• 2011

One of a large proportion among the causes of fire is electrical factors, and of fire by electric factors, the accident which accounted for over certain percentage is electric leakage and ground fault. In order to reduce the electric leakage and ground fault, the technical guidelines on the protection of ground fault in the low-voltage electrical line (KECG 1091-2011) was amended for reflecting recent international standard, IEC 60364-4-41, and new conservation methods, which improved the reliability by recovering the facility's all-time use operation and breakdown defect, was on the rise. Accordingly, in this paper, after grasping the fire's status for last 10 years and analyzing the risk of electrical fires, and as a way to improve the electric leakage and ground fault accident which accounted for more than certain percentage, the revision of KECG 1091-2011 will be reviewed. And then, after applying to the preventive conservation methods in order to enhance the protection reliability of electric leakage and ground fault detection, the problems at issue routine inspection scheme and durable years scheme in time-scheduled conservation method are listed, along with suggestion of the problem-solving scheme, and the leakage current integrated monitoring systems and digital electric leakage devices by status monitor conservation method will be proposed.