• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.441-455
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• 1999

Meteorological characteristics of three high-ozone episodes in the Greater Seoul Area, selected on the basis of morning-average wind direction and speed for the 1990~1997 period, were investigated. Three high-ozone episodes thus selected were seven days of July 3~9, 1992, nine days of July 21~29, 1994, and three days of August 22~24, 1994. Along with surface meteorological data from the Seoul Weather Station, surface and 850-hPa wind fields over the Northest Asia around the Korean Peninsula were used for the analysis. In the July 1992 episode, westerly winds were most frequent as a result of the influence of a high-pressure system in the west behind the trough. In contrast, in the July 1994 episode, easterly winds were most frequent due to the effect of a typhoon moving north from the south of Japan. Despite different prevailing wind directions in the two episodes, the peak ozone concentration of each episode always occurred when a sea-land breeze developed in association with weak synoptic forcing. The August 1994 episode, selected as being representative of calm conditions, was another typical example in which peak ozone concentration rose to 322 ppb under the well-developed sea-land breeze. All three high-ozone episodes were terminated by precipitation, and subsequent rises in ozone concentrations were also suppressed by a series of precipitation afterwards. In particular, two heavy rainfalls were the main reason why the August 1994 episode, with the highest and second-highest ozone concentrations during the 1990~1997 period, lasted for only a few days.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.15 no.E
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• pp.55-64
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• 1999

The CIT(California Institute of Technology) three-dimensional Eulerian photochemical model was applied to the Greater Seoul Area, Korea for July 24, 1994, a day of the 9-day ozone episode to understand the characteristics of photochemical air pollution problems in the area. The modeling domain was 60km$\times$60km with the girl size of 2km$\times$2km. As the base case emissions, air pollutant emission data of the National Institute of Environmental Research, Korea for the year of 1991 were used with modifications based on EKMA(Empirical Kinetic Modeling Approach) resutls. Comparisons between predicted and observed concentrations showed that the model predicted the peak concentration over the domain reasonably. It was found that the location of the peak ozone concentration was mainly decided by metorological conditions. But the model could not resolve the spatial variations of concentration station by station, which was mainly caused by localized variations in emission and meteorology.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2001

The high-ozone episode in the Greater Seoul Area for the period of July 27 to August 1 1997 was modeled by the CIT(California Institute of Technology) three-dimensional photochemical model. Emission data were prepared by scaling the NIER(1994) data through and optimization method using VOC measurements in August 1997 and EKMA(Empirical Kinetic Modeling Approach). Two sets of meteorological data were prepared by the diagnostic routine. a part of the CIT model : one only utilized observations from the surface weather stations and the other also utilized observations from the automatic weather stations that were more densely distributed than those from the surface weather stations. The results showed that utilizing observations from the automatic weather stations could represent fine variations in the sind field such as those caused by topography. A better wind field gave better peak ozones and a more reasonable spatial distribution of ozone concentrations. Nevertheless, there were still many differences between predictions and observations particularly for primary pollutant such as NOx and CO. This was probably due to the inaccuracy of emission data that could not resolve both temporal and spatial variations.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.573-591
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• 2010

In this study, trends of heat waves in the populous Seoul metropolitan area over the last 100 years (1908-2007) and spatio-temporal patterns of extreme heat waves and excessive human mortality are examined. In spite of recent global warming, there is no observable increasing or decreasing pattern in the frequency and intensity of heat waves in Seoul due to increases of summer precipitation. Among numerous episodes over the last 100 years in Seoul, 1994 summer is recognized as the unprecedented, most extreme hot episode with long-lasting, intense heat waves Meteorological data observed at the Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and land surface temperature data derived from Landsat TM satellite imagery in July 1994 reveal that extreme heat waves cause more abnormal increase of elderly mortality in the urbanized areas than in the surroundings covered with more vegetation. This study provides bioclimatological evidences of why urban thermal environments should be seriously considered in the future urban revitalization planning.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.752-758
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• 1994

From July 1983 to December 1992, 145 patients with mitral valvular disease underwent open heart surgery at Chonbuk National University Hospital. Of these patients, 89 patients[61.4%] required mitral valve replacement. 56 patients [38.6 %] had mitral valve repair. There were 32 women and 24 men and the mean age was 34.3 years[range 6 years to 62 years].There were 23 cases of pure mitral stenosis, 19 cases of mitral regurgitation and 14 cases of mixedmitral valvular disease. The mean duration of symptom was 4.53 years and mean mitral valvularorifice diameter[in cases of pure stenosis and mixed mitral valvular lesion] was 0.96 cm. According to the NYHA classification, the distribution of patients preoperatively was as follows; class IIa, 15 patients; class lib, 17 patients; class III, 22 patients; class IV, 2 patients. Four patients[7%] had an embolic history preoperatively. 24 patients[ 43 %] were in atrial fibrillation. In cases of pure mitral stenosis, the technique used included open mitral commissurotomy[21atients], open mitral commissurotomy with mitral annuloplasty[2 patients]. In mixed mitral valvular disease, open mitral commissurotomy[ll patients] and open mitral commissurotomy with mitral annuloplasty[l patient] were performed. In cases of mitral regurgitation, mitral annuloplasty[5 patients], mitral valvuloplasty[6 patients], mitral annuloplasty with valvuloplasty [3 patients] and ring annuloplasty [5 patients] were performed.There was one perioperative death related to acute renal failure and sepsis. One late death was occurred related to heart failure after 10 months postoperatively. One patient required reoperation due to restenosis and no embolic episode was occured. After operation, 34 patients were in NYHA functional class I, 20 patients were in class IIa.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.283-290
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• 2005

Objectives : The aim of this paper was to examine the relationship between the summertime (June to August) heat index, which quantifies the bioclimatic apparent temperature in sultry weather, and the daily disease-related mortality in Seoul for the period from 1991 to 2000. Methods : The daily maximum (or minimum) summertime heat indices, which show synergetic apparent temperatures, were calculated from the six hourly temperatures and real time humidity data for Seoul from 1991 to 2000. The disease-related daily mortality was extracted with respect to types of disease, age and sex, etc. and compared with the time series of the daily heat indices. Results : The summertime mortality in 1994 exceeded the normal by 626 persons. Specifically, blood circulation-related and cancer-related mortalities increased in 1994 by 29.7% (224 persons) and 15.4% (107 persons), respectively, compared with those in 1993. Elderly persons, those above 65 years, were shown to be highly susceptible to strong heat waves, whereas the other age and sex-based groups showed no significant difference in mortality. In particular, a heat wave episode on the 22nd of July 2004 ($>45^{\circ}C$ daily heat index) resulted in double the normal number of mortalities after a lag time of 3 days. Specifically, blood circulation-related mortalities, such as cerebral infraction, were predominant causes. Overall, a critical mortality threshold was reached when the heat index exceeded approximately $37^{\circ}C$, which corresponds to human body temperature. A linear regression model based on the heat indices above $37^{\circ}C$, with a 3 day lag time, accounted for 63% of the abnormally increased mortality (${\geq}+2$ standard deviations). Conclusions : This study revealed that elderly persons, those over 65 years old, are more vulnerable to mortality due to abnormal heat waves in Seoul, Korea. When the daily maximum heat index exceeds approximately $37^{\circ}C$, blood circulation-related mortality significantly increases. A linear regression model, with respect to lag-time, showed that the heat index based on a human model is a more dependable indicator for the prediction of hot weather-related mortality than the ambient air temperature.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.610-615
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• 2008

Purpose : Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a relatively common hematological disease in children. It generally occurs after exposure to a common viral infection episode; however, it may occasionally follow immunization with measles, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), hepatitis B (HBV), influenza, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP), or chickenpox vaccines. In this study, the incidence, clinical characteristics, and treatment outcome of vaccination-associated ITP were investigated and compared with non-vaccination-associated ITP. Methods : The admission records of 105 pediatric ITP patients between 0-14 years of age admitted to Department of Pediatrics, Wonkwang University Hospital from January 1994 to July 2007 were retrospecitively reviewed. Patients were grouped into a vaccination-associated group and a non-vaccination-associated group according to vaccination history within the previous 1 month, and various clinical features between the two groups were statistically analyzed. Results : Thirteen patients (12%) had a preceding vaccination. Eight had received DTP vaccination, 2 had received hepatitis B, and 1 each had received influenza, MMR, and Japanese B encephalitis vaccination. However, none of the patients had a recurrent thrombocytopenia after subsequent vaccinations. In the vaccination-associated group, the age was significantly lower, anemia was more common, and the risk period with blood platelet count $<20{\times}10^9/L$ was significantly shorter than for the in non-vaccination-associated group. Also, wet purpura was less prominent and the remission within 1month was more frequently achieved in the vaccination-associated ITP group. Conclusion : Vaccination-associated ITP patients showed mild symptoms with a more benign and shorter lasting course than non-vaccination-associated ITP patients. Moreover, platelet count assessment at the time of the next immunization may not be necessary.