• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.382-392
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• 2018

Objective: Allergic diseases such as asthma due to fungal exposure in houses have increased, and proper management is urgent. Mold can grow in the air, floor, walls, and other areas according to environmental conditions, and there are many limitations to the conventional methodology for examining fungal exposure. For this reason, the degree of fungal contamination is being evaluated by ERMI (Environmental Relative Moldiness Index), a quantitative analysis method proposed by the EPA. In this study, we compared ERMI values between water-damaged dwellings and non-damaged ones to evaluate the effectiveness of Korean ERMI values. We also explored the association of ERMI values with the level of airborne mold and characteristics of dwellings. Methods: Floor dust was collected after installing a Dustream collector on the suction port of a vacuum cleaner. The collected samples were filtered to remove only 5 mg of dust, and DNA was extracted using the FastDNA SPIN KIT protocol. Results: The ERMI values were found to be 19.6 (-6.9-58.8) for flooded houses, 7.5 (-29.2-48.3) for leaks/condensation, and 0.8 (-29.2-37.9) for non-damaged dwellings. The airborne concentration of mold for flooded, leakage or condensed, and non-damaged houses were $684CFU/m^3$, $566CFU/m^3$, and $378CFU/m^3$, respectively. The correlation between ERMI values and the levels of airborne mold was low (R = 0.038), but a weakly significant association of the ERMI values with the concentration of particulate matter ($PM_{10}$) was observed as well(R=0.231,P<0.05). Conclusions: Our findings show that the reference value using ERMI can be used to distinguish water-damaged and non-damaged dwellings. It is believed that ERMI values could be a promising tool for assessing long-term fungal exposure in dwellings.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.165-173
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• 2019

Lithium anodes (13, 15, 17, and 20 wt% Li) were fabricated by mixing molten lithium and iron powder, which was used as a binder to hold the molten lithium, at about $500^{\circ}C$ (discharge temp.). In this study, the effect of applied pressure and lithium content on the discharge properties of a thermal battery's single cell was investigated. A single cell using a Li anode with a lithium content of less than 15 wt% presented reliable performance without any abrupt voltage drop resulting from molten lithium leakage under an applied pressure of less than $6kgf/cm^2$. Furthermore, it was confirmed that even when the solid electrolyte is thinner, the Li anode of the single cell normally discharges well without a deterioration in performance. The Li anode of the single cell presented a significantly improved open-circuit voltage of 2.06 V, compared to that of a Li-Si anode (1.93 V). The cut-off voltage and specific capacity were 1.83 V and $1,380As\;g^{-1}$ (Li anode), and 1.72 V and $1,364As\;g^{-1}$ (Li-Si anode). Additionally, the Li anode exhibited a stable and flat discharge curve until 1.83 V because of the absence of phase change phenomena of Li metal and a subsequent rapid voltage drop below 1.83 V due to the complete depletion of Li at the end state of discharge. On the other hand, the voltage of the Li-Si anode cell decreased in steps, $1.93V{\rightarrow}1.72V(Li_{13}Si_4{\rightarrow}Li_7Si_3){\rightarrow}1.65V(Li_7Si_3{\rightarrow}Li_{12}Si_7)$, according to the Li-Si phase changes during the discharge reaction. The energy density of the Li anode cell was $807.1Wh\;l^{-1}$, which was about 50% higher than that of the Li-Si cell ($522.2Wh\;l^{-1}$).

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.129-167
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• 2021

The emission trading system is an essential policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and converting low-carbon society. EU ETS is a good benchmark that is ahead of Korea's emission trading system in terms of operating period and design know-how. Therefore, this study focused on the key design elements of EU ETS phase 4 such as total emission allowances issued (Cap), free allocation method, carbon leakage list, market stability reserve, and innovation supporting system. In addition, we analyzed the impact of key design elements and their changes during EU ETS Phase 1 to 4 on the design and operation of Korea emission trading system in the future. First of all, the expected impact on the design of Korea emission trading system is to increase three demands: preparing benchmark renewal plans, establishing criteria for selecting free allocation industries that reflect domestic industrial structure and characteristics and introducing two-stage evaluations for free allocation industries, and preparing specific plan to support innovation and industries using allowance auction revenues. The next three impacts on the operation of Korea emission trading system are the increased needs for objective and in-depth impact assessment of plan and amendments, provision of system stability and response opportunities by quickly confirming plan and amendments prior to the implementation, and coordination of the emission trading system governance and stakeholder participation encouragement.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.33-39
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• 2022

For a slag-cement-bentonite (slag-CB) cut-off wall, GGBS replaces a part of the cement mixed to build a CB cut-off wall, which is used to block the flow and leakage of pollutants or groundwater; prevent seawater infiltration; and repair or reinforcement an aged embankments. Slag-CB cut-off walls are used in various applications in different fields where groundwater control is required due to its excellent characteristics. Such properties include high strength, low permeability, high durability and chemical resistance. However, despite these advantages, slag-CB cut-off walls are not extensively studied in Korea and thus are not applied in many cases. Particularly, GGBS, which replaces cement in a mixture, has different properties depending on its country of production. Consequently, it is necessary to perform various studies on slag-CB cut-off walls that use GGBS produced in Korea in order to increase its usability. This study has evaluated the bleeding rate, setting time, strength, and permeability in relation to the cement replacement rate of GGBS produced in Korea for slag-CB cut-off walls, with the aim to increase its usability. The evaluation found that slag-CB cut-off walls, made of a mixture containing GGBS produced in Korea, have a lower bleeding rate and permeability, and higher strengththan CB cut-off walls. It was also analyzed that such improved performance is more effective with a higher cement replacement rate of GGBS.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.7-15
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• 2022

Since the direct and indirect damage caused by the fire in the underground utility tunnel will cause great damage to society as a whole, it is necessary to make efforts to prevent and control it in advance. The most of the fires that occur in cables are caused by short circuits, earth leakage, ignition due to over-current, overheating of conductor connections, and ignition due to sparks caused by breakdown of insulators. In order to find the cause of fire at an early stage due to the characteristics of the underground utility tunnel and to prevent disasters and safety accidents, we are constantly managing it with a detection system using image analysis and making efforts. Among them, a case of developing a fire detection system using CCTV-based deep learning image analysis technology has been reported. However, CCTV needs to be supplemented because there are blind spots. Therefore, we would like to develop a high-performance acoustic-based deep learning model that can prevent fire by detecting the spark sound before spark occurs. In this study, we propose a method that can collect sound in underground utility tunnel environments using microphone sensor through development and experiment of prototype module. After arranging an acoustic sensor in the underground utility tunnel with a lot of condensation, it verifies whether data can be collected in real time without malfunction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.363-368
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• 2021

Ship engine rooms have improved automation systems owing to the advancement of technology. However, there are many variables at sea, such as wind, waves, vibration, and equipment aging, which cause loosening, cutting, and leakage, which are not measured by automated systems. There are cases in which only one engineer is available for patrolling. This entails many risk factors in the engine room, where rotating equipment is operating at high temperature and high pressure. When the engineer patrols, he uses his five senses, with particular high dependence on vision. We hereby present a preliminary study to implement an engine-room patrol robot that detects and informs the machine room while a robot patrols the engine room. Images of ship engine-room equipment were classified using a convolutional neural network (CNN). After constructing the image dataset of the ship engine room, the network was trained with a pre-trained CNN model. Classification performance of the trained model showed high reproducibility. Images were visualized with a class activation map. Although it cannot be generalized because the amount of data was limited, it is thought that if the data of each ship were learned through transfer learning, a model suitable for the characteristics of each ship could be constructed with little time and cost expenditure.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.267-280
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• 2023

With development of computing and communications technologies, IoT environments based on high-speed networks have been extending rapidly. Especially, from home to an office or a factory, applications of IoT devices with sensing environment and performing computations are increasing. Unfortunately, IoT devices which have limited hardware resources can be vulnerable to cyber attacks. Hence, there is a concern that an IoT botnet can give rise to information leakage as a national cyber security crisis arising from abuse as a malicious waypoint or propagation through connected networks. In order to response in advance from unknown cyber threats in IoT networks, in this paper, We firstly define four types of We firstly define four types of characteristics by analyzing darknet traffic accessed from an IoT botnet. Using the characteristic, a suspicious IP address is filtered quickly. Secondly, the filtered address is identified by Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) or Open Source INTelligence (OSINT) in terms of an unknown suspicious host. The identified IP address is finally fingerprinted to determine whether the IP is a malicious host or not. To verify a validation of the proposed method, we apply to a Darknet on real-world SOC. As a result, about 1,000 hosts who are detected and blocked preemptively by the proposed method are confirmed as real IoT botnets.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.21-36
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• 2022

Purpose - Carbon emission standards are based on the "production-based carbon emissions" generated by the production of goods in the relevant country which were the existing measurement methods. However, can such carbon emissions measurement standards be established international? For example, some of the goods produced in developing countries are produced for the demand of developed countries. The method of measuring carbon emission based on the final demand of a certain country is called "consumption-based carbon emissions." This study compares productionand consumption-based CO₂ emissions according to economic growth in ninety-three countries categorized by income level. Design/methodology - Our empirical model considers the difference between production- and consumption-based CO₂ emissions according to economic growth. Also, our model investigated whether the EKC hypothesis in most of the previous studies that had been based on production-based emissions was also established in the consumption-based emission model. Considering the continuous characteristics of CO₂, we utilized the generalized method of moments (GMM), specifically a system GMM econometric technique because CO₂ in the previous period can affect CO₂ in the present period. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follows: The results show that for the consumption-based CO₂ emissions model, CO₂ continuously increases as economic growth increases in the upper-middle income countries. The inverted U-shaped result was found in the case of the production-based model. However, in the lower-income countries, an inverted-U shape in which CO₂ emissions decrease at some point as the economy grows in the production-based model does not appear. On the other hand, in the consumption-based model, an inverted U-shaped result was obtained when estimating with system-GMM. Additionally, the proportion of manufacturing, energy imports, and energy consumption had an effect on both the production- and the consumption-based model regardless of the group's CO₂ emissions. On the basis of such assessments, policymakers need to consider not only production- but also consumption-based options. Originality/value - Previous studies have mainly focused on production-based CO₂ emissions, with most of them revolving around economic growth or the effect of various social and economic factors on CO₂ emissions. However, this study considers the relationship with economic growth using consumption-based emissions as a dependent variable by classifying ninety-three countries by income level.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.221-229
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• 2023

Extracted from the metropolitan area, the Paldang Lake, which supplies approximately 8 million tons of water, has achieved a BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) of 1.1 mg/L as a result of water quality preservation policies. However, concerning the COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) component that encompasses refractory organic matter, there has been an observable upward trend in concentration. The introduction of refractory organic matter into the water source of Paldang Lake brings potential increments in BOD, generates off-putting tastes and odors in tap water, increases THM (Trihalomethane) formation, and triggers algae proliferation. Moreover, if residual hazardous refractory pollutants persist in aquatic environments, they may induce endocrine disruption and phenomena such as antibiotic resistance. In this study, a monitoring campaign was executed to discern the concentration of refractory organic matter emissions from point and non-point sources within Paldang Lake and its upstream region, with the aim of managing refractory organic matter in Paldang Lake. By comparing refractory organic matter emission concentrations across monitored areas, the elimination efficiency at wastewater treatment plants was assessed. Additionally, employing the Pearson correlation correlation analysis technique, correlations among refractory organic matter indices, antecedent wet days, and antecedent dry days were explored. The concentrations of refractory organic matter in rivers and Paldang Lake exhibited a similar pattern. Wastewater treatment plant effluents exhibited higher concentrations compared to rivers and Paldang Lake. The assessment of refractory organic matter removal at wastewater treatment plants indicated a removal efficiency of 65.73%. However, no significant correlation emerged between refractory organic matter emission concentration and antecedent wet days or priory antecedent dry days. This absence of correlation is attributed to data scarcity, underscoring the need for long-term monitoring and data accumulation.