• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.12
• /
• pp.5917-5935
• /
• 2012

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes acute and chronic human hepatitis infection and as such is an important global health problem. The virus was discovered in the USA in 1989 and it is now known that three to four million people are infected every year, WHO estimating that 3 percent of the 7 billion people worldwide being chronically infected. Humans are the natural hosts of HCV and this virus can eventually lead to permanent liver damage and carcinoma. HCV is a member of the Flaviviridae family and Hepacivirus genus. The diameter of the virus is about 50-60 nm and the virion contains a single-stranded positive RNA approximately 10,000 nucleotides in length and consisting of one ORF which is encapsulated by an external lipid envelope and icosahedral capsid. HCV is a heterogeneous virus, classified into 6 genotypes and more than 50 subtypes. Because of the genome variability, nucleotide sequences of genotypes differ by approximately 31-34%, and by 20-23% among subtypes. Quasi-species of mixed virus populations provide a survival advantage for the virus to create multiple variant genomes and a high rate of generation of variants to allow rapid selection of mutants for new environmental conditions. Direct contact with infected blood and blood products, sexual relationships and availability of injectable drugs have had remarkable effects on HCV epidemiology. Hundreds of thousands of people die each year from hepatitis and liver cancer caused by HCV virus infection. Approximately 80% of patients with acute hepatitis C progress into a chronic disease state leading to serious hepatic disorders, 10-20% of which develop chronic liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The incubation period of HCV is 6-8 weeks and the infection is often asymptomatic so it is very hard to detect at early stages, making early treatment very difficult. Therefore, hepatitis C is called a "silent disease". Neutralizing antibodies are produced against several HCV proteins during infection but the virus mutates to escape from antibodies. Some patients with chronic hepatitis C may have some symptoms such as fatigue, muscle aches, nausea and pain. Autoimmune and immunecomplex-mediated diseases have also been reported with chronic HCV infection.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.109-116
• /
• 2004

Petroleum reservoir characterization is a process for quantitatively describing various reservoir properties in spatial variability using all the available field data. Porosity and permeability are the two fundamental reservoir properties which relate to the amount of fluid contained in a reservoir and its ability to flow. These properties have a significant impact on petroleum fields operations and reservoir management. In un-cored intervals and well of heterogeneous formation, porosity and permeability estimation from conventional well logs has a difficult and complex problem to solve by conventional statistical methods. This paper suggests an intelligent technique using fuzzy logic and neural network to determine reservoir properties from well logs. Fuzzy curve analysis based on fuzzy logics is used for selecting the best related well logs with core porosity and permeability data. Neural network is used as a nonlinear regression method to develop transformation between the selected well logs and core analysis data. The intelligent technique is demonstrated with an application to the well data in offshore Korea. The results show that this technique can make more accurate and reliable properties estimation compared with previously used methods. The intelligent technique can be utilized a powerful tool for reservoir characterization from well logs in oil and natural gas development projects.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.525-534
• /
• 2014

Microsatellite markers were used to identify 58 major commercial melon cultivars, and to assess hybrid seed purity of a melon breeding line known as '10H08'. A set of 412 microsatellite primer pairs were utilized for fingerprinting of the melon cultivars. Twenty-nine markers showed hyper-variability and could discriminate all cultivars on the basis of marker genotypes, representing the genetic variation within varietal groups. Cluster analysis based on Jaccard's distance coefficients using the UPGMA algorithm categorized 2 major groups, which were in accordance to morphological traits. The DNA bulks of female and male parents of breeding line '10H08' were tested with 29 primer pairs based on microsatellites to investigate purity testing of $F_1$ hybrid seeds, and 5 primer pairs exhibited polymorphism. One microsatellite primer pair (CMGAN12) produced unambiguous polymorphic bands among the parents. Among 192 seeds tested with CMGAN12, progeny possibly generated by self-pollination of the female parent were clearly distinguished from the hybrid progeny. These markers will be useful for fingerprinting melon cultivars and can help private seed companies to improve melon seed purity.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.33 no.4 s.92
• /
• pp.342-349
• /
• 2000

This paper demonstrates the influence of intensity of the monsoon on morpho-hydrological fluctuations in Taechung Reservoir during 1993${\sim}$1994. During the study, hydrological variables including rainfall, inflow, and discharge volume showed distinct contrast between 1993 and 1994. Interannaul differences in rainfall occurred during the monsoon in July${\sim}$August monsoon and influenced inflow, discharge, and water residence time (WRT). Total inflow in 1993 was four times greater than that of 1994, and summer inflow in 1993 was 8 times greater than summer 1994. Annual Mean WRT was 93.2 d in 1993 vs. 158.6 d in 1994 and the largest differences occurred between monsoons of 1993 and 1994. Morphometric variables reflected the interannual contrasts of hydrology, so that in 1993 surface area, total volume, shoreline development, and mean depth increased consistently from premonsoon to postmonsoon and over this same period in 1994 they decreased. This outcome indicates that the area of shallow littoral zones in 1993 was greater than in 1994. Also, the drainage area to surface area (D/L) at 80 m MSL was 60.7 which was much greater than values in Soyang and Andong reservoirs and natural lakes world-wide. The morpho-hydrodynamic conditions seemed to influence in-reservoir nutrient concentration which is one of the most important factors regulating the eutrophication processes. I believe, under the maximum hydrodynamic fluctuations in Korean waterbodies during the monsoon, applications of mass balance models to man-made lakes for assessments of external loading should be considered because the models can be used under the seasonally stable inflow and water residence time.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.204-216
• /
• 2019

To evaluate the biological integrity of aquatic ecosystems, we developed Korean multimetric diatom index (KMDI) using metrics that many researchers have been previously described, and compared to single-metric diatom index such as trophic diatom index (TDI) and diatom assemblage index to organic pollution (DAIpo). For the biological and environmental data, we investigated the epilithic diatoms, water quality and the land-use for 923 sites in Korean streams between 2013-2017, and estuaries between 2010-2017, respectively. Five appropriate metrics were selected according to the following steps; 1) extraction of 300 potential metrics (biological, chemical, physical, and geographical) based on previous references, of these, 2) 46 samples having high separation power were selected, 3) the selected metrics were each tested for variability, redundancy, and sensitivity to the environments, finally 4) construction of multi-metric diatom index comprising single type metrics such as TDI, DAIpo, % motile diatoms, % Achnanthes / (Achnanthes+Navicula), and % number of Gomphonema species. The biological integrity of the 233 sites from the Geum River basin were independently investigated using KMDI. Collectively, the new KMDI showed high sensitivity and explanatory power for environmental factors such as land-use, biochemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, and electric conductivity. However, it had slightly higher biological integrity for the same sites as compared to single type diatom metrics. Finally, more data accumulation from all over Korea and the development of acceptable diatom metrics were required.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.541-554
• /
• 2014

Historical, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios from HadGEM2-AO are dynamically downscaled over the northeast East Asia with WRFV3.4. The horizontal resolution of the produced data is 12.5 km and the periods of integration are 1979~2010 for historical and 2019~2100 for both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. We analyze the time series, climatology, EOF and extreme climate in terms of 2 m-temperature and precipitation during 30-year for the Historical (1981~2010) and RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 (2071~2100) scenarios. According to the result, the temperature of the northeast Asia centered at the Korean Peninsula increase 2.9 and $4.6^{\circ}C$ in the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, respectively, by the end of the 21st century. The temperature increases with latitude and the increase is larger in winter rather than in summer. The annual mean precipitation is expected to increase by about $0.3mm\;day^{-1}$ in RCP4.5 scenario and $0.5mm\;day^{-1}$ in RCP8.5 scenario. The EOF analysis is also performed for both temperature and precipitation. For temperature, the EOF $1^{st}$ modes of all scenarios in summer and winter show that temperature increase with latitude. The $2^{nd}$ mode of EOF of each scenario shows the natural variability, exclusive of the global warming. The summer precipitation over the Korean Peninsula projected increases in EOF $1^{st}$ modes of all scenarios. For extreme climate, the increment of the number of days with daily maximum temperature above $30^{\circ}C$ per year ($DAY_{TX30}$) is 25.3 and 49.7 days in RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 respectively over the Korean Peninsula. The number of days with daily precipitation above $20mm\;day^{-1}$ per year ($DAY_{PR20}$) also increases 3.1 and 3.5 days in RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 respectively.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.49 no.5
• /
• pp.423-429
• /
• 2016

This study aims at assessing the quality of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) soil moisture products onboard GCOM-W1 satellite based on Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) soil moisture retrieval algorithm with field measurements in South Korea from March to September, 2014. Results of mean bias and root mean square error between AMSR2 LPRM soil moisture products (X-band) and ground measurements showed reasonable value of 0.03 and 0.16. Also, the maximum of the Pearson correlation coefficients was 0.67, which showed good agreement in terms of temporal variability with ground measurements. By comparing AMSR2 soil moisture with in-situ measurement according to the overpass time and band frequency, X-band products on the ascending time outperformed than those of C1-band and C2-band. Furthermore, this study offers an insight into the applicability of the AMSR2 soil moisture products for monitoring various natural disasters at a large scale such as drought and flood.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Emotion and Sensibility Conference
• /
• 1998.11a
• /
• pp.158-162
• /
• 1998

향에 의해 유발되는 감성에 대한 중추신경계 및 자율신경계의 반응의 변화를 측정하기 위해 안정시키는 향과 각성시키는 향을 사용하여 주관적 평가와 동시에 시행하였다. 안정시키는 향으로 1% Lavendar 향을 사용하였고, 각성시키는 향으로 0.8% Jasmin 향을 사용하였으며, 안정상태를 향자극 전후에 측정하여 대조군으로 사용하였다. 중추신경계의 지표로 뇌파측정을 하였고 뇌파의 전극은 international 10-20 system에서 4 채널을 사용하였으며, 자율신경계의 지표로는 심전도, heart rate, 피부저항, 피부온도를 기록하였다. 뇌파의 분석은 Fast Fourier Transform analysis의 power spectra로 하였고, 그 frequency bands는 theta(4-8Hz), alpha(8-l3Hz), beta(14-30Hz)로 하였다 또한 심전도를 이용하여 심전도 상의 연속적인 R-R peak간 시간간격을 시계열 데이터로 재구성한 Heart rate variability 분석도 하였다. HRV 분석을 보다 정확히 할 수 있도록 호흡이 심전도에 미치는 영향을 제거하기 위하여 호흡을 분당 20회로 일정하게 하였다 생체신호 측정과 동시에 실시한 주관적 검사에서 lavendar 향은 친숙하게, jasmin 향은 활기차고 상쾌하고 유쾌하게 평가되었다. 뇌파 분석에서 lavendar 향을 주었을 때 theta의 증가 양상을 보였으며, Jasmin 향을 주었을 때는 모든 채널에서 beta 파의 증가 양상을 보였다. 또한 HRV 분석 결과 부교삼신경의 활동성이 부각되는 HF/LF의 값이 lavendar에서는 대조 자극보다 높게 나타났으며, jasmin에서는 대조자극보다 낮은 값이 나타나는 경향을 보였다. 결론적으로 안정과 각성의 후각 자극으로 인한 감성의 변화를 뇌파와 자율신경계 등의 생체지표로 관찰할 수 있었다.정하는 감성요인의 차이를 알 수 있었으며 또한 essential oil에서는 성별 차이가 없는데 반해 페르몬 향의 경우 성별의 차이를 나타내었다.. 방법을 타액과 혈청내 testosterone 농도 측정에 응용하여 RIA의 결과와 비교하여 본 바 상관관계가 타액에서 r=0.969, 혈청에서 r=0.990으로 두 결과가 잘 일치하였다. 본 실험에서 측정된 한국인 여성의 타액내 testosterone농도는 107.7$\pm$12.0 pmol／l이었고, 남성의 타액내 농도는 274.2$\pm$22.1 pmol／l이었다. 이상의 결과로 보아 본 연구에서 정립된 EIA 방법은 RIA를 대신하여 소규모의 실험실에서도 활용할 수 있을 것으로 사려된다.또한 상실기 이후 배아에서 합성되며, 발생시기에 따라 그 영향이 다르고 팽창과 부화에 관여하는 것으로 사료된다. 더욱이, 조선의 ${\ulcorner}$구성교육${\lrcorner}$이 조선총독부의 관리하에서 실행되었다는 것을, 당시의 사범학교를 중심으로 한 교육조직을 기술한 문헌에 의해 규명시켰다.nd of letter design which represents -natural objects and was popular at the time of Yukjo Dynasty, and there are some documents of that period left both in Japan and Korea. "Hyojedo" in Korea is supposed to have been influenced by the letter design. Asite- is also considered to have been "Japanese Letter Jobcheso." Therefore, the purpose of this study is to loo

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.53 no.1
• /
• pp.46-54
• /
• 2020

Artificial and natural changes such as weir construction and climate change often cause abnormal blooming of organism. Therefore, variations in species community of organisms have been actively investigated to identify influential environmental changes on the fresh water ecosystem. In this study, we investigated Chironomidae community and environmental factors at 5 representative weirs (Ipo, IP; Sejong, SJ; Juksan, JS; Gangjeong-goryung, GG; and Dalsung weir) in 4 Korean major rivers to figure out relationship between Chironomidae community and environmental factors. Environmental factors indicating organic matter (total organic carbon, TOC and Chlorophyll-a, Chl-a) showed lower concentration in IP and SJ compared with other sites(JS, GG and DS). 3 sub-family 18 genus 25 species of Chironomidae community were found in this study. Among them, Chironominae was dominant in JS (Tanytarsus sp.1), GG (Polypedilum scalaenum) and DS (Polypedilum scalaenum), while different sub-family were dominant in IP (Orthcladinae, Tokunagayusurika akamushi) and SJ (Tanypodinae, Tanypus punctipennis). Moreover, based on the dominant species of Chironomidae community and environmental factors, the cluster analysis classified our study sites into 3 groups. These results imply that the diet resource is the most important factor for dominance of Chironomidae in Korean rivers. We also suggest that further study on the identification of diet resources for each Chironomidae specie is required for better understating of distribution in species community of Chironomidae at various ecosystems.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.42 no.1 s.118
• /
• pp.121-132
• /
• 2007

This paper examines the spatial and temporal variability in the water depth caused by artificial structures in Geum Estuary of South Korea. Water depth data set extracted from marine maps of 1979, 1990, 1996 and 2004 were used in a GIS to derive volumetric estimates of gains and losses of sedimentary material. Artificial structures caused above 2m in water depth to be shallow between 1979 and 2002 in the estuary system, particularly through disturbance of a natural transport in suspended sediment concentrations. The mutt significant change in suspended sediment transport were observed in area affected by embankment for fresh water, inducing the water depth shallower than before in almost 80% of the area. This was probably because of an continuous abundant mud supply from coastal river oven after blocking the fresh water. The spatial analysis made it possible to identify area wide patterns of water depth change subject to many different type of artificial structures, which tanner be acquired by traditional field sampling. It is anticipated thai this research could be used as a valuable reference to confirm the outputs from past field researches for sedimental process in more visual and quantitative manner.