• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.149-156
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• 1999

In the United States (U.S.), the monitored natural attenuation (MNA) approach has been used as an alternative remedial option for organic and inorganic compounds retained in soil and dissolved in groundwater. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines the MNA as“in-situ naturally-occurring processes include biodegradation, diffusion, dilution, sorption, volatilization, and/or chemical and biochemical stabilization of contaminants and reduce contaminant toxicity, mobility or volume to the levels that are protective of human health and the environment”. The Department of Soil Environment. National Institute Environmental Research (NIER) is in the process for demonstrating the MNA approach as a potential remedial option for the BTEX contaminated site in Uiwang City. The project is charactering the research site in terms of the nature and extend of contamination, biological degradation rate, and geochemical and hydrological properties. The microbial-degradation rate and effectiveness of nutrient and redox supplements will be determined through laboratory batch and column tests. The geochemical process will be monitored for determining the concentration changes of chemical species involved in the electron transfer processes that include methanogenesis, sulfate and iron reduction, denitrification, and aerobic respiration. Through field works, critical soil and hydrogeologic parameters will be acquired to simulate the effects of dispersion, advection, sorption, and biodegradation on the fate and transport of the dissolved-phase BTEX plume using Bioplume III model. The objectives of this multi-years research project are (1) to evaluate the MNA approach using the BTEX contaminated site in Uiwang City, (2) to establish a standard protocol for future application of the approach, (3) to investigate applicability of the passive approach as a secondary treatment remedy after active treatments. In this presentation, the overall picture and philosophy behind the MNA approach will be reviewed. Detailed discussions of the site characterization/monitoring plans and risk-based decision-making processes for the demonstration site will be included.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.213-260
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• 2009

While the medical supplies have positive functions such as extending lifespan, recovering health, and preventing diseases, they also cause unexpected tragic consequences due to their side effects, and the magnitude of such damage inevitably increases due to the mechanism of mass production, mass distribution, and mass consumption of those medical supplies. Therefore, needless to say, the optimal way to prevent or reduce such damage is rather through medical supply manufacturers' producing non-defective products, or through the government's controlling production and sales of medical supplies with more aggressive exercise of regulatory authority on medical supply manufacturers, than through a remedy by a legal relief after using medical supplies. In this case, although the victim died due to the defect of the cold medicine, 'CONTAC 600', the drug company's responsibility to cover damages was not recognized because a defect could not be found in the then-manufacturing process. Thus, while pharmaceutical companies are gaining economic profits by producing and selling a medical supplies, if they do not take any remedy measures for the victims of their products' side effects, the victims have to use medical supplies under their own responsibility of taking a risk, and they have to accept the full damage of the potential consequence. Therefore, to remove such absurdity and contradiction, and to practically remedy the victim of medical supplies' side effects, the pharmaceutical side effects remedy project pending in the the Drugs, Cosmetics and Medical Instruments Lawneeds to be actively implemented.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.394-399
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• 2010

During the last three years (2007 to 2009), 1,212 articles of SCI journals, 451 articles of non-SCI journals, and 348 items of registered patents were reported by the research scientists involved in the BioGreen 21 Project, Rural Development Administration and Crop Functional Genomics Center (CFGC), The 21st century Frontier Program, in Korea. Out of these, the percentages of articles or patents directly related to the development of GM plants were 6.0% (SCI), 10.2% (non-SCI) and 12.6% (patents) from BioGreen 21 Project while 15.7% (SCI), 21.1% (non-SCI) and 81.6% (patents) from CFGC, respectively. It was observed that rice and pepper were major host crops for genetic modification mainly to provide the resistance or tolerance activities against to biotic as well as abiotic stresses. Very low cases were reported for the field test of GM plants regarding to the commercialization (less than 15 articles). These observations indicates that more research grants needs to be invested for the risk assessment of GM plants under early developmental stage to commercialize in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.35-44
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to predict more accurate construction costs and to support efficient decision making in the planning and design stages of smart education facilities. The higher the error in the projected cost, the more risk a project manager takes. If the manager can predict a more accurate construction cost in the early stages of a project, he/she can secure a decision period and support a more rational decision. During the planning and design stages, there is a limited amount of variables that can be selected for the estimating model. Moreover, since the number of completed smart schools is limited, there is little data. In this study, various artificial intelligence models were used to accurately predict the construction cost in the planning and design phase with limited variables and lack of performance data. A theoretical study on an artificial neural network and deep learning was carried out. As the artificial neural network has frequent problems of overfitting, it is found that there is a problem in practical application. In order to overcome the problem, this study suggests that the improved models of Deep Neural Network and Deep Belief Network are more effective in making accurate predictions. Deep Neural Network (DNN) and Deep Belief Network (DBN) models were constructed for the prediction of construction cost. Average Error Rate and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) were calculated to compare the error and accuracy of those models. This study proposes a cost prediction model that can be used practically in the planning and design stages.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.347-359
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• 2021

Recently, construction projects have emerged in the form of program management, which is complicated by the large-scale of construction, and requires astronomical construction costs. In particular, projects that absolutely require management at the program level, such as large-scale construction projects, require overall control of the planned schedule and cost as a set of various projects, including infrastructure. But in Korea, there is no specific management standard for delays in construction. In order to avoid the risk of cost increase and project delay in the program-level construction project, it is necessary to apply more systematic management standards to prevent delay and to take a more preemptive response in the construction process. Therefore, in this study, a delay management index (DMI) was developed to successfully carry out large-scale construction projects at the program level and prevent delays in advance. In addition, case studies were conducted for large-scale construction projects, and a delay prevention system was established for program-level construction projects.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.324-333
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• 2022

Background: The Korean scarlet dwarf, Nannophya koreana Bae (Odonata: Libellulidae), is anendangered dragonfly with an increasing risk of extinction owing to rapid climate changes and human activities. To prevent extinction, the N. koreana population and their habitat should be protected. Therefore, suitable habitat evaluation is important to build the N. koreana restoration project. The habitat suitability index model (HSI) has been widely used for habitat evaluation in diverse organisms. Results: To build a suitable HSI model for N. koreana, 16 factors were examined by seven experienced researchers. A field survey for N. koreana observed sites and spatial analysis were conducted to improve the model. Five factors were finally selected by this procedure (crown density, open water surface, water depth, pioneer plant cover, and type of water source). Finally, the N. koreana HSI model was generated with the five adjusted factors based on interview, field survey, and spatial analysis. This model was validated by a current N. koreana habitat in 2021. With this model, 46 sites in Uljin-gun, Korea, were surveyed for N. koreana habitats; five sites were identified as core habitats and seven as potential core habitats. Conclusions: This model will serve as a strong foundation for the N. koreana restoration project and as a reference for future studies on N. koreana and other endangered insect populations. Further analysis and long-term data will improve the efficacy of this model and restore endangered wildlife.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 2022

Background: This retrospective study investigated the incidence rate of accidental foreign body aspiration and ingestion according to patient sex, age, and dental department. This study aimed to verify whether the incidence rate is higher in geriatric than in younger patients and whether it is different among dental departments. Methods: Accidental foreign body aspiration and ingestion cases were collected from electronic health records and the safety report system of Yonsei University Dental Hospital from January 2011 to December 2017. The collected data included patients' age, sex, medical conditions, treatment procedures, and foreign objects that were accidentally aspirated or ingested. The incidence rate was calculated as the number of accidental foreign body aspirations and ingestions relative to the total number of patient visits. Differences depending on the patients' sex, age, and dental department were statistically identified. Results: There were 2 aspiration and 37 ingestion cases during the 7-year analysis period. The male to female incidence ratio was 2.8:1. The incidence rate increased with age and increased rapidly among those aged 80 years or older. Seven of the 37 patients with accidental foreign body ingestion had intellectual disability, Lou Gehrig's disease, dystonia, or oral and maxillofacial cancer. The incidence rate was highest in the Predoctoral Student Clinic and the Department of Prosthodontics. The most frequently swallowed objects were fixed dental prostheses and dental implant components. Conclusion: The incidence rate of accidental foreign body aspiration and ingestion differed according to patient sex, age, and dental department. Dental practitioners must identify high-risk patients and apply various methods to prevent accidental foreign body aspiration and ingestion in dental clinics. Inexperienced practitioners should be particularly careful.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.314-314
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• 2023

Extreme climate events can have a large impact on human life by hampering social, environmental, and economic development. Global circulation models (GCMs) are the widely used numerical models to understand the anticipated future climate change. However, different GCMs can project different future climates due to structural differences, varying initial boundary conditions and assumptions about the physical phenomena. The multi-model ensemble (MME) approach can improve the uncertainties associated with the different GCM outcomes. In this study, a comprehensive rating metric was used to select the best-performing GCMs out of 11 CMIP5 and 13 CMIP6 GCMs, according to their skills in terms of four temporal and five spatial performance indices, in replicating the 21 extreme climate indices during the baseline (1975-2017) in South Korea. The MME data were derived by averaging the simulations from all selected GCMs and three top-ranked GCMs. The random forest (RF) algorithm was also used to derive the MME data from the three top-ranked GCMs. The RF-derived MME data of the three top-ranked GCMs showed the highest performance in simulating the baseline extreme climate which was subsequently used to project the future extreme climate indices under both the representative concentration pathway (RCP) and the socioeconomic concentration pathway scenarios (SSP). The extreme cold and warming indices had declining and increasing trends, respectively, and most extreme precipitation indices had increasing trends over the period 2031-2100. Compared to all scenarios, RCP8.5 showed drastic changes in future extreme climate indices. The coasts in the east, south and west had stronger warming than the rest of the country, while mountain areas in the north experienced more extreme cold. While extreme cold climatology gradually declined from north to south, extreme warming climatology continuously grew from coastal to inland and northern mountainous regions. The results showed that the socially, environmentally and agriculturally important regions of South Korea were at increased risk of facing the detrimental impacts of extreme climatology.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.432-439
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• 2009

This research project was carried out to develop the technique to assess quantitatively and rapidly the stability of a tunnel by using the measured displacement at the tunnel construction site under excavation. To achieve this purpose, a critical strain concept was introduced and applied to an assessment of a tunnel under construction. The new technique calculates numerically the strains of the surrounding ground by using the measured displacements during excavation. A numerical practical system was developed based on the proposed analysis technique in this study. The feasibility of the developed analysis module was verified by incorporating the analysis results obtained by commercial programs into the developed analysis module. To verify the feasibility of the developed analysis module, analysis results of models both elastic and elasto-plastic grounds were investigated for the circular tunnel design. Then the measured displacements obtained in the field are utilized practically to assess the safety of tunnels using critical strain concept. It was verified that stress conditions of in-situ ground and ground material properties were accurately assessed by inputting the calculated displacement obtained by commercial program into this module for the elastic ground. However for the elasto-plastic ground, analysis module can reproduce the initial conditions more closely for the soft rock ground than for the weathered soil ground. The stability of tunnels evaluated with two types of strains, that is, the strains obtained by dividing the crown displacement into a tunnel size and the strains obtained by using the analysis module. From this study, it is confirmed that the critical strain concept can be fully adopted within the engineering judgment in practical tunnel problems and the developed module can be used as a reasonable tool for the assessment of the tunnel stability in the field.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.962-969
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• 2009

The market of building construction has been competitive in Hong Kong, perhaps as anywhere else in the world. The barrier to entry is low because there are relatively low requirements on the three factors of production - technology, manpower and finance. The prevailing building technology is traditional and labour-intensive. There is also not much need of capital because clients' periodic payments have been the main source of project finance. Further, capitalizing on trade sub-contracting, contractors have been able to keep their direct labour-force small and to transfer much of their business risk to the sub-contractors. Based on interviews to solicit the perception of a sample of building contractors on the particular issues of construction finance, we present the findings in this paper and discuss the various implications. We believe that the current practice of construction financing is both the cause and effect of the competition within, and the competitiveness of, the building construction sector in Hong Kong. We conclude that the building construction sector is "locked or stuck" in this "equilibrium" of traditional technology, reliance on clients' finance and exploitation of sub-contracting. In this "equilibrium" state, there is hardly any motivation for contractors to engage themselves in product or process innovation. Consequently, any talk of industry reform or innovation could only remain just that. We believe that this problem is not unique in Hong Kong. The building construction sector in many other developed and developing economies is posed with similar if not the same problems and constraints. We conclude that there has to be some "external forces" to bring this "equilibrium" state to a higher level "equilibrium" one where higher value-added building construction services are supplied and demanded. This is a state where building contractors possessing innovative technology, better financial and manpower resources could thrive to build better buildings with innovative building methods and processes.