• Mycobiology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.139-147
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• 2023

Aspergillus sojae has long been considered a domesticated strain of Aspergillus parasiticus. This study delineated relationships among the two species and an Aspergillus PWE36 isolate. Of 25 examined clustered aflatoxin genes of PWE36, 20 gene sequences were identical to those of A. sojae, but all had variations to those of A. parasiticus. Additionally, PWE36 developmental genes of conidiation and sclerotial formation, overall, shared higher degrees of nucleotide sequence identity with A. sojae genes than with A. parasiticus genes. Examination of defective cyclopiazonic acid gene clusters revealed that the PWE36 deletion pattern was identical only to those of A. sojae. Using A. sojae SMF134 genome sequence as a reference, visualization of locally collinear blocks indicated that PWE36 shared higher genome sequence homologies with A. sojae than with A. parasiticus. Phylogenetic inference based on genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and total SNP counts showed that A. sojae strains formed a monophyletic clade and were clonal. Two (Argentinian and Ugandan) A. parasiticus isolates but not including an Ethiopian isolate formed a monophyletic clade, which showed that A. parasiticus population is genetically diverse and distant to A. sojae. PWE36 and A. sojae shared a most recent common ancestor (MRCA). The estimated divergence time for PWE36 and A. sojae was about 0.4 mya. Unlike Aspergillus oryzae, another koji mold that includes genetically diverse populations, the findings that current A. sojae strains formed a monophyletic group and shared the MRCA with PWE36 allow A. sojae to be continuously treated as a species for food safety reasons.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.14-23
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• 2023

Purposes: The Specialty hospital designation policy had launched in 2011 and 110 designated specialty hospitals have been operating nationwide in 2022. This study was to estimate the market share of specialty hospitals for the specific diseases compared to other types of hospitals. Methodology: Data were derived from the National Health Insurance Claim data from 2018 to 2019. Subjects were all the inpatients with MDC(Major Disease Category) that specialty hospitals specialized in. A total of 34,231,387 claims were analyzed to estimate the market share. Findings: 90 specialty hospitals were responsible for 2.4 percent of inpatient care with specific diseases for specialty hospitals. There were regional variations in the market share of the specialty hospitals as the number of specialty hospitals in regions. Specialty hospitals' market shares were relatively high in burn(31.3%), ophthalmology(16.4%), obstetrics and gynecology(7.1%), alcohol(6.0%), joint(3.7%), spine(2.7%). After adjusting the number of inpatients per hospital, hospitals specialized in burn, alcohol, ophthalmology, breast, joint, obstetrics and gynecology, and hand replantation had treated more patients than tertiary hospitals. Practical Implications: Although specialty hospitals' market share was small, some types of specialty hospitals had an impact on the regional market as well as the national level market. To improve patients' accessibility to a specialty hospital, it is necessary to government supports non-specialized hospitals to change into specialty hospitals in certain fields and regions where the number of specialty hospitals is insufficient.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.247-258
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• 2015

Exposure of high concentration of ground-level ozone (GLO) can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, asthma, bronchitis and congestion. There are substantial human and animal toxicological data that support health effects associated with exposure to ozone and associations have been observed with a wide range of outcomes in epidemiological studies. The aim of the present study is to estimate the spatial distributions of GLO using geostatistical method (ordinary kriging) for assessing the exposure level of ozone in the eastern part of Texas, U.S.A. GLO data were obtained from 63 U.S. EPA's monitoring stations distributed in the region of study during the period January, 2012 to December, 2012. The descriptive statistics indicate that the spatial monthly mean of daily maximum 8 hour ozone concentrations ranged from 30.33 ppb (in January) to 48.05 (in June). The monthly mean of daily maximum 8 hour ozone concentrations was relatively low during the winter months (December, January, and February) and the higher values observed during the summer months (April, May, and June). The higher level of spatial variations observed in the months of July (Standard Deviation: 10.33) and August (Standard Deviation: 10.02). This indicates the existence of regional variations in climatic conditions in the study area. The range of the semivariogram models varied from 0.372 (in November) to 15.59 (in April). The value of the range represents the spatial patterns of ozone concentrations. Kriging maps revealed that the spatial patterns of ozone concentration were not uniform in each month. This may be due to uneven fluctuation in the local climatic conditions from one region to another. Thus, the formation and dispersion processes of ozone also change unevenly from one region to another. The ozone maps clearly indicate that the concentration values found maximum in the north-east region of the study area in most of the months. Part of the coastal area also showed maximum concentrations during the months of October, November, December, and January.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy and variability of the oak pollen concentrations over the Seoul metropolitan region (SMR) simulated by the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ)-based pollen dispersion model, which is the CMAQ-pollen model integrated with the improved oak pollen emission model(PEM-oak). The PEM-oak model developed is based on hourly emission flux parameterization that includes the effects of plant-specific release, meteorological adjustment, and diurnal variations of oak pollen concentrations. A 33 day-run for oak pollen simulation was conducted by the CMAQ-pollen model with a 3 km spatial resolution for the SMR during the 2014 spring pollen season. Modeled concentrations were evaluated against the hourly measurements at three Burkard sampling sites. Temporal variations of oak concentrations were largely well represented by the model, but the quantitative difference between simulations and measurements was found to be significant in some periods. The model results also showed that large variations in oak pollen concentrations existed in time and space and high concentrations in the SMR were closely associated with the regional transport under strong wind condition. This study showed the effective application of the CMAQ-pollen modeling system to simulate oak pollen concentration in the SMR. Our results could be helpful in providing information on allergenic pollen exposure. Further efforts are needed to further understand the oak pollen release characteristics such as interannual variation of the oak pollen productivity and its spatio-temporal flowering timing.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.215-230
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• 2014

This study aim to do observation to 1) Trajectory of cognitive-cultural economy growth with regional historical context, 2) Spatial, cultural and social change caused by cognitive-culture economy growth, and 3) Draw the meaning of the change in glocalizational view. They said that 'Creativity' has been related with spatial, economical, cultural and social change and it leads to new economical system, what we call 'Cognitive-cultural economy'. It is the important event which is to affect economic geography and local development greatly. New cultural changes are characterized by variations from abstract discourse to concrete reality and show the emphasis on real project specific in the region. Further more, possibility of local development in the glocalization found in the specific form of cultural content, for example, Korean Wave. New media environment changes that include SNS function not only interact each other in space but also expand the scope of local units and cultural content to the world. In order to enhance the further development of local content, it will require conjunction with space and specific region, variety of organic link between the principal participants, and building infrastructure for future development.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.399-410
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• 2015

The objective of our study was to predict future cultivation areas for walnut trees (Juglans sinensis), using the cultivation suitability map provided from Korea Forest Service and MaxEnt modelling under future climate conditions. The climate conditions in 2050s and 2070s were computed using the Regional Climate Prediction (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios with the HadGEM2-AO model. As a result, compared to the present area, the cultivation area of the western Korea including Chungcheongnamdo, Jeollabuk-do, Jeollanam-do decreased on a national scale under RCP 4.5, and those of Gyeongsangbukdo and part of Gyeongsangnam-do decreased under RCP 8.5. However, Gangwon-do which is located in higher altitude over 600 meters than other regions showed increases in cultivation areas of 18.3% under RCP 4.5 and of 56.6% under RCP 8.5 by 2070s. The predicted map showed large regional variations in the cultivation areas with climate change. From the analysis of current top ranking areas, the cultivation areas in Gimcheon-si and Yeongdong-gun dramatically decreased by 2070s under RCP 4.5 and 8.5; that of Gongju-si decreased more under RCP 4.5; and those of Muju-gun and Cheonan-si sustained the areas by 2070s under both scenarios. The results from this study can be helpful for providing a guide for minimizing the loss of walnut production and proactively improving productivity and quality of walnuts with regard to unavoidable climate change in South Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.6
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• pp.757-763
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• 2009

ISSR PCR technique was applied to investigate genetic relationship among 5 Mountain cultivated ginseng populations (Jinan, Hongcheon, Punggi, Andong and Yeongju) and cDNA libraries of wild ginseng roots were constructed and analyzed functional genes related to morphogenesis via EST. Twenty four ISSR markers tested produced 127 polymorphic loci from 5 regional Mountain cultivated ginseng. Among the regional samples, Yeongju was made 18 polymorphic loci that were the highest level of variations among the cultivated regions. The range of similarity coefficient was 0.46~0.58 and the regional samples of Punggi and Hongcheon, Jinan and Andong were classified to similar groups respectively, whereas Yeongju was shown to be separate group with high level of genetic variation in UPGMA cluster analysis. As a result, there was no relationship according to geographical distance and genetic similarity. Eleven cDNA clones were consisted of 9 known genes and 2 unknown genes analyzed by BLAST program of NCBI. To recognize expression pattern of Homeodomain transcription factor related genes, Northern Blot analysis was performed for wild ginseng's leaf and root. As a result, the gene was only expressed by Mountain wild ginseng root.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.151-162
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• 1999

This study is a comparative analysis of sea level and 500hPa surfaces between dry year and wet year, which are selected by variability of precipitation and standardized anomalies in Korea in early autumn. While the amount of precipitation of early autumn decreases, the variability of precipitation increases rapidly reflecting the strength and weakness of Kaul Changma front and the occurrences of the typhoonic precipitation. The regional distribution of the variability of precipitation shows west-high, east-low pattern in which the east coast and the southeastern coast shows low, but high in the southwestern coast. In the anomalies distribution of sea-level and 500hPa surfaces, during dry year, the northern part of Siberia and the core area of North Pacific high shows negative anomalies, on the contrary, there were positive anomalies in wet year at the same areas. In addition, at the 500hPa level, while the Korean peninsula was located at the west of deep trough with low zonal index in dry year, the peninsula was influenced by weak trough with high zonal index showing strong zonal flow in wet year. During dry year the height of 500hPa surface is low at the north of $40^{\circ}N$, but high in wet year. In consequences, this study identified that the occurrences of dry year and wet year were influenced by the seasonal variations of the strength and the weakness of North Pacific high and Siberian high.

• Ocean Science Journal
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.223-232
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• 2008

In order to determine the temporal and spatial variations of nutrient profiles in the shallow pore water columns (upper 30 cm depth) of intertidal sandflats, we measured the salinity and nutrient concentrations in pore water and seawater at various coastal environments along the southern coast of Korea. In the intertidal zone, salinity and nutrient concentrations in pore water showed marked vertical changes with depth, owing to the active exchange between the pore water and overlying seawater, while they are temporally more stable and vertically constant in the sublittoral zone. In some cases, the advective flow of fresh groundwater caused strong vertical gradients of salinity and nutrients in the upper 10 cm depth of surface sediments, indicating the active mixing of the fresher groundwater with overlying seawater. Such upper pore water column profiles clearly signified the temporal fluctuation of lower-salinity and higher-Si seawater intrusion into pore water in an intertidal sandflat near the mouth of an estuary. We also observed a semimonthly fluctuation of pore water nutrients due to spring-neap tide associated recirculation of seawater through the upper sediments. Our study shows that the exchange of water and nutrients between shallow pore water and overlying seawater is most active in the upper 20 cm layer of intertidal sandflats, due to physical forces such as tides, wave set-up, and density-thermal gradient.

• Ocean Science Journal
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2005

Variations in species diversity and abundance of polychaete taxocenes that occurred in 1980-1989 under different contamination levels of bottom sediments were studied in three areas of Peter the Great Bay. The most polluted area was shown to be the Golden Horn Inlet where contaminant contents in the bottom sediments exceed the threshold values of negative biota alterations. Amursky Bay is characterized by a moderate level of contamination, while Ussuriysky Bay has the lowest level of contamination. Pollutant contents vary considerably within the same areas and their separate patches are polluted differently. An integral index characterizing the contamination of bottom sediments is proposed. This index is an average grade of the rank value of contaminant contents in sediments. The index was used to compare the contamination level and data on polychaete species diversity and abundance. The highest species diversity of polychaetes is found in the least affected zones. Monotonous decrease of the species number, as well as decrease in the indices of diversity and evenness, is correlated with pollution level increases. Significant growth of the average polychaete biomass and polychaete density is observed in the case of an increase of contamination from low to moderate levels. Conversely, the biomass and abundance of polychaetes decline following an increase in contamination.