• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.277-285
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• 2016

Objectives: This study was performed in order to evaluate whether 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) could be detected among residents living near Camp Caroll in Waegwan and whether serum concentrations of dioxins, including 2,3,7,8-TCDD, and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are associated with length of residence. Methods: Study subjects totaled 113 (for dioxins) and 190 (for OCPs) adults who were selected from participants in a medical investigation. Serum concentrations of dioxins and OCPs were measured using HRGC/HRMS. Information on length of residence was obtained through questionnaires. Results: 2,3,7,8-TCDD was not detected in serum among all subjects. When length of residence was classified as a categorical variable, after adjusting for confounding variables, only residents living in Waegwan for 40 years or longer tended to have high total TEQ values and 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF with marginal significances. There was no dose-response relation between length of residence and serum concentrations of these chemicals. In multiple regression models with continuous values of the length of residence, total TEQ value and 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDF were positively associated with length of residence. However, they explained about 3-5% of total variations of serum concentrations of these compounds, while age, consumption of fatty fish, body mass index, alcohol drinking, and cigarette smoking were main variables affecting serum concentrations of dioxins or OCPs. Conclusions: In the current study, high concentrations of certain compounds were mainly observed among persons who lived in Waegwan for at least for 40 years without a dose-response relation. Therefore, it seems difficult to conclude that length of residence meaningfully contributed to the current serum concentrations of dioxins or OCPs among residents in Waegwan. However, considering the half-life of 2,3,7,8-TCDD and indirect exposure routes, the limitations of the current study design should be considered in the interpretation of the study findings.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.169-177
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• 2011

The impacts of climate change on paddy irrigation water demands in Korea have been analyzed. High-resolution ($27{\times}27\;km$) climate data for the SRES A2 scenario produced by the Korean Meteorological Research Institute (METRI) and the observed baseline climatology dataset were used. The outputs from the ECHO-G GCM model were dynamically downscaled using the MM5 regional model by the METRI. The Geographic information system (GIS) was used to produce maps showing the spatial changes in irrigation water requirements for rice paddies. The results showed that the growing season mean temperature for future scenarios was projected to increase by $1.5^{\circ}C$ (2020s), $3.3^{\circ}C$ (2050s) and $5.3^{\circ}C$ (2080s) as compared with the baseline value (1971~2000). The growing season rainfall for future scenarios was projected to increase by 0.1% (2020s), 4.9% (2050s) and 19.3% (2080s). Assuming cropping area and farming practices remain unchanged, the total volumetric irrigation demand was projected to increase by 2.8% (2020s), 4.9% (2050s) and 4.5% (2080s). These projections are contrary to the previous study that used HadCM3 outputs and projected decreasing irrigation demand. The main reason for this discrepancy is the difference with the projected climate of the GCMs used. The temporal and spatial variations were large and should be considered in the irrigation water resource planning and management in the future.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 2003

Rice, which occupies about 60% of the farmland in Korea, is a staple crop in Asia. It not only absorbs $CO_2$ from the atmosphere, but also emits carbon in a form of CH$_4$. It has a potential role in the global budget of greenhouse gases because of its relative contributions of carbon absorption and emission associated with changing hydrologic cycle. To better understand its current and future role, seasonal variations of energy and $CO_2$ exchange in this critical ecosystem need to be quantified. The purpose of this study was to measure, document and understand the exchange of energy and $CO_2$ in a typical rice paddy in Korea throughout the whole growing season. Since late April of 2002, we have conducted measurements of energy and $CO_2$ exchange in a rural rice paddy at Hari site, one of the Korea regional network of tower flux measurement (KoFlux). After the quality control and gap-filling, the observed fluxes were analyzed in the context of micrometeorology and biophysics. $CO_2$ and energy exchanges varied significantly with land cover changes (e.g., plant growth stages), in addition to changes in weather and climate conditions. This study, reporting first direct measurement of energy and $CO_2$ exchange over a rice paddy in Korea, would serve as a useful database as one of the reference sites in AsiaFlux and FLUXNET.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.123-137
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• 2013

This study investigated impacts of the two different types of El Ni$\tilde{n}$o on summer rainfall (June-September) in the Han River and its sub-basins. The patterns of rainfall anomalies show a remarkable difference between conventional El Ni$\tilde{n}$o and El Ni$\tilde{n}$o Modoki years. During conventional El Ni$\tilde{n}$o years, it was found that the Han River basins show decreases in the seasonal rainfall totals with high variations (CV=0.4). In contrast, during El Ni$\tilde{n}$o Modoki years, distinct positive anomalies appear in the Han River basin with a relatively small variation (CV=0.23). In addition, 11 out of 30 sub-basins show significant above-normal rainfall in southern part of the Han River Basin. For El Ni$\tilde{n}$o Modoki years, the number of heavy rainy days exceeding 30 mm/day and 50 mm/day were 9.9-day and 5.4-day, respectively. Consequently, this diagnostic study confirmed that El Ni$\tilde{n}$o Modoki has significant impacts on the variability of summer rainfall over the Han River Basin. We expect the results presented here provide useful information for the stability of the regional water supply system, especially for basins like the Han River Basin showing relatively high variability in seasonal rainfall.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.153-166
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• 2007

This study attempts to investigate the spatial characteristics of medical hospital distributions in Korea. For the purpose we examine the inter- and intra regional variations in the distributions of clinics by specialty subject. In particular, we analyze the distribution patterns of Location Quotients of clinics for 12 specialty subjects in Seoul. Medical services tend to be concentrated on the large cities, especially in the Metropolitan Seoul Area. In particular, clinics and medical doctors as well as large scale general hospitals have been strongly concentrated on the Metropolitan Seoul area. These circumstace may be related with the fact that medical hospitals are established and operated by private sector in Korea, and thus they attempt to find their location where they can get maximum profit. The distribution patterns of clinics of 12 specialty subjects can be classified to several characteristic patterns. In particular, clinics of plastic surgeon tend to be strongly concentrated on the Gangnam area in Seoul. Finally, clinics of plastic surgeon tend to be located on the areas near the subway stations along the subway Line 2 and Line 3 in the beginning. The existence of plastic surgeons turns out to have significant role on determining the location for the newly opening plastic surgeons in the later. Therefore, their agglomeration has been getting more strongly.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.197-211
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• 2004

Visibility impairment was known as an indicator of the increased air pollution. In many previous studies, it is known that both directly emitted fine particles mainly from vehicles and secondary aerosols from photochemical reactions could contribute to this visibility impairment in addition to the meteorological condition. Furthermore, the visibility showed different change patterns according to the geographical condition. In order to research into the influence of these factors on visibility, this study analyzed the visibility at 15:00, observed from 1990 to 2001 in Seoul, Ganghwa, Susan, Gwangju, Jeju. As a result, the visibility was increased in Seoul except the rainfall period, but in Susan, Gwangju, Jeju, it decreased with the relative humidity (RH). Especially, in Seoul, the number of low visibility days was larger than other sites and variations of the visibility were sensitive to the concentration of air pollutants, such as TSP, $NO_2$, $O_3$. The visibility impairment was mainly observed in meteorological condition of RH<50% and relatively stationary front. Therefore it is inferred that photochemical smog could lead to the low visibility in Seoul. On the other hands, in Ganghwa and Susan, when RH was 60~70%, the low visibility observed under the influence of the transports of air pollutants from nearby cities as well as humid air mass from coastal region. And in Jeju, sea fog and humid air mass caused the visibility impairment when the RH was larger than 80%. Finally, during the observational period, some cases of low visibility phenomena were simultaneously observed in the vast region including Seoul, Susan, Ganghwa. It not only includes the visibility aggravation by Asian Dust, but also could be caused by the movement and diffusion of flying dust or secondary aerosols. Moreover, the result shows that these phenomena could be mainly influenced by meteorological factors covering the wide regions.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.114-123
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• 2009

The species composition and biomass of coralline algae around three (Uljin, Wolseong and Gori) nuclear power plants on the east coast of Korea were investigated seasonally from February 1997 to October 2006. As a result, 13 species of coralline algae were found during the past ten years. Among them, Corallina pilulifera, C. officinalis, Amphiroa zonata and Pneophyllum zostericolum were common species that occurred more than 50% in frequency during the study period. Species number of coralline algae were between 10$\sim$12 species at the breakwaters near the outfalls of power plants and 8$\sim$12 species at the control area, and differences in species composition were not observed among study sites. Seasonal fluctuations of mean biomass were 0$\sim$2,530 g dry wt m$^{-2}$ and dominant species in biomass was Corallina pilulifera at all the study sites. The breakwaters of power plants generally had a greater coralline algal biomass than the control area. Biomass proportions of coralline algae at the breakwaters of power plants were also higher than those at the control area. At the Uljin sites, particularly, biomass of coralline algae showed greatest in summer and biomass proportion showed highest during the summer season. Differences in the spatio-temporal patterns of coralline algae around three nuclear power plants on the east coast of Korea were presumably due to the regional temperature variations.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.104-115
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• 2016

Objective: This study was conducted in order to investigate the effects of individual patient behavior regarding the health and medical care level on their therapeutic compliance for people diagnosed with high blood pressure by a physician, in order to evaluate the impact of treatment compliance. In this study, the therapeutic compliance was defined as the hypertension drug cure rate. The current blood pressure controls were persons about 30 years of age diagnosed with high blood pressure by their doctor one month fraction of the people who take more than 20 days (30 days). Methods: The data was analyzed by using the X2-test for different comparisons of the therapeutic compliance in the individual characteristics and using a two-stage multilevel logistic regression to identify the community variance of the related index of high blood pressure therapeutic compliance using the data from 229 adults over the age of 19 in a community health survey conducted in 2010. The Spss 18.0 statistical program was used with HLM 7 (hierarchical linear model) Results: It was found that the rate of therapeutic compliance was affected by the individual health behavior and health and medical care levels. Conclusion: In this study, although the odds ratio of the variable region of the high level of health care, I was able Unlike previous studies and focuses on the personal level of variation found variations in the local health care level was a significant. More studies on multilevel analysis are needed in the future considering regional level data.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.35-43
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• 2009

This study was conducted to examine the genetic variations and intraspecific relationships between 9 individuals of Panax ginseng C.A Meyer by using RAPD (Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA) analysis. The 34 primers out of 40 random primers were amplified for all tested plants. The 48 (40%) among 244 bands derived from 34 primers shown polymorphism, and the 72 (64%) rest of bands showed similar forms. By regional groups Sangju and Andong samples located in Kyungsang buk-do showed a high similarity. However, Punggi located in Kyungsang buk-do showed higher similarity with Jinan's of Junla buk-do. In this way, it did not show that Panax ginseng from the same area has similarities. In future study we need to more specific molecular phylogenetic analysis such as AFLP technology and gene sequencing with nuclear chloroplast DNA in all samples.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.33-47
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• 1995

The representation of point-observed environmental variables in Geographic Information Systems(GIS) has often been inadequate to meet the need of regional-scale ecological and environmental applications. To create a map of continuous surface that would represent more reliable spatial variations for these applications, I present three spatial estimation methods. Using a secondary variable of the proximity to coast line together with rainfall acidity data collected at the 63 acid rain monitoring stations in Korea, average rainfall acidity map was cteated using co-kriging. For comparison, two other commonly used interpolation methods (inverse distance weighting and kriging) were also applied to rainfall acidity data without reference to the secondary variable. These estimation methods were evaluated by both visual assessments of the output maps and the quantitative comparison of error measures that were obtained from cross validation. The co-kriging method produced a rainfall acidity map that showed noticeable improvement in repoducing the inherent spatial pattern as well as provided lower statistical error as compared to the methods using only the primary variable.