• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1879-1883
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• 2014

Background: The relationship between obesity and prostate cancer aggressiveness is controversial in recent studies, partly because BMI is the only generally applied marker of obesity. Our study aimed at evaluating the correlation of periprostatic fat (PF) on magnatic resonance imaging (MRI) and adipocytokines with prostate cancer aggressiveness. Patients and method: A total of 184 patients who underwent radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) were analyzed retrospectively; different fat measurements on MRI slices and levels of adipocytokines were compared with the clinical and pathologic factors using SSPS ver.13.0. Result: The PF rates showed a statistically significant variation (p=0.019, 0.025) among groups, that is to say, more adipose tissue was distributed in periprostatic areas of high risk patients. Logistic regression analysis adjusted for age revealed a statistically association between the PF, the ratio and the risk of having high-risk disease (p=0.031, 0.024). The levels of IL-6, leptin and c-reactive protein (CRP) significantly increased with the aggressiveness of prostate cancer, and also with PF and its ratio. The strongest correlation was seen between IL-6 and PF (Pearson r coefficient=0.67, P<0.001). No association was observed between adipocytokines and BMI. Conclusion: Periprostatic adiposity not only affects prostate cancer aggressiveness, but also influences the secretion of adipocytokines. IL-6, PF and CRP have promoting effects on progression of prostate cancer.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.505-509
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• 2013

Background The aim of this study was to collect important data on the time of oxygen saturation change in relation to skin flap color alteration using non-invasive pulse oximetry to evaluate its ability to provide continuous monitoring of skin flap perfusion. Methods An experimental study on the monitoring of blood perfusion of 20 tube-island groin flaps of 10 male New Zealand rabbits was performed using pulse oximetry. The animals were randomly assigned to one of two groups representing a blockage of either arterial or venous blood flow. The oxygen saturation change and clinical color alteration were monitored from the beginning of vessel clamping until the saturation became undetectable. The result was analyzed by the t-test using SSPS ver. 10.0. Results The mean times from the vessel clamping until the saturation became undetectable were $20.19{\pm}2.13$ seconds and $74.91{\pm}10.57$ seconds for the artery and vein clamping groups, respectively. The mean time of the clinical alteration from the beginning of vein clamping was $34.5{\pm}11.72$ minutes, while the alteration in flaps with artery clamping could not be detected until 2.5 hours after clamping. Conclusions The use of neonate-type reusable flex sensor-pulse oximetry is objective and effective in early detection of arterial and vein blockage. It provides real-time data on vessel occlusion, which in turn will allow for early salvaging. The detection periods of both arterial occlusion and venous congestion are much earlier than the color alteration one may encounter clinically.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.9-14
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• 2022

This paper presents a subset sum problem (SSP) algorithm which takes the time complexity of O(nlogn). The SSP can be classified into either super-increasing sequence or random sequence depending on the element of Set S. Additive algorithm that runs in O(nlogn) has already been proposed to and utilized for the super-increasing sequence SSP, but exhaustive Brute-Force method with time complexity of O(n2ⁿ) remains as the only viable algorithm for the random sequence SSP, which is thus considered NP-complete. The proposed subtractive algorithm basically selects a subset S comprised of values lower than target value t, then sets the subset sum less the target value as the Residual r, only to remove from S the maximum value among those lower than t. When tested on various super-increasing and random sequence SSPs, the algorithm has obtained optimal solutions running less than the cardinality of S. It can therefore be used as a general algorithm for the SSP.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.162-162
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• 2023

Climate change is a complex phenomenon having its impact on diverse sectors. Temperature and precipitation are two of the most fundamental variables used to characterize climate, and changes in these variables can have significant impacts on ecosystems, agriculture, and human societies. This study evaluated the historical (1981-2010) and future (2011-2100) climatic trends in the Seti-Gandaki basin of Nepal based on 5 km resolution Multi Model Ensemble (MME) of 18 Global Climate Models (GCMs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) for SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-85 scenarios. For this study, ERA5 reanalysis dataset is used for historical reference dataset instead of observation dataset due to a lack of good observation data in the study area. Results show that the basin has experienced continuous warming and an increased precipitation pattern in the historical period, and this rising trend is projected to be more prominent in the future. The Seti basin hosts 13 operational hydropower projects of different sizes, with 10 more planned by the government. Consequently, the findings of this study could be leveraged to design adaptation measures for existing hydropower schemes and provide a framework for policymakers to formulate climate change policies in the region. Furthermore, the methodology employed in this research could be replicated in other parts of the country to generate precise climate projections and offer guidance to policymakers in devising sustainable development plans for sectors like irrigation and hydropower.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2020.06a
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• pp.116-116
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• 2020

Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) is a highly mountainous and remote region covering 45% of Upper Indus Basin (UIB) with around 1.8 million population is vulnerable to climate change and socio-economic growth makes water resources management and planning more complex. To understand the water scarcity in the region this study is carried out to project water supply and demand for agricultural and domestic sector under various climate-socio-economic scenarios in five sub catchments of GB i.e., Astore, Gilgit, Hunza, Shigar and Shyok for a period of 2015 to 2050 using Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model. For climate change scenario ensembled mean of three global climate models (GCMs) was used under three different Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5). The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and agricultural Land Development (LD) scenarios were combined with climate scenarios to develop climate-socio-economic scenario. Our results indicate that the climate change and socio-economic growth would create a gap between supply and demand of water in the region, with socio-economic growth (e.g. agricultural and population) as dominant external factor that would reduce food production and increase poverty level in the region. Among five catchments only Astore and Gilgit will face shortfall of water while Shyoke would face shortfall of water only under agricultural growth scenarios. We also observed that the shortfall of water in response to climate-socio-economic scenarios is totally different over two water deficient catchments due to its demography and geography. Finally, to help policy makers in developing regional water resources and management policies we classified five sub catchments of UIB according to its water deficiency level.

• Atmosphere
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.439-454
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• 2020

This study investigates the change in the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration and World Health Organization (WHO) air quality index (AQI) in East Asia (EA) under Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). AQI is an indicator of increasing levels about health concern, divided into six categories based on PM2.5 annual concentrations. Here, we utilized the ensemble results of UKESM1, the climate model operated in Met Office, UK, for the analysis of long-term variation during the historical (1950~2014) and future (2015~2100) period. The results show that the spatial distributions of simulated PM2.5 concentrations in present-day (1995~2014) are comparable to observations. It is found that most regions in EA exceeded the WHO air quality guideline except for Japan, Mongolia regions, and the far seas during the historical period. In future scenarios containing strong air quality (SSP1-2.6, SSP5-8.5) and medium air quality (SSP2-4.5) controls, PM2.5 concentrations are substantially reduced, resulting in significant improvement in AQI until the mid-21st century. On the other hand, the mild air pollution controls in SSP3-7.0 tend to lead poor AQI in China and Korea. This study also examines impact of increased in PM2.5 concentrations on downward shortwave energy at the surface. As a result, strong air pollution controls can improve air quality through reduced PM2.5 concentrations, but lead to an additional warming in both the near and mid-term future climate over EA.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.282-289
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• 2022

Analyzing the impact of climate change on the Korean Peninsula on the forest ecosystem is important for the management of subtropical forest bioresources. In this study, we collected location data and bioclimatic variables of the warm-temperate woody plant species, Myrica rubra and Cyzygium buxifolium, and applied the MaxEnt model based on the collected data to estimate the potential distribution area. Precipitation and temperature seasonality in the warmest quarter were the main environmental factors that determined the distribution of M. rubra, and the main environmental factors for S. buxifolium were precipitation in the warmest quarter and precipitation in the wettest quarter. The results of the MaxEnt model by administrative district, the M. rubra showed an area increase rate of 4.6 - 17.7% in the SSP2-4.5 climate change scenario and 13.8 - 30.5% in the SSP5-8.5 climate change scenario. S. buxifolium showed area increase rates of 4.8 - 32.2% in the SSP2-4.5 climate change scenario and 12.9 - 48.6% in the SSP5-8.5 climate change scenario. This study is meaningful in establishing a database and identifying future potential distribution areas of warm and subtropical plants by applying climate change scenarios.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.427-436
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• 2020

It is uncertain how global climate change will influence future drought characteristics over the Korean peninsula. This study aims to project the future droughts using climate change and land use change scenarios over the Korean peninsula with the land surface modeling system, i.e., Weather Research and Forecasting Model Hydrological modeling system (WRF-Hydro). The Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 2.6 and 8.5 are used as future climate scenarios and the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs), specifically SSP2, is adopted for the land use scenario. The using Threshold Level Method (TLM), we identify future hydrological and ecological drought events with runoff and Net Primary Productivity (NPP), respectively, and assess drought characteristics of durations and intensities in different scenarios. Results show that the duration of drought is longer over RCP2.6-SSP2 for near future (2031-2050) and RCP8.5-SSP2 (2080-2099) for the far future for hydrological drought. On the other hand, RCP2.6-SSP2 for the far future and RCP8.5-SSP2 for the near future show longer duration for ecological drought. In addition, the drought intensities in both hydrological and ecological drought show different characteristics with the drought duration. The intensity of the hydrological droughts was greatly affected by threshold level methods and RCP2.6-SSP2 for far future shows the severest intensity. However, for ecological drought, the difference of the intensity among the threshold level is not significant and RCP2.6-SSP2 for near future and RCP2.6-SSP2 for near future show the severest intensity. This study suggests a possible future drought characteristics is in the Korea peninsula using combined climate and land use changes, which will help the community to understand and manage the future drought risks.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.303-317
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• 2022

Climate change caused by increased greenhouse gas emissions can alter the natural ecosystem, including the pollination ecosystem and agricultural ecology, which are ecological interactions between potted insects and plants. Many studies have reported that populations of wild bees, including bees and wasps (BW), which are the key pollinators, have gradually declined due to climate change, leading to adverse impacts on overall biodiversity, ultimately with agribusinesses and the life cycle of flowering plants. Therefore, we could infer that the rising temperature in Korean Peninsula (South Korea) due to global warming has led to climate change and influenced the wild bee's ecosystem. In this study, we surveyed the distributional pattern of BW (Superfamily: Apoidea, Vespoidea, and Chrysidoidea) at 51 sites from 2017 (37 sites) to 2018 (14 sites) to examine the effects of climatic factors on the nationwide distribution of BW in South Korea. Previous literature has confirmed that their distribution according to forest climate zones is significantly correlated with mean and accumulative temperatures. Based on the result, we predicted the effects of future climate changes on the BW distribution that appeared throughout South Korea and the species that appeared in specific climate zones using Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). The distributions of wild BW predicted by the SSP scenarios 2-4.5 and 5-8.5 according to the BIOMOD species distribution model revealed that common and endemic species will shift northward from the current habitat distribution by 2050 and 2100, respectively. Our study implies that climate change and its detrimental effect on the ecosystem is ongoing as the BW distribution in South Korea can change, causing the change in the ecosystem in the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, immediate efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are warranted. We hope the findings of this study can inspire further research on the effects of climate change on pollination services and serve as the reference for making agricultural policy and BW conservation strategy

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.400-412
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• 2023

In this study, the biogeochemistry management (BGC-MAN) model was applied to North and South Korea pine and oak forest stands to evaluate the Net Primary Productivity (NPP), an indicator of forest ecosystem productivity. For meteorological information, historical records and East Asian climate scenario data of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) were used. For vegetation information, pine (Pinus densiflora) and oak(Quercus spp.) forest stands were selected at the Gwangneung and Seolmacheon in South Korea and Sariwon, Sohung, Haeju, Jongju, and Wonsan, which are known to have tree nurseries in North Korea. Among the biophysical information, we used the elevation model for topographic data such as longitude, altitude, and slope direction, and the global soil database for soil data. For management factors, we considered the destruction of forests in North and South Korea due to the Korean War in 1950 and the subsequent reforestation process. The overall mean value of simulated NPP from 1991 to 2100 was 5.17 Mg C ha^-1, with a range of 3.30-8.19 Mg C ha^-1. In addition, increased variability in climate scenarios resulted in variations in forest productivity, with a notable decline in the growth of pine forests. The applicability of the BGC-MAN model to the Korean Peninsula was examined at a time when the ecosystem process-based models were becoming increasingly important due to climate change. In this study, the data on the effects of climate change disturbances on forest ecosystems that was analyzed was limited; therefore, future modeling methods should be improved to simulate more precise ecosystem changes across the Korean Peninsula through process-based models.