• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.20-28
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• 2019

This study comparatively analyzes general walking shoes on the conical top foundation of the ground condition and the pressure distribution during walking with shoes that are currently under development. Two categories of footwear were used: general footwear and a footwear conical top foundation that is currently under development. Experiments were carried out on hard ground and sandy soil in 15 male twenties that satisfy the conditions of normal foot wearing 260 mm. The pressure during walking was measured using Techstorm's Wireless Insole System, and foot pressure was measured in 7 zones of the foot. Studies have shown different maximum forces, average pressures, and pressure distributions depending on the shoe and ground conditions. This study shows that shoes with general low pressure dispersion effects depending on the feet in hard ground and sand ground are different from shoes with the conical top foundation that is currently under development. It is expected that it will be useful for the development of shoes that can be worn in all hard ground and sandy ground by selecting various rubber materials through further research.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.237-255
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• 2021

Lychnis wilfordii (Regel) Maxim. is one of the wetland specialists mainly distributed in peatlands at high latitudes. In Korea, it is isolated in two regions. This study investigated habitats, growth traits, and self-compatibility of L. wilfordii and assessed the internal dynamics of its population persistence. Its population has remained stable in the Yongneup Wetland Protected Area (YWPA). There was a clear difference in vegetation environment between YWPA and the distribution area in Daegwallyeong (DWL), Pyeongchang-gun. It has self-compatibility while pollinators facilitate its seed production. It produces a large number of hibernacles and bears the maximum number of branches and fruits in soil with rich organic contents. However, it grows and bears fruits even under the condition of low organic contents. In YWPA, L. wilfordii is not distributed in high moor but widely distributed in low moor where tussocks by Carex thunbergii var. appendiculata are developed. It is mainly distributed on the top of tussocks also. Therefore, it is judged that the formation, growth, and extinction of tussocks by C. thunbergii var. appendiculata is closely related to the establishment, growth, and extinction of plants distributed in this space. It is assessed that the current YWPA has well-developed tussocks in which L. wilfordii is widely distributed, and extinction and re-establishment progress well. Accordingly, the L. wilfordii population is expected to be sustainable in the long term given if its current ecological process is maintained well.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1666-1689
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• 2021

The red line of Permanent Basic Farmland is the most important part in the "three-line" demarcation of China's national territorial development plan. The scientific and reasonable delineation of the red line is a major strategic measure being taken by China to improve its ability to safeguard the practical interests of farmers and guarantee national food security. The delineation of Permanent Basic Farmland zoning (DPBFZ) is essentially a multi-objective optimization problem. However, the traditional method of demarcation does not take into account the synergistic development goals of conservation of cultivated land utilization, ecological conservation, or urban expansion. Therefore, this research introduces the idea of artificial immune optimization and proposes a multi-objective model of DPBFZ red line delineation based on a clone selection algorithm. This research proposes an objective functional system consisting of these three sub-objectives: optimal quality of cropland, spatially concentrated distribution, and stability of cropland. It also takes into consideration constraints such as the red line of ecological protection, topography, and space for major development projects. The mathematical formal expressions for the objectives and constraints are given in the paper, and a multi-objective optimal decision model with multiple constraints for the DPBFZ problem is constructed based on the clone selection algorithm. An antibody coding scheme was designed according to the spatial pattern of DPBFZ zoning. In addition, the antibody-antigen affinity function, the clone mechanism, and mutation strategy were constructed and improved to solve the DPBFZ problem with a spatial optimization feature. Finally, Tongxu County in Henan province was selected as the study area, and a controlled experiment was set up according to different target preferences. The results show that the model proposed in this paper is operational in the work of delineating DPBFZ. It not only avoids the adverse effects of subjective factors in the delineation process but also provides multiple scenarios DPBFZ layouts for decision makers by adjusting the weighting of the objective function.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.67 no.1
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• pp.67-75
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• 2022

Roots play important roles in water and nutrient uptake and in response to various environmental stresses. Investigating diversification of cultivars through root phenotyping is important for crop improvement in adzuki beans. Therefore, we analyzed the morphological and architectural root traits of 22 adzuki bean cultivars using 2-dimensional (2D) root imaging. Plants were grown in plastic tubes [6 cm (diameter) × 40 cm (height)] in a greenhouse from July 25^th to August 28^th. When the plants reached the 2^nd or 3^rd trifoliate leaf stage, the roots were removed and washed with tap water to remove soil particles. Clean root samples were scanned, and the scanned images were analyzed using the WinRHIZO Pro software. The cultivars were analyzed based on six root phenotypes [total root length (TRL), surface area (SA), average diameter (AD), and number of tips (NT) were included as root morphological traits (RMT); and link average length (LAL) and link average diameter (LAD) were included as root architectural traits (RAT)]. According to the analysis of variance (ANOVA), a significant difference was observed between the cultivars for all root morphological traits. Distribution analysis demonstrated that all root traits except LAL followed a normally distributed curve. In the correlation test, the most important morphological trait, TRL, showed a strong positive correlation with SA (r = 0.97^***) and NT (r = 0.94^***). In comparison, between RMT and RAT, TRL showed a significantly negative correlation with LAL (r = -0.50^***); however, TRL did not show a correlation with LAD. Based on RMT and RAT, we identified the cultivars that ranked 5% from the top and bottom. In particular, the cultivar "IT 236657" showed the highest TRL, SA, and NT, while the cultivar "IT 236169" showed the lowest values for TRL, SA, and NT. In addition, the coefficient of variance for the six tested root traits ranged from (14.26-40%) which suggested statistical variability in root phenotypes among the 22 adzuki bean varieties. Thus, this study will help to select target root traits for the adzuki bean breeding program in the future, generating climate-resilient adzuki beans, especially for drought stress, and may be useful for developing biotic and abiotic stress-tolerant cultivars based on better root trait attributes.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.248-254
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• 2022

Background: Occupational hazards in crop farms vary diversely based on different field operations as soil management, harvesting processes, pesticide, or fertilizer application. We aimed at evaluating the immunological status of crop farmers, as limited systematic investigations on immune alteration involved with crop farming have been reported yet. Methods: Immunological parameters including plasma immunoglobulin level, major peripheral immune cells distribution, and level of cytokine production from activated T cell were conducted. Nineteen grape orchard, 48 onion open-field, and 21 rose greenhouse farmers were participated. Results: Significantly low proportion of natural killer (NK) cell, a core cell for innate immunity, was revealed in the grape farmers (19.8±3.3%) in comparison to the onion farmers (26.4±3.1%) and the rose farmers (26.9±2.5%), whereas cytotoxic T lymphocyte proportion was lower in the grape and the onion farmers than the rose farmers. The proportion of NKT cell, an immune cell implicated with allergic response, was significantly higher in the grape (2.3±0.3%) and the onion (1.6±0.8%) farmers compared with the rose farmers (1.0±0.4%). A significantly decreased interferon-gamma:interleukin-13 ratio was observed from ex vivo stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells of grape farmers compared with the other two groups. The grape farmers revealed the lowest levels of plasma IgG1 and IgG4, and their plasma IgE level was not significantly different from that of the onion or the rose farmers. Conclusion: Our finding suggests the high vulnerability of workplace-mediated allergic immunity in grape orchard farmers followed by open-field onion farmers and then the rose greenhouse farmers.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.321-333
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• 2022

In this study, the concentration and distribution characteristics of BTEX (benzene toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) emitted from Daesan Petrochemical Industrial Complex were examined to determine their potential hazards to local residents. Residents living nearby the complex areas may be exposed to the chemicals through various media (air, water, and soil), especially by air. This study evaluated human health risks by inhalation using both deterministic and probabilistic risk assessment approaches. As a result of the deterministic risk assessment, the non-cancer risk was much lower than the regulation limit of hazard index (HI 1.0) for all the points. However, in case of cancer risk evaluation, it was found that the risk of excess cancer for benzene at point A located in the industrial complex was 2.28×10^-6, which slightly exceeded the standard regulatory limit of 1.0×10^-6. In addition, the probabilistic risk assessment revealed that the percentile exceeding the standard of 1.0×10^-6was found to be 45.3%. The sensitivity analysis showed that exposure time (ET) had the greatest impact on the results. Based on the risk assessment study, it implied that ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylene had little adverse effects on potential human exposure, but benzene often exceeded the cancer risk standard (1.0×10^-6). Further studies on extensive VOCs monitoring are needed to evaluate the potential risks of industrial complex areas.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.45-65
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• 2022

In this paper, a diaphragm wall that supports soils and rock was modeled using FLAC, a finite difference analysis program, to evaluate the seismic behavior of temporary retaining structures in a deep excavation. The appropriateness of the numerical model was verified by comparing its results with those of the centrifuge test performed in a similar condition. The bending moment distribution along the diaphragm wall shows a very similar tendency, and the maximum acceleration obtained at the backfill and top of the wall shows a difference within 5%. Based on the developed model, a parametric study was conducted in various input earthquake, ground, and excavation conditions. The maximum structural forces and bending moment under earthquake loading were compared with the maximum values during excavation, from which the critical condition that requires a seismic design was roughly sorted out. The maximum bending moment of a wall that retains soil layers increased 17%. Particularly, the axial force of struts located in loose soils increased 32% under 100 years return period of an earthquake event, which strongly is estimated to require seismic design for structural safety.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.339-352
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• 2022

As environmental criteria items are increased or strengthened, cases of heavy metal contamination by geogenic origin are increasing, and the need to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic origins in soil or groundwater exceeding the standard is increasing. In this study, geochemical occurrences of geogenic heavy metals were identified through statistical processing of the national geochemical map data and evaluation of geochemical characteristics of regions with high geoaccumulation indices. Cobalt, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn were targeted for which the national geochemical maps were prepared, and Co, Cr, Ni, and V derived from ultrabasic or ultramafic rocks were classified as factor 1. Copper, Pb and Zn of non-ferrous sulfide origin were classified as factor 2. In particular, enrichment of heavy metals by factor 1 occurs mainly in the serpentine distribution areas of the Chungcheong region, and there is a risk of contamination in neighboring areas. In the case of factor 2, geogenic occurrence is concerned not only in non-ferrous metal mineralization areas such as Taebacksan and Gyeongnam mineralization zones, but also in Au-Ag mineralization areas distributed nationwide.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.294-299
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to provide basic data on the safety of Poria cocos, a major Korean herbal medicine, and to establish tolerance levels for hazardous substances. Residual pesticides (321 types), heavy metals (7 types), radioactivity (3 types), and ash content were analyzed in 10 Poria cocos products distributed in Korea (5 domestic and 5 in China). Of the residual pesticides, cypermethrin was detected at 0.03 mg/kg in one domestic sample and was below the standard value. Of the heavy metals, the levels of Zn, Pb, Ni, Cu, Hg, and Cr were below the standard values in all samples. Hg was not detected in any sample. Cd was detected at 0.011 mg/kg in one Chinese sample. The radioactivity concentration was also below the MDA value in all P. cocos samples. The ash content was less than the standard value of 1.0% in all P. cocos samples. The findings indicate that P. cocos distributed in Korea is safe. However, because P. cocos is always exposed to harmful substances because of the nature of its cultivation in the soil, it seems necessary to establish systematic management standards for the entire production stage, such as cultivation, storage, and distribution.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.211-239
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• 1997

The flora of Oesorak in the Soraksan National Park including Chombongsan(Mountain) and Kwanmobong(Peak) were surveyed from February to August, 1996. These areas have very rich and diverse flora;620 taxa with 89 families, 321 genera, 526 species, 2 subspecies, 89 varieties and 3 forms in the Oesorak, 404 taxa with 251 genera, 350 species, 1 subspecies, 51 varieties and 2 forms in the Chombongsan(Mountain), 286 taxa with 206 genera, 233 species, 1 subspecies, 50 varieties and 2 forms in Kwanmobong(peak). The Oesorak had very distinct floristic characteristics such as the wild habitats of Asarum maculatum(Aristolochiaceae) and Ilex macropoda(Aquifoliaceae). In the phyorgeographical point of view, the six species such as Sapium japonicum (Euphorbiaceae), Euphorbia joldini(Euphorbiaceae), Ilex macropoda (Aquifoliaceae), Styrax japonica (Styracaceae), Carex sideros ticta (Cyperaceae) and Asarum maculatum (Aristolochiaceae) were naturalized into this region, while the 17 taxa such as Abies neprolepis(Pinaceae), Pinus pumila(Pinaceae), Thuja koraiensis(Cupressaceae), Allium senescens(Liliaceae), Lilium distichum(Liliaceae), Saxifraga punctata(Saxfragaceae), Rosa marretii(Rosaceae), Bupleurum euphorbioides(Umbelliferae), Androsace cortusaefolia (Primulaceae), Peducularis mandshurica(Scrophulariaceae) and Leontopodium coreanum (Compositae) were distrivuted to this region. The colonizing weedy species such as Ixris repens (Compositae) were distributed to this region. The colonizing weedy species losa(Labiatae) and Rosa rugosa(Rosaceae) were naturalized into ca. 900m at sea level mainly due to the sand soil from the seashore. Mountain roadbed is susceptible than other areas to the slippery road problems, due largely to snow and rain, particularly during winter. Sand soils from seashore are utilized to minimize this slip in traffic operation.