• BMB Reports
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.295-304
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• 2021

Olfactory neuropathology is a cause of olfactory loss in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Olfactory dysfunction is also associated with memory and cognitive dysfunction and is an incidental finding of AD dementia. Here we review neuropathological research on the olfactory system in AD, considering both structural and functional evidence. Experimental and clinical findings identify olfactory dysfunction as an early indicator of AD. In keeping with this, amyloid-β production and neuroinflammation are related to underlying causes of impaired olfaction. Notably, physiological features of the spatial map in the olfactory system suggest the evidence of ongoing neurodegeneration. Our aim in this review is to examine olfactory pathology findings essential to identifying mechanisms of olfactory dysfunction in the development of AD in hopes of supporting investigations leading towards revealing potential diagnostic methods and causes of early pathogenesis in the olfactory system.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.122-128
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• 2022

To present the spatial variation of fish assemblages in the Geum River in Korea, the concept of beta diversity (β-diversity) estimates based on the variance of the community data table was applied. Fish communities and environmental variables were collected from 13 sampling sites along the in mid-low reaches of the River. We calculated the β-diversity and local contribution to beta diversity (LCBD) values at each site depending on the two types of data, 'occurrence' with Jaccard and Sørensen dissimilarity coefficients, and 'abundance' with Hellinger distance. Multivariate and correlation analyses were also performed to determine the relationships between LCBD and other variables, such as community indices and physicochemical and hydrological factors. The β-diversity values of fish communities in the River were estimated as 0.218 and 0.145 for occurrence data table with Jaccard and Sørensen respectively, and 0.268 for abundance data. Similar patterns of LCBD along the sampling sites were detected in two dissimilarity measurements of occurrence table, and LCBD values with abundance data were slightly different. The LCBD values are strongly correlated with community indices, and also suitable for indicating the uniqueness of fish assemblages. However, further research is needed to determine the LCBD value as an indicator of environmental variability.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.447-447
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• 2023

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a critical indicator of soil fertility. Its importance in maintaining ecological balance has received widespread attention. However, global temperatures have risen by 0.8℃ since the late 1800s due to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in severe disruptions in SOC dynamics. To study the impacts of temperature variations on SOC and soil respiration, we used the Soil Carbon and Landscape co-Evolution (SCALE) model, which was capable of estimating the spatial distribution of soil carbon dynamics. The study site was located at Heshan Farm (125°20'10.5"E, 49°00'23.1"N), Nenjiang County in Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China. We validated the model using observed soil organic carbon and soil respiration in 2015 and achieved excellent agreement between observed and modeled variables. Our results showed considerable influences of temperature increases on SOC and soil respiration rates at both erosion and deposition areas. In particular, changes in SOC and soil respiration at the deposition area were greater than at the erosion area. Our study highlights that the impacts of temperature elevations are considerably dependent on soil erosion and deposition processes. Thus, it is important to implement effective soil conservation strategies to maintain soil fertility under global warming.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.468-471
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• 2015

The study aims to identify the degree and types of spatial decline in Eup/Myun units within Chungcheong region in South Korea to contribute to the efforts being made to diagnose the rural decline and the potentials. To this end, we analyzed 27 Sis and Guns to identify the degree of decline and potentials of rural areas in Chungcheong region. We also carried out the diagnosis and K-Means Clustering on 274 Eups and Myuns, the smallest administrative units, to figure out the types and characteristics of the rural recessions. According to the results of the clustering analysis carried out on the 166 Eups and Myuns, there were five outstanding clusters. They were; areas with housing deterioration (29), areas with poor economic foundation (16), areas with poor accessibility to central areas (42), areas with poor residential environment (51) and areas with aged population (28). The findings and results of the present study are likely to serve as a basis for the design and enforcement of forthcoming rural area activation policies. Also, it would be highly recommended that a more comprehensive diagnosis is taken from a community-level perspective and policy suggestions and strategies tailored for rural communities are further discussed.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.433-445
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• 2014

The objective of study was to analyze seasonal and inter-annual patterns of water chemistry of Miho Stream watershed during 2004 - 2007 along with some influences of tributaries and summer monsoon on the stream water quality. For the study, eight physico-chemical parameters such as nitrogen, phosphorus, BOD, COD and chlorophyll-a (CHL) etc. were analyzed in relation to spatial and temporal variability of seven sampling sites of the mainstream and some tributaries in the watershed. In the upstream reach, Mean of BOD, COD and TP averaged 3.2 mg/L, 6.5 mg/L and $186{\mu}g/L$, respectively, indicating an eutrophic conditions as a III-rank in the stream water quality criteria from the Ministry of Environment, Korea(MEK). The eutrophic water was due to a combined effect of Chiljang tributary with high nutrients ($TP=844{\mu}g/L$, TN=8.087 mg/L) and the point sources from some wastewater treatment plants. In the meantime, BOD, TN, and TP in the downstream reach were about > 1.2-1.5 folds than the values of the midstream reaches. This was mainly attributed to effluents of nutrient rich-water (mean TN: 11.980 mg/L) from two tributaries of Musim Stream and Suknam Stream, which is directly influenced by nearby wastewater disposal plants. Seasonal analysis of water chemistry showed that summer monsoon rainfall was one of the important factors influencing the water quality, and water quality had a large spatial heterogeneity during the rainfall period. In the premonsoon, BOD in the downstream averaged $6.0{\pm}2.47mg/L$, which was 1.4-fold greater than the mean of upstream reach. Mean of CHL-a as an indicator of primary productivity in the water body, was > 2.2 - 2.9 fold in the downstream than in the upstream, and this was a result of the high phosphorus loading from the watershed. Overall, our data suggest that some nutrient controls in point-source tributary streams are required for efficient water quality management of Miho Stream.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.280-288
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• 2009

To identify controlling factors for spatial variation of vegetation in reclaimed tidal flats, plant stands were investigated in a newly reclaimed as well as three matured tidal flats, and a natural tidal flat in the midwest coast of Korea. Electrical conductivity of saturated soil extract (ECe) was measured to assess soil salinity. Soil salinity differed significantly among plant stands. Depending on soil salinity, plant species showed different niches: glycophyte predominated low saline spots, halophyte predominated high saline spots. Soil salinity for each plant habitats was in order of as follow: bare soil or plant wilted > mixed pioneer halophyte > pioneer halophyte > mixed with pioneer halophyte and facultative halophyte > mixed facultative halophyte > facultative halophyte > mixed with facultative halophyte and glycophyte > glycophyte > mixed glycophyte stands. These results suggested that plant distribution might have been influenced by spatial edaphic gradient (soil salinity), and thus it could be utilized as an indicator for field soil salinity gradient. Relationship between soil salinity and plant distribution was not different among the aged reclaimed tidal flats, suggesting that the vegetative population might have changed into a similar direction since the reclamation.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.156-172
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• 2018

Recently, Korea suffered serious social conflicts between generations due to population aging. Anxiety about depletion of the National Pension Fund is one of the social problem to young generation, because of the uncertainty that they will not able to receive the pension they paid. At the same time, due to the high housing rent in Seoul metropolitan area, the demand for housing welfare and supply of public rental housing for young generation was increased. There are some opinions about using National Pension Fund to supplying public rental houses in the society. In this research, we were concentrated on finding the suitable areas for the public rental house using National Pension Fund. First, verifying the validity of the investment using National Pension Fund for the public rental housing was done. And spatial statistical methods were applied to explore the suitable areas for the public rental housing in Seoul metro area. Finally, this study divided young people into three groups and analyzed ways to supply public rental housing for each group in proper areas by their demand. This research's ultimate goals are mitigating the conflicts between the generations and achieving both profitability and publicness of National Pension Fund.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.71-84
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• 2017

Radon, which enters the interior environment from soil, rocks, and groundwater, is a radioactive gas that poses a serious risk to humans. Indoor radon concentrations are measured to investigate the risk of radon gas exposure and reliable radon concentration mapping is then performed for further analysis. In this study, we compared the predictive performance of various univariate kriging algorithms, including ordinary kriging and three nonlinear transform-based kriging algorithms (log-normal, multi-Gaussian, and indicator kriging), for mapping radon concentrations with an asymmetric distribution. To compare and analyze the predictive performance, we carried out jackknife-based validation and analyzed the errors according to the differences in the data intervals and sampling densities. From a case study in South Korea, the overall nonlinear transform-based kriging algorithms showed better predictive performance than ordinary kriging. Among the nonlinear transform-based kriging algorithms, log-normal kriging had the best performance, followed by multi-Gaussian kriging. Ordinary kriging was the best for predicting high values within the spatial pattern. The results from this study are expected to be useful in the selection of kriging algorithms for the spatial prediction of data with an asymmetric distribution.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.263-270
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• 2003

Monte Carlo simulation has been peformed to induce optimized parameters of the detector head of gamma camera for the diagnosis of breast cancer and to evaluate it under the diagnosis condition of the breast cancer. For the simulation, we used Tungsten collimator, having a lattice structured array with holes of $3mm{\times}3mm$ and septal thickness of 0.25 mm, which are corresponding to the pixellated photosensor. For driving optimum parameters we used Trade-Offs procedure between the geometric efficiency and the spatial resolution, varying the detector head components. In order to pre-evaluate the performance of the optimized detector head, we assumed diagnosis condition that the breast tumor is located in the middle of phantom with various sizes and its location is 25 mm from the collimator surface, considering background count caused by radiation sources from other organs. It was shown that the performance of the optimized detector head can be degraded according to the breast cancer size and the background count under real diagnosis conditions of breast cancer. Therefore, it is concluded that the spatial resolution, which is used as an indicator to distinguish the various sizes of breast cancer and is dependent on the characteristic of the detector head, appears to be meaningless in early diagnosis of the breast cancer.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.175-185
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• 2023

As drought risk increases due to climate change, various research works are underway around the world to respond to drought so as to minimize drought damage. In particular, in recent years, many studies are focused on analyzing regional patterns of drought in a comprehensive manner, however there is still insufficient to quantitatively identify drought-risk areas in a large river basin considering climate change in Korea. In this study, we calculated the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Modified Standardized Precipitation Index (M_SPI) as representative meteorological drought index, and performed spatial autocorrelation analysis to identify the drought hotspot region under climate change scenarios of Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5. The SPI was calculated by estimating parameters for each observation station within the study area, whereas the M_SPI was calculated by estimating parameters for the entire study area. It is more reasonable to use the M_SPI for assessing meteorological drought from an overall perspective within the study area. When the M_SPI was used, long-term droughts showed drought hotspot areas clearly larger than short-term droughts. In addition, the drought hotspot area moved from the center of the Nakdong River basin to the Seomjin River basin over time. Especially, the moving patterns of the short-term/long-term drought were apparent under the RCP 4.5, whereas the moving patterns of the long-term drought were distinct under the RCP 8.5 scenarios.