• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.416-426
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• 2019

Objectives: In recent years, transboundary air pollution from mainland East Asia has led to growing concerns about air pollution in Japan. Air pollution is reportedly associated with the exacerbation of respiratory diseases. In this study, we assessed the effects of air pollution on respiratory symptoms and the health status of participants with and without chronic respiratory diseases. Methods: Participants (n=2753) with and without chronic respiratory diseases who visited healthcare facilities in Japan during February from 2010 to 2015 filled out a self-report questionnaire regarding their symptoms and perceived health status. Participants were followed up during April-May and June-July. Results: Oxidant concentrations were associated with respiratory symptoms, overall health, and quality of life (QoL). Suspended particulate matter (SPM) and particulate matter <$2.5{\mu}m$ levels were associated with physical fitness; SPM was also associated with QoL. Recent experience of an Asian sand dust event had a significant effect on allergic symptoms, change in health, and QoL. Conclusions: Respiratory symptoms were more strongly affected by oxidants than by other pollutants. Significant associations of air pollutants were found with a comprehensive range of items related to perceived health status, including overall health and QoL. Although the effects of air pollutants on respiratory symptoms and health status were more apparent among patients with respiratory diseases, the adverse effects of air pollutants were significant even among participants without such conditions.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.165-180
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• 2019

Water quality data of 81 lakes in Korea, 2013 ~ 2017 were analyzed. Most water quality parameters showed left-skewed distribution, while dissolved oxygen showed normal distribution. pH and dissolved oxygen showed a positive correlation with organic matter and nutrients, which appeared to be a nonsense correlation mediated by the algae. The ratio of $BOD_5$ and $COD_{Mn}$ to CBOD was 21 % and 52 % in the freshwater lakes, respectively. TOC concentration appeared to be underestimated by the UV digestion method, when salinity exceeds $700{\mu}S\;cm^{-1}$. In terms of nitrogen/phosphorus ratio, the limiting factor for algal growth seemed to be phosphorus in most of the lakes. Chlorophyll ${\alpha}$ increased acutely with decrease of N/P ratio. However, it seemed to be a nonsense correlation mediated by phosphorus concentration, since the N/P ratio depended on phosphorus. The N/P ratio of brackish lakes was lower than that of the freshwater, at the same concentration of phosphorus. It is worth examining denitrification that occurs, in bottom layer and sediment, during saline stratification. $Chl.{\alpha}$ concentration decreased in the form of a power function with increase of mean depth. The primary reason is that deep lakes are mainly at the less-disturbed upstream. However, it is necessary to investigate the effect of sediment, on water quality in shallow lakes. Light attenuation in the upper layer, was dominated by tripton (non-algal suspended solids) absorption/scattering (average relative contribution of 39 %), followed by CDOM (colored dissolved organic matter) (average 37 %) and $Chl.{\alpha}$ (average 21 %).

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.237-245
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• 2022

Peach is a typical summer fruit which can be used for various food, processed food, and fragrance ingredients in Korea. Peach is also known as one of serious allergens which make difficulty for farm workers during peach sorting operations. After peach harvesting, it moves to the sorting operations for removing cover material, removing fuzz on peach surface, sorting by size, and packing. The air-samplers and optical particle counters were used to analyze the characteristics of fine dust generation by location and operation characteristics in the experimental peach farms. During removing peach fuzz, the dust concentrations were increased by 6.89 times on total suspended particulate (TSP), 2.13 times on PM-10 (particulate matter), and 1.30 times on PM-2.5 compared to non-working periods, respectively. During removing peach covering materials, the dust concentrations were increased by 3.14 times on TSP, 1.91 times on PM-10, and 1.43 times on PM-2.5 compared to non-working periods, respectively. This represents peach fuzz can be affected to farm workers during peach sorting operations.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.346-362
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• 2021

A sediment control dam is an artificial structure built to prolong sedimentation in the main dam by reducing the inflow of suspended solids. These dams can affect changes in dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the water body by changing the river flow regime. The main DOM component for Yeongju Dam sediment control of the Naeseongcheon River was analyzed through 3D excitation-emission matrix (EEM) and parallel factor (PARAFAC) analyses. As a result, four humic-like components (C1~C3, C5), and three proteins, tryptophan-like components (C2, C6~C7) were detected. Among DOM components, humic-like components (autochthonous: C1, allochthonous: C2~C3) were found to be dominant during the sampling period. The total amount of DOM components and the composition ratio of each component did not show a difference for each depth according to the amount of available light (100%, 12%, and 1%). Throughout the study period, the allochthonous organic matter was continuously decomposing and converting into autochthonous organic matter; the DOM indices (fluorescence index, humification index, and freshness index) indicated the dominance of autochthonous organic matter in the river. Considering the relative abundance of cyanobacteria and that the number of bacteria cells and rotifers increased as autochthonous organic matter increased, it was suggested that the algal bloom and consequent activation of the microbial food web was affected by the composition of DOM in the water body. Research on DOM characteristics is important not only for water quality management but also for understanding the cycling of matter through microbial food web activity.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.5_1
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• pp.609-625
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• 2022

Validation of satellite data products is critical for subsequent analysis that is based on the data. Particularly, performance of ocean color products in turbid and shallow near-land ocean areas has been questioned for long time for its difficulty that stems from the complex optical environment with varying distribution of water constituents. Furthermore, validation with ship-based or station-based measurements has also exhibited clear limitation in its spatial scale that is not compatible with that of satellite data. This study firstly performed validation of major GOCI-II products such as remote sensing reflectance, chlorophyll-a concentration, suspended particulate matter, and colored dissolved organic matter, using the in-situ measurements collected from ship-based field campaign. Secondly, this study also presents preliminary analysis on the use of drone images for product validation. Multispectral images were acquired from a MicaSense RedEdge camera onboard a UAV to compensate for the significant scale difference between the ship-based measurements and the satellite data. Variation of water radiance in terms of camera altitude was analyzed for future application of drone images for validation. Validation conducted with a limited number of samples showed that GOCI-II remote sensing reflectance at 555 nm is overestimated more than 30%, and chlorophyll-a and colored dissolved organic matter products exhibited little correlation with in-situ measurements. Suspended particulate matter showed moderate correlation with in-situ measurements (R²~0.6), with approximately 20% uncertainty.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.353-365
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• 1998

Light absorption coefficient per unit mass of particles, i.e., specific absorption coefficient, is important as one of the main parameters in developing algorithms for ocean color remote sensing. Specific absorption coefficient of chlorophyll ($a^*_{ph}$) and suspended sediment ($a^*_{ss}$) were analyzed with a spectrophotometer using the "wet filter technique" and "Kishino method" for the seawater collected in the Yellow and Mediterranean Sea. An improved data-recovery method for the filter technique was also developed using spectrum slopes. This method recovered the baselines of spectrum that were often altered in the original methods. High $a^*_{ph}({lambda})$ values in the oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea and low values in the Yellow Sea were observed, ranging 0.01 to 0.12 $m^2$/mg at the chlorophyll maximum absorption wavelength of 440 nm. The empirical relationship between $a^*_{ph}$(440nm) and chlorophyll concentrations () was found to fit a power function ($a^*_{ph}$=0.039 $^{-0.369}$), which was similar to Bricaud et al. (1995). Absorption specific coefficients for suspended sediment ($a^*_{ss}$) did not show any relationship with concentrations of suspended sediment. However, an average value of $a^*_{ss}$ ranging 0.005 - 0.08 $m^2$/g at 440nm, was comparable to the specific absorption coefficient of soil (loess) measured by Ahn (1990). The morepronounced variability of $a^*_{ss}$ than $a^*_{ph}$ was determined from the variable mixing ratio values between particulate organic matter and mineral. It can also be explained by a wide size-distribution range for SS which were determined by their specific gravity, bottom state, depth and agitation of water mass by wind in the sea surface.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.611-615
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• 1992

Problems with maintaining service and equipment in some developing countries suggest that the rumen bag technique may be more appropriate for the determination of plant dry matter digestibility. The technique has been adapted for use in goats in the 16-25 kg liveweight range. Reliable results were obtained for animals maintained under shelter in cages and fed on a mixed legume/grass diet. The results showed that up to 7 bags containing dried and ground (2 mm screen) plant samples (1-3 g) could be satisfactorily used in each goat. The digestibility of the legumes studied did not increase with incubation times over 48 hours, but there was an increase in the digestibility of grasses. However an incubation time of 48 hours was adapted for both legumes and grasses as it allowed more efficient work scheduling for large numbers of samples while still giving acceptable comparisons between species. Losses of material from the bags during a 6 hour soaking in water were 2-9% as fine solids and 14-21% in solution. In the method finally adapted the disappearance was measured for plant samples that were placed in Dacron mesh bags ($7{\times}14cm$, 44 micron) and 6 bags suspended in the rumen of each sheep for 48 hours.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.89-96
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• 2001

This paper presents a decision making technique of reasonable $O_2$quantity needed to resolve organic matter via microbe in wastewater treatment. Decision making system of inferring reasonable $O_2$quantity consists of three parts. The first part is to compute reasonable $O_2$quantity with given process data. The second part is to find output features of processed wastewater using process model when $O_2$quantity is changed to a value inferred from decision making system. The third part is to show the results of decision making system. In order to verify performance of proposed decision making system computer simulation was done with process data gathered during 40 days. Simulation result shows that $O_2$quantity can be reduced over 10% under the condition of satisfying the specifications for processed wastewater.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.34-57
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• 2004

Universal health insurance normally requires a basic benefit package, whose design intersects with almost all other aspects of the health insurance debate. Despite its central importance, basic benefit package has not received the analysis it deserves in Korea. The issue of how to decide which health services should be delivered and to whom has been a matter for consistent policy debate. Many industrialized countries observed in this study have been dealing explicitly or implicitly with the basic benefit package. The methods vary from having a specific positive list of services (Bismarkian countries) to the use of guidelines (Beveridgian countries). The purpose of this paper is to form the underlying principles and process for determining what is included or left out by getting accurate and representative responses from health-related personnel. Mail survey is used. Economic burden for treatment, seriousness of disease and urgency of treatment are ranked at the first three priorities. Services that had been suspended because of financial crisis in health insurance scheme in 2001 were selected as items which should firstly be expanded into coverage. Diagnostic test against heart disease and vaccination were also selected as items which should additionally belong to the list of covered services.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.229-233
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• 2015

In this study, we examined the removal characteristics of suspended particulate matters which are one of carcinogens to cause lung cancer. The fine dust capture by a pilot scale filtration system depends on several important variables such as humidity, initial fine dust injection volume, and flow rate. The average concentration of particulate matters in the test chamber decreased, but the ultimate collection efficiency did not change during the filtration under high humidity, compared to those of using ambient conditions The initial injection amount of fine dust did not influence the particle capturing efficiency. When the flow rate reduced from 0.6 m/s to 0.3 m/s, the dust collection time increased approximately 1.4 times. Among all variables tested, the flow rate showed the most significant effect on the removal efficiency of fine particulate matter.