• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.64 no.3
• /
• pp.539-563
• /
• 2022

Nine pig farms were evaluated for the welfare quality in Korea using animal- and environment-based parameters (particularly air quality parameters) during the winter of 2013. The Welfare Quality^® (WQ^®) protocol consists of 12 criteria within four principles. The WQ^® protocol classifies farms into four categories ranging from 'excellent' to 'not classified'. Each of these criteria has specific measures for calculating scores. Calculations for the welfare scores were conducted online using the calculation model in the WQ^® protocol. Environment-based parameters like microclimate (i.e., temperature, relative humidity, air speed, and particulate matter), bacteria (total airborne bacteria, airborne total coliform, and airborne total Escherichia coli), concentration of gases (carbon dioxide, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide) were measured to investigate the relationship between animal- and environment-based parameters. Correlations between the results of animal- and environment-based parameters were estimated using spearman correlation coefficient. The overall assessments found that five out of nine farms were 'acceptable', and four farms were 'enhanced'; no farm was 'not classified'. The average score for the four principles across the nine farms, in decreasing order, were 'good feeding' (63.13 points) > 'good housing' (59.26 points) > 'good health' (33.47 points) > 'appropriate behaviors' (25.48 points). In the result of the environment aspect, the relative humidity of farms 2 (93.4%), 3 (100%), and 9 (98%) was much higher than the recommended maximum relative humidity of 80%, and four out of the nine farms had ammonia concentrations greater than 40 ppm. Ammonia had negative correlations with 'positive social behaviors' and positive emotional states: content, enjoying, sociable, playful, lively, happy and it had positive correlations with negative emotional states: aimless, distressed. The concentration of carbon dioxide had negative correlations with positive emotional states; calm, sociable, playful, happy and it had a positive correlation with negative emotional state; aimless. Our results indicate that the control of the environment for growing pigs can help improve their welfare, particularly via good air quality (carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.572-580
• /
• 2019

In view of the numerous discussions on global environmental issues, policies have been implemented to limit emissions in the field of marine transport, which accounts for a major part of international trade. In this study, a ship's emissions were calculated by applying the engine load factor to determine the total quantity of emissions based on the ship's speed reduction. For ships entering and leaving the Busan North Port from 1 January to 31 December 2017, emissions were calculated and analyzed based on the ship's type and its speed in the reduced speed zone (RSZ), which was set to 20 nautical miles. The comparison of the total amount of emissions under all situations, such as cruising, maneuvering, and hotelling modes revealed that the vessels that generated the most emissions were container ships at 76.1 %, general cargo ships at 7.2 %, and passenger ships at 6.8 %. In the cruising and maneuvering modes, general cargo ships discharged a lesser amount of emission in comparison with passenger ships; however, in the hotelling mode, the general cargo ships discharged a larger amount of emission than passenger ships. The total emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx), particulate matter (PM), and volatile organic compounds (VOC), were 49.4 %, 45 %, 4 %, and 1.6 %, respectively. Furthermore, the amounts of emission were compared when ships navigated at their average service speed, 12, 10, and 8 knots in the RSZ, respectively. At 12 knots, the reduction in emissions was more than that of the ships navigating at their average service speed by 39 % in NOx, 40 % in VOC, 42 % in PM, and 38 % in Sox. At 10 knots, the emission reductions were 52 %, 54 %, 56 %, and 50 % in NOx, VOC, PM, and Sox, respectively. At 8 knots, the emission reductions were 62 %, 64 %, 67 %, and 59 % in NOx, VOC, PM, and Sox, respectively. As a result, the emissions were ef ectively reduced when there was a reduction in the ship's speed. Therefore, it is necessary to consider limiting the speed of ships entering and leaving the port to decrease the total quantity of emissions.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.535-547
• /
• 2019

In this study, the heavy metal analysis in sediments (surface sediments, sediments cores and settling particles) from Shihwa Lake has been carried out to evaluate the changes of metal pollution levels in sediments after the operation of Tidal Power Plant (TPP). The average concentrations of metals in surface sediments sampled in 2015 were 8% (Cd)~31% (Zn, Hg) lower than in 2009 before TPP operation. Results of calculating the pollution load index (PLI) with 8 metals, the PLI value in 2015 showed a 18% decrease compared to 2009. However, Cu, Zn, Pb concentrations of surface sediments in 2015 at the upper region around industrial complex still exceeded the TEL (threshold effect level) values for sediment quality guideline in Korea. After the operation of TPP, the metal contaminated depths were increasing from 15 cm to 30 cm at S6 site and from 8 cm to 20 cm at S7 site, respectively. Our data showed that the mean concentration of heavy metals in core samples decreased but the contaminated depth increased. The average of the total sedimentation flux for particulate matter increased by 3.2 times from 32.5 g/㎡/d in 2009 to 103.5 g/㎡/d in 2015. This showed that the bottom sediments were resuspended by the operation of TPP, resulting in an increase of particulate matter in the water column. These results suggest that the sediments contaminated with heavy metals seem to be resuspended and relocated due to the water current caused by the operation of TPP. Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd were highly exceeding the TEL values in the upstream region and accumulated more than 40 cm of sediment depth, indicating that heavy metal contamination through industrial activity were still a serious environmental problem of Shihwa Lake. Although the metal pollution of Shihwa Lake has been slightly reduced, the contaminated sediments with heavy metals inside of Shihwa Lake might be discharged to outer sea after the resuspension by TPP operation. It is necessary for the advanced scientific approach and political decision to drastically reduce the heavy metal pollution of the study region.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.32 no.8
• /
• pp.739-746
• /
• 2010

The purposes of this study are 1) to develop an advanced chamber system within ${\pm}10%$ of air velocity at the particulate matter (PM) collection area, 2) to research theoretical characteristics of PM10 and PM2.5 samplers, 3) to assess the performance characteristics of PM10 and PM2.5 samplers through chamber experiments. The total six one-hour experiments were conducted using the cornstarch with an mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) of $20\;{\mu}m$ and an geometric standard deviation of 2.0 at the two different air velocity conditions of 0.67 m/s and 2.15 m/s in the chamber. The aerosol samplers used in the present study are one APM PM10 and one PM2.5 samplers accordance with the US federal reference methods and specially designed three mini-volume aerosol samplers (two for PM10 and one for PM2.5). The overall results indicate that PM10 and PM2.5 mini-volume samplers need correction factors of 0.25 and 0.39 respectively when APM PM samplers considered as reference samplers and there is significant difference between two mini-volume aerosol samplers when a two-way analysis of variance is tested using the measured PM10 mass concentrations. The PM10 and PM2.5 samplers with the cutpoints and slopes (PM10: $10{\pm}0.5\;{\mu}m$ and $1.5{\pm}0.1$, PM2.5: $2.5{\pm}0.2\;{\mu}m$ and $1.3{\pm}0.03$) theoretically collect the ranges of 86~114% and 64~152% considering the cornstarch characteristics used in this research. Furthermore, the calculated mass concentrations of PM samplers are higher than the ideal mass concentrations when the airborne MMADs for the cornstarch used are smaller than the cutpoints of PM samplers and the PM samplers collected less PM in another case. The chamber experiment also showed that PM10 and PM2.5 samplers had the bigger collection ranges of 37~158% and 55~149% than the theocratical calculated mass concentration ranges and the relatively similar mass concentration ranges were measured at the air velocity of 2.15 m/s comparing with the 0.67 m/s.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.115-122
• /
• 2006

This study investigated the spatial distribution of dust originating from tunnel-ventilated windowless broiler building measuring 12 m wide, 61 m long, with a side wall height of 3 m and a capacity of 16,982 birds. Dust concentrations in terms of total suspended particles (TSP), and particulate matter of sizes $10\;{\mu}m$(PM10), $2.5\;{\mu}m$(PM2.5), and $1\;{\mu}m(PM1)$ were measured at 30 minutes interval by using GRIMM Aerosol Monitor (GRIMM AEROSOL). The spatial distribution of dust showed the lower dust concentration in the inlet than in the outlet of the tunnel ventilation, and dust concentration decreasing as the dust size decreased, as follows: $317.9\;{\mu}g/m^3$ TSP; $74.7{\mu}m/m^3$ PM10; $9.7\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM2.5; and $6.2\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM1 in the inlet; and $2,678.5\;{\mu}g/m^3$ TSP; $555.5\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM10; $33.3\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM2.5; and $10.2\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM1 in the outlet. The dust concentration emitted from the tunnel ventilated fan was $446.6\;{\mu}g/m^3$ TSP; $129.1\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM10; $15.8\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM2.5; and $6.1\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM1 in the 3 meters from the fan and $25.1\;{\mu}g/m^3$ TSP; $8.8\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM10; $5.6\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM2.5; and $4.9\;{\mu}g/m^3$ PM1 in the 50 meters from the fan.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.63-75
• /
• 2023

Due to the development of industry, interest in air pollutants has increased. Air pollutants have affected various fields such as environmental pollution and global warming. Among them, environmental diseases are one of the fields affected by air pollutants. Air pollutants can affect the human body's skin or respiratory tract due to their small molecular size. As a result, various studies on air pollutants and environmental diseases have been conducted. Asthma, part of an environmental disease, can be life-threatening if symptoms worsen and cause asthma attacks, and in the case of adult asthma, it is difficult to cure once it occurs. Factors that worsen asthma include particulate matter and air pollution. Asthma is an increasing prevalence worldwide. In this paper, we study how air pollutants correlate with the number of emergency room admissions in asthma patients and predict the number of future asthma emergency patients using highly correlated air pollutants. Air pollutants used concentrations of five pollutants: sulfur dioxide(SO₂), carbon monoxide(CO), ozone(O₃), nitrogen dioxide(NO₂), and fine dust(PM₁₀), and environmental diseases used data on the number of hospitalizations of asthma patients in the emergency room. Data on the number of emergency patients of air pollutants and asthma were used for a total of 5 years from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2017. The model made predictions using two models, Informer and LTSF-Linear, and performance indicators of MAE, MAPE, and RMSE were used to measure the performance of the model. The results were compared by making predictions for both cases including and not including the number of emergency patients. This paper presents air pollutants that improve the model's performance in predicting the number of asthma emergency patients using Informer and LTSF-Linear models.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.587-597
• /
• 2023

We evaluated the eutrophication of Saemangeum Lake, which causes abnormal growth of algae, using the Carlson index. Eutrophication characteristics of Saemangeum Lake were analyzed. For the study, water quality surveys were conducted at 7 stations in Saemangeum Lake every month in 2021. The concentration of Chl.a was slightly higher in the Mankyeong water system in winter, and slightly higher in the Dongjin water system in spring and summer, but overall, except for some periods, the concentration was similar to or lower than the lake water quality environmental standard of class 3. COD showed water quality similar to or above the lake quality environmental standard of grade 4 in both the Mankyeong and Dongjin water systems in the summer and Autumn. TOC concentrations were within lake water quality standard 3 at all sites. Total phosphorus concentrations exceeded the lake water quality standard of Class 4 and were higher in January and August after rainfall. In the correlation analysis between water quality factors, the correlation of organic matter, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen to salinity was relatively high. This reflected the water quality characteristics of freshwater, brackish water, and seawater areas due to seawater inflow through the drainage gate and freshwater inflow through upstream rivers. According to the characteristics of eutrophication fluctuations in Saemangeum Lake by trophic state index, the indices of Chl.a, SD, and TN showed water quality in the early stage of eutrophication, while the TP index showed a severe eutrophication state. The magnitude of the eutrophication index among water quality components was TSI(TP) > TSI(TN) > TSI(SD) > TSI(CHL) in all water systems. Quadrant analysis of the deviation of TSI(CHL) from TSI(TP) and TSI(SD) on a two-dimensional plane showed that there was no limiting effect of total phosphorus on algal growth in all water systems. In addition, the factors af ecting light attenuation appeared to be dominated by small particulate matter from outside sources.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.200-206
• /
• 1996

Experiment was conducted to get the information about physico-chemical properties of flue-cured tobacco on the degree of maturity cultivated in paddy-upland rotated field, and compared to upland ones. For the samples of this experiment, 3~4 leaves at each stalk position were harvested from the bottom of plants. Physico-chemical properties of cured leaves were determined from the samples collected at weekly intervals, and of obtained from 4 stalk positions. For the degree of maturity, harvested leaves were separated with visual characters into four classes such as immature, mature, ripe, and mellow. Regardless of stalk position, the order of shrinkage rate with length and width of leaves was mellow> immature> ripe> mature, and ripe leaves from paddy field showed higher shrinkage rate than those of upland. Nicotine and total nitrogen contents were decreased with the degree of maturity while reducing sugar content were showed a reverse tendency. Ripe leaves from paddy field had lower reducing sugar contents, comparing with upland tobacco. Filling capacity of cured leaves from paddy field was decreased with degree of maturity, but there was no difference between upland and paddy tobacco. Shatter index was increased in the oeder of immature > mellow > mature > ripe. Chemical components of cigarette smoke from paddy field tobacco were little higher in $CO_2$ total particulate matter and tar contents, while combustibility was little lower than that of upland tobacco. It was also evaluated that paddy field tobacco was unfavorable for the non-volatile organic and higher fatty acids contents comparing with upland tobacco.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.33 no.5
• /
• pp.445-457
• /
• 2017

In this study, we developed an approach to better account for uncertainties in estimated contributions from fine particulate matter ($PM_{2.5}$) modeling. Our approach computes a Concentration Correction Factor (CCF) which is a ratio of observed concentrations to baseline model concentrations. We multiply modeled direct contribution estimates with CCF to obtain revised contributions. Overall, the modeling system showed reasonably good performance, correlation coefficient R of 0.82 and normalized mean bias of 2%, although the model underestimated some PM species concentrations. We also noticed that model biases vary seasonally. We compared contribution estimates of major source sectors before and after applying CCFs. We observed that different source sectors showed variable magnitudes of sensitivities to the CCF application. For example, the total primary $PM_{2.5}$ contribution was increased $2.4{\mu}g/m^3$ or 63% after the CCF application. Out of a $2.4{\mu}g/m^3$ increment, line sources and area source made up $1.3{\mu}g/m^3$ and $0.9{\mu}g/m^3$ which is 92% of the total contribution changes. We postulated two major reasons for variations in estimated contributions after the CCF application: (1) monthly variability of unadjusted contributions due to emission source characteristics and (2) physico-chemical differences in environmental conditions that emitted precursors undergo. Since emissions-to-$PM_{2.5}$ concentration conversion rate is an important piece of information to prioritize control strategy, we examined the effects of CCF application on the estimated conversion rates. We found that the application of CCFs can alter the rank of conversion efficiencies of source sectors. Finally, we discussed caveats of our current approach such as no consideration of ion neutralization which warrants further studies.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.33 no.5
• /
• pp.497-514
• /
• 2017

This study quantitatively analyzes the effects of emission inventory choices on the simulated particulate matter (PM) concentrations and the domestic/foreign contributions in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) with an air quality forecasting system. The forecasting system is composed of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE)-Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ). Different domestic and foreign emission inventories were selectively adopted to set up four sets of emissions inputs for air quality simulations in this study. All modeling cases showed that model performance statistics satisfied the criteria levels (correlation coefficient >0.7, fractional error <50%) suggested by previous studies. Notwithstanding the apparently good model performance of total PM concentrations by all emission cases, annual average concentrations of simulated total PM concentrations varied up to $20{\mu}g/m^3$ (160%) depending on the combination of emission inventories. In detail, the difference in simulated annual average concentrations of the primary PM coarse (PMC) was up to $25.2{\mu}g/m^3$ (6.5 times) compared with other cases. Furthermore, model performance analyses on PM species showed that the difference in the simulated primary PMC led to gross model overestimation in general, which indicates that the primary PMC emissions need to be improved. The contribution analysis using model direct outputs indicated that the domestic contributions to the annual average PM concentrations in the SMA vary from 44% to 67%. To account for the uncertainty of the simulated concentration, the contribution correction factor method proposed by Bae et al. (2017) was applied, which resulted in converged contributions(from 48% to 57%). We believe this study shows that it is necessary to improve the simulated concentrations of PM components in order to enhance the accuracy of the forecasting model. It is deemed that these improvements will provide more accurate contribution results.