• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.367-375
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• 2002

Background : Murine typhus is a flea-borne, worldwide Rickettsial disease caused by Rickettsia typhi. Its symptoms are typically mild but sometimes can be fatal. The major clinical features include fever, rash, and headache. Recently, we experienced 6 cases of ARDS associated with a Rickettsia typhi infection. This study was aimed to analyze the attributing factors for fatal murine typhus and to review the characteristics of the patients who showed acute respiratory distress syndrome as the initial presentation. Methods : The medical records of 15 patients diagnosed as murine typhus were reviewed. The diagnosis was made by single titers of 1:512 or higher, or a 4-fold rise with compatible clinical features. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) was defined according to the American-European Consensus Conference. The Characteristics between the ARDS group and the non-ARDS group of murine typhus were compared. Results : Six patients developed ARDS as their initial presentation. Two of them were women and three of them had lived urban area. None of Them a showed skin rash. One of them expired during treatment. The time lapse until the commencement of the specific treatment, the lower serum albumin level, the higher serum total bilirubin level, the higher APACHE III score and the higher MOD score were significantly associated with the ARDS group compared to the non-ARDS group. Conclusion : Murine typhus should be considered as one of the etiologies for the ARDS of unknown cause, particularly in an endemic regions. ARDS caused by Murine typhus generally has a good prognosis.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2014

This study aims to evaluate the impact of varying exposure to dental amalgam on urinary mercury levels in children by measuring the number of amalgam-filled teeth and the variance of mercury concentration in urine over a period of 2 years. A total of 317 (male 158, female 159) elementary school children (1st~4th graders) attending 2 schools in urban regions participated in this study. At 6-month intervals, 4 oral examinations were conducted to check any variance in the conditions of dental caries and the status of dental fillings. Also, urine tests were conducted followed by a questionnaire survey. To elucidate the factors potentially affecting the mercury concentration in urine, t-test, ANOVA, chi-square test and a mixed model were used for the analysis. Regarding the status of dental fillings in line with examination time periods, deciduous teeth had more amalgam-filled surfaces than those filled with resin, whereas permanent teeth had more resin-filled surfaces than those filled with amalgam. A significant relevance was found between the exposure to dental amalgam and urinary mercury levels. Specifically, subjects whose teeth surfaces had been filled with dental amalgam showed higher urinary mercury levels than those who had no dental amalgam fillings. Based on the analysis using the mixed model, the increase in the number of teeth surfaces filled with amalgam was found to be the factor affecting the increase in urinary mercury levels. The urinary mercury levels were found to be highly associated with the exposure to dental amalgam. The more the teeth surfaces filled with amalgam, the higher the urinary mercury levels. Hence, even a trace of dental amalgam fillings can liberate mercury, affecting the variance in the urinary mercury levels. These findings suggest that some criteria or measures should be developed to minimize the exposure to dental amalgam. Moreover, relevant further studies are warranted.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.163-185
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• 2014

The growth of a city requires substantial resources, an appropriate environment, and the alignment of several factors. City growth also evolves through changes in its history, culture, economics, societies, groups, and government systems. However, current port city development plans designed to encourage the growth of local businesses fail to provide the support needed for both the city and businesses. The recent actions of urban administrations and federal and local governments have revealed that they have yet to create a mature decentralized management system, or perhaps have ignored the reality of needing one. Taking a clear look at the differences between port regions, such as Gwangyang and Pyeongtaek, and understanding their effect on city growth would be a prudent course of action when preparing for future developments. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between ports and cities by analyzing the effect of port characteristics on nearby city growth. This study used a comparison analysis to determine how port characteristics affected the growth of Pyeongtaek and Gwangyang. One result of this analysis showed that an increase in the number of goods being imported or exported had a positive effect on the growth of both port cities, In this respect, an aggressive plan and cooperation between the federal and local government should occur simultaneously. Furthermore, efficient local policies that focus on the increase of personnel and material resources should be pursued as a standard strategy, which would also promote the international status of these locations. The results of this study show the importance of government cooperation. The federal government should lead with aggressive strategies that aim to optimize efficiency, while the local government should provide the necessary assistance and coordination in order to achieve optimal results.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.367-377
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• 2018

A cultural ecosystem service(CES), which is non-material benefit that human gains from ecosystem, has been recently further recognized as gross national income increases. Previous researches proposed to quantify the value of CES, which still remains as a challenging issue today due to its social and cultural subjectivity. This study proposes new way of assessing CES which is called Cultural Service Opportunity Spectrum(CSOS). CSOS is accessibility based CES assessment methodology for regional scale and it is designed to be applicable for any regions in Korea for supporting decision making process. CSOS employed public spatial data which are road network and population density map. In addition, the results of 'Rapid Assessment of Natural Assets' implemented by National Institute of Ecology, Korea were used as a complementary data. CSOS was applied to Namyangju-si and the methodology resulted in revealing specific areas with great accessibility to 'Natural Assets' in the region. Based on the results, the advantages and limitations of the methodology were discussed with regard to weighting three main factors and in contrast to Scenic Quality model and Recreation model of InVEST which have been commonly used for assessing CES today due to its convenience today.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.82 no.3
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• pp.271-282
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• 1993

This study was conducted to investigate the absorbing and/or filtering capacity of woody landscape plants growing in urban and industrial regions of Seoul and Taejon. Korea. Total sulfur content and heavy metal content were analyzed in tree foliage of Pinus densiflora, Pinus koraiensis, Ginkgo biloba. Liriodendron tulipifera, Platanus occidentalis. The total sulfur content in the leaves of woody landscape plants in Seoul and Taejon were remarkably higher than those of the tree leaves in Kwangreung. The total sulfur content of deciduous trees had 2.6 times more than that of coniferous trees. the former had better absorbing capacity of $SO_2$ gas. Especially Ginkgo biloba and Platanus occidentalis were recommanded as absorption trees of $SO_2$ because sulfur content levels of them were the highest among all species and increased until tall coloration. While coniferous trees showed no changes in total sulfur content between four seasons. deciduous trees increased in sulfur during the growing season. Pb content of all species in polluted area were higher than those in unpolluted area. In polluted area, while coniferous trees had higher absorption and accumulation of Pb, deciduous trees had higher absorption of Zn. The content of Pb, Zn and Cu in needle of Pinus koraiensis were more than those of Pinus densiflora, In Pinus koraiensis and Pinus densiflora, heavy metal content in the 2nd year needle were higher than thous in the current year needle. In Pinus densiflora, Pinus koraiensis Liriodendron tulipifera and Platanus occidentalis there was a positive correlation between total sulfur and heavy metals [(Pb+Zn+Cu)/3] content.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.303-318
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• 2014

Baseflow gives a significant contribution to stream function in the regions where climatic characteristics are seasonally distinct. In this regard, variable baseflow can make it difficult to maintain a stable water supply, as well as causing disruption to the stream ecosystem. Changes in land use can affect both the direct flow and baseflow of a stream, and consequently, most other components of the hydrologic cycle. Baseflow estimation depends on the observed streamflow in gauge watersheds, but accurate predictions of streamflow through modeling can be useful in determining baseflow data for ungauged watersheds. Accordingly, the objectives of this study are to 1) improve predictions of SWAT by applying the alpha factor estimated using RECESS for calibration; 2) estimate baseflow in an ungauged watershed using the WHAT system; and 3) evaluate the effects of changes in land use on baseflow characteristics. These objectives were implemented in the Gapcheon watershed, as an ungauged watershed in South Korea. The results show that the alpha factor estimated using RECESS in SWAT calibration improves the prediction for streamflow, and, in particular, recessions in the baseflow. Also, the changes in land use in the Gapcheon watershed leads to no significant difference in annual baseflow between comparable periods, regardless of precipitation, but does lead to differences in the seasonal characteristics observed for the temporal distribution of baseflow. Therefore, the Guem River, into which the stream from the Gapcheon watershed flows, requires strategic seasonal variability predictions of baseflow due to changes in land use within the region.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.191-202
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the disaster perception and satisfaction level of volunteer fire-fighters on the continuity of their volunteering. The 163 subjects in this study were selected from male and female volunteer fire-fighters who resided in urban and rural regions in Gangwon Province. After a this survey was conducted, the collected data were analyzed by a statistical package SPSS WIN 20.0, and frequency analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were made. The level of statistical significance was all set at p<.05. The findings of the study were as follows: First, as for the correlation of disaster perception, satisfaction and volunteering continuity, perception of disaster countermeasures, satisfaction and the level of participation were negatively correlated with one another, and there was a positive correlation among disaster training, disaster preparation, regional disaster, the period of volunteering, and will of persistent volunteering. Second, as for perception of disaster, the volunteer fire-fighters were asked a question about disaster countermeasures, and the largest group replied they were partially aware of the countermeasures. Concerning questions about disaster training/education experience and triage, the biggest group replied they underwent the training and knew about triage on the whole. Regarding questions on the emergency contact system and emergency work schedule, they knew about the two in general. As to a question on the occurrence of human disaster, the greatest group answered that they knew about it yet not well. Third, in regard to the impact of satisfaction level on volunteering continuity, the period of volunteering was affected by needs for experience, social contact and social recognition among the subfactors of satisfaction level, and will of persistent volunteering was under the influence of social contact and achievement needs. The level of persistent volunteering was affected only by needs for experience and achievement needs.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.828-836
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• 2010

This study was conducted to evaluate soil erosion risk with a standard unit watershed in the upper Han river basin using the spatial soil erosion map according to the change of landuse. The study area is 14,577 $km^2$, which consists of 10 subbasins, 107 standard unit watersheds. Total annual soil loss and soil loss per area estimated were $895{\times}10^4\;Mg\;yr^{-1}$ and 6.1 Mg $ha^{-1}\;yr^{-1}$, respectively. A result of analysis with a subbasin as a unit showed that annual soil losses and soil loss per area in Namhan river basins was more than in Bukhan river ones. Predicted annual soil loss according to the landuse ranked as Forest & Grassland > Upland ${\gg}$ Urban & Fallow area > Paddy field > Orchard. Upland area covered 6.2% of the study area, but the contribution of total annul soil loss was 40.6% and that of Forest & Grassland was 44.2%. As a evaluation of soil erosion risk using the spatial soil erosion map, we could precisely conformed the potential hazardous region of soil erosion in each unit watersheds. The ratio of regions, graded as higher "Moderate" for annual soil loss, were respectively 8.7%, 7.9% and 7.8% in 1001, 1002 and 1003 subbasins in Namhan river basin. Most landuse of these area was upland, and these area is necessary to establish soil conservation practices to reduce soil erosion based on the field observation.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.393-404
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• 2022

Reliable terrestrial rainfall observations from satellites at finer spatial resolution are essential for urban hydrological and microscale agricultural demands. Although various traditional "top-down" approach-based satellite rainfall products were widely used, they are limited in spatial resolution. This study aims to assess the potential of a novel "bottom-up" approach for rainfall estimation, the parameterized SM2RAIN model, applied to the C-band SAR Sentinel-1 satellite data (SM2RAIN-S1), to generate high-spatial-resolution terrestrial rainfall estimates (0.01° grid/6-day) over Central South Korea. Its performance was evaluated for both spatial and temporal variability using the respective rainfall data from a conventional reanalysis product and rain gauge network for a 1-year period over two different sub-regions in Central South Korea-the mixed forest-dominated, middle sub-region and cropland-dominated, west coast sub-region. Evaluation results indicated that the SM2RAIN-S1 product can capture general rainfall patterns in Central South Korea, and hold potential for high-spatial-resolution rainfall measurement over the local scale with different land covers, while less biased rainfall estimates against rain gauge observations were provided. Moreover, the SM2RAIN-S1 rainfall product was better in mixed forests considering the Pearson's correlation coefficient (R = 0.69), implying the suitability of 6-day SM2RAIN-S1 data in capturing the temporal dynamics of soil moisture and rainfall in mixed forests. However, in terms of RMSE and Bias, better performance was obtained with the SM2RAIN-S1 rainfall product over croplands rather than mixed forests, indicating that larger errors induced by high evapotranspiration losses (especially in mixed forests) need to be included in further improvement of the SM2RAIN.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.247-253
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• 2023

As climate change problem has recently become serious, studies are being conducted to identify carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission dynamics based on satellite data to reduce emissions. It is also very important to analyze spatial patterns by estimating and mapping CO₂ emissions dynamic. Therefore, in this study, CO₂ emissions in the Korean Peninsula from 2013 to 2020 were estimated and mapped. To spatially estimate and map emissions, we use the enhanced vegetation index adjusted nighttime light index, an index that combines nighttime light (NTL) and vegetation index, to map both areas where NTL is observed and areas where NTL is not observed. In order to spatially estimate and map CO₂ emissions, the total annual emissions of the Korean Peninsula were calculated, resulting in an increase of 11% from 2013 to 2017 and a decrease of 13% from 2017 to 2020. As a result of the mapping, it was confirmed that the spatial pattern of CO₂ emissions in the Korean Peninsula were concentrated in urban areas. After being divided into 17 regions, which included the downtown area, the metropolitan area accounted for roughly 40% of CO₂ emissions in the Korean Peninsula. The region that exhibited the most significant change from 2013 to 2020 was Sejong City, showing a 96% increase.