• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 2002

Direct effects of atmospheric ozone on conidia of the rice blast pathogen, Magnaporthe grisea, were investigated to evaluate ozone-induced effects on infection potential of the rice blast fungus. Acute ozone exposure (200 nl $1^{-1}$, 8 h $day^{-1}$3 days) during sporulation significantly affected conidial morphology, appressorium formation, and disease development on rice loaves. Ozone caused reduction in conidial size and change in conidial shape. Relative cytoplasmic volume of lipids and vacuoles were increased in ozone-exposed conidia. Inhibition of appressorium formation and simultaneous increase in endogenous levee of polyamines were found in ozone-exposed conidia. The inverse relationship between appressorium formation and level of polyamines implies that ozone-mediated increase in intracellular level of polyamines may inhibit appressorium formation in rice blast fungus. Furthermore, rice plants inoculated with ozone-fumigated conidia exhibited less severe disease development than those with unfumigated conidia. This result suggests that the anti-conidial consequence of acute ozone will eventually weaken the rice blasts potential for multiple infection cycle. This further suggests that consequently, rice blast can be transformed from an explosive disease to one that has limited epidemiological potential in the field.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.561-568
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• 2003

Surface ozone concentrations are highly sensitive to meteorological variability. Therefore, in order to reveal the long-term changes in ozone due to the changes in precursor emissions, we need to remove the effects of meteorological fluctuations on the annual distribution of surface ozone. In this paper, the meteorologically adjusted trends of daily maximum surface ozone concentrations in two major Korean cities (Seoul and Busan) are investigated based on ozone data from 11 (Seoul) and 6 (Busan) sites over the period 1992 ∼ 2000. The original time series consisting of the logarithm of daily maximum ozone concentrations are splitted into long-term, seasonal and short-term component using Kolmogorov-Zurbenko (KZ) filter. Meteorological effects are removed from filtered ozone series using multiple linear regression based on meteorologcial variables. The long-term evolution of ozone forming capability due to changes in precursor emission can be obtained applying the KZ filter to the residuals of the regression. The results indicated that meteorologically adjusted long-term daily maximum ozone concentrations had a significant upward trend (Seoul: ＋ 3.02% yr$^{-1}$ , Busan: ＋ 3.45% yr$^{-1}$ ). These changes of meteorologically adjusted ozone concentrations represent the effects of changing background ozone concentrations as well as the more localized changes in emissions.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 1999

Offsite consequences resulting form worst-case scenarios involving release of toxic substances in the Yochon area were estimated using the ALOHA(Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) model. Eight toxic substances, including NH3, were considered; five were toxic gases and three were toxic liquids at ambient temperature. For toxic gases, the entire quantity was assumed to be released at a constant rate during a 10-minute period. For toxic liquids, the entire quantity stored in the tank was assumed to be spilled and spread and spread instantaneously to form a pool with a depth of 1cm, and then evaporated over some period of time. Except for phosgene and toluene 2,4-diisocyanate, for which concentration levels corresponding to human health effects are very low, average distances of the area at risk of adverse health effects for a 1- tom release were predicted to be $2.3{\pm}1.1 km$ for the worst-case meteorological conditions and $0.93{\pm}0.69km$ under typical meteorological conditions of the Yochon are. Because a large number of people were predicted to be affected in the current analysis, refined analyses considering both realistic accident scenarios and topographic effects were warranted.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.87-108
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• 2018

Schools are one of the critical social infrastructures in a society, the first place for social activity and the most important indoor environment for children besides the home. Poor IAQ in classrooms can increase the chance of long-term and short-term health problems for students and staffs; affects productivity of teachers; and degrade the student learning environment and comfort levels. The primary objective of this paper is to review and summarize available scientific evidence on indoor air quality of schools and related health effects in children. It was found that the indoor air pollutant levels in school buildings varied over a wide range in different parts of the world depending on site characteristics, climatic conditions, outdoor pollution levels, occupant activities, ventilation type and building practices. Among the indoor air pollutants, particulate matter concentrations were found to be very high in many schools. Outdoor pollutant sources also play a major role in affecting the IAQ of the school building. Hence, scientific knowledge on sources of indoor pollutants, quantification of emissions, temporal and spatial dispersion of pollutants, toxicological properties, chemical and morphological characteristics of the pollutants and associated health risk among children in the school buildings are essential to evaluate the adequacy and cost effectiveness of control strategies for mitigating the IAQ issues.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.784-798
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• 2004

Microscale wind fields were simulated by MUKLIMO at the Naro Space Center, where complicated mountainous terrain and trees exist. In order to test the model's sensitivity with the effects of terrain and trees, experimental simulations were conducted under the various initial conditions. The experiments showed that the effects of trees were more significant on flat surfaces than on mountain cliffs. Based on the results, an actual 10 m level microscale wind field was simulated at the Naro Space Center, which has complicated mountainous terrain. Simulations of wind fields before and after the construction of the launching site were also conducted. It was found that MUKLIMO was of the mesoscale wind fields at the Naro Space Center.

• Atmosphere
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.319-332
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• 2006

This study examines the capability of the WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) model in reproducing heavy rainfall that developed over the Korean peninsula on 26-27 June 2005. The model is configured with a triple nesting with the highest horizontal resolution at a 3-km grid, centered at Yang-dong, Gyeonggi-province, which recorded the rainfall amount of 376 mm. In addition to the control experiment employing realistic orography over Korea, two consequent sensitivity experiments with 1) no orography, and 2) no land over Korea were designed to investigate orographic effects on the development of heavy rainfall. The model was integrated for 48 hr, starting at 1200 UTC 25 June 2005. The overall features of the large-scale patterns including a cyclone associated with the heavy rainfall are reasonably reproduced by the control run. The spatial distribution of the simulated rainfall over Korea agreed fairly well with the observed. The amount of predicted maximum rainfall at the 3-km grid is 377 mm, which located about 50 km southeast from the observed point, Yang-Dong, indicating that the WRF model is capable of predicting heavy rainfall over Korea at the cloud resolving resolutions. Further, it was found that the complex orography over the Korean peninsula plays a role in enhancing the rainfall intensity by about 10%. The land-sea contrast over the peninsula was fund to be responsible for additional 10% increase of rainfall amount.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.74-83
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• 2014

Mercury exists naturally and as a man-made contaminant. The release of processed mercury can lead to a progressive increase in the amount of atmospheric mercury, which enters the atmospheric-soil-water distribution cycles where it can remain in circulation for years. Mercury poisoning is the result of exposure to mercury or mercury compounds resulting in various toxic effects depend on its chemical form and route of exposure. The major route of human exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) is largely through eating contaminated fish, seafood, and wildlife which have been exposed to mercury through ingestion of contaminated lower organisms. MeHg toxicity is associated with nervous system damage in adults and impaired neurological development in infants and children. Ingested mercury may undergo bioaccumulation leading to progressive increases in body burdens. This review addresses the systemic pathophysiology of individual organ systems associated with mercury poisoning. Mercury has profound cellular, cardiovascular, hematological, pulmonary, renal, immunological, neurological, endocrine, reproductive, and embryonic toxicological effects.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.E3
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• pp.129-136
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• 2003

Effects of inorganic aerosols on the kinetics of the hydroxyl radical reactions with selected aliphatic alkanes have been investigated using the relative rate technique. The relative rates in the absence and presence of aerosols were determined for n-butane, n-pentane, n-hexane, n-octane, and n-decane. P-xylene was used as a reference compound. Inorganic aerosols including (NH$_4$)$_2$SO$_4$, NH$_4$NO$_3$, and NaCl aerosols at two different aerosol concentrations that are typical of polluted urban conditions were tested. Total surface areas of aerosols were 1400 (Condition I) and 3400 $\mu$$m^2$ cm$^{-3}$ (Condition II). Significant changes in the relative rates in the presence of the inorganic aerosols were not observed for the n-butanel/$.$OH, n-pentanel/$.$OH, n-hexanel/$.$OH, n-octanel/$.$OH, and n-decanel/$.$OH reactions versus p-xylenel/$.$OH reaction. These results suggest that the promoting effects depend on the semiconducting property of the aerosols and the nature of the organic compounds.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.337-355
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• 2018

Ultrafine particles (< 100 nm in diameter, UFP) are known to be more toxic per unit mass than larger particles and contribute to more than 90% in particle number concentrations in urbanized cities but much less in mass. The major sources of UFP are vehicle emissions in urban areas. Due to their tiny size (the sizes of UFP from vehicle emissions range from 10 to 60 nm depending on engine and fuel types), inhaled UFP can reach the deepest area of respiratory track (e.g., pulmonary alveoli) as well as all of the body via lymph and blood circulation causing various adverse health effects. This article reviews the sources and emission factors of UFP, temporal and spatial distributions in urban areas and their health effects reported by toxicological and epidemiological studies. We also compared the levels of UFP concentrations measured in other countries with those in Korean cities to evaluate the public exposure to UFP in Korea. Ultimately, we expect this study can contribute to developing the risk assessment techniques for public exposure to UFP in the urbanized cities in Korea.

• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.95-108
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• 2011

The effects of an apartment complex on flow and pollutant dispersion in an urban area are numerically investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The CFD model is based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and includes the renormalization group k-${\varepsilon}$ turbulence model. The geographic information system (GIS) data is used as an input data of the CFD model. Eight numerical simulations are carried out for different inflow directions and, for each inflow direction, the effects of an apartment complex are investigated, comparing the characteristics of flow and dispersion before and after construction of the apartment complex in detail. The observation data of automatic weather system (AWS) is analyzed. The windrose analysis shows that the wind speed and direction after the construction of the complex are quite different from those before the construction. The construction of the apartment complex resulted in the decrease in wind speed at the downwind region. It is also shown that the wind speed increased partially inside the apartment complex due to the channeling effect to satisfy the mass continuity. On the whole, the wind speed decreased at the downwind region due to the drag effect by the apartment complex. As a result, the passive pollutant concentration increased (decreased) near the downwind region of (within) the apartment complex compared with that before the construction.