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A Study on the Utilization Level of Traditional Medicine by Residents - On the basis of Use of Folk Medical Techniques - (주민(住民)의 전통의술(傳統醫術) 이용도(利用度) 조사연구(調査硏究) - 민속요법(民俗療法) 이용(利用)을 중심(中心) 으로 -)

  • Kim, Jin-Soon
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.3-18
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    • 1988
  • The general objective of this research is to study behavioral pattern of health care utilization and to measure the level of utilization of the traditional medicine. The specific objective is to study utilization pattern and content of folk medicine which is the indegenous medical technology recognized part of traditional medicine. This research was under taken to generate valid information that will provide basis data for formulating general direction for health education activities and for designing service package for general population. A social survey method was employed to obtain required information for the research activities, The survey field team consisted of 20 surveyors who all participated is an intensive 2 day training course. A total of 3091 households were visited and interviewed by the field team during the period 7 September to 6 October 1987. The major findings obtained from the information collected by the field survey are as follows ; 1) General characteristics of the study households 2562 households out of 3091 households visited were selected for final data process, 80.2 of the selected households were nuclear families ; 17.4%, extended families ; others 2.4%. Only 4.3 percent of the study population in the urban households indicated "no schooling" whereas 14.2% of the rural household members falls within this category. Study population in the urban areas are more protected against diseases by the national medical insurance system than those in rural areas. In their self appraisal of living standard, those who responded with low group are 39.6% and 50.3% respectively by urban and rural households. 2) Morbidity status Period prevalence rate for all diseases during the preceding 15 days before the date of the household interview v as 243,0 per 1,000 study population. For cases with the illness duration of within 15 days, the initial points of medical entry were diversied ; 56.9%, drug stores ; 30.9%, clinics and hospitals ; 4.6% folk medicine ; 1.7% clinics of Korean oriental medicine. Among the chronic case; with illness duration of over 90 days, 34.6% of these people utilized clinics and hospitals of modern medicine ; 31.6%, drug stores ; 18.6% clinics of Korean oriental medicine ; 6.8% folk medical techniques. Noticeable is the almost ten fold increase from the mere 0.9% in the utilization of Korean oriental medicine, whereas in the utilization of folk medicine, it is short of two-fold increase. 3) Folk medicine and its utilization Households that use folk medicine for relief and care of signs and symptoms commonly encountered in daily life, number 1969 households, which accounts for 76.9% of all the study households. This rather high level use of folk medicine is not different from rural to urban areas. The order of frequency of utilizing folk medicine among the study people are : the highest 14.3% for the relief of indigestion ; 8.6% for burns ; 5.1% for common cold ; 4.7% for hiccough ; and 4.2% for hordeolum. A present various procedures of folk medicine is being used to relieve all kinds of symptoms. 192 symptoms are identified at present. The most frequently used procedures of folk medicine appear to be based either on principles of the Korean oriental medicine or of scientific knowledge. Based on these survey findings, proposals for utilizing folk medicine are as follows First, this survey's findings will be feed back to both on the job training and on the spot guidance of community health practitioners, public health nurses and other peripheral work force in the health field, who are in daily contacts with community. This feed back will assure that the health personnel carry out their health education and information activities that are based on the utilization pattern of folk medicine as found in the survey result. Second, studies will be soon implemented that are designed to measure the efficiency and potency of these procedures and to improve these procedures of folk medicine were most frequently used by the community. Third, studies will continue to systematize medicinal plants and skills of Korean oriental medicine that are easily available at minimal cost in daily life for the prevention of diseases and management of emergency cases.

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A Research on a Joined Project of Social Education and Village Secondary School Education for Raising The Number of Successors to Fishery (후계어민 육성을 위한 어촌지역 중등교육과 사회 교육의 연계방안)

  • 이현우;이경준
    • The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.1-58
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    • 1988
  • The purpose of this study is to investigate the relation between social education and secondary education of seaside and sea village schools for supporting the successors to fishery. Objects of the study were five groups; 321 fishermen, 107 staff members of a Fishery Guidance Center, 1, 001 students, 306 teachers of sea villages, 193 staff members of a Fishery Cooperative Association. The total number of people being object of this study was 1, 876 persons. The questionaire used for this study was made after preliminary counseling with fishermen in sea villages and teachers in seaside schools. The results of this study are as follow ; 1) About the value of Fishery and successors to Fishery There have been more positive responses than negative ones to the question on the value of fishery. The main reason for positive responses lies in the potentiality for development of fishery but the negative responses are because of the heavy work. 56.8% of the respondents expected an increasing number of successor to fishery, but 43.2% of the respondents had a negative foresight on that problem. The negative respondents stated that the fisherman that moved from the sea villages to the urban areas are responsible for the none increasing numbers of successors to fishery. Most of the respondents answered that government support is needed in order to increase the number of successors to fishery. 2) Social education for Fishermen Only 40% of fishermen know the Fishing Village Guidance Center as the main institute for social education. 94.17% of the respondents prefer plural institutes to single ones. 5.9% of the respondents answered with opposit opinions. 40.4% of the respondents answered that technical teachings has not often been practised. The reason why technical teaching does not often come into effect are as follows; lack of technical expertise, insufficient concern of staff members of the Guidance Center or the Cooperation Association. Also fishermen answered that the Fisherman Guidance Center does not often practise technical education. The Fishery Cooperation Association with its social education for fisherman takes the role of education for the economical way and carries out financial assistance. The relationship between the Fishery Cooperative Association and fishermen is presented satisfactory. However, the frequency of education is not satisfactory. Indifferences between staff members of the Fishery Cooperative Association does not carry out fishery education very often. Also loaned money matters were not satisfactory. 3) Secondary education for Fishery This study showed that it is desirable that the practical course of middle schools in islets and seaside villages take education on fishery ; however, a few schools only take the practical course fishery. Most of the fishery high schools want computer education as a new recommendable course. The students of fishery high schools want computer education as a new recommendable course. The students of fishery high schools have problems with scientific terms in the text books for the practical of fishery high schools have problems with scientific terms in the text books for the practical courses. Over 80% of the respondents agreed that the principals of schools in islets and sea side villages should be men having majored in fishery. 4) The connection between social education and secondary education for fishery a. It is desirable that the principal and vice principal of secondary schools in islets and sea side villages are men majored in fishery. b. It is recommendable that fishery courses are taken as practical courses in fishery village schools for it is helpful to relate between the vocation and the district's special character, as well as to built up relation between the middle school education and the fishery high school education. c. The teachers of fishery high schools and the officials of government offices which are related to fishery should work together to realize a program on teaching various kinds of techniques and give other useful informations to fishermen. d. During the vacations the fishery high school could be used for the social education of fishermen. Seminars on fishery technique and cultural aspects could be held. Especially a spiritual education which is needed for the improvement of the society of fishermen could be achieved by a cultural education. e. On the state level a financial support to raise the number of successors to fishery, a national policy for the betterment of the life of fishermen, as well as active publicity activities are necessary. f. A financial support of the government for raising the number of the successors to fishery is needed. For this purpose a fishery education performed on a state level would be desirable.

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Quantitative Real-Time PCR of Porcine Parvovirus as a Model Virus for Cleaning Validation of Chromatography during Manufacture of Plasma Derivatives (혈장분획제제 제조공정에서 크로마토그래피 세척 검증을 위한 모델바이러스로서의 Porcine Parvovirus 정량)

  • Kil Tae Gun;Kim Won Jung;Lee Dong Hyuk;Kang Yong;Sung Hark Mo;Yoo Si Hyung;Park Sue-Nie;Kim In Seop
    • Korean Journal of Microbiology
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    • v.41 no.3
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    • pp.216-224
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    • 2005
  • Chromatography has now been used successfully to provide the requisite purity for human plasma-derived biop-harmaceuticals such as coagulation factors and immunoglobulins. Recently, increasing attention has been focused on establishing efficient cleaning procedures to prevent potential contamination by microorganisms as well as carry-over contamination from batch to batch. The purpose of present study was to develop a cleaning validation system for the assurance of virus removal and/or inactivation during chromatography process. In order to establish an assay system for the validation of virus clearance during chromatography cleaning process, a quantitative real-time PCR method for porcine parvovirus(PPV) was developed, since PPV, a model virus for human parvovirus B19, has a high resistance to a range of physico-chemical treatment. Specific primers for amplification of PPV DNA was selected, and PPV DNA was quantified by use of SYBR Green I. The sensitivity of the assay was calculated to be 1.5 $TCID_{50}/ml$. The established real-time PCR assay was successfully applied to the validation of PPV removal and cleaning during SP-Sepharose cation chromatography for thrombin purification and Q-Sepharose anion chromatography for factor VIII purification. The comparative results obtained by real-time PCR assay and infectivity titrations suggested that the real-time PCR assay could be a useful method for chromatography cleaning validation and that it could have an additive effect on the interpretation and evaluation of virus clearance during the virus removal process.

A Study on Health Seeking Behavior - Focused on Shopping-Around Phenomenon in Banwol-Eup Residents (일부(一部) 지역사회(地域社會) 주민(住民)의 의료(醫療) 행태(行態)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究) - 반월읍(半月邑) 주민(住民)의 Shopping-around 현상(現象)을 중심(中心)으로 -)

  • Choi, Young-Teak;Lee, Eun-Il;Kim, Hyo-Joong
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.44-54
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    • 1986
  • This study was aimed at investigating the health seeking behaviors of patients; For the purpose of analyzing the research theme we classified the study into two phase. First, the types of patients' health seeking behavior were categorized into a scheme according to what medical care resources were utilized in patients' coping process. Second, from patients' first visits to third visits to medical resources, we analyzed variations of factors which noted as crucial elements in constituting the patients' sickness career. To grasp the generalized characteristics from complicated empirical data, we limited the scope of our analysis to third stage of health seeking. A total of 121 persons who had beer suffering from chronic diseases more than 3 months was sampled among the residents of Banwol-Eup, the target Area of Korea University Health Project. The findings are as follows ; 1) In the course of visiting medical care resources, 34 different types of health seeking Behavior were found. From this result we inferred the idea that patients in Banwol-Eup had not any stable norms to cope with their pains. Clinics, hospital, pharmacy, Herb-doctors', folkways (self-treatment) were accessed by patients in orders. But more than half of patients who had utilized clinics or hospitals from their first to third visits, changed medical care resources to others, for example herb doctors or folkways, which had fundamentally different treatment models. Upon these two facts, the diversified types and capricious patterns in the health seeking behavior of Banwol patients, we observed a typical Shopping-Around phenomenon. 2) Factors which influenced patients' to their sickness career were changed along the courses of health seeking, from first to third visits as follows ; $\cdot$ Perceived seriousness of diseases were tended to decrease. $\cdot$ Professional medical personnel tended to be influencial in the patients' sickness career, (5.0%, 25.0% and 65.7%). The influence of the primary interaction groups such as parents, friends, neighbours, tended to decrease ; (90.9%, 71.2% and 30.0%). $\cdot$ The subjective reasons why to choose such a medical care resource were related to economic affordability and disease-itself as main motives. Credibility of health resources tended to increase 14.9%, 24.0% and 31.4 sequently. $\cdot$ Geographic accessibility factors did not change significantly. Most of patients had utilized health resources in Banwol and Anyang area. 3) Cultural inclination in the shopping-around phenomenon has shown difference among age groups. The age group' over 50 years' preferred traditional health resources to modern health resources. 4) Consistency of health seeking behavior on the shopping around phenomenon has shown difference according to the degrees of patients' economic affordability and those of psychological satisfaction toward modern health services. However, there were some restrictions in this thesis ; a) the study was limited to the 3rd health seeking career so it did not allow us to collect more informations after that, b) the study was not able to carry out causal analysis on patients health behavior determinated by explanatory model of health resources, and c) the study was not able to take into consideration of factors connected with social structural circumstances. Despite of restrictions described above, we are sure that this thesis would promote health providers' understanding toward patients' inclinations, through which they could provide efficient and accurate medical service.

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Analysis on the core factors in the successful importing of ERP system in Small & Medium Enterprises - Focusing on the Cooperation Model between Industry and Education in Chung-Buk province (중소기업 ERP 시스템 도입 핵심성공요인 분석 -충북지역 산학연계 모델을 중심으로-)

  • 김범년;김영렬
    • Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.51-60
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    • 2003
  • In the radical char]go of the business environments that the existing facilities can not guarantee the business-frosts anymore, enterprises have been importing ERP system. In Korea, Sam-sung Electronics did it for the first tin in the latter half of 1994 and other enterprises succeeded. Currently, government and public enterprises as well as most of the large enterprises are employing ERP system to sharpen the competitiveness and to win the business transparency. On the other hand, it is harder for small and medium enterprises shaded by the large enterprises to be well-equipped with information system such as ERP, because they have already suffered from chronic financial difficulties and shortage of many resources. Most of all, they prefer the short-term project that does not need much tine for them to make decisions and to carry out fully. Grounded on the above factors, in this work, I suggest the suitable ERP model for the small and medium enterprises and the successful importing process of ERP, which is derived from the previous researches made by other masters' thesis. If necessary information and human resources are interchanged pertinently between local education institute and small and medium enterprise, the latter could not only deal with the confronted difficulties successfully inside and outside but attain the goal of being proficient in up-to-minute high technology. Besides, giving the students the opportunity of researching into the practice of the business they have not ever known, local universities could help their students accumulate knowledges and acquire ideas which could not be achieved in pure academic studies. When the above-mentioned procedure is over, the students might get the intellectual faculty to ponder on the future more concretely and enter a profession more carefully. In the result, we would raise up the percentage of the employment among the graduates. And active participation of university professors is the last important factor that assists the small and medium enterprises for introducing ERP system successfully. Their scholarly attainments play an important role in strengthening local economy and make the business competitiveness balanced between the capital and the local economy.

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Evaluation of the sodium intake reduction plan for a local government and evidence-based reestablishment of objectives: Case of the Seoul Metropolitan Government (지자체의 나트륨 섭취 감소 계획 평가 및 근거 기반 목표 재설정 : 서울시 사례를 중심으로)

  • Lim, A-Hyun;Hwang, Ji-Yun;Kim, Kirang
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.50 no.6
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    • pp.664-678
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    • 2017
  • Purpose: To identify the effectiveness of policy evaluation, consistent monitoring is necessary. This study aimed to carry out mid-term evaluation of objectives and programs related to comprehensive plans for sodium intake reduction by 2020 for Seoul city and then reestablish the objectives of the sodium intake reduction plans. Methods: Literature reviews, data analysis, and reviews of expert focus-groups were performed to evaluate objectives, to develop a new goal, and to identify the priority subjects of the sodium intake reduction programs. In order to examine target populations for the programs, awareness and behaviors related to sodium intakes among Seoul citizens were examined by sex, age, and income level using the 2008~2013 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. Results: Current objectives of the sodium intake reduction plan by 2020 for Seoul city were not appropriate, so objectives were reset to 3,600 mg of sodium intake by 2020 among Seoul citizens with 2% reduction per year. Although sodium intake showed a decreasing trend by year, it was still high, especially in men. The sodium intake reduction programs currently in progress have not been assessed at multiple levels across multiple sectors and have only been assessed fragmentarily. For dietary behavior related to sodium intakes by sex, age, and income level, sodium intake was higher in the group with less than 100 g of fruit intake compared to the group with 100 g or more. Subjects aged 30~59 years and the low household income group showed relatively higher sodium intakes. Based on the data analysis and the expert review, the priority subject of the sodium intake reduction programs was determined to be adult men. In terms of a program strategy for sodium intake reduction, multi-level and setting approaches, including work sites, home, and restaurants, were suggested to reduce sodium intakes of the target subject. Conclusion: The suggested objectives should be consistently monitored by data analysis, and the determined programs need to be phased in over 5 years.

Effects of Nordic Walking Exercise on muscular strength, Flexibility, Balance and Pain in Older Woman with Knee Osteoarthritis (노르딕 워킹이 퇴행성 무릎 관절염 노인여성의 근력과 유연성, 균형 및 통증에 미치는 영향)

  • Oh, Yoo-Sung;Kim, Ji-sun;Jang, Woo-Seong
    • Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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    • v.36 no.4
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    • pp.1312-1326
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    • 2019
  • The purpose of this study is to examine whether the 12-week Nordic walking can improve the physical function and arthritis pain of elderly women with osteoarthritis This study were divided into randomly assigned Nordic Walking Exercise Group (n=9) and Control Group (n=7) for 16 Elderly women diagnosed with Osteoarthritis (age: 73±3.79 year, height: 154.3±4.09 cm). The exercise group used Nordic sticks to carry out 30 minutes of Nordic walking exercise three times a week for 12 weeks, and the kinetic intensity was set at 40-60% of HRR. The control group maintained daily life for the same period. Body composition (weight, percentage body fat, skeletal muscle mass), muscular strength, Flexibility (muscular strength of upper and lower limbs, flexibility of upper and lower limbs), balance ability (static balance, dynamic balance) and pain level were measured as subordinate variables. These indicators were measured twice before and after the exercise program. The study shows that percentage body fat and skeletal muscle mass in the body composition function over 12 weeks of Nordic walking exercise have significant effects after the exercise than before (p=004)(p=.003), and it also shows significant interaction effects between the groups and timings(p=.018)(p=.005). In muscular strength, Flexibility factors, there were significant effects between the groups and timings in the upper limb muscular strength and the lower limb flexibility (p=.009)(p=.036), and a significant difference between the exercise group and the control group(p=.006) in the lower limb muscular strength. In addition, in the upper limb flexibility, there was a more significant difference after the exercise than before(p=.020). There were improvement effects after the exercise than before in the balance ability and the static balance(p=.016), but no difference in the dynamic balance(p>.05). In pain, there was a significant improvement after the exercise than before(p=.022), and a significant difference between the exercise group and the control group(p=.013). In conclusion, the 12-week Nordic walking exercise has positive effects on the body composition functions of the elderly women with Osteoarthritis, and has a positive effect on the improvement of upper limb muscular strength and lower limb flexibility in the health fitness factors. These effects are believed to have contributed effectively to the improvement of the level of pain by contributing to the improvement of physical and motor functions of the elderly women with Osteoarthritis. Therefore, it is considered that Nordic walking exercise, which enhances stability and balance of the patients with Osteoarthritis by using poles, is an effective exercise method for the improvement of the body and motor functions by lowering the pain of the joints and reducing the muscular strength and percentage body fat.

Economic Feasibility of Hill Land Development (산지개발(山地開發)의 경제성)

  • Kim, Dong-Min
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.283-295
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    • 1979
  • A new Farmland Expansion and Development Promotion Law was enacted in 1975. This law authorizes the Government to undertake development within a declared "reclamation area", wherever the land owners are unable to do so. In order to give additional impetus to conversion of waste hilly land into productive farmland, these hilly land development projects were conducted as large scale scheme which include soil fertility improvements such as the application of lime and phosphate. Farmland Expansion and Development Promotion Corps has attempted to undertake annual farm surveys in order to obtain some information about hilly land agriculture and farming operations within the reclamation project areas since 1976. As survey data accumulates, more and more clear picture of hilly land farming come to appear and enable us to conduct in-depth study. Effects of such upland reclamation include converting of previously unproductive slopeland into cultivable farmland for lucrative and commercial farming or food production. Furthermore, idle or marginal resources such as farm labor, equipment and compost would be fully employed. Socio-economic effects would include increases in land value and attitude change of farmers. On the other hand the preservation of natural environments might be damaged to the some extend by the projects. As shown in Table 7, the average farm size increased from 3,156 pyeong($3.3m^2$) to 5,562 pyeong, a 76.2% increase. The proportion of small farms with less than I ha dropped from 59.8% to 34.4%, but that of the large farms over 2 ha rose from 13.1% to 32.0% (See Table 8). The survey results indicate that as the farming on reclaimed uplands become time-honored, the acreage devoted for food crop production decreases against the economic crop growing acreage (see Table 6). For example, in the case of uplands reclaimed in 1972, the ratio of food crop acreages decreased from 99.7% in 1972 to 62.5% in 1977, whereas that of economic crop acreages increased from 0.3% in 1972 to 37.5% in 1977. The government used to actively encourage the farmers to carry out food crop production in the reclaimed upland targting toward the realization of self-sufficiency in food grains. It is, however, apparent that the farmers did hardly take the government advises as far as their economic interest were concerned. Yield per 10a. of various crops from the reclaimed uplands by year were surveyed as seen in Table 12. On the average, barley production in the reclaimed areas achieved 83.3% of the average unit yield from the existing upland in its 5 th year. Soybean yields showed a modest increase from 64% in the first year to 95%, in the 5 th year. In contrast, economic crops such as red pepper, totacco and radish achieved their maximum target yields in 3 years from starting to cultivate on the reclaimed farms. In order to test the post economic viability, an economic analysis was performed for each of selected subprojects on the basis of the data obtained through survey. The average actual internal economic rate of return on upland reclamation investments was found to be 20.3% which exceeded other types of projects of land and water development such as tidal land reclamation, irrigation or paddy rearrangement. The actual IRRs of subcategories of upland reclamation projects varied from 17.9% to 21.4% depending upon the kinds of cropping system adopted in each reclaimed areas such as food, economic, fruit or forage crops.

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Analysis and Improvement Measures on the Status of the Installation and Operation of Facilities for Recycling Food Waste into Compost (음식물쓰레기 퇴비화시설의 설치 및 운영 현황분석 및 개선방안)

  • Ryu, Ji-Young;Kong, Kyu-Sik;Shin, Dae-Yewn;Phae, Chae-Gun
    • Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.95-111
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    • 2004
  • This research sought to determine the status of the installation and operation of composting facilities of domestic public resource-making facilities and come up with corresponding improvement measures. The composting facilities were the most extensively installed of related facilities with over a 0.5 ton treated volume per day. The monthly and yearly carry-in volume of food waste were found to stand at 1,101.7 tons per day and 930.9 tons per day, thus falling short of the average planned volume of 1,270.9 tons. Many composting facilities, which were installed in areas for which factory registration were not approved, did not get approvals. Composting facilities underwent operation stoppage mainly due to faulty fermentation and crushing equipment. Mainly metals contained in food waste caused faults to the crushing equipment, thus requiring a facility designing against faults and corrosion. The initial water content was found to stand at 50-60%, thus complying with the requirement. However, since the composting food waste had an appropriate mixture of sawdust, food waste, and returned compost, it should meet the initial conditions. For fermentation facilities, the duration time for fermentation was 15 days, and post-fermentation tanks required 21 days of duration time, thus establishing the minimum criteria. However, some facilities did not meet the requirements, taking more time in decomposition, thus suggesting a need to determine the duration time according to facilities. In composting food waste, microorganism-based thermal oxidizer-operated fermentation tanks should be used to ensure an economic operation. On the contrary, 14 out of 25 survey targets heated fermentation tanks in any form. These thermal facilities contain the growth of bacteria, lowering chemical reaction in composting; thus composting facilities should be basically designed to use microorganism-based thermal oxidizers in drying water. An average daily volume of food waste and supplementary materials that was injected in producing compost was 22.8 tons. This volume produced 7.3 tons of compost per day, decreasing 68%. Properties of produced compost were analyzed by its color, absence or presence of remaining decomposition heat, and smell, to assess the quality. As a result, the composting process was not properly installed nor operated in about 50% of composting facilities. Compost should be produced to be soil-friendly.

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Biogeochemical Studies on Tidal Flats in the Kyunggi Bay: Introduction (경기만 부근 갯벌의 생지화학적 연구: 서문)

  • Cho, B.C.;Choi, J.K.;Lee, T.S.;An, S.;Hyun, J.H.
    • The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.1-7
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    • 2005
  • Tidal flats have been regarded to carry out transformation and removal of land-derived organic matter, and this purifying capability of organic matter by tidal flats is one of very important reasons for their conservation. However, integral biogeochemical studies on production and decomposition of organic matter by benthic microbes in tidal flats have been absent in Korea, although the information is indispensable to quantification of the purifying capability. Our major goals in this multidisciplinary research were to understand major biogeochemical processes and rates mediated by diverse groups of microbes dominating material cycles in the tidal flats, and to assess the contribution of benthic microbes to removal of organic matter and nutrients in the tidal flats. Our study sites were Ganghwa and Incheon north-port tidal flats that had been regarded as naturally well reserved and organically polluted, respectively. Our research group measured over 3 years primary production, biomass and community structure of primary producers, abundance and production of bacteria, enzyme activities, distribution of protozoa and protozoan grazing rates, rates of denitrification and sulfate reduction, early sediment diagenesis, primary production and respiration based on oxygen microelectrode. We analyzed major features of each biogeochemical process and their interactions. The results are compiled in the following articles in this special issue: An (2005), Hwang and Cho (2005), Mok et at. (2005), Na and Lee (2005), Yang et at. (2005), and Yoo and Choi (2005).