• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2015

The effects of low salinity (fertilization success and larval survival) on the limpet Cellana grata were studied at early stages of development using the marine bioassay technique. It was shown that, under normal conditions for development from fertilization to the post veliger stage, the salinity must be not less than 20.0~35.0 psu. However, the fertilization rate and larval survival of C. grata was obviously reduced at 5.0 psu and 10.0 psu, respectively. Mass mortality was estimated to occur at <20.0 psu (48-h $EC_{50}=19.54psu$) and the survival rate of normal veliger larvae decreased with experimental time during exposure. No observed effective concentration (NOEC) and lowest observed effect concentration (LOEC) of post veliger were estimated at 30.0 psu and 25.0 psu, respectively, during 48-h exposure. The tolerance limits of the test species to salinity revealed various concentration ranges of salinity, which may reflect the physiology and ecology of the initial development stages of C. grata. These results demonstrate that reduced salinity is detrimental to the reproductive success and larval survival of C. grata, and if salinity is lowered by natural or anthropogenic sources during spawning, this would lead to decreased reproductive success and larval settlement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.52-62
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• 1992

Radioactive nuclides deposited on out-of-core surface after the radiation in the core by the transport of corrosion products (CRUD) through the primary coolant system in PWR which is the major plant type in Korea, are leading sources of radiation exposure to plant maintenance personnel. Thus, the optimal chemistry operation method is required for the reduction of radiation exposure by the corrosion products. This study analysed the actual water chemistry operation data of four operating domestic PWRs. And in order to evaluate the coolant chemistry operation data, a computer code which can calculate the activity buildup in the various chemistry conditions of PWR coolant was employed. Through the analysis of comparison between the activity buildup of actual water chemistry operation mode and that of assumed Elevated Li operation mode calculated by the computer code, it was found that the out-of core radioactivity can be reduced by diminishing the deposition of corrosion products on the core in case that the Elevated Li operation mode is applied to the coolant chemistry operation of PWR. And the higher coolant pH operation was shown to have the advantage of the reduction of out-of-core activity buildup if the integrity of system structural materials and fuel cladding is guaranteed.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.71-81
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• 2017

Organic dust generated inside livestock facilities includes toxic organic matters such as bacteria and endotoxin. Dust can cause respiratory disease for worker and livestock, and consequently, degradation of welfare and productivity. Influence of dust on livestock workers has been studied since the 1970s. However, exposure limit for cattle farmer has not been established, unlike exposure limit for pig and poultry farmer. Furthermore, study on air quality inside livestock facility, especially inside dairy farm has been rarely conducted in Korea. In this study, dust concentration of TSP, PM10, inhalable and respirable dust has been monitored in the commercial dairy house according to location and working activities. Bedding material inside the stall was one of the major sources of dust. The amount of dust was related to water content level of the bedding material. Dust concentration was relatively high in leeward location, and the highest concentration was measured during TMR mixing process. The maximum value of inhalable dust concentration was 29.1 times higher than the reference value as fine particles drop to the TMR mixer. Dust generated by TMR mixing was presumed to decrease by adjusting moisture and drop height of feed.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.541-550
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• 2013

Noise is defined to be unwanted (or undesirable) sounds, and it can be subdivided into occupational and environmental noises. The occupational noise is largely emitted from workplaces, but the environmental noise is produced from various sources such as transportation, construction, and even neighborhood. Transportation, particularly road vehicles, has been recognized to play a major role in emitting environmental noise and having adverse effects on urban communities. Considering this issue, this research investigated how severe the impacts of road traffic noise on a variety of land uses in a highly urbanized area, Fulton County, Georgia, United States. Daytime and nighttime road traffic noise maps were derived with Traffic Noise Model that was developed by Federal Highway Administration at United States Department of Transportation. Individual noise maps were overlaid on three-tiered land use type maps in order to evaluate the magnitude of noise impacts on the study area, as a noise exposure assessment. This study found that many land use parcels and buildings were exposed to noise levels exceeding the guideline values of the World Health Organization and the Atlanta Code of Ordinance. Therefore, it would be required to take an action that can protect many urban residents from ill effects of road traffic noise.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.156-159
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• 2013

Background: Cardiac pacemakers are known to be susceptible to strong electromagnetic fields (EMFs). This in vivo study investigated occurrence of electromagnetic interference with pacemakers caused by common environmental sources of EMFs. Methods: Eleven volunteers with a pacemaker were exposed to EMFs produced by two mobile phone base stations, an electrically powered commuter train, and an overhead high voltage transmission lines. All the pacemakers were programmed in normal clinically selected settings with bipolar sensing and pacing configurations. Results: None of the pacemakers experienced interference in any of these exposure situations. However, often it is not clear whether or not strong EMFs exist in various work environments, and hence an individual risk assessment is needed. Conclusions: Modern pacemakers are well shielded against external EMFs, and workers with a pacemaker can most often return to their previous work after having a pacemaker implanted. However, an appropriate risk assessment is still necessary after the implantation of a pacemaker, a change of its generator, or major modification of its programming settings.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2001

The main purpose of applying the chlorination process during water treatment is for disinfection. Research results, however, indicate that disinfection by-products including trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, haloacetonitriles, haloketones, and chloropicrin can be produced by chlorination process. Some of these disinfection by-products are known to be potential human carcinogens. This three-year project is designed to establish a standard analysis procedure for disinfection by-products in drinking water and investigate the distribution and sources of specific disinfection by-products. The occurrence level of DBPs in drinking water was below 50$\mu\textrm{g}$/L in most cases. THMs in plant effluent accounted for 48% of all DBPs measured, whereas HAAs accounted for 24%, HANs 14%, haloketones 5%, chloral hydrate 7%, and chloropicrin 2%. Chloroform was found to be the major THMs compound (71%), followed by bromodichloromethane (21%), dibro-mochloromethane (7%), and bromoform (3%), The concentration of DBPs formed in distribution systems increased from those detected in plant effluent. Results would play an important role in exposure assessment as a part of the risk assessment process, and would give basic information for establishment of disinfection by-products reduction and management procedures.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.123-131
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• 2006

Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa ssp. pekinesis) is one of the most important vegetable crops in korea and other East Asian countries. Cytosolic fructose-1,6-bisphospha-tase (cytFBPase) is a key enzyme in sucrose biosyn-thesis, which controls the sucrose levels as well as the productivity at plants. The Chinese cabbage cytFBPase gene, BrFBPase, encodes the 340 amino acid polypep-tide, giving a theoretical molecular weight of 37.2 kD and a isolectric point of 5.4. BrFBPase showed high sequence identity with Brassica homologs and its functional domains, such as 12,6P$_2$ binding site or active site and F6P binding site, were highly conserved in diverse sources of organisms. Although the genome of Chinese cabbage seemed to be triplicated, BrFBPase appears to be a single copy gene. The expression of BrFBPase was examined at transcript and protein levels under various conditions. BrFBPase expression was observed only in photosynthetic source tissue, not in sink tissue. The expression was slightly higher during the day than at night, and it showed a diurnal cycle with circadian rhythmicity. Short-term exposure to low temperature inhibited the expression of the BrFBPase, while long-term exposure increased the expression, supporting that sugar levels are high in late autumn when temperature are low.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.454-460
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• 2009

The subway is the major public transportation system in Seoul with 2.2 million people using it everyday. Indoor air pollution in the subway can be a significant part of population exposure because of the number of people using the subway, time spent in transit and potentially high exposure for certain pollutants. The Korea Ministry of Environment has established the level 2 of recommended standards of $PM_{10}$ and $CO_2$ in subway trains. The aims of this study were to determine the airborne levels of $PM_{10}$, $CO_2$ and any correlation between pollutant levels and number of passenger in a subway train. The airborne $PM_{10}$ and $CO_2$ were measured on the inside of trains on line #4 for 4 different days from October to November in 2008. Average $PM_{10}$ and $CO_2$ levels were $113{\pm}25{\mu}g/m^3$ and $1402{\pm}442$ ppm, respectively. These levels did not exceed the level 2 of recommended standards of $250{\mu}g/m^3$ for $PM_{10}$ and 3500 ppm for $CO_2$. $PM_{10}$ level was not correlated with the number of passengers, while $CO_2$ levels were positively correlated with the number of passengers. The findings suggested that $PM_{10}$ in subway trains may have sources other than those directly associated with the number of passengers.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.17 no.3 s.120
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• pp.241-248
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• 2007

A study has been conducted to investigate the subjective responses of loudness and annoyance according to the exposed time of urban traffic noise in controlled laboratory environment. To make a closer inspection into psychological response relevant to noise characteristics while varying the time of exposure to noise, the subjects were presented a set of noises with different exposed time and requested to judge spontaneously on a 100-unipolar scale. To be concrete, the subjects were exposed to noises being varied in time from 15 sec up to max. 1,200 sec for the controlled traffic noise sources. So far achieved from laborious tests, it has an importance being on the logarithmic relations of perceived loudness and exposed time, say, it is more increased the perceived loudness in the sorter exposed time than in the longer exposed time. However, the trend is said to be not effective for the case of annoyance. On the other hand, the subjective impressions on relative annoyance of noise is shown to be correlated with the noise characteristics such as loudness (sones), tonality and time with logarithmic scale, the product correlation moment being calculated as $R^{2}=0.99$. The variances to be explained for annoyance assessments through varying the time of exposure were ranged between 30 % and 50% for the exposed time, $27{\sim}37%$ for tonality, and $34{\sim}20%$ for loudness, respectively With these results, hopefully, it can be helpful for those who want to work out an experimental design for evaluating an environmental noise or to quantify any psychological dimensions found in annoyance assessments.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.165-173
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• 2021

One of the major sources of air pollution is urban particulate matter (UPM), which causes lung diseases involving oxidative stress, inflammation, and cancer. Codonopsis lanceolata (CL) has been used in East Asia as a traditional oriental medicinal ingredient for lung diseases (e.g., asthma and bronchitis). However, the connection between the impact of CL and UPM in the lungs has rarely been investigated. This study aimed to confirm the inhibitory activity of the ethanol extract of CL (ECL) against oxidative stress and disruption of tight cell junctions in human pulmonary epithelial cells after exposure to UPM. As the lung cells were pre-treated with ECL, the UPM-induced increase in cellular reactive oxygen species production suppressed tight junction proteins (e.g., N-cadherin, fibronectin, occludin, zonula occludens-1, and claudin-4). These results suggest that ECL prevents the possible effects of UPM toxicity on the lungs.