• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.41-48
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• 1985

In near future about 500,000 hectares of Japanese larch and pitch pine need thinning to improve crop-tree spacing and reasonable species composition in Korea. Although thinned trees show very little high quality wood, in fact, all the sawed products are suitable for construction and farming materials. Studies on the utilization of thinned small-diameter trees have been implemented in order to increase lumber yield and display the skeleton of farm buildings. The results obtained in this study were summarized as follows: 1. According to Korean Conifers Log Grading System, log grade 3 was 87.4 percent in Japanese larch bolts and 95.8 percent in pitch pine bolts from thinned trees. The ability to identify defects was essential for grading logs. 2. Cutting diagrams of sawing were developed for 1-sided sawing, 2-sided sawing and 3-sided sawing by small end diameter class of bolt and cutting sizes also were found to use effectively lumber with wane. 3. Lumber recovery of Pitch pine was a little higher than that of Japanese larch. The maximum lumber yields of pitch pine by sawing patterns were 87.2 percent for 1-sided sawing, 80.8 percent for 2-sided sawing an 64.1 percent for 3-sided sawing, up yield compared with 58.1 percent for 4-sided sawing. The lumber yield of 1, 2 and 3-sided sawing significantly was higher value than that of 4-sided sawing. 4. Lumber was inspected and graded. Lumber quality of diameter class 12cm was a little better than that of diameter class 8cm, but 90 percent of lumber in diameter c1ass 16cm fell into grade 3. The lumber grade was classified by Korean standard grades of confiers lumber. 5. Lumber from 1, 2 and 3-sided sawing was used to build the skeleton of a farm house ($53m^2$) and greenhouse ($60m^2$) in order to display more efficient use of small diameter trees from thinning 6. Total volume of timber for building a farm house was $8.1m^3$ of imported timber. Timber of $7m^3$, 70 percent of total volume would be substituted imported timber for domestic timber.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.535-542
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• 2010

Objectives: Exposure assessment is a major challenge faced by studies that evaluate the association between pesticide exposure and adverse health outcomes. The objective of this study was to investigate the reliability of information that farmers self-report regarding their pesticide use. Methods: Twenty five items based upon existing questionnaires were designed to focus on pesticide exposure. In 2009, a selfadministrated survey was conducted on two occasions four weeks apart among 205 farmers residing in Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces. For a reliability measure, we calculated the percentage agreement, the kappa statistics and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between the two reports according to the characteristics of the subjects. Results: Agreement for ever-never use of any pesticide was 96.4% (kappa 0.61). For both 'years used' and 'age at the first use' of overall pesticides, high agreement was obtained (ICC: 0.88 and, 0.78, respectively), whereas those of 'days used' and 'hours used' were relatively low (ICC: 0.42 and, 0.66, respectively). The kappa value for the use of personal protective equipment ranged from 0.46 to 0.59, and hygiene activities came out at 0.19 to 0.37. The agreement for individual pesticide use ranged widely and there was relatively low agreement due to the low response rates. The reliability scores did not significantly vary according to gender, age, the education level, the types of crop or the years of farming. Conclusions: Our results support that carefully designed, self-reported information on ever-never pesticide use among farmers is reliable. However, the reliability of data on individual pesticide exposure may be unstable due to low response rates and needs to be refined.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.233-243
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• 2018

This study was conducted to elucidate the effects of green manure crop on growth characteristics and saponin contents of Platycodin grandiflorum Ridix roots for organic farming. Rye, hairy vetch and rye+hairy vetch were cultivated as green manure crops with several different methods before transplanting P. grandiflorum Radix. In root width and number of fine-roots, when the highest scores (23.9 mm, 25.7) was recorded in rye pre-cultibated plot in $2^{nd}$ year cultivation. Fresh weight of the Platycodin grandiflorum Ridix root was no significant difference among the different green manure crop treatments, but fresh weights of the Platycodin grandiflorum Ridix root of all green manure crop treatments were higher than that of control. The total content of saponin was highest detected in Platycodin grandiflorum Ridix roots of the hairy vetch plot (1,106 mg/100 g) and rye plot (1,693 mg/100 g) in $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ year cultivation, respectively. Therefore, we confirmed that precultivation of the green manure crops showed significant differences in the growth characteristics and saponin contents of the Platycodin grandiflorum Ridix root, and growth and saponin contents in the Platycodin grandiflorum Ridix root of rye precultivated plot was much higher in $2^{nd}$ year cultivation than $1^{st}$ year cultivation.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.238-246
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• 2005

Rice yield and protein content have been shown to be highly variable across paddy fields. In order to characterize this spatial variability of rice within a field, two-year experiments were conducted in 2002 and 2003 in a large-scale rice field of $6,600m^2$ In year 2004, an experiment was conducted to know if variable rate treatment (VRT) of N fertilizer, that was prescribed for site-specific management at panicle initiation stage, could reduce spatial variation in yield and protein content of rice while increasing yield compared to conventional uniform N topdressing (UN, 33kg N/ha at PIS) method. VRT nitrogen prescription for each grid was calculated based on the nitrogen (N) uptake (from panicle initiation to harvest) required for target rice protein content of $6.8\%$, natural soil N supply, and recovery of top-dressed N fertilizer. The required N uptake for target rice protein content was calculated from the equations to predict rice yield and protein content from plant growth parameters at panicle initiation stage (PIS) and N uptake from PIS to harvest. This model· equations were developed from the data obtained from the previous two-year experiments. The plant growth parameters for the calculation of the required N were predicted non-destructively by canopy reflectance measurement. Soil N supply for each grid was obtained from the experiment of year 2003, and N recovery was assumed to be $60\%$ according to the previous reports. The prescribed VRT N ranged from 0 to 110kg N/ha with an average of 57kg/ha that was higher than 33 kg/ha of UN. The results showed that VRT application successfully worked not only to reduce spatial variability of rice yield and protein content but also to increase rough rice yield by 960kg/ha. The coefficient of variation (CV) for rice yield and protein content was reduced significantly to $8.1\%$ and $7.1\%$ in VRT from $14.6\%$ and $13.0\%$ in UN, respectively. And also the average protein content of milled rice in VRT showed very similar value of target protein content of $6.8\%$. In conclusion the procedure used in this paper was believed to be reliable and promising method for reducing within-field spatial variability of rice yield and protein content. However, inexpensive, reliable, and fast estimation methods of natural N supply and plant growth and nutrition status should be prepared before this method could be practically used for site-specific crop management in large-scale rice field.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.143-147
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• 2016

BACKGROUND: Rice fields are one of the most important habitats for various bird species. The list of bird species occurred in rice fields in Korean peninsula have been documented. However, information of listed bird species is included not only rice fields but also other wetland habitats such as lakes, tidal flats and rivers. Therefore, the study was conducted to clarify the status of bird observed in rice fields of Korea.METHODS AND RESULTS: Birds using rice fields defined as birds which forage or rest on rice paddies, levees, ditches and farming roads. Birds using rice fields recorded as total 124 species belonging to 40 families. Anatidae and Scolopacidae were the best represented family, followed by Ardeidae, Accipitridae, Motacillidae and Emberizidae; 50% of species belonged to these six families. 18 of 124 endangered wild species, which designated threatened at the national scale, found in this study regions.CONCLUSION: Despite interest in birds using rice fields of Korean peninsula, knowledge of birds and rice fields there is extremely limited. We need more studies to understand and conserve for birds in rice fields of Korea.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.72-80
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• 2018

Purpose: A modern greenhouse consists of various Information and Communications Technology (ICT) components e.g., sensor nodes, actuator nodes, gateways, controllers, and operating softwarethat communicate with each other. The interoperability between these components is an essential characteristic for any greenhouse control system. A greenhouse control system could not work unless the components communicate via common interfaces. The TTAK.KO-06.0288 is an interface standard consisting of four parts. Notably, TTAK.KO-06.0288-Part3, which describes the interface between a greenhouse operating system (GOS) and a greenhouse control gateway (GCG), is the core standard of TTAK.KO-06.0288. The objectives of this study were to analyze the TTAK.KO-06.0288-Part3 standard, to suggest alternative solutions for identified issues, and to develop a library as a proof of the alternative solutions. Methods: The "data field" was analyzed using a comparative analysis method, since it is a data transmission unit of TTAK.KO-06.0288-Part3. It was compared with other parts of TTAK.KO-06.0288 in terms of definition, format, size, and possible values. Although TTAK.KO-06.0288-Part1 and TTAK.KO-06.0288-Part2 do not use a "data field," they have a similar data structure. That structure was compared with the "data field" of TTAK.KO-06.0288-Part3. Results: Twenty-one issues were identified across four categories: inter-standard issues, intra-standard issues, operational issues, and misprint issues. Since some of the issues can raise interoperability problems, 16 alternative solutions were suggested. In order to prove the alternative solutions, an open-source communication library called libtp3 was developed. The library passed 14 unit tests and was adapted to two research. Conclusions: Although TTAK.KO-06.0288-Part3 is an interface standard for communication between a GOS and a GCG, it might not communicate between different implementations because of the identified issues in the standard. These issues could be solved by the alternative solutions, which could be used to revise TTAK.KO-06.0288. In addition, a relevant organization should develop a program for compatibility testing and should pursue test products for smart greenhouses.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.63 no.5
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• pp.623-630
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• 2020

Objective : A primary degenerative sagittal imbalance has been considered because of unique lifestyles such as the prolonged crouched posture during agricultural work and performing activities of daily living on the floor. Previous papers have reported that sagittal imbalance disease is often seen distinctly in the farming districts of "oriental" countries such as Korea and Japan. However, this finding was only evaluated with the use of X-ray, and other factors such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), muscle volume, compression fracture, and laboratory results were not considered. Thus, using these, we evaluate the agricultural work-associated factors for Korean elderly spinal sagittal imbalance. Methods : We recruited 103 Korean participants who had a sagittal vertical axis (SVA) of >5 cm in this Korean Elderly Sagittal Imbalance Cohort Study. The following were evaluated : radiological parameters, MRI, compression fracture, vitamin D, parathyroid hormone, C-terminal telopeptide, osteocalcin, bone mineral density and muscle fatty change, muscle volume, and health-related quality of life from patients' survey. Moreover, in this survey, the farmers' annual working hours were investigated. Subsequently, we analyzed the associated factors for spinal sagittal imbalance depending on occupation. Results : A total of 46 participants were farmers, and the others were housewives, sellers, and office workers. The farmer group had more SVA (141 vs. 99 mm, p=0.001) and pelvic tilt (31° vs. 24°, p=0.004) and lesser lumbar lordosis (20° vs. 30°, p=0.009) and thoracic kyphosis (24° vs. 33°, p=0.03) than non-farmer group. A significantly positive correlation was noted between the working hour and SVA in the farmer group (p=0.014). The visual analogue scale score for back pain (8.26 vs. 6.96, p=0.008) and Oswestry Disability Index (23.5 vs. 19.1, p=0.003) in the farmer group were higher than that in the non-farmer group, but the Short Form-36 score was not significantly different between the two groups. The Mini-Mental State Exam score was significantly lower in the farmer group than in the non-farmer group (24.85 vs. 26.98, p=0.002). Conclusion : The farmer group had more sagittal imbalance and back pain in proportion to the working hours even though the muscle and bone factors and general laboratory condition were not significantly different between the two groups. These results supported that the long hours spent in the crouched posture while performing agricultural work were a risk factor for severe sagittal imbalance.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.378-386
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• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) is a major cause of abnormal overgrowth of the prostate mainly in the elderly. Corni Fructus has been reported to be effective in the prevention and treatment of various diseases because of its strong antioxidant effect, but its efficacy against BPH is not yet known. This study was designed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of Corni Fructus water extract (CF) in testosterone-induced BPH rats. MATERIALS/METHODS: To induce BPH, rats were intraperitoneal injected with testosterone propionate (TP). Rats in the treatment group were orally administered with CF with TP injection, and finasteride, which is a selective inhibitor of $5{\alpha}$-reductase type 2, was used as a positive control. RESULTS: Our results showed that the increased prostate weight and histopathological changes in BPH model rats were suppressed by CF treatment. CF, similar to the finasteride-treated group, decreased the levels of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone by TP treatment in the serum, and it also reduced $5{\alpha}$-reductase expression and concentration in prostate tissue and serum, respectively. In addition, CF significantly blocked the expression of the androgen receptor (AR), AR co-activators, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen in BPH rats, and this blocking was associated with a decrease in prostate-specific antigen levels in serum and prostate tissue. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that CF may weaken the BPH status through the inactivation of at least $5{\alpha}$-reductase and AR activity and may be useful for the clinical treatment of BPH.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.7-17
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• 2012

The aim of this study is to empirically explore micro and macroeconomic factors affecting the Pakistani sugar industries and searching the energy potential of this industry, through the survey of literature. The empirical part has been explored by employing Vector Autoregression (VAR), Granger Causality tests and simultaneous equation models through quarterly data for the period of 1991q2-2008q4. The study also aims to devise policies for the development of sugar industries and identify its growing importance for the energy sector of Pakistan. Empirical tests applied on the domestic prices of sugar, domestic interest rates, and exchange rate, productive capacities of sugar mills, per capita income, world sugar prices on cultivable area and sugar production reveal very useful results. Results reveal an improvement of productive capacity of the sugar mills of Pakistan on account of increasing crushing capacity of this sector. Negative effect of rising wholesale prices on the harvesting area was also observed. Profit earnings of the sugar mills significantly increase with the rise of sugar prices but the system does not exist for the farming community to share the rising prices of sugar. The models indicate positive and significant effect of local prices of sugar on its volume of import. Another of the findings of this study positively relates the local sugar markets with the international prices of sugar. Additionally, the causality tests results reveal exchange rate, harvesting area and overall output of sugarcane to have significant effects on the local prices of sugar. Similarly, import of sugar, interest rate, per capita consumption of sugar, per capita national income and the international prices of sugar also significantly affect currency exchange rate of Pakistani rupee in terms of US$. The study also finds sugar as an essential and basic necessity of the Pakistani consumers. That is why there are no significant income and price effects on the per capita consumption of sugar in Pakistan. All the empirical methods reiterate the relationship of variables. Economic policy makers are recommended to improve governance and management in the production, stock taking, internal and external trading and distribution of sugar in Pakistan using bumper crop policies. Macroeconomic variables such as interest rate, exchange rate per capita income and consumption are closely connected with the production and distribution of sugar in Pakistan. The cartelized role of the sugar industries should also be examined by further studies. There is need to further explore sugar sector of Pakistan with the perspective of energy generation through this sector; cartelized sugar markets in Pakistan and many more other dimensions of this sector. Exact appraisal of sugar industries for energy generation can be done appropriately by the experts from applied sciences.

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.71-91
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• 2018

In recent years, application of UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) to seed sowing and pest control has been actively carried out in the field of agriculture. In this study, UAS(Unmanned Aerial System) is constructed by combining image sensor of various wavelength band and SfM((Structure from Motion) based image analysis technique in UAV. Utilization of UAS based vegetation survey was investigated and the applicability of precision farming was examined. For this purposes, a UAS consisting of a combination of a VIS_RGB(Visible Red, Green, and Blue) image sensor, a modified BG_NIR(Blue Green_Near Infrared Red) image sensor, and a TIR(Thermal Infrared Red) sensor with a wide bandwidth of $7.5{\mu}m$ to $13.5{\mu}m$ was constructed for a low cost UAV. In addition, a total of ten vegetation indices were selected to investigate the chlorophyll, nitrogen and water contents of plants with visible, near infrared, and infrared wavelength's image sensors. The images of each wavelength band for the test area were analyzed and the correlation between the distribution of vegetation index and the vegetation index were compared with status of the previously surveyed vegetation and ground cover. The ability to perform vegetation state detection using images obtained by mounting multiple image sensors on low cost UAV was investigated. As the utility of UAS equipped with VIS_RGB, BG_NIR and TIR image sensors on the low cost UAV has proven to be more economical and efficient than previous vegetation survey methods that depend on satellites and aerial images, is expected to be used in areas such as precision agriculture, water and forest research.