• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.271-279
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• 2009

Vinyl chloride (VC) is a known human carcinogen, and it is released to multi-environmental media via several exposure routes. VC was potentially evaluated as a water quality pollutant based on human health risk assessment in Korean water environments. In this study, we investigated physicochemical and toxicological properties of VC, human health and ecological risk assessment, and the regulation of VC as a water quality pollutant in developed countries. Currently there are no standard or guideline values of VC in Korean legal system for the protection of human health and aquatic ecosystem, except that it is designated as a specific toxic substance and a water quality pollutant. Human health risk assessment of VC was previously performed based on the limited water quality monitoring data. The monitoring level of VC in Korean water system is more higher than other countries'. VC was assessed as potential hazardous chemical based on the US EPA's cancer risk assessment. There were a few ecotoxicity data of VC available using very limited kinds of aquatic organisms, and the toxicity results obtained seem to be overestimated without considering the losses of VC in open exposure system. Therefore it is needed to monitor the VC in various areas and to carry out the ecotoxicity research using multi-level organisms. We expect that these results can be useful information for implementing VC as a water quality pollutant in legal system for the protection of human health and aquatic ecosystem in near future.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.927-940
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• 2017

Landslide has been a major disaster in Indonesia, and recent climate change and indiscriminate urban development around the mountains have increased landslide risks. Java Island, Indonesia, where more than half of Indonesia's population lives, is experiencing a great deal of damage due to frequent landslides. However, even in such a dangerous situation, the number of inhabitants residing in the landslide-prone area increases year by year, and it is necessary to develop a technique for analyzing landslide-hazardous and vulnerable areas. In this regard, this study aims to evaluate landslide susceptibility of Java, an island of Indonesia, by using GIS-based spatial prediction models. We constructed the geospatial database such as landslide locations, topography, hydrology, soil type, and land cover over the study area and created spatial prediction models by applying Weight of Evidence (WoE), decision trees algorithm and artificial neural network. The three models showed prediction accuracy of 66.95%, 67.04%, and 69.67%, respectively. The results of the study are expected to be useful for prevention of landslide damage for the future and landslide disaster management policies in Indonesia.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.148-152
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• 2010

Domestic studies for identification of causality between children exposure to toxic chemicals, such as arsenic (As) and resulted hazardous effects were not implemented. This study was conducted to probabilistically estimate dietary As intake and health risk assessment for young children and all age-specific populations from the consumption of As-contaminated rice of Korea. Arsenic intakes for young children (1 to 6 years old) from As-contaminated rice were higher than other age-specific groups, based on a dose-per-body weight basis. Based on the current EPA cancer slope factor for As, estimated cancer risks (to the skin cancer) associated with dietary intake of As-contaminated rice for 1 to 2 years old group and 3 to years old group are 1.76 per 10,000 and 3.16 per 10,000, respectively, at the 50th percentile. Based on possible reference levels (0.005 mg/kg/day) for children, mean and $95^{th}$ percentile value of HQ from rice for young children are very below 1.0, which is a regulatory limit of non-carcinogenic risks for human.

• Mycobiology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.160-171
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• 2017

Larvae of Bradysia agrestis, an insect vector that transports plant pathogens, were sampled from geographically isolated regions in Korea to identify their cutaneous fungal and bacterial flora. Sampled areas were chosen within the distribution range of B. agrestis; each site was more than 91 km apart to ensure geographical segregation. We isolated 76 microbial (fungi and bacteria) strains (site 1, 29; site 2, 29; site 3, 18 strains) that were identified on the basis of morphological differences. Species identification was molecularly confirmed by determination of universal fungal internal transcribed spacer and bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences in comparison to sequences in the EzTaxon database and the NCBI GenBank database, and their phylogenetic relationships were determined. The fungal isolates belonged to 2 phyla, 5 classes, and 7 genera; bacterial species belonged to 23 genera and 32 species. Microbial diversity differed significantly among the geographical groups with respect to Margalef's richness (3.9, 3.6, and 4.5), Menhinick's index (2.65, 2.46, and 3.30), Simpson's index (0.06, 0.12, and 0.01), and Shannon's index (2.50, 2.17, and 2.58). Although the microbial genera distribution or diversity values clearly varied among geographical groups, common genera were identified in all groups, including the fungal genus Cladosporium, and the bacterial genera Bacillus and Rhodococcus. According to classic principles of co-evolutionary relationship, these genera might have a closer association with their host insect vector B. agrestis than other genera identified. Some cutaneous bacterial genera (e.g., Pseudomonas) displaying weak interdependency with insect vectors may be hazardous to agricultural environments via mechanical transmission via B. agrestis. This study provides comprehensive information regarding the cutaneous microflora of B. agrestis, which can help in the control of such pests for crop management.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 2007

Soil contamination in Korea has been accelerated every year. Because of their persistence and cumulative tendency in the environment, soil contaminants have potential long-term environmental and health concerns and it is estimated to cost enormous expense for clean-up. Korea government has legislated the law on conservation of soil environment in mid 1990s, and managed and treated hazardous wastes in contaminated sites as a remediation policy since then. Soil remediation technologies are classified into in-situ/ex-situ or biological/physico-chemical/thermal processes according to applied places or treatment methods, respectively. In Korea, clean-up of polluted sites has been mostly carried out at military areas, railroad-related sites and small-scale oil spilt sites. For these cases, in-situ remediation technologies such as soil vapor extraction (SVE) and bioventing were mainly used. In recent days, an environmental-friendly soil remediation emerged as a new concept - for example, a new soil remediation process using nanotechnology or molecular biological study and an integrated process which can overcome the limitation of individual process. To have better applicability of remediation technologies, comprehensive understandings about the pollutants and soil characteristics and the suitable techniques are required to be investigated. Above all, development of environmental technologies based on the sustainability accompanied by public attention can improve soil environment in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.109-119
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• 2013

An unmanned ground vehicle(UGV) today plays a significant role in both civilian and military areas. Predominantly these systems are used to replace humans in hazardous situations. To take unmanned ground vehicles systems to the next level and increase their capabilities and the range of missions they are able to perform in the combat field, new technologies are needed in the area of command and control. For this reason, we present war field simulator based on information fusion technology to efficiently control UGV. In this paper, we present the war field simulator which is made of critical components, that is, simulation controller, virtual image viewer, and remote control device to efficiently control UGV in the future combat fields. In our information fusion technology, improved methods of target detection, recognition, and location are proposed. In addition, time reduction method of target detection is also proposed. In the consequence of the operation test, we expect that our war field simulator based on information fusion technology plays an important role in the future military operation significantly.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.332-345
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• 2019

Maximum dip vector of individual joint plane, which can be uniquely defined on the hemispherical projection plane, has been established by considering its dip and dip direction. A new stereographic projection method for the rock slope analysis which employs the maximum dip vector can intuitively predict the failure modes of rock slope. Since the maximum dip vector is uniquely projected on the maximum dip point of the great circle, the sliding direction of discontinuity plane can be recognized directly. By utilizing the maximum dip vector of discontinuity both the plane sliding and toppling directions of corresponding blocks can be discerned intuitively. Especially, by allocating the area of high dip maximum dip vector which can form the flanks of sliding block the potentiality for the formation of virtual sliding block has been estimated. Also, the potentiality of forming the triangular-sectioned sliding block has been determined by considering the dip angle of joint plane the dip direction of which is nearly opposite to that of the slope face. Safety factors of the different-shaped blocks of triangular section has been estimated and compared to the safety factor of the most hazardous block of rectangular section. For the wedge analysis the direction of crossline of two intersecting joint planes, which has same attribute of the maximum dip vector, is used so that wedge failures zone can be superimposed on the stereographic projection surface in which plane and toppling failure areas are already lineated. In addition the maximum dip vector zone of wedge top face has been delineated to extract the wedge top face-forming joint planes the orientation of which provides the vital information for the analysis of mechanical behavior of wedge block.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

Extreme climate phenomena are occurring around the world caused by global climate change. The heavy rains exceeds the previous record of highest rainfall. In particular, as flash floods generate heavy rainfall on the mountains over a relatively a short period of time, the likelihood of landslides increases. Gangwon region is especially suffered by landslide damages, because the most of the part is mountainous, steep, and having shallow soil. Therefore, in this study, is to predict the risk of disasters by applying topographic classification techniques and landslide risk prediction techniques to mountain watersheds. Classify the hazardous area by calculating the topographic position index (TPI) as a topographic classification technique. The SINMAP method, one of the earth rock predictors, was used to predict possible areas of a landslide. Using the SINMAP method, we predicted the area where the mountainous disaster can occur. As a result, the topographic classification technique classified more than 63% of the total watershed into open slope and upper slope. In the SINMAP analysis, about 58% of the total watershed was analyzed as a hazard area. Due to recent developments, measures to reduce mountain disasters are urgently needed. Stability measures should be established for hazard zone.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.194-202
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• 2022

An increased number of cases have occurred in applying ICT technology in the resource development field due to factors such as safety, eco-friendliness, and low cost since the 2000s. In Korea, the 2nd mining master plan specified the significance of converging the full cycle of mining and ICT, while the 3rd mining master plan highlighted ICT and smart mining such as supporting the supply of an ICT mining device and introducing demonstrational smart mining. This study introduces the application of an ICT device and safety system operation in the Jangseong underground mine of Korea Cement Co., Ltd. Currently, Jangseong mine combines two different kinds of 3D equipment including the handheld 3D scanner and multi-station that provides both the measurement and 3D scanning to perform a 3D measurement of the mine. Taken from the 3D measurement of the mine, it is now possible to identify any hazardous areas and abnormalities in different directions and analyze the safety of the crown pillar between two stopes in different level. Besides, the real-time location tracking and communications system have established highly efficient rescue and evacuation plans to effectively deal with any accidents in the mine.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.221-229
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• 2023

Extracted from the metropolitan area, the Paldang Lake, which supplies approximately 8 million tons of water, has achieved a BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) of 1.1 mg/L as a result of water quality preservation policies. However, concerning the COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) component that encompasses refractory organic matter, there has been an observable upward trend in concentration. The introduction of refractory organic matter into the water source of Paldang Lake brings potential increments in BOD, generates off-putting tastes and odors in tap water, increases THM (Trihalomethane) formation, and triggers algae proliferation. Moreover, if residual hazardous refractory pollutants persist in aquatic environments, they may induce endocrine disruption and phenomena such as antibiotic resistance. In this study, a monitoring campaign was executed to discern the concentration of refractory organic matter emissions from point and non-point sources within Paldang Lake and its upstream region, with the aim of managing refractory organic matter in Paldang Lake. By comparing refractory organic matter emission concentrations across monitored areas, the elimination efficiency at wastewater treatment plants was assessed. Additionally, employing the Pearson correlation correlation analysis technique, correlations among refractory organic matter indices, antecedent wet days, and antecedent dry days were explored. The concentrations of refractory organic matter in rivers and Paldang Lake exhibited a similar pattern. Wastewater treatment plant effluents exhibited higher concentrations compared to rivers and Paldang Lake. The assessment of refractory organic matter removal at wastewater treatment plants indicated a removal efficiency of 65.73%. However, no significant correlation emerged between refractory organic matter emission concentration and antecedent wet days or priory antecedent dry days. This absence of correlation is attributed to data scarcity, underscoring the need for long-term monitoring and data accumulation.