• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.64-70
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the raise of cigarette prices by KRW 2,000 at the beginning of 2015 on the change in smoking behavior among male office workers, and to analyze the correlation of various factors including their work behaviors and socio-economic factors with their smoking rate. Methods: In this research, a follow-up observation panel was constituted with 420 smokers as targets from among male office workers at a bank located in Daegu, South Korea. A cross-analysis and ANOVA analysis were carried out in order to examine whether changes in smoking status, amount of smoking, stop-smoking motivation, and reasons for smoking cessation failure after the passage of time since the cigarette price hike were statistically significant. The level of statistical significance was P < 0.05. Results: After the cigarette price hike, among the 420 smokers who were the target of the panel the rate of smoking cessation declined at the time-point of the survey to 15.5%, 12.4%, 8.5%, and 5.7% after one month, three months, six months, and 12 months, respectively. As a result of a follow-up observation of 65 smokers who stopped smoking immediately after the price hike, the actual non-smoking rate declined to 15.5%, 8.3%, 4.4%, and 3.1% after one month, three months, six months, and 12 months, respectively. One (1) year after the cigarette price hike, the non-smoking rate among the 420 smokers reached as low as 3.1% (13 persons). The most important reason for the failure of the attempts to quit smoking was stress for more than 60% of the smokers who attempted to stop. Conclusions: It seems that a powerful anti-smoking policy by the state targeting the nation's workers is necessary. For companies, mediation for workers' job stress can become a strategy for the success of non-smoking attempts. The government seems to require a practical policy to reduce the smoking rate by actively carrying out social, economic, and scientific research to come up with a reduction method for the cigarette hazard, an effective price hike policy, and other non-price policies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.79.2-79.2
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• 2017

To dynamically and chemically understand how filaments, dense cores, and stars form under different environments, we are conducting a systematic mapping survey of nearby molecular clouds using the TRAO 14 m telescope with high ($N_2H^+$ 1-0, $HCO^+$ 1-0, SO 32-21, and $NH_2D$ v=1-0) and low ($^{13}CO$ 1-0, $C^{18}O$ 1-0) density tracers. The goals of this survey are to obtain the velocity distribution of low dense filaments and their dense cores for the study of their origin of the formation, to understand whether the dense cores form from any radial accretion or inward motions toward dense cores from their surrounding filaments, and to study the chemical differentiation of the filaments and the dense cores. Until the 2017A season, the real OTF observation time is ~760 hours. We have almost completed mapping observation with four molecular lines ($^{13}CO$ 1-0, $C^{18}O$ 1-0, $N_2H^+$ 1-0, and $HCO^+$ 1-0) on the six regions of molecular clouds (L1251 of Cepheus, Perseus West, Polaris South, BISTRO region of Serpens, California, and Orion B). The cube data for $^3CO$ and $C^{18}O$ lines were obtained for a total of 6 targets, 57 tiles, 676 maps, and $7.1deg^2$. And $N_2H^+$ and $HCO^+$ data were added for $2.2deg^2$ of dense regions. All OTF data were regridded to a cell size of 44 by 44 arcseconds. The $^{13}CO$ and $C^{18}O$ data show the RMS noise level of about (0.1-0.2) K and $N_2H^+$ and $HCO^+$ data show about (0.07-0.2) K at the velocity resolution of 0.06 km/s. Additional observations will be made on some regions that have not reached the noise level for analysis. To identify filaments, we are using and testing programs (DisPerSE, Dendrogram, FIVE) and visual inspection for 3D image of cube data. A basic analysis of the physical and chemical properties of each filament is underway.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2019

The KVN(Korean VLBI Network)-style simultaneous multi-frequency receiving mode is demonstrated to be promising for mm-VLBI observations. Recently, other Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) facilities all over the globe start to implement compatible optics systems. Simultaneous dual/multi-frequency VLBI observations at mm wavelengths with international baselines are thus possible. In this paper, we present the results from the first successful simultaneous 22/43 GHz dual-frequency observation with KaVA(KVN and VERA array), including images and astrometric results. Our analysis shows that the newly implemented simultaneous receiving system has brought a significant extension of the coherence time of the 43 GHz visibility phases along the international baselines. The astrometric results obtained with KaVA are consistent with those obtained with the independent analysis of the KVN data. Our results thus confirm the good performance of the simultaneous receiving systems for the nonKVN stations. Future simultaneous observations with more global stations bring even higher sensitivity and micro-arcsecond level astrometric measurements of the targets.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.193-206
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• 2013

The detector subsystem of the Optical Wide-field Patrol (OWL) network efficiently acquires the position and time information of moving objects such as artificial satellites through its chopper system, which consists of 4 blades in front of the CCD camera. Using this system, it is possible to get more position data with the same exposure time by changing the streaks of the moving objects into many pieces with the fast rotating blades during sidereal tracking. At the same time, the time data from the rotating chopper can be acquired by the time tagger connected to the photo diode. To analyze the orbits of the targets detected in the image data of such a system, a sequential procedure of determining the positions of separated streak lines was developed that involved calculating the World Coordinate System (WCS) solution to transform the positions into equatorial coordinate systems, and finally combining the time log records from the time tagger with the transformed position data. We introduce this procedure and the preliminary results of the application of this procedure to the test observation images.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.166-174
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• 2012

Introduction: After 17 years since the first production of humidifier disinfectants in Korea, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) announced that the odds ratio of lung injury related with humidifier disinfectant usage was 47.3 (95% confidence interval 6.0-369.7) according to a case-control study with 18 adult cases, including 8 pregnant women at a university hospital in Seoul. Results: From September 2011 to April 2012, one-hundred and seventy four victim cases have been reported to an environmental non-governmental group (NGO). We summarized timetable of humidifier disinfectants accidents, analyzed health outcomes (death, lung or lung and heart transplantation, pulmonary disease) of reported victims, and classified some information for humidifier disinfectants with health outcomes, and government action for this accident. Among the victims, number of death cases are 52 (30.0%), including 26 babies less than 3 years old. Sixty-nine victims come from twenty-seven family with 2 to 4 members per family. About twenty types of humidifier disinfectant products and about 600,000 product items a year have been sold. Fifty-two death cases used 7 different types of disinfectant products, including imported goods and some private brands of well-known supermarkets. KCDC confirmed inhalation toxicity of 6 products through an animal experimental test, and based on this observation recalled disinfectants containing PHMG (polyhexamethylene guanidine) and PGH (Oligo(2-(2-ethoxy)ethoxyethyl guanidinium chloride). Discussions: The use of these biocides involved highly fatal consequences among biologically vulnerable victims, such as pregnant women, several family member victims after semi-acute exposure. This is the first biocide disaster in Korea with non-specific targets, and unknown scale of victims, warranting concerns on use of biocides in the living environment. Conclusions: Special administrative agency for chemical safety and compensation act for environmental health victims are needed to prevent similar problems.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.455-464
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• 2009

Based on the observation that Korean speakers of English have difficulties in producing English fricatives, a perception experiment was designed to investigate whether Korean speakers also have difficulties perceiving English labial consonants including fricatives. Forty Korean college students were asked to perform a multiple-choice identification test. The consonant perception test consisted of nonce words which contained English labial consonants [p, b, f, v] in 4 different prosodic locations: initial onset position, intervocalic position before stress, intervocalic position after stress, and final coda position. The general perception pattern was that the mean accuracy rates were higher in strong position like CV and VCVV than in weak position like VC and VVCV. The difficulties in perceiving the English targets resulted mainly from bidirectional manner confusion between stop and fricative across all prosodic locations. The other types of misidentification were due to place confusion as well as voicing confusion. Place confusion was generated mostly by the target [f] in all prosodic position due to acoustic properties. Voicing confusion was heavily influenced by prosodic position. The misperception of the participants was accounted for by phonetic properties and/or the participants' native language properties.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.145-151
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• 2012

In the present work, we studied the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of tautomycetin (TMC) and its derivatives. Further, we demonstrated the correlation between the immunosuppressive fuction, anticancer activity and protein phosphatase type 1 (PP1) inhibition of TMC and its derivatives. We have prepared some TMC derivatives via combinatorial biosynthesis, isolation from fermentation broth or chemical degradation of TMC. We found that the immunosuppressive activity was correlated with anticancer activity for TMC and its analog compounds, indicating that TMC may home at the same targets for its immunosuppressive and anticancer activities. Interestingly, TMC-F1, TMC-D1 and TMC-D2 all retained significant, albeit reduced PP1 inhibitory activity compared to TMC. However, only TMC-D2 showed immunosuppressive and anticancer activities in studies carried out in cell lines. Moreover, TMC-Chain did not show any significant inhibitory activity towards PP1 but showed strong growth inhibitory effect. This observation implicates that the maleic anhydride moiety of TMC is critical for its phosphatase inhibitory activity whereas the C1-C18 moiety of TMC is essential for the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation. Furthermore, we measured $in$ $vivo$ phosphatase activities of PP1 in MCF-7 cell extracts treated with TMC and its related compounds, and the results indicate that the cytotoxicity of TMC doesn't correlate with its $in$ $vivo$ PP1 inhibition activity. Taken together, our study suggests that the immunosuppressive and anticancer activities of TMC are not due to the inhibition of PP1. Our results provide a novel insight for the elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanisms of TMC's important biological functions.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.587-599
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• 2011

As one measure of image interpretability, NIIRS(National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale) has been used. Unlike MTF(Modulation Transfer Function), SNR(Signal to Noise Ratio), and GSD(Ground Sampling Distance), NIIRS can describe the quality of overall image at user's perspective. NIIRS is observed with human observation directly or estimated by edge analysis. For edge analysis specially manufactured artificial target is used commonly. This target, formed with a tarp of black and white patterns, is deployed on the ground and imaged by the satellite. Due to this, the artificial target-based method needs a big expense and can not be performed often. In this paper, we propose a new edge analysis method that enables to estimate NIIRS accurately. In this method, natural targets available in the image are used and characteristics of the target are considered. For assessment of the algorithm, various experiments were carried out. The results showed that our algorithm can be used as an alternative to the artificial target-based method.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.177-185
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• 2015

We develop a new auto-guiding system for the Camera for QUasars in the EArly uNiverse (CQUEAN). CQUEAN is an optical CCD camera system attached to the 2.1-m Otto-Struve Telescope (OST) at McDonald Observatory, USA. The new auto-guiding system differs from the original one in the following: instead of the cassegrain focus of the OST, it is attached to the finder scope; it has its own filter system for observation of bright targets; and it is controlled with the CQUEAN Auto-guiding Package, a newly developed auto-guiding program. Finder scope commands a very wide field of view at the expense of poorer light gathering power than that of the OST. Based on the star count data and the limiting magnitude of the system, we estimate there are more than 5.9 observable stars with a single FOV using the new auto-guiding CCD camera. An adapter is made to attach the system to the finder scope. The new auto-guiding system successfully guided the OST to obtain science data with CQUEAN during the test run in 2014 February. The FWHM and ellipticity distributions of stellar profiles on CQUEAN, images guided with the new auto-guiding system, indicate similar guiding capabilities with the original auto-guiding system but with slightly poorer guiding performance at longer exposures, as indicated by the position angle distribution. We conclude that the new auto-guiding system has overall similar guiding performance to the original system. The new auto-guiding system will be used for the second generation CQUEAN, but it can be used for other cassegrain instruments of the OST.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.103-123
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• 2013

Star clusters are superb astrophysical laboratories containing cospatial and coeval samples of stars with similar chemical composition. We initiate the Sejong Open cluster Survey (SOS) - a project dedicated to providing homogeneous photometry of a large number of open clusters in the SAAO Johnson-Cousins' UBV I system. To achieve our main goal, we pay much attention to the observation of standard stars in order to reproduce the SAAO standard system. Many of our targets are relatively small sparse clusters that escaped previous observations. As clusters are considered building blocks of the Galactic disk, their physical properties such as the initial mass function, the pattern of mass segregation, etc. give valuable information on the formation and evolution of the Galactic disk. The spatial distribution of young open clusters will be used to revise the local spiral arm structure of the Galaxy. In addition, the homogeneous data can also be used to test stellar evolutionary theory, especially concerning rare massive stars. In this paper we present the target selection criteria, the observational strategy for accurate photometry, and the adopted calibrations for data analysis such as color-color relations, zero-age main sequence relations, Sp - MV relations, Sp - $T_{eff}$ relations, Sp - color relations, and $T_{eff}$ - BC relations. Finally we provide some data analysis such as the determination of the reddening law, the membership selection criteria, and distance determination.