• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.210-217
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• 2012

This study investigated the water quality of effluents from the wastewater treatment plants, located at the Gumi Complex 4, Gumi, and Wonpyong, in Gumi. DOC accounted for higher than 70% of TOC, and oxidation efficiencies, calculated from carbon, were 13~43% for BOD and 37~73% for CODMn, respectively. Based on the biological decomposition experiments, R-DOC account for higher than 70% of DOC, mostly being occupied by refractory organic matters. This indicated that the biodegradable organics occupied more proportions of organic loadings than the refractory organics. The effect of the organics from a discharge of a sewage treatment plant on rivers, Gumi industrial Complex 4, Gumi, and Wonpyong on lower streams of the Nakdong River were found to be 15%, 6% and 16% respectively. The ratio of 15% suggests that comparatively, no large portions of TOC loadings are occupied, but the problem is that the biodegradable organic matters occupy a lot more proportions than that of the refractory organic matters. Thus, it is highly estimated that the refractory organics can gradually increase the pollution level of organics and precursors of disinfection by-products to the down-stream water treatment plants.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.596-605
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• 2016

In previous years, practice hand grenades were composed of non-degradable plastics and caused environmental pollution. Therefore, this study applied PLA(Polylactic acid) to practice hand grenades that would biodegradable within a short time. High expectations are being placed on PLA as a substitute for plastics because it can decompose to water and carbon dioxide. The aim of this study was to confirm that the PLA material of a practice hand grenade has biodegradability in a pilot-scale composting unit and estimate the applicability for other items. A composting test was progressed according to ISO 16929(2013). The test process was found to be valid. At the end of the composting test (after 12 weeks), the entire content of the test bin with the test sheet was sieved, sorted and analyzed. A disintegration percentage of 99.2% was obtained after 12 weeks of composting. Therefore, the 90% pass level required by ISO 17088(2013), EN 13432(2000), and ASTM D 6400-12 was easily reached. On the other hand, more research will be needed to determine additional applications of PLA material for consumables.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.94-101
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• 2008

The aim of this study was to assess the responses of mixed function oxygenase (MFO) and antioxidative systems of feral Javelin goby, Acanthogobius hasta, caught in two sites of different pollution level in Shihwa lake, which has been a highly polluted lake by organic pollutants from nearby industrial complexes and sites. Enzymes analyzed in phase I of MFO system are cytochrome P450 (CYP), NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase (P450R), NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase (b5R), and ethoxyresorufin deethylase (EROD). Phase II enzyme of glutathione S-transferase (GST) in MFO system was also investigated. Moreover, oxidative-enzyme system including catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR) and total-glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activities and glutathione concentration in both of oxidized (GSSG) and reduced form (GSH) were determined. P450R, b5R, and GST activities of fish are relatively high in the polluted area, whereas hepatic EROD activity levels of fish in polluted area were lower than those of unpolluted area. CYP concentrations are not different between areas. These results indicated that feral Acanthogobius hasta were adaptive to highly polluted environment and exposed to oxidative stress in Shihwa lake.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.406-414
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• 2010

The impact of rainfall events on the sanitary indicator bacteria density of the shellfish-growing waters in Geoje Bay and Jaran Bay in Korea was investigated. The shellfish-growing area in Geoje Bay, which is a nearly closed basin, was not affected significantly, except near the stream mouth after 11.5 mm of rainfall in 1 day. However, most of the shellfish-growing water in the bay was polluted by fecal coliform bacteria after rain as heavy as 43.0 mm, and the levels of fecal indicator bacteria in some of the sea near the coast did not recover completely until 24 hours after the rainfall. By contrast, in Jaran Bay, which has no significant pollution source in the drainage area, although 9.3-490 MPN/100 mL of fecal coliform bacteria were detected near the stream mouth after rainfall of 33.5 and 81.0 mm, a very low level of the indicator bacteria was detected in the designated shellfish-growing area. During the investigation, the correlations between the sanitary indicator bacteria density and physical parameters, such as salinity and turbidity, were evaluated. Both the total coliform and fecal coliform densities were inversely correlated with salinity. Turbidity was positively correlated with the indicator bacteria density. The survey results suggest that for more efficient management of the shellfish-growing areas located in coastal areas, such as shellfish harvesting after rainfall, a detailed investigation of the effects of rainfall on the bacterial water quality in each growing area is needed.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2011

Carbon emissions and storages that are strongly related to global warming has have emerged as one of the important issues while many governments and researchers have been interested in climate change and pollution. In this regards, forest biomass estimation is quite importance since forest biomass works as an important medium of the global carbon cycle between the atmosphere and soil. Forest biomass estimation through field survey needs lots of time and labors, and has accessibility issues. Hence, many researchers have focused on the forest biomass approaches based on remotely sensed data. This research comprehensively reviewed forty one international studies using remote sensing data according to five different categories (i.e., location of study area, size of study area, biome, used remote sensing data, and estimation technology). It would be expected that the results of this study can be used for suggesting domestic research directions; domestic research in this field is at the beginning stage in terms of level of technologies and useful materials. As results, 39% out of the reviewed studies used the areas located in North America. 59% out of the researches dealt with small size of the study areas (less than 3,600km2). In case of biome, around 30% of the studies focused on the boreal/taiga areas. Moreover, 35% and 16% of the studies were carried out using Landsat series and Lidar data, respectively. Finally, regression analysis method was most frequently used for forest biomass estimation by 71% out of 41 studies.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.25-32
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• 2012

The application of electrical resistivity, which is related to charge mobility, has increased in the field of geotechnical engineering for the detection of underground cavern, faults and subsurface pollution level. The purpose of this study is to investigate the variation of electrical resistivity due to temperature change. Sand-silt mixture specimens prepared in the square freezing nylon cell are frozen in the frozen chamber. Four electrodes are attached on the four side walls of the freezing cell for the measurement of electrical resistance during temperature change. Electrical resistances of sand-silt mixtures with different degrees of saturation (0%, 2.5%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 60% and 100%) are measured as the temperature of specimens decrease from $20^{\circ}C$ to $-10^{\circ}C$. The electrical resistances determined by Ohm's law are transformed into the electrical resistivity by calibration. Experimental results show that the higher degree of saturation, the lower electrical resistivity at $20^{\circ}C$. Electrical resistivity gradually increases as the temperature decrease from $20^{\circ}C$ to $0^{\circ}C$. For the specimens with the degree of saturation of 15% or higer, electrical resistivity dramatically changes near the temperature of $0^{\circ}C$. In addition, very high electrical resistivity is observed regardless of the degree of saturation if the specimens are frozen. This study provides the fundamental information of electrical resistivity according to the soil freezing and temperature change demonstrates that electrical resistivity be a practical method for frozen soil investigation.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to survey the high school students' concern levels on decision-making problems based on biology, This study is a exploratory research to develop teaching strategies and curriculum of the common science for the enhancement of the students' decision-making ability in problems involved biological knowledges. The survey subjects were 101 first graders of the high school in Seoul area. The survey instrument developed was 5-point scale of Likert type consisted of 24 question items. The survey results showed that the concern level on selection of method for learning was the highest. The concern levels on selection of method for sports or diet which are the individual faced problems were high, and concern levels on the problems social issued such as decisions about standard for noise, pros and cons of approval for brain death or artificial abortion were high, too. The students' concern levels on problems individual context were significantly higher than concern levels on problems social context (p<0.01). The males' concern levels were higher than females' on 'AIDS', 'incinerator for rubbish', 'atomic power plant', 'protection policy for decreasing species', 'standard for noise' (p<0.05), And the males' concern levels were higher than females' on domain of 'ecosystem and environment pollution'. But the females had higher concern levels than males on 'diet' and 'surrogate mother' (p<0.05). The analyzed results were discussed in respects of implication for teaching strategies and curriculum.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.67-82
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• 2002

Objectives: In recent years, extensive focus has been laid on adulteration of herbal medicine with heavy metals. This may be mainly due to soil contamination by environmental pollution. The objective of this study is to identify the contents of various heavy metals in the blood from Ohjeok-san (Wuji-san) Decoction (OD) treated-rats. Methods: For this study, 13 kinds of metals including essential and heavy metals, i.e. A1, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se and Zn were analyzed by a slight modification of EP A methods and the following results are obtained. Results: 1. There was no significant difference between the OD-treated groups and control group in liver, kidney, bone, brain and weight, especially no significant difference at the 5th and 10th days in weight and the amount of food intake. 2. The amount of each metal analyzed in the blood were as follows; A1: 2.3~3.07 mg/l, As: 2.90~3.66 mg/l, Cd: 0~0.001 mg/l, Co: 0~0.01 mg/l, Cr: 0.40~043 mg/l, Cu: 0.93~1.88 mg/l, Fe: 414.35~464.46 mg/l, Hg: 0.01 mg/l, Mn: 0.10~0.17 mg/l, Ni: 0.01 mg/l, Pb: 0.03~012 mg/l, Se: 0.73 mg/l, Zn: 3.41~4.13 mg/l by groups, respectively. In control and experimental group, Experimental I and other experimental II, III, IV, and V groups, there were no significant differences. 3. The amount of non-toxic metals (A1, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Se, Zn) were $64.1{\pm}7.71{\;}mg/l$ in the control group and 60.70~67.58 mg/l in the experimental groups I, II, III, IV and V. The amount of Toxic metals (As, Cd, Cr, Ag, Pb) were $0.68{\pm}0.21{\;}mg/l$ in the control group and 0.57 ~ 0.66mg/l in the experimental groups. The total amount of metals were 32.35 mg/l in the control group and 30.48~34.12 mg/l in the test groups I, II, III, IV and V, respectively. Conclusions: There was no significant difference of metal concentration in the blood from the OD-treated-rats compared to those of the control group even if higher dosage (1~8 times the dosage for a person) of OD was administered. This may be mainly due to a decoction treatment which contains only supernatants filtered from the herb-mass after boiling. This indicates the legal limitation for metal concentration in herbal medicine must be applied according to different treatment methods of herbal medicine.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 1994

In the later part of 1980's, a great emphasis has been placed on the treatment issues of livestock wastes due to the continuous increase in consumption of livestock and meat products. Continued economic development for three decades has enhanced the nationally general level of life for the purpose of exit out of absolute poverty, thus accompanied with people's demand for a quality of environment beyond the traditional economic factors over times. Such an individual or collective demand for environment of life has been primarily focussed and argued on only rural environment in the early development periods. In perspective of clean water supply and security for urban area, however, it is more important to treat livestock wastes in the oriented-sustainable environment than in the conventional ways without working on environment degradation. Livestock wastes composed of the high-concentrated organic matter ought to be controlled and treated in sound ways, if not, which on one hand may result in pollution of underground water, surface water and a nasty smell, and on the other hand also may cause people to file a civil petition. Therefore on the research paper, reviewing occurrence of livestock waste and situation of treatment in details, through scrutinizing the government regulation and financing or subsidizing for it, author intends to find out the initiative of 'resourcefication' of treating of livestock wastes in the environmental soundness and efficiency

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.689-698
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• 2000

The quality of stormwater runoff has been a major concern in water quality preservation. Characteristics of heavy metals and conventional pollutants in surface runoff from industrial complex, during the first flush, were not completely understood, Generally, separated sewer system is known for their water quality with untreated wastewater during storm events. In this study, the quality and characteristics of surface runoff from the industrial complex were investigated. The target area in the industrial complex catchment was divided 4 sub-areas, and the quality of stormwater runoff from the selected drainage areas was investigated using a grab sampling method. The petro-chemical industry and the junkyard discharged relatively high concentration of conventional pollutants, such as BOD, COD, SS, and TN through the first flush runoff samples. On the other hand, a higher level of heavy metals was found in the first flush runoff from the metal-mechanical industry and the scrap storage yard. For metals, Fe, Zn and Cu were the most prevalent species found in the first flush runoff from all sites for every surface runoff samples, while Pb, As, Cd, Cr and Ni were the least prevalent species and Hg was not found in any sample at any site. These results suggest that the nature of pollutants in surface runoff from the industrial complex was related to the type of industry, and the concentration of pollutants was determinated by the degree of exposed pollutant sources and the characteristic of rainfall events at the sites.