• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.1-24
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• 2017

This article explores the developmental history of TOPIK over the last 20 years and its recent trends. Over the last two decades, TOPIK underwent two major systematic reforms, achieving both quantitative and qualitative growth over the course of its 52 testing sessions. TOPIK has utilized a six-level evaluation system from its inception to the present. The evaluation system was amended from the earlier six-test set - whereby each level corresponded with a separate test (1997~2005: the $1^{st}{\sim}9^{th}$) - to the three-test set (2006~2014: the $10^{th}{\sim}34^{th}$), and finally to the two-test set (2014~present: the $35^{th}{\sim}42^{nd}$). In the earlier exams, abilities in Vocabulary Grammar, Writing, Listening, and Reading were assessed. However, beginning with the $35^{th}$ TOPIK, abilities in Listening, Reading, and Writing (only in TOPIK II) were assessed and the evaluation of the writing section was changed to a task-based process, improving TOPIK into a more qualified analysis of proficiency. Over the last 20 years, the number of countries TOPIK is administered in has greatly increased from 4 to 73 countries, and the annual number of test-takers has also significantly increased from 2,692 to 250,141. The distribution of proficiency levels of the test-takers has shifted over time - initially "Beginner>Intermediate>Advanced" in the earlier exams, to "Intermediate>Advanced>Beginner" after the mid 2000s - as the number of those studying the Korean language for specific purposes and continuing education increased. Test-takers have indicated a shift in their purpose for taking the exam, initially citing "to assess proficiency" and more recently selecting "to study abroad," and this could also correlate with changes in the proportion of test-takers' proficiency level. In general, 85~95% of beginner, 50~65% of intermediate, and 45~60% of advanced test applicants passed the respective proficiency level. To date, no practices have yet been implemented to standardize the difficulty level longitudinally across test sets.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1698-1702
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• 2013

Glucose is a common medical analyte measuring in human serum or blood samples. The development of a primary method is necessary for the establishment of traceability in measurements. We have developed an isotope dilution liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry as a primary method for the measurement of glucose in human serum. Glucose and glucose-$^{13}C_6$ in sample were ionized in ESI negative mode and monitored at mass transfers of m/z 179/89 and 185/92 in MRM, respectively. Glucose was separated on $NH_2P$-50 2D column, and the mobile phase was 20 mM $NH_4OAc$ in 30% acetonitrile/70% water. Verification of this method was performed by the comparison with NIST SRMs. Our results agreed well with the SRM values. We have developed two levels of glucose serum certified reference material using this method and distributed them to the clinical laboratories in Korea as samples for proficiency testings. The expended uncertainty was about 1.2% on 95% confidence level. In proficiency testings, the results obtained from the clinical laboratories showed about 3.6% and 3.9% RSD to the certified values. Primary method can provide the traceability to the field laboratories through proficiency testings or certified reference materials.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.247-254
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• 2010

This study was carried out to produce Reference Materials (RMs) for Proficiency Testing (PT) of PCBs in waste analytical laboratories. Two RMs were prepared from used transformer oil samples and PCB free transformer oil by spiking PCBs standard solutions. The spiked PCB RMs were homogenized by mixing and settling up to 90 days. Homogenized concentration of PCBs with Arochlor 1254 (6 ppm), 1254:1260 (1:1) (5 ppm) were observed in 60 days stationary phase but Arochlor 1260 (3.5 mg/L) were observed in 90 days stationary phase. One-way ANOVA test were carried out and showed that the RMs were suitably homogenized, which can be used for proficiency testing. The Relative Standard Deviations (RSDs) of analytical results were 3.51~5.01% for the PCBs RMs in 10 replicates. The expanded uncertainty of PCBs analytical procedure were 0.26~0.49.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.113-132
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• 2004

This study aims to suggest desirable directions through analyzing English test items of college entrance examinations(CEE) in Korea, China, and Japan. To achieve this, English test items of Scholastic Ability Test(SAT) in Korea were compared with those of CEE in China and Japan, and test items of TOEFL and IELTS. It was found that there were not many items for testing productive skills relatively to the tests of other countries including TOEFL and IELTS. Especially, there were integrated items for writing test in China. In case of speaking test, all the other country adopted direct ways like interview and oral test, not indirect test as in the SAT in Korea. It is suggested that there need to be included test items comprising long passages in order to measure extensive reading ability. It can be suggested that doze test be adopted for testing integrated proficiency of English.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2021

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to develop a quality control protocol of inorganic acids using ion chromatograph and to evaluate analytical proficiency of the legally designated agencies. Methods: This study prepared inorganic acid samples by injecting three anion certified solutions (chloride, nitrate, and sulfate) on the quartz filters. To investigate the storage stability and concentration consistency of the samples, 240 samples for each anion were tested at weeks 0, 2, 4, 8, 12, and 16 while storing at 4℃ and 25℃. To evaluate analytical proficiency, two separate testings were administrated for six skilled analysts and 46 analysts affiliated with legally designated agencies. Results: Average recoveries of the three ions after 16 weeks of storage were fairly high (over 95%). In addition, average recoveries (chloride = 97%, nitrate = 96%, and sulfate = 103%) after 16 weeks of storage at low temperate were relatively higher than those (94%, 93%, and 98%) at room temperature. The coefficients of variation (CV) for the three ions were less than 5% except for the sulfate sample at 5.56 ㎍ (CV = 12.4%). The average ratios of the concentration values analyzed by the legally designated agencies to the injected concentrations were close to 1. However, their CVs were relatively greater (chloride ≤ 49%, nitrate ≤ 14%, and sulfate ≤ 28%), which implies a need for quality control. Conclusions: The quality control protocol used in this study for the three inorganic acids can be utilized in the quality control for ion chromatography.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.9 no.spc
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• pp.79-98
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• 2003

This article reports that a testee's content schemata have detrimental effects on the validity of standardized reading comprehension tests. in case that the reading passages constitute his prior background knowledge framed by regular academic pursuits focused on a major field of study. The empirical research findings on such a reliability issue have shown that the Korean subjects' familiarity with the content domain of the reading materials may substantially enhance their test performance, operated as unfair advantages over the other participants at the same level of English proficiency who do not possess technical knowledge closely related to the contents of the test passages. Based on these results, it may be argued that the reading text should be composed of maximally neutral contents to every testee to avoid the possible overlapping between a test-taker's content schemata and the content domain of the materials. Therefore, this article claims that the tenets of schema theory with its long-standing foundation on culturally predetermined content and formal schemata need to be expanded to cover professional knowledge structures, like those acquired by higher education, as the hard-wired framework of an individual's original culture-specific background knowledge.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2011

Crocidolite quality control (QC) sampling created by the wet generation method has been validated by validation tests such as the accuracy, precision, and storage tests. For this study we designed and developed a manufacturing apparatus and standard operating procedure for making these QC samples. The most important step in the procedure of making QC samples was the stage eliminating static electricity in asbestos fibers. This static electricity hampers the fibers clog functioning. In accuracy and precision tests by phase contrast microscopy analysis, the difference between the reference values and the studied values was at maximum 17.8%. This satisfies the AIHA proficiency analytical test criteria for asbestos. We could confirm the nearly even distribution of crocidolite fibers on the membrane filter. Also, there was no loss of fibers in the storage test after the one month.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.930-938
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• 2023

Maritime English is a specialized language system designed for ship operations, maritime safety, and external and internal communication onboard. According to the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), it is imperative that navigational officers engaged in international voyages have a thorough understanding of Maritime English including the use of Standard Marine Communication Phrases (SMCP). This study measured students' proficiency in Maritime English using a learning and testing platform that includes voice recognition, translation, and word entry tasks to evaluate the resulting improvement in Maritime English exam scores. Furthermore, the study aimed to investigate the level of platform use needed for cadets to qualify as junior navigators. The experiment began by examining the correlation between students' overall English skills and their proficiency in SMCP through an initial test, followed by the evaluation of improvements in their scores and changes in exam duration during the mid-term and final exams. The initial test revealed a significant dif erence in Maritime English test scores among groups based on individual factors, such as TOEIC scores and self-assessment of English ability, and both the mid-term and final tests confirmed substantial score improvements for the group using the platform. This study confirmed the efficacy of a learning platform that could be extensively applied in maritime education and potentially expanded beyond the scope of Maritime English education in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.218-229
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• 2015

The proficiency testing for the residue laboratories of pesticide registration was conducted in order to improve the reliability and the ability for pesticide residue analysis. On November 2012 the testing was carried out using the soil collected and kept as the moistened state for five years, which was expected to very low residue levels of pesticides. The soil was fortified with azoxystrobin, imidacloprid and methabenzthiazuron in a manner similar to prepare soil samples for indoor soil degradation test, and then sub-samples were prepared for the distribution to participants. Some of them were randomly selected for confirm of homogeneity and to ensure the stability of samples at room temperature. Samples were consisted of two soils treated as different levels, one of which was used to the assessment and another used to confirm. In addition, provided three standard solutions, respectively concentration of 10 mg/L, and untreated soil. Forty eight institutions submitted results. The medians of results were used as the assigned values for pesticide residues. Fitness for purpose standard deviation of proficiency test was calculated by applying 20% RSD as the coefficient of variation allowed in the soil residue test. Z-score was applied for evaluation of individual pesticides, and the average of the absolute value of the Z-score for the overall assessment of pesticides. Laboratories evaluated the absolute value of the Z-score less than 2 to fit the case of azoxystrobin were 48, imidacloprid and methabenzthiazuron 46.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.94-106
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• 2013

The proficiency testing for the residue laboratories of pesticide registration was conducted in order to improve the reliability and the ability for pesticide residue analysis. On October 2011 the testing was carried out using the soil collected and kept as the moistened state for five years, which is expected to very low residue levels of pesticides. The soil was fortified with chlorpyrifos, metolachlor and procymidone in a manner similar to prepare soil sample for indoor soil degradation test, and then sub-samples were prepared for the distribution to participants. Some of them were randomly selected for confirm of homogeneity and to ensure the stability of samples at room temperature. Samples were consisted of two soil treated as different levels, one of which was used to the assesment and another used to confirm. In addition, provide three standard solutions, respectively concentration of 10 mg/L, and untreated soil. Forty seven institutions submitted results. The medians of results were used as the assigned values for pesticide residues. Fitness for purpose standard deviation of proficiency test was calculated by applying 20% RSD as the coefficient of variation allowed in the soil residue test. Z-score was applied for evaluation of individual pesticides, and the average of the absolute value of the Z-score for the overall assessment of pesticides. Laboratories evaluated the absolute value of the Z-score less than 2 to fit the case of chlorpyrifos and procymidone were 44, metolachlor 40.