• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.357-366
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• 1993

Background: Lung clearance of inhaled $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA reflects alveolar epithelial permeability and it had been reported as more sensitive than conventional pulmonary function tests in detecting lung epithelial damage. However, measuring lung clearance of inhaled $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA by gamma camera may not always reflect alveolar epithelial permeability exactly because it is influenced by mucociliary clearance depending on the site of particle deposition. Moreover, this method takes much time and patient's effort because he has to sit or lie still in front of the camera for a prolonged period. Most of the absorbed DTPA is excreted in urine within 24 hours and the amount of excreted DTPA in urine during the first few hours after inhalation is influenced by absorption rate which is correlated with the alveolar-epithelial permeability suggesting that the urinary excretion, especially in first few hours, may be an alternate index for lung clearance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of ratio of excreted $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA in 2 hour and 24 hour urine as an index of alveolar-epithelial damage. Methods: Pulmonary function tests including diffusing capacity and lung clearance of $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA measured by gama camera ($T_{1/2}$) and 2hr/24hr urine excretion ratio (Ratio) of inhaled $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA in 8 normal subjects and 14 patients with diffuse interstitial lung disease were compared. Results: 1) In the normal control, there was significant negative correlation between the $T_{1/2}$ and the Ratio (r=-0.77, p<0.05). In patients with diffuse interstitial lung disease, there also was significant negative correlation between $T_{1/2}$ and Ratio(r=-0.63, p<0.05). 2) In diffuse interstitial lung disease patients, the $T_{1/2}$ was $38.65{\pm}11.63$ min which was significantly lower than that of normal control, $55.53{\pm}11.15$ min and the Ratio was $52.15{\pm}10.07%$ also signifantly higher than that of the normal control, $40.43{\pm}5.53%$ (p<0.05). 3) There was no significant correlations between $T_{1/2}$ or Ratio and diffusing capactiy of lung in both patients and controls (p>0.05). Conclusion: These results suggests that 2hr/24hr urine excretion ratio of inhaled $^{99m}Tc$-DTPA is a useful simple bedside test in assessing alveolar epithelial permeability and that it may be used as an additive follow-up test in patients with diffuse interstitial lung disease complementing conventional pulmonary function tests.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.878-887
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• 1995

Background: It is reported that frequency of pulmonary involvement in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis reaches 10 to 50% and pulmonary involvement is a principal cause of death. As immunology and radiology has developed, interest for the early diagnosis of pulmonary involvement is increasing. Method: Among the patients at Hanyang University Hospital from March, 1990 to July, 1995, we compared the 29 patients having pulmonary involvement with the 18 patients controls in clinical and chest high resolution computed tomography(HRCT) findings by immunological markers and findings of pulmonary function test. We sought useful markers for early diagnosis of pulmonary involvement with noninvasive investigations. Results: The ratio of males to females was 14 : 15 in the group of pulmonary involvement, and all of the 18 patients were females in the control group. Smoking history was 31%(9/29) in the former group and none in the latter group. Rheumatoid factor(RF) was positive in 95.5%(28/29) of the pulmonary involvement group and in 100%(18/18) of the control group(p=0.12). Antiperinuclear factor(APF) showed a significant difference: 86.9%(20/23, average value: 2.0) was positive in the pulmonary involvement group and 50%(8/16, average value: 1.1) in the control group(p=0.04). Antinuclear antibody(ANA) was positive in 60.7%(17/28) of the pulmonary involvement group and in 72.2%(13/18) of the control group(p=0.33). Cryoglobulin also showed a significant difference: 72%(18/25) in the pulmonary involvement group was positive and 56.2%(9/16) in the control group was positive(p=0.02). Bony erosion was positive in 61.5%(16/26) of the pulmonary involvement group and in 77.7%(14/18) of the control group(p=0.8). On the pulmonary function test, the average value of alveolar volume corrected diffusion capacity and residual volume in the pulmonary involvement group and in the control group were 1.07mmol/rnin/KPa(predicted value: 64.2%), 1.32L(predicted value: 70%) and 1.44mmol/min/KPa, 3.75L(predicted value: 86.6%), respectively(p=0.003, p=0.004), showing a significant difference. Conclusion: APF or cryoglobulin on the serological test, the measurement of residual volume and alveolar volume corrected diffusion capacity may be used as effective markers in the diagnosis of pulmonary involvement of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.69-76
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• 2013

The incidence of globally infectious and pathogenic diseases such as H1N1 (swine flu) and Avian Influenza (AI) has recently increased. An infectious disease is a pathogen-caused disease, which can be passed from the infected person to the susceptible host. Pathogens of infectious diseases, which are bacillus, spirochaeta, rickettsia, virus, fungus, and parasite, etc., cause various symptoms such as respiratory disease, gastrointestinal disease, liver disease, and acute febrile illness. They can be spread through various means such as food, water, insect, breathing and contact with other persons. Recently, most countries around the world use a mathematical model to predict and prepare for the spread of infectious diseases. In a modern society, however, infectious diseases are spread in a fast and complicated manner because of rapid development of transportation (both ground and underground). Therefore, we do not have enough time to predict the fast spreading and complicated infectious diseases. Therefore, new system, which can prevent the spread of infectious diseases by predicting its pathway, needs to be developed. In this study, to solve this kind of problem, an integrated monitoring system, which can track and predict the pathway of infectious diseases for its realtime monitoring and control, is developed. This system is implemented based on the conventional mathematical model called by 'Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) Model.' The proposed model has characteristics that both inter- and intra-city modes of transportation to express interpersonal contact (i.e., migration flow) are considered. They include the means of transportation such as bus, train, car and airplane. Also, modified real data according to the geographical characteristics of Korea are employed to reflect realistic circumstances of possible disease spreading in Korea. We can predict where and when vaccination needs to be performed by parameters control in this model. The simulation includes several assumptions and scenarios. Using the data of Statistics Korea, five major cities, which are assumed to have the most population migration have been chosen; Seoul, Incheon (Incheon International Airport), Gangneung, Pyeongchang and Wonju. It was assumed that the cities were connected in one network, and infectious disease was spread through denoted transportation methods only. In terms of traffic volume, daily traffic volume was obtained from Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS). In addition, the population of each city was acquired from Statistics Korea. Moreover, data on H1N1 (swine flu) were provided by Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and air transport statistics were obtained from Aeronautical Information Portal System. As mentioned above, daily traffic volume, population statistics, H1N1 (swine flu) and air transport statistics data have been adjusted in consideration of the current conditions in Korea and several realistic assumptions and scenarios. Three scenarios (occurrence of H1N1 in Incheon International Airport, not-vaccinated in all cities and vaccinated in Seoul and Pyeongchang respectively) were simulated, and the number of days taken for the number of the infected to reach its peak and proportion of Infectious (I) were compared. According to the simulation, the number of days was the fastest in Seoul with 37 days and the slowest in Pyeongchang with 43 days when vaccination was not considered. In terms of the proportion of I, Seoul was the highest while Pyeongchang was the lowest. When they were vaccinated in Seoul, the number of days taken for the number of the infected to reach at its peak was the fastest in Seoul with 37 days and the slowest in Pyeongchang with 43 days. In terms of the proportion of I, Gangneung was the highest while Pyeongchang was the lowest. When they were vaccinated in Pyeongchang, the number of days was the fastest in Seoul with 37 days and the slowest in Pyeongchang with 43 days. In terms of the proportion of I, Gangneung was the highest while Pyeongchang was the lowest. Based on the results above, it has been confirmed that H1N1, upon the first occurrence, is proportionally spread by the traffic volume in each city. Because the infection pathway is different by the traffic volume in each city, therefore, it is possible to come up with a preventive measurement against infectious disease by tracking and predicting its pathway through the analysis of traffic volume.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.474-480
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• 2016

In this study, formation background of biodiversity and its changes in the process of geologic history, and effects of climate change on biodiversity and human were discussed and the alternatives to reduce the effects of climate change were suggested. Biodiversity is 'the variety of life' and refers collectively to variation at all levels of biological organization. That is, biodiversity encompasses the genes, species and ecosystems and their interactions. It provides the basis for ecosystems and the services on which all people fundamentally depend. Nevertheless, today, biodiversity is increasingly threatened, usually as the result of human activity. Diverse organisms on earth, which are estimated as 10 to 30 million species, are the result of adaptation and evolution to various environments through long history of four billion years since the birth of life. Countlessly many organisms composing biodiversity have specific characteristics, respectively and are interrelated with each other through diverse relationship. Environment of the earth, on which we live, has also created for long years through extensive relationship and interaction of those organisms. We mankind also live through interrelationship with the other organisms as an organism. The man cannot lives without the other organisms around him. Even though so, human beings accelerate mean extinction rate about 1,000 times compared with that of the past for recent several years. We have to conserve biodiversity for plentiful life of our future generation and are responsible for sustainable use of biodiversity. Korea has achieved faster economic growth than any other countries in the world. On the other hand, Korea had hold originally rich biodiversity as it is not only a peninsula country stretched lengthily from north to south but also three sides are surrounded by sea. But they disappeared increasingly in the process of fast economic growth. Korean people have created specific Korean culture by coexistence with nature through a long history of agriculture, forestry, and fishery. But in recent years, the relationship between Korean and nature became far in the processes of introduction of western culture and development of science and technology and specific natural feature born from harmonious combination between nature and culture disappears more and more. Population of Korea is expected to be reduced as contrasted with world population growing continuously. At this time, we need to restore biodiversity damaged in the processes of rapid population growth and economic development in concert with recovery of natural ecosystem due to population decrease. There were grand extinction events of five times since the birth of life on the earth. Modern extinction is very rapid and human activity is major causal factor. In these respects, it is distinguished from the past one. Climate change is real. Biodiversity is very vulnerable to climate change. If organisms did not find a survival method such as 'adaptation through evolution', 'movement to the other place where they can exist', and so on in the changed environment, they would extinct. In this respect, if climate change is continued, biodiversity should be damaged greatly. Furthermore, climate change would also influence on human life and socio-economic environment through change of biodiversity. Therefore, we need to grasp the effects that climate change influences on biodiversity more actively and further to prepare the alternatives to reduce the damage. Change of phenology, change of distribution range including vegetation shift, disharmony of interaction among organisms, reduction of reproduction and growth rates due to odd food chain, degradation of coral reef, and so on are emerged as the effects of climate change on biodiversity. Expansion of infectious disease, reduction of food production, change of cultivation range of crops, change of fishing ground and time, and so on appear as the effects on human. To solve climate change problem, first of all, we need to mitigate climate change by reducing discharge of warming gases. But even though we now stop discharge of warming gases, climate change is expected to be continued for the time being. In this respect, preparing adaptive strategy of climate change can be more realistic. Continuous monitoring to observe the effects of climate change on biodiversity and establishment of monitoring system have to be preceded over all others. Insurance of diverse ecological spaces where biodiversity can establish, assisted migration, and establishment of horizontal network from south to north and vertical one from lowland to upland ecological networks could be recommended as the alternatives to aid adaptation of biodiversity to the changing climate.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.41-53
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• 2012

During rainfall period, to identify the characteristics of the infiltration of moisture, electrical resistivity monitering survey was carried out to weathered zone. Four regions of geophysical exploration areas with different rock types, four regions were selected. An area consists of mafic granite and three areas are composed of sedimentary rocks (Sandstone, Shale, Unconsolidated Mudstone). Survey was conducted from June (rainy season) to November (dry season), and during the period the change in resistivity was observed. According to the result of monitoring exploration on Geumjeong and Jinju areas, for the estimation of the standard rainfall, it is necessary to estimate the effects of the antecedent rainfall during the rainy season based on the overall rainfall from June till October and also necessary to consider this for the estimation of the half period. Also, the vertical distribution of the low resistivity anomaly zone does not show that the infiltration of moisture does not occur uniformly from the surface of the ground to the lower ground but shows that it occurs along the relaxed gap of the crack or soil stratum of the weathering zone. In Pohang area, the type of moisture infiltration is different from that of the granite or sedimentary rock. Since, after the rainfall, the rate of infiltration to the lower ground is high and the period of cultivation to the lower bedrock aquifer is short, it has similar effect to that of the antecedent rainfall applied for the estimation of the standard rainfall being presently used. In Danyang, due to the degree of water content of the ground, the duration period of the low resistivity anomaly zone observed in the lower ground of the place where clastic sedimentary rock is distributed is similar to that in Pohang area. The degree of lateral water diffusion at the time of localized heavy rain is the same as that of the sedimentary rock in Jinju. According to the above analysis results, in Danyang area, the period when the antecedent rainfall has its influence is estimated as three weeks or so.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.431-439
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• 2014

The purposes of this research were to investigate the enrichment of metal-reducing bacteria from KURT groundwater and the identification of the microbial diversity by 16S rRNA as well as to examine microbial Fe(III)/Mn(IV) reduction and to analyze morphological features of interactions between microbes and precipitates and their mineralogical composition. To cultivate metal-reducing bacteria from groundwater sampled at the KURT in S. Korea, different electron donors such as glucose, acetate, lactate, formate, pyruvate and Fe(III)-citrate as an electron accepter were added into growth media. The enriched culture was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis for the diversity of microbial species. The effect of electron donors (i.e., glucose, acetate, lactate, formate, pyruvate) and electron acceptors (i.e., akaganeite, manganese oxide) on microbial iron/manganese reduction and biomineralization were examined using the 1st enriched culture, respectively. SEM, EDX, and XRD analyses were used to determine morphological features, chemical composition of microbes and mineralogical characteristics of the iron and manganese minerals. Based on 16S rRNA gene analysis, the four species, Fusibacter, Desulfuromonas, Actinobacteria, Pseudomonas sp., from KURT groundwater were identified as anaerobic metal reducers and these microbes precipitated metals outside of cells in common. XRD and EDX analyses showed that Fe(III)-containing mineral, akaganeite (${\beta}$-FeOOH), reduced into Fe(II)/Fe(III)-containing magnetite ($Fe_3O_4$) and Mn(IV)-containing manganese oxide (${\lambda}-MnO_2$) into Mn(II)-containing rhodochrosite ($MnCO_3$) by the microbes. These results implicate that microbial metabolism and respiratory activities under anaerobic condition result in reduction and biomineralization of iron and manganese minerals. Therefore, the microbes cultivated from groundwater in KURT might play a major role to reduce various metals from highly toxic, mobile to less toxic, immobile.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.127-141
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• 2017

Advances in Internet technologies and the proliferation of mobile devices enabled consumers to approach a wide range of goods and services, while causing an adverse effect that they have hard time reaching their congenial items even if they devote much time to searching for them. Accordingly, businesses are using the recommender systems to provide tools for consumers to find the desired items more easily. Association Rule Mining (ARM) technology is advantageous to recommender systems in that ARM provides intuitive form of a rule with interestingness measures (support, confidence, and lift) describing the relationship between items. Given an item, its relevant items can be distinguished with the help of the measures that show the strength of relationship between items. Based on the strength, the most pertinent items can be chosen among other items and exposed to a given item's web page. However, the diversity of the measures may confuse which items are more recommendable. Given two rules, for example, one rule's support and confidence may not be concurrently superior to the other rule's. Such discrepancy of the measures in distinguishing one rule's superiority from other rules may cause difficulty in selecting proper items for recommendation. In addition, in an online environment where a web page or mobile screen can provide a limited number of recommendations that attract consumer interest, the prudent selection of items to be included in the list of recommendations is very important. The exposure of items of little interest may lead consumers to ignore the recommendations. Then, such consumers will possibly not pay attention to other forms of marketing activities. Therefore, the measures should be aligned with the probability of consumer's acceptance of recommendations. For this reason, this study proposes a model-based approach to combine those measures into one unified measure that can consistently determine the ranking of recommended items. A regression model was designed to describe how well the measures (independent variables; i.e., support, confidence, and lift) explain consumer's acceptance of recommendations (dependent variables, hit rate of recommended items). The model is intuitive to understand and easy to use in that the equation consists of the commonly used measures for ARM and can be used in the estimation of hit rates. The experiment using transaction data from one of the Korea's largest online shopping malls was conducted to show that the proposed model can improve the hit rates of recommendations. From the top of the list to 13th place, recommended items in the higher rakings from the proposed model show the higher hit rates than those from the competitive model's. The result shows that the proposed model's performance is superior to the competitive model's in online recommendation environment. In a web page, consumers are provided around ten recommendations with which the proposed model outperforms. Moreover, a mobile device cannot expose many items simultaneously due to its limited screen size. Therefore, the result shows that the newly devised recommendation technique is suitable for the mobile recommender systems. While this study has been conducted to cover the cross-selling in online shopping malls that handle merchandise, the proposed method can be expected to be applied in various situations under which association rules apply. For example, this model can be applied to medical diagnostic systems that predict candidate diseases from a patient's symptoms. To increase the efficiency of the model, additional variables will need to be considered for the elaboration of the model in future studies. For example, price can be a good candidate for an explanatory variable because it has a major impact on consumer purchase decisions. If the prices of recommended items are much higher than the items in which a consumer is interested, the consumer may hesitate to accept the recommendations.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.61-72
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• 2004

The soil samples were collected from the paddy field near the mine tailing dumps in the abandoned Duckum mine in Korea. In the laboratory, the soil solution was extracted from the soil using centrifuge, and analysed for the chemical composition. Physical and chemical soil properties were also analysed. Kaolinite is the main clay minerals in the paddy soil and the CEC value is therefore relatively low. Nearly all soil samples show enrichment in their trace elemental concentrations(Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn) compared with natural background level. Some soil samples exceed the soil remediation intervention values for Cd, Pb and Zn and target value for Cu, when compared with Dutch standard, whereas As, Ni and Cr are in normal range. Lead concentrations in some samples near the mine tailing dumps also exceed the standard for remediation act for agricultural area set by Korean soil conservation law. The trace elemental concentrations are higher in the paddy soil nearer the mine tailing dumps and lower for the samples from distance. Similar trend with distance is found for the soil solution chemistry but the decrease with distance from the mine tailing dumps are sharper than the changes in soil chemistry. Cadmium, Cu and Pb concentrations in the soil solution are very low, ranging from a tenth and hundredths to a maximum of several mg/l, whereas their concentrations in soils are highly enriched for natural background. Most of the trace elements are thought to be either removed by reduced iron sulphides or iron oxides, depending on the redox changes. Geochemical equilibrium modelling indicate the presence of solubility controlling solid phases for Cd and Pb, whereas Zn and Cu might have been controlled by adsorption/desorption processes. Although pollutants migration through solution phase are thought to be limited by adsorption onto various Fe, Mn solid phases, the pollutants exist as easily releasable fractions such as exchangeable site. In this case, the paddy soil would act as pollutant pool, which will supply to plants in situ. whenever the geochemical conditions favour.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.49-61
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• 1994

As the groundwater flows along the fractures of crystalline rocks, it will be in contact with the fracture walls mostly coated by secondary minerals which are quite different form those of host rocks. The presence of fracture-filling minerals in crystalline rocks is important on the view point of radioactive waste disposal because of their great surface reactivity. The Surichi drill hole of 200 m in depth in the Yugu area composed mainly of Precambrian gneiss was selected to study the formation process of clay minerals on the fracture wall of gneiss, and their relation with present groundwater. The water-rock interaction in fractures resulted in the formation of gibbsite and clay minerals. They are formed by two different processes : (1) Incongruent dissolution of feldspar by groundwater diffused from a fracture path into rock matrix produced smectite and illite in situ, (2) on the wall of fracture, gibbsite, kaolinite, smectite and illite are formed by precipitation of dissolved species in groundwater. They show the paragenetic sequence such as gibbsite${\leftrightarrow}$kaolinite${\leftrightarrow}$smectite or illite. The paragenetic sequence of fracture-filling minerals was controlled by increase of pH of groundwater, decrease of fracture permeability by precipitation of fillings, and immobility of alkali or alkaline earths in groundwater. The groundwater from the Surichi borehole is a $Na-HCO_{3}$ type with pH range of 8.6-9.2. The sodium and bicarbonate in groundwater would be supplied by the dissolution of albite and calcite, respectively. The saturation index of groundwater and surface water calculated by WATEQ4F indicates that gibbsite and kaolinite are under precipitation to equilibrium state, and that smectite and illite are under equilibrium to redissolution environment. The stability relation of clay minerals in the $Na_{2}O-Al_{2}O_{3}-SiO_{2}-H_{2}O$ system shows that kaolinite is stable for all waters.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.613-621
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• 2007

Due to the increasing significance of durability, much researches on carbonation, one of the major deterioration phenomena are carried out. However, conventional researches based on fully hardened concrete are focused on prediction of carbonation depth and they sometimes cause errors. In contrast with steel members, behaviors in early-aged concrete such as porosity and hydrates (calcium hydroxide) are very important and may be changed under carbonation process. Because transportation of deteriorating factors is mainly dependent on porosity and saturation, it is desirable to consider these changes in behaviors in early-aged concrete under carbonation for reasonable analysis of durability in long term exposure or combined deterioration. As for porosity, unless the decrease in $CO_2$ diffusion due to change in porosity is considered, the results from the prediction is overestimated. The carbonation depth and characteristics of pore water are mainly determined by amount of calcium hydroxide, and bound chloride content in carbonated concrete is also affected. So Analysis based on test for hydration and porosity is recently carried out for evaluation of carbonation characteristics. In this study, changes in porosity and hydrate $(Ca(OH)_2)$ under carbonation process are performed through the tests. Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP) for changed porosity, Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) for amount of $(Ca(OH)_2)$ are carried out respectively and analysis technique for porosity and hydrates under carbonation is developed utilizing modeling for behavior in early-aged concrete such as multi component hydration heat model (MCHHM) and micro pore structure formation model (MPSFM). The results from developed technique is in reasonable agreement with experimental data, respectively and they are evaluated to be used for analysis of chloride behavior in carbonated concrete.