• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.689-706
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• 2002

This paper makes some contributions on optimal environmental taxes in the generalized utilitarian social welfare function. It is not to suggest as to appropriate environmental tax rates but to contribute the direction of environmental tax policy. The tax rates depend on parameters of individual utility function (CES utility function) and social welfare function and income tax rate. The major findings are that, as the elasticity of substitution between labor and leisure and the concavity of social welfare function increase, both the optimal tax rates and the government demogrants rise. And, as the parameter of environmental pollution in the individual utility function increases, the optimal tax rates also increase. For the future study, this model involves the income tax and the capital tax as endogenous variables and the wage changes due to international trade.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.5.1-5.14
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• 2023

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are chemicals widely used in various products in everyday life. Due to its unique strong binding force, the half-life of PFAS is very long, so bioaccumulation and toxicity to the human body are long-standing concerns. In particular, effects on kidney function have recently emerged and there are no studies on the effect of PFAS on kidney function through epidemiological investigations in Korea. From 2018 to 2020, the Korean National Environmental Health Survey (KoNEHS) cycle 4, conducted an epidemiological investigation on the blood concentration of PFAS for the first time in Korea. Based on this data, the relationship between PFAS blood concentration and kidney function was analyzed for adolescents. Methods: We investigated 5 types of PFAS and their total blood concentration in 811 middle and high school students, living in Korea and included in KoNEHS cycle 4, and tried to find changes in kidney function in relation to PFAS concentration. After dividing the concentration of each of the 5 PFAS and the total concentration into quartiles, multivariable linear regression was performed to assess the correlation with kidney function. The bedside Schwartz equation was used as an indicator of kidney function. Results: As a result of multivariable linear regression, when observing a change in kidney function according to the increase in the concentration of each of the 5 PFAS and their total, a significant decrease in kidney function was confirmed in some or all quartiles. Conclusions: In this cross-sectional study of Korean adolescents based on KoNEHS data, a negative correlation between serum PFAS concentration and kidney function was found. A well-designed longitudinal study and continuous follow-up are necessary.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.327-337
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• 2004

The education effect of environmental impact cognitive instruction on high school students was investigated. Environmental values of students could be classified into egocentric, social-altruistic and biospheric values like those of Schultz’s three kinds of categories. The value distribution of students consists 44.7% of egocentric and biospheric value groups and 12.5% of social-altruistic value group, respectively. The environmental function such as knowledge and skill did not show remarkable differences between value groups. The environmental value only affected the attitude function. The biospheric value group had the higher attitude function than other value groups. The environmental impact cognitive instruction enhanced the environmental functions irrespective of the value group or instruction type. However, significant variables were different according to environmental functions. Environmental functions such as knowledge and skill were influenced by the instruction itself. The attitude function was dependent on instruction itself, value type and instruction type. The optimum application of the environmental impact cognitive instruction can be efficiently achieved through class division into egocentric value group and biospheric value group. Alternatively, the proper combination of instruction methods focused biospheric and egocentric impacts in a class can be recommended.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.33-44
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• 2003

The possibility that liver and kidney function is adversely affected by current levels of environmental exposure to cadmium (Cd) as investigated in adult men and women in the general population in Seoul. From February to August in 2001, blood and morning spot urine samples were collected from 136 not occupationally exposed group (age range 20∼75 years) at 4 survey sites throughout seoul. Liver and kidney function parameters in serum and urine were examined by conventional methods. The questionnaire included factors, i.e. sex, age, smoking, alcohol, diet habit etc. The geometric mean values for Cd in blood (Cd-B) were 1.43 $\mu\textrm{g}$/1, It seemed prudent to conclude that liver and kidney function as not disturbed by the current environmental exposure to Cd in study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.165-176
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• 2012

The objective of this study is to set urban ecosystem assessment indicators, assess the status of the urban ecosystems in 31 cities & counties in the capital region and based on which, to examine an improvement plan to resolve problems and raise quality and quantity of urban ecosystems. The study showed that the ecological base of 31 cities & counties was 48% on average, which indicates that their ecological property is the middle class. Their natural-ecological function was 63% and environmental-control function was 25%, showing that environment-control function was poor. Therefore, going forward, urban ecological base should be further improved. When securing an ecological base, creation techniques should be able to further enhance environmental-control function along with natural-ecological function. Also, additional effort should be made to conserve areas with high ecological value as much as possible and increase vegetation vitality by replacing tree species.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.289-306
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• 2010

A gradient-based evolutionary optimization methodology is presented for finding the optimal design of viscous dampers to minimize an objective function defined for a linear multi-storey structure. The maximum value along height of the transfer function amplitudes for the interstorey drifts is taken as the objective function. Since the ground motion includes various uncertainties, the optimal damper placement may be different depending on the ground motion used for design. Furthermore, the transfer function treated as the objective function depends on the properties of structural parameters and added dampers. This implies that a more robust damper design is desired. A reliable and robust damping design system against any unpredictable ground motions can be provided by minimizing the maximum transfer function. Such design system is proposed in this paper.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.86-87
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• 2004

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.44-52
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• 2009

It is known that individual factors as cognitive, perception, emotion, and motivation may greatly influence on recovery from neurologic region. This study was to investigate the effects of environmental reinforcement through motivation to perform the tasks voluntarily on motor and cognition function in rats with focal ischemic brain injury. Focal ischemic brain injury was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats (15 rats, $250{\pm}50$ g) through middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo). And then, experiment groups were randomly divided into three groups; The control group: MCAo induction ($n_1$=5), the environmental reinforcement (ER) group: the application for ER after MCAo induction ($n_2$=5), the environmental reinforcement through motivation (ERM) group: the application for ERM after MCAo induction ($n_3$=5). The climbing test (CT) and the modified limb placing tests (MLPTs) to measure the motor function and the Morris water maze acquisition test (MWMAT) and the Morris water maze retention test (MWMRT) to measure the cognitive function were performed. For the CT, the ERM group was significantly larger than the ER group. For the MLPTs, the ERM group was significantly decreased compared to other groups. For the MWMAT, the time to find the circular platform in the ERM group significantly decreased compared to other groups. For the MWMRT, the time to dwell on the quadrant circular platform in the ERM group was significantly increased compared to other groups. These results suggested that the ERM could improve the motor and cognitive functions in the rats with focal ischemic brain injury.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2006

We have established three immortal bovine muscular epithelial (BME) cell lines, one spontaneously immortalized (BMES), the second SV40LT-mediated (BMEV) and the third hTERT-mediated (BMET). The morphology of the three immortal cell lines was similar to that of early passage primary BME cells. Each of the immortal cell lines made cytokeratin, a typical epithelial marker. BMET grew faster than the other immortal lines and the BME cells, in 10% FBS-DMEM medium, whereas neither the primary cells nor the three immortal cell lines grew in 0.5% FBS-DMEM. The primary BME cells and the immortal cell lines, with the exception of BMES, made increasing amounts of p53 protein when treated with doxorubicin, a DNA damaging agent. On the other hand, almost half of the cells in populations of the three immortal cell lines may lack $p16^{INK4a}$ regulatory function, compared to primary BME cells that were growth arrested by enforced expression of $p16^{INK4a}$. In soft-agar assays, the primary cells and immortal cell lines proved to be less transformed in phenotype than HeLa cells. The three immortal epithelial-type cell lines reported here are the first cell lines established from muscle tissue of bovine or other species.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.37-51
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• 1998

This study was carried out to lead the scientific management of the urban forest by estimating the forest environment. Forest environmental information was constructed using IDRISI system based on survey data, soil, plant, and digital elevation data. Forest environmental information was consisted of soil depth, soil organic content, soil hardness and parent rock as a soil environmental factor, and forest community, tree age, crown density as a plant environmental factor. Plant activity and topographic environment also were analyzed by using remote sensing data and digital elevation data. Environmental function of urban forest was estimated based on results of soil conservation and forest productivity. 70% of urban forest is located in elevation of lower than 200m and 55% of forest area have the slope of lower than 15 degree. Analyzed soil conservation status and forest productivity were almost the same as the soil chemical properties of collected soil sample and the vegetation index estimated using remote sensing data, respectively. Thus, the constructed forest environmental information could be useful to give some ideas for management of urban forest ecosystem and establishment of environmental conservation planning, including forests, in Taejon. The best forest environmental function was appeared at the natural ecology preservation zone. Current natural parks and urban parks were appeared to establish the environmental conservation plan for further development. The worst forest environmental function was appeared at the forest near to the industrial area and an overall and systematic plan was required for the soil management and high forest productivity because these forest was developing a severe soil acidification and having a low forest productivity.