• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.5
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• pp.548-557
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• 2009

For centuries, forests have been a key component of rural livelihood. They are important both socially and economically in Nepal. Firewood and fodder are the basic forest products that are extracted daily or weekly basis in most of the rural areas in Nepal. In this study, a field survey of 100 households was conducted to examine the degree of forest dependency and forest resource availability, households' livelihood strategy and their relationship with forest dependency in Chitwan, Nepal. A household' response indexes were constructed, Gini coefficient, Head Count Poverty Index (HCI) and Poverty Gap Index (PGI) were calculated and one way ANOVA test was also performed for data analysis. Data revealed that 82/81% of all households were constantly used forest for firewood and fodder collection respectively while 42% of households were used forest or forest fringe for grazing. The Forest Product Availability Indexes (FPAI) showed a sharp decline of forest resources from 0.781 to 0.308 for a 20-yr time horizon while timber wood was noticeably lowered than the other products. Yet, about 33% of households were below the poverty threshold line with 0.0945 PGI. Income distribution among the household showed a lower Gini coefficient 0.25 than 0.37 of landholdings size. However, mean income was significantly varies with F-statistics=246.348 at P=0.05 between income groups (rich, medium and poor). The extraction of firewood, fodder and other forest products were significantly different between the income group with F-statistics=16.480, 19.930, 29.956 at P=0.05 respectively. Similarly, landholdings size and education were also significantly different between the income groups with F-statistics=4.333, 5.981 at P=0.05 respectively. These findings suggested that income status of households was the major indicator of forest dependency while poor and medium groups were highly dependent on the forests for firewood, fodder and other products. Forest dependency still remains high and the availability of forest products that can be extracted from the remaining forestlands is decreasing. The high dependency of households on forest coupled with other socioeconomic attributes like education, poverty, small landholders and so on were possibly caused the forest degradation in Chitwan.Therefore, policy must be directed towards the poor livelihood supporting agenda that may enhance the financial conditions of rural households while it could reduce the degree of forest dependency inspired with other income generating activities in due course.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.762-771
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• 2017

Predicting the amount and distribution of moisture content within wood allows calculating the various mechanical dynamics of the wood as well as determining the drying time. For boxed-heart wood with a large cross-section, since it is difficult to measure the moisture content of the interior, it is necessary to predict the moisture content distribution. This study predicted the moisture movement in boxed-heart red pine timber, during high temperature drying, by using the three-dimensional finite difference method for the efficient drying process. During drying for 72 h, the predicted and actual moisture content of the tested wood tended to decrease at a similar rate. In contrast, the actual moisture content at 196 and 240 h was lower than predicted because surface checking of the wood occurred from 72 h and excessive water emission was unexpectedly occurred from the checked and splitted surface.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.89 no.3
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• pp.368-377
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• 2000

This study was conducted to examine the recent developments in timber certification schemes at global level such as FSC certification and ISO 14001 system and to analyze their potential impacts on the Korean forest products trade. Data and information on standards and procedure of timber certification and certified forest lands were collected from relevant papers, statistics and reports published by regional and international organizations. In order to analyze the impacts on the Korean forest products trade, questionnaire survey to the affected parties was conducted on acknowledge of key words relating to environment and trade and on the additional amount of willingness to pay for a labeled timber from environmentally sound and sustainably managed forests. Quantities of certified timbers supplied would continue to increase due to lots of timber certification schemes developed and implemented at national, regional and global levels and growing interests in certification from many countries. Demand for certified timbers, however, is far from clear at this stage. The deciding factor would be consumer reaction to the certified products. In the short run, the timber certification would have a little impacts on forest products imports into Korean markets since domestic purchasers do not have much interests in environment related trade measures and their willingness to pay price premiums for certified timbers is not high. However, it could be expected that timber certification has negative impacts on exports of forest products, such as flooring and plywood, to developed European markets where timber certification is used as a trade barrier.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.371-383
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• 2021

Plant essential oils are used in products such as fragrances and cosmetics due to their individual aromatic characteristics. Currently, essential oils are not only used in cosmetics but also in pharmaceutical products with anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, insecticidal, anti-cancer, neuroprotective, psychophysiological, or anti-aging effects. Despite their pharmaceutical properties, some studies reported cytotoxic effects in high doses. Therefore, for pharmaceutical purposes, the margin of safety of essential oils needs to be examined. Herein, we evaluated the IC₅₀ of 10 essential oil from Korean native plants: Juniperus chinensis L. var. sargentii Henry, Citrus natsudaidai Hayata, Citrus reticulata Blanco, Citrus unshiu (Yu. Tanaka ex Swingle) Marcow, Artemisia capillaris Thunb, Aster glehnii F. Schmidt, Juniperus chinensis L, Zanthoxylum schinifolium Siebold & Zucc, Zanthoxylum piperitum (L.) D, and Cinnamomum loureirii. In addition, gene regulation of the cell-cycle gene and apoptosis marker CASP3 was examined at the IC₅₀ level. The purpose of this study was to describe the toxic concentrations of essential oils extracted from Korean native plants, thereby providing toxic concentration guidelines for inclusion in a toxicity database and in the application of plant essential oils in various fields.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.426-432
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• 2013

Fire resistance and impact sound insulation tests were performed for a floor assembly, of which stiffness was reinforced by shortening the span of floor joists by installing glulam beam additionally in the middle or one thirds of the original span, and which an additional ceiling component was installed apart from floor structure. By applying the isolated ceiling, timber framed floor showed 1 hour of fire resistance even in case that dead load was increased by considering cement mortar layer for radiant floor heating. Insulation performance against light and heavy impact sound was improved significantly by applying the sound absorbing layer of big mass and high elasticity in addition to the stiffness improvement and isolated ceiling.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.2 s.130
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• pp.1-7
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• 2005

Tree species of wooden structural members of the Beomeo Temple were identified based on light and scanning electron microscopic characters in the present study. Of 10 structural members, 9 softwoods and 1 hardwood were identified. Among softwood members, 7 belonged to hard pine of the Sylvestris section, and the remaining 2 to hard pine of other than the Sylvestris section and hemlock of the genus Tsuga, respectively. A single hardwood member was identified as white oak of the Prinus section under the subgenus Lepidobalanus.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.90 no.2
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• pp.217-226
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• 2001

This study estimated the impacts of the building permit area change on the forest products import quantities in Korea. The first objective of this dissertation is to analyze whether there is any causal relationship between change in the building permit area and changes in the import quantities of forest products in Korea. Assuming that there is any causal relationship, the second objective is to evaluate the dynamics of the impacts of the building permit area change on the forest products import quantities in Korea. The relationship between the building permit area and the import quantity was represented by bivariate vector autoregressive or vector error correction model. Whether there is any causal relationship between change in the building permit area and changes in the import quantities of forest products was analyzed by the causality test of Granger. And the dynamics of the impacts of the building permit area change on the forest products import quantities were evaluated by variance decomposition analysis and impulse response analysis. The import quantity of forest products can be explained by the lagged building permit area variables and the lagged import quantity variables in Korea. Change in the building permit area causes change in the high-density fiberboard import quantity in Korea. In the bivariate model of the high-density fiberboard import quantity, after six months, the building permit area change accounts for about ten percent of variation in the import quantity, and its own change accounts for about ninety percent of variation in the import quantity. On the other hand, the impact of a shock to the building permit area is significant for about six months on the import quantity of high-density fiberboard in Korea. That is, if the building permit area change indeed had an impact on the import quantity of high-density fiberboard in Korea, it was only of a short-term nature.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.90 no.5
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• pp.663-671
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• 2001

This study estimated the impacts of the interest rate change on the forest products import quantities in Korea. The first objective is to analyze whether there is any causal relationship between change in the interest rate and changes in the import quantities of forest products in Korea. And the second objective is to evaluate the dynamics of the impacts of the interest rate change on the forest products import quantities in Korea. The relationship between the interest rate and the import quantity was represented by bivariate vector autoregressive model. Whether there is any causal relationship between change in the interest rate and changes in the import quantities of forest products was analyzed by the causality test. And the dynamics of the impacts of the interest rate change on the forest products import quantities were evaluated by variance decomposition analysis and impulse response analysis. The import quantity of forest products can be explained by the lagged interest rate variables and the lagged import quantity variables in Korea. Change in the interest rate causes change in the plywood import quantity in Korea. In the bivariate model of the plywood import quantity, after three months, the interest rate change accounts for about twenty percent of variation in the import quantity, and its own change accounts for about eighty percent of variation in the import quantity. On the other hand, the impact of a shock to the interest rate is significant for about six months on the import quantity of plywood in Korea. That is, if the interest rate change had an impact on the import quantity of plywood in Korea, it was only of a short-term nature.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.42-51
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• 2013

In this study, oil palm biomass such as empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm kernel shell (PKS) was used as raw materials for making pellets. Hardwood sawdusts were also mixed with EFB and PKS for making pellets. For improving a bad forming behavior in a pelletizer, 1 to 3 per cent of corn starch based on oven-dried weight biomass was added. The starch contributed to the decrease of dust generation in addition to the improvement of forming capability during pellet forming. Heating values of every pellets made of EFB and PKS were higher than 4,300 kcal/kg for the first grade pellet, irrespective of addition of sawdusts. However, the pellets made of EFB and PKS had ash contents over 3 per cent, which made it impossible to be applied for home use. Instead, they could be applied for industrial use. For studying their combustion characteristics, the pellets from the mixtures of EFB, PKS and sawdusts were analyzed using thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA). From the TGA results, thermal decomposition of EFB and PKS occurred following three including endothermic reaction and dehydration, devolatilization of the major chemical components, and finally combustion of residual lignin and char.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.159-166
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• 2022

CO₂ emissions are the primary reason for global warming; hence, biological and chemical technologies for converting CO₂ into useful compounds are being actively studied. Biological methods using enzymes can convert CO₂ under mild conditions. Formate dehydrogenase (FDH) is a representative CO₂ conversion enzyme. Its function was revealed after isolation from bacteria, yeast, and plants. In this study, we evaluated the CO₂ conversion potential of FDH isolated from wood-rotting fungi. After isolating the FDH gene (TvFDH) from Trametes versicolor, we cloned the full-length FDH from T. versicolor and expressed it in a cell-free expression system. The gene encoding TvFDH was identified as 1,200 bp open reading frame (ORF) and the expected molecular weight of the protein was approximately 42 kDa. Overexpression of the recombinant crude protein including TvFDH was confirmed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Enzyme activities and metabolite analyses confirmed the efficiency of TvFDH for CO₂ reduction.