• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.435-445
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• 2012

The aim of this study is to understand the characteristics of volatile oranic compounds (VOCs) and provide information about the present Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) at residential apartments. All samples were collected in 60-min interval using the tenax absorption trap between May, 2011 and February, 2012. And the effects of environmental factors such as temperature, humidity and construction characteristics were analyzed in relation to the measured concentrations. The results of this study showed that the mean concentration of VOCs was lower than the Ministry of the Environment's standards for maintenance of indoor air quality. The correlation analysis showed that ethylbenzene and xylene (r=0.916, p<0.01), toluene and ehtylbenzene (r=0.810, p<0.01), toluene and xylene (r=0.803, p<0.01) and toluene and styrene (r=0.588, p<0.01) were significant. The result of regression analysis was found that the influenece factors associated with the concentration of VOCs were the age and location of the apartment, remodeling, the temperature and the season.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.616-623
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• 2010

Recently, interests in indoor air quality (IAQ) have been increased; however, a number of researchers have mainly focused on anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (AVOC) emitted from building materials. Therefore, the properties of natural VOC (NVOC) and anthropogenic VOC (AVOC) emitted from wood-based panels was investigated in this work. VOCs emitted from these panels were sampled through Tenax TA/Cabotrap and analyzed by GC-MS and GC-FID. Comparisons were made concerning TVOC, NVOC, and composition ratios of NVOC. It was revealed that TVOC emission rates of midium density fiber (MDF) were the highest. Besides, it was found that emissions of NVOC from wood-based panels were much higher than those of anthropogenic AVOC except for plywood of Oceania timber. It was also observed that the composition ratio of NVOC emitted from plywood of Pinus radiata was the highest as 65% of TVOC. Major NVOC components were monoterpene compounds such as $\alpha$-pinene, $\beta$-pinene, d-limonene, camphene and $\alpha$-terpinene. It was concluded that the composition rates of VOCs emitted from building materials were clearly different according to the raw materials and manufacturing methods.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.E2
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• pp.66-73
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• 2007

The introduction of tracer gas techniques to ventilation studies in indoor environments provides valuable information that used to be unattainable from conventional testing environments. Data acquisition systems (DASs) containing analogue-to-digital (A/D) converters are usually used to function the key role that records signals to storage in digital format. In the testing process, there exist a number of components in the measuring equipment which may produce system-based inference to the monitored results. These unwanted fluctuations may cause significant error in data analysis, especially when non-linear algorithms are involved. In this study, a pre-processor is developed and applied to separate the unwanted fluctuations (noise or interference) in raw measurements and to reduce the uncertainty in the measurement. Moving average, notch filter, FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filters, and IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) filters are designed and applied to collect the desired information from the raw measurements. Tracer gas concentrations are monitored during leakage and ventilation tests in the model test room. The signal analysis functions are introduced to carry out the digital signal processing (DSP) work. Overall the FIR filters process the $CO_2$ measurement properly for ventilation rate and mean age of air calculations. It is found that, the Kaiser filter was the most applicable digital filter for pre-processing the tracer gas measurements. Although the IIR filters help to reduce the random noise in the data, they cause considerable changes to the filtered data, which is not desirable.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.28-38
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• 2009

In this study, a remote air quality monitoring system for underground spaces was developed by using NDIR-based CO$_2$ sensor. And the remote monitoring system based on wireless sensor networks was installed practically on the subway station platform. More than 6.5 million citizens commutate everyday by the Seoul subway transportation that is the most typical public transportation. They concern about air quality with increasing interest on public health or many workers in subway stations or underground shopping centers. Recently, the Korean Ministry of Environment has operated the air quality monitoring system in some subway stations for testing phase. However, it showed many defects which are large-scale, high-cost and maintenance of precision sensors imported from abroad. Therefore this research includes the reliability test and a theoretical study about the inexpensive commercialized CO$_2$ sensor for reliable measurement of air quality which changes rapidly by the surrounding environments. And then we develop the wireless sensor nodes and the gateway applied for remote air quality monitoring. In addition, web server program was realized to manage air quality in the subway platform. This result will be valuable for a basic research for air quality management in underground spaces for future study.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1195-1201
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• 2008

Enhancing with non-metallic elemental nitrogen(N) is one of several methods that have been proposed to modify the electronic properties of bulk titanium dioxide($TiO_2$), in order to make $TiO_2$ effective under visible-light irradiation. Accordingly, current study evaluated the feasibility of applying visible-light-induced $TiO_2$ enhanced with N element to cleanse aromatic compounds, focusing on xylene isomers at indoor air quality(IAQ) levels. The N-enhanced $TiO_2$ was prepared by applying two popular processes, and they were coated by applying two well-known methods. For three o-, m-, and p-xylene, the two coating methods exhibited different photocatalytic oxidation(PCO) efficiencies. Similarly, the two N-doping processes showed different PCO efficiencies. For all three stream flow rates(SFRs), the degradation efficiencies were similar between o-xylene and m,p-xylene. The degradation efficiencies of all target compounds increased as the SFR decreased. The degradation efficiencies determined via a PCO system with N-enhanced visible-light induced $TiO_2$ was somewhat lower than that with ultraviolet(UV)-light induced unmodified $TiO_2$, which was reported by previous studies. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that PCO efficiencies increased up to 94% for o-xylene and 97% for the m,p-xylene under lower SFR(0.5 L $min^{-1}$). Consequently, it is suggested that with appropriate SFR conditions, the visible-light-assisted photocatalytic systems could also become important tools for improving IAQ.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.60-68
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• 2009

The most principal approach to improve indoor air quality(IAQ) of subway was to examine the fine particulate(PM-10) from the emission sources. Therefore, this study was carried on the investigation the fine particulate for comparison with the removal efficiency of PM-10 in divided the PSD(Platform Screen Door) and Non-PSD subway station from July, 2007 to May 2008. In the monitoring results, the range of PM-10 concentration of Non-PSD station was $44.6{\sim}116.5{\mu}g/m^3$ and the range of PM-10 concentration of PSD station was $23.9{\sim}81.1{\mu}g/m^3$. And then the range of PM-2.5 concentration of Non-PSD station was $17.4-56.6{\mu}g/m^3$, and then the range of PM-2.5 concentration of PSD station was $17.9{\sim}34.4{\mu}g/m^3$. In comparison with the results of the PSD and Non-PSD subway station, we found that the PM-10 removal efficiency of PSD was 30-40%. In conclusion, the PSD will be applied the effective facilities of decreasing PM-10 in subway station in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.215-222
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• 2012

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the influence of indoor air qualities of an office environment on dry eye syndrome for wearing contact lens and non-wearing contact lens. Methods: To study the effects of indoor air qualities on dry eye syndrome for seventy-one subjects, $CO_2$, temperature, humidity, TSP, PM10, HCHO were measured. Each subject was tested by a McMonnie's dry eye syndrome questionnaire, a Schirmer Tear Test-I (S.T.T-I), a Schirmer Tear Test-II with anesthetics (S.T.T-II), and Tear film break-up time (T.B.U.T) in the their offices. Results: There was significant relation between the indoor air quality and dry eye syndrome for wearing contact lens and non-wearing when TSP was over $200{\mu}g/m^3$, PM10 was higher than $86.7{\mu}g/m^3$ and Formaldehyde was over $0.4{\sim}1.0{\mu}g/m^3$. However, there was no significant effect on dry eye syndrome with $CO_2$ (p=.0146), temperature (p=0.074) and humidity (p=0.053). Conclusions: It was indicated that $CO_2$, temperature and humidity were no effect on dry eye syndrome in the office environment. However TSP, PM10, formaldehyde, and wearing contact lens were effect on dry eye syndrome. Therefore, the entire management of wearing contact lens and the individual evaluation of the indoor air quality are required.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.311-317
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• 2007

"Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development (ESSD)" is a key word in recent years. The construction industry, have put a great influence on ergonomic and sustainable environment. Recently, "green building certifications", such as Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and eco-friendly material regulation have been established. With this regard, new construction and aged-housing remodeling projects are required to meet these certification criteria. Multi-housing residents have great concern on eco-product, since many cases are reported that Sick Building Syndrome is caused by toxic substance from building materials. Aged-housing remodeling project is very unique in that building residents are selected prior to design phase. Therefore, the analysis of resident's need for building materials in aged-housing remodeling is relatively easy compared to new building construction. As such, it is very important to analyze their preferences for eco-friendly materials prior to project execution. The purpose of this study is to find the needs of residents and priority of their needs. Based on their needs and priority, this paper provides a new strategy in using environment-friendly materials and maximizing their satisfaction level when aged housing remodeling is constructed. In addition, this paper provide new criteria in selecting new developed environmental materials in remodeling projects for the purpose of improving the safety and health level in construction industry.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.919-924
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• 2008

Power consumption in the building thermal load could be the sum of the building fabric conduction load, building ventilation convection load and other such as radiation loss load. Dynamic Breathing Building (DBB) is the state-of-the-art to improve the wall insulation and indoor air quality(IAQ) performance as making air flow through the wall. This heat recovery type DBB contributes the power consumption saving due to the improved dynamic U-value. KIER twin test cell with static insulation(SI) and dynamic insulation(DI) at KIER was developed to test building power consumption at the real outside conditions. Then, the actual results were compared with the theory to predict the power consumption at the KIER twin test cell and introduced the building new radiation loss factor $\alpha$ to explain the difference between the both the theory and the actual case. As the results, the power consumption at the breathing DI wall building could saved 10.8% at the 2ACH(Air change per hour) compared with conventional insulation. The building radiation loss factor $\alpha$ for this test condition to calibrate the actual test was 0.55 in the test condition.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.715-727
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• 2004

This study was carried out to evaluate non-smoker's exposure levels to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in the air of offices in urban areas. A total of 65 offices were selected from two large cities, i.e. Daegu and Daejeon. The field sampling was conducted repeatedly in summer (1999) and winter (1999～2000). The measured ETS markers included respirable suspended particles (RSP as PM$_{40}$ ), vapor and particulate phase ETS markers, including nicotine, 3-ethnyl pyridine (3-EP), ultraviolet absorbing particulate matter (UVPM), fluorescing particulate matter (FPM), and solanseol in ETS particles (SolPM). RSP was measured gravimetrically by a microbalance. The particle samples were then used for the determination of particulate ETS markers by HPLC, while vapor phase markers determined by GC/NPD. The analytical methods were validated for repeatability, linearity, detection limits, and duplication precision. The concentrations of RSP and other ETS markers were significantly higher in smoking offices than non-smoking offices. Despite the similar smoking strength in each office for different seasons, the concentration levels of ETS components appeared to be higher in winter than summer. The contributions of ETS to RSP concentrations based on SolPM, FPM, and UVPM methods were estimated to be in the range of 15.2 ～ 25.3% in smoking offices, whereas 2.4 ～ 15.9% in non-smoking offices. The cooling and heating types did not affect significantly the concentrations of RSP and other ETS markers. Finally, further research issues were suggested to obtain more scientific information on the non-smoker's exposure to ETS with respect to the frame of risk assessment..