• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.138-159
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• 1996

There has been a tendency for Geomorphology and Climatology to be dominant in Physical Geography for 50 years in Korea. Physical Geography is concerned with the study of the totality of natural environment through the integrated approaches. But, an overall direction or a certain paradigm could not be found, because major sub-divisions of Physical Geography have been studied individually and the subjects and the approaches in studying Physical Geography are enormously diverse. A consensus of opinion could not also exist in deciding what kind of the sub-divisions should be included in the physical geography in general and how those should be summarized. Furthermore it would be considered imprudent to survey the studies of Physical Geography besides those of Geomorphology and Climatology due to the small number of researchers. Assuming that the rest of Physical Geographical studies with the exception of Geomorphological and Climatological studies are the Physical Geography in general, the studies of Physical Geogrpahy in general are summarized and several aspects are drown out as follows. First the descliption of all possible factors of natural environments was the pattern of early studies of Physical Geography and the tendency is maintained in the various kinds of research and project reports. Recently Physical Geographers have published several introductory textbooks or research monographs. In those books, however, the integrated approaches to Physical Geography were not suggested and the relationship between man and nature are dealt with in the elementary level. Second, the authentic soil studies of Physical Geographers are insignificant, because the studies of soil in Physical Geography have been mostly considered as the subsidiary means of Geomorphology Summarizing the studies of Soil Gegraphy by physical geographers and other Pedologists, the subjects are classified as soil-forming processes, soil erosions, soil in the tidal flat and reclaimed land, and soil pollution. Physical Geographers have focused upon the soil-forming processes in order to elucidate the geomorphic processes and the past climatic environment. The results of other subjects are trifling. Thirdy Byogeygrayhers and the results of studies are extremely of small number and the studies of Biogeography in Korea lines in the starting point. But, Biogeography could be a more unifying theme for the Physical-human Geography interface, and it would be expected to play an active part in the field of environmental conservation and resource management. Forth, the studies of Hydrogeography (Geographical Hydrology) in Korea have run through the studies of water balance and the morphometric studies such as the drainage network analysis and the relations of various kinds of morphometric elements in river. Recently, the hydrological model have introduced and developed to predict the flow of sediment, discharge, and ground water. The growth of groundwater studies is worthy of close attention. Finally, the studies on environmental problems was no mole than the general description about environmental destruction, resource development, environmental conservation, etc. until 1970s. The ecological perspectives on the relationship between man and nature were suggested in some studies of natural hazard. The new environmentalism having been introduced since 1980s. Human geographers have lead the studies of Environmental Perception. Environmental Ethics, Environmental Sociology, environmental policy. The Physical geographers have stay out of phase with the climate of the time and concentrate upon the publication of introductory textbooks. Recently, several studies on the human interference and modification of natural environments have been made an attempt in the fields of Geomorphology and climatology. Summarizing the studies of Physical Geography for 50 years in Korea, the integrated approaches inherent in Physical Geography disappeared little by little and the majol sub-divisions of Physical Ceography have develop in connection with the nearby earth sciences such as Geology, Meteorology, Pedology, Biology, Hydrology, etc been rediscovered by non-geographers under the guise of environmental science. It is expected that Physical Geography would revive as the dominant subject to cope with environmental problems, rearming with the innate integrated approaches.

• Laboratory Medicine Online
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2012

Background: Measurement of HbA_1c levels is widely used to diagnose diabetes mellitus and to evaluate and monitor plasma-glucose concentrations over 6-8 weeks. In this study, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of the newly developed latex immunoturbidimetric method by using Autolab HbA_1c. Methods: We analyzed and compared the diagnostic performance of Autolab HbA_1c with that of Toshiba 200FR between April 2009 and July 2009. According to guidelines (EP5-A2, EP6-P, EP9-A2) of the clinical and laboratory standards institute (CLSI), we compared linearity, precision and correlation of Autolab HbA_1c with those of G7 (Tosoh Corp., Kyoto, Japan) by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Results: Data obtained using Autolab HbA_1c showed good linearity in mixtures of samples with low (3.1%) and high (15.1%) levels of HbA_1c (r²=0.9997). In the analysis of within-run precision of the samples with HbA_1c levels of 5.1% and 12.1%, the SDs were 0.04 and 0.06 and covariances of these samples were 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively. In the Deming regression model, the regression equation was as follows: Autolab HbA_1c=1.0859×Tosoh HPLC-0.6957. Conclusions: In this study, Autolab HbA_1c method showed better performance characteristics than Tosoh G7 did. In reference review, there was no interference of variant hemoglobin. The data acquisition time of Autolab HbA_1c was lower than that of Tosoh G7. The advantages of Autolab HbA_1c are that it can be used as an autoanlyzer in routine chemical analysis, it does not require pre-analytical treatment, and the samples are automatically treated with distilled water for hemolysis.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.429-438
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• 2023

The forest in the lower Tumen River serves as an important ecosystem spanning the territories of North Korea, Russia, and China, and it provides habitat and movement corridors for diverse mammals, including the endangered Amur tiger (Panthera tigris) and Amur leopard (Panthera pardus). This study focuses on the Mijiang area, situated as a potential ecological corridor connecting North Korea and China in the lower Tumen River, playing a crucial role in conserving and restoring the biodiversity of the Korean Peninsula. This study aimed to identify mammal species and estimate their relative abundance, occupancy, and distribution based on the 48 camera traps installed in the Mijiang area from May 2019 to May 2021. The results confirmed the presence of 18 mammal species in the Mijiang area, including large carnivores like tigers and leopards. Among the dominant mammals, four species of ungulates showed high occupancy and detection rates, particularly the Roe deer (Capreolus pygargus) and Wild boar (Sus scrofa). The roe deer was distributed across all areas with a predicted high occupancy rate of 0.97, influenced by altitude, urban residential areas, and patch density. Wild boars showed a predicted occupancy rate of 0.73 and were distributed throughout the entire area, with factors such as wetland ratio, grazing intensity, and spatial heterogeneity in aspects of the landscape influencing their occupancy and detection rates. Sika deer (Cervus nippon) exhibited a predicted occupancy rate of 0.48, confined to specific areas, influenced by slope, habitat fragmentation diversity affecting detection rates, and the ratio of open forests impacting occupancy. Water deer (Hydropotes inermis) displayed a very low occupancy rate of 0.06 along the Tumen River Basin, with higher occupancy in lower altitude areas and increased detection in locations with high spatial heterogeneity in aspects. This study confirmed that the Mijiang area serves as a habitat supporting diverse mammals in the lower Tumen River while also playing a crucial role in facilitating animal movement and habitat connectivity. Additionally, the occupancy prediction model developed in this study is expected to contribute to predicting mammal distribution within the disrupted Tumen River basin due to human interference and identifying and protecting potential ecological corridors in this transboundary region.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.125-132
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• 2007

We estimated the distribution of predator-prey interaction strengths for 12 species of herbivores (including amphipods, isopods, gastropods, and sea urchins) and made a regression model that may be applicable to other species. Laboratory experiments were used to determine per capita grazing rate (PCGR; g seaweeds/individual/day). Relationship between the biomass of individual grazers and fourth-root transformed PCGR was fitted to power curve ($y=0.2310x^{0.3290}$, r=0.8864). This finding supported that the grazing efficiency was not even as individual grazers increase in size (biomass). Therefore, the biomass-normalized PCGR was estimated and revealed that smaller size herbivores were more effective grazers. Grazing impact considering density of each taxon was calculated. The sea hare Aplysia kurodai had greatest grazing impact on the seaweed bed and the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus nudus and S. intermedius were ranked in descending order of the impact. The amount of seaweed grazed by the amphipod Elasmopus sp. (>4,000 $ind./m^2$) and Jassa falcata (>2,000 $ind./m^2$) were 3.435 and $1.697mg/m^2/day$ respectively. The combined grazing amount of herbivores was $5,045mg/m^2/day$ in the seaweed bed. Although sea hare and sea urchin had strong impacts on seaweeds, the effects of dense, smaller species could not be seen as negligible. Surprisingly, the calculated grazing potential of sea urchins with a mean density of 3 $ind./m^2$ exceeded the mean production of seaweed cultured in domestic coastal waters in Korea (ca., 5 ton/ha). Small crustaceans were also expected to consume up to 16% of the seaweed production if their densities were rising under weak predation conditions. Considering that the population density of herbivores are strongly controlled by fish, human interference like overfishing may have strong negative effects on persistence of seaweeds communities.