• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.277-284
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• 2008

Recently, the long-term operation of a nuclear power plant beyond its licensed term has become a worldwide trend as long as the safety of the plant is maintained in the extended period. Kori Unit 1, the oldest PWR in Korea, is the foremost example of this type of long-term operation in Korea. Comprehensive technical evaluation of the long-term operation of this plant was completed to confirm the overall safety of the plant. The technical evaluation included a review of PSR results, an assessment on aging management programs and time limited aging analyses, and a statement of radiological impact on the environment. Based on all of the results of the technical evaluation activities, Kori Unit 1 was approved to operate for an additional 10 years beyond its original design life of 30 years.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.156-165
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• 2018

Long-term trend analysis on air pollutant concentrations is very important to diagnose the present status and plan for the future. In this study, the long-term trends of $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations were estimated based on the relationship between the visibility and $PM_{2.5}$ concentration regarding the effects of relative humidity in Seoul and Chuncheon. The relationships between the visibility and $PM_{2.5}$ concentration were derived from the measurement data in 2015 and 2016. Then, the annual trends of $PM_{2.5}$ concentration from 1982 to 2014 were estimated and compared to those of $PM_{10}$ concentration available in Seoul and Chuncheon. During the estimation process, four ranges of relative humidity were considered such as less than 30%, 31~50%, 51~70%, and 71~90%. In Seoul and Chuncheon, the visibility and $PM_{2.5}$ concentration generally have the inverse relationship while the visibility decreases as the relative humidity increases. The estimated $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations similarly showed the decreasing tendencies from 2006 to 2012 in Seoul and Chuncheon. However, the estimated $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations showed the increasing tendency before 2005 in Chuncheon in contrast to the decreasing tendency in Seoul. This implies that the long-term trends of $PM_{2.5}$ concentration in different cities in South Korea reflect the local influencing factors. For example, 'Special Act on the Improvement of Atmospheric Environment in the Seoul Metropolitan Area' can affect the different long-term trends in Seoul and Chuncheon. The estimated $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations were validated with the measured ones in Seoul and Chuncheon. While the general tendencies were well matched between the estimated and measured concentrations, the $PM_{2.5}$ concentration trends in 1990s and their monthly variations are needed to be improved quantitatively using more reference data for longer years.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.389-399
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• 2022

Background: This study aimed to analyze changes in medical utilization and cost before and after long-term care (LTC) implementation. Methods: We used the National Health Information Database from National Health Insurance Service. The participants were selected who had a new LTC grade (grade 1-5) for 2015. Medical utilization was analyzed before and after LTC implementation. Segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series was conducted to evaluate the overall effect of the LTC implementation on medical costs. Results: The total number of participants was 41,726. A major reason for hospitalization in grade 1 was cerebrovascular diseases, and dementia was the top priority in grade 5. The proportion of hospitalization in grade 1 increased sharply before LTC implementation and then decreased. In grade 5, it increased before LTC implementation, but there was no significant difference after LTC implementation. As for medical cost, in grades 1 to 4, the total cost increased sharply before the LTC implementation, but thereafter, changes in level and trend tended to decrease statistically, and for grade 5, immediately after LTC implementation, the level change was decreasing, but thereafter, the trend change was increasing. Conclusion: Long-term care grades showed different medical utilization and cost changes. Long-term care beneficiaries would improve their quality of life by adequately resolving their medical needs by their grades.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.111-118
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• 2015

This study was conducted for the establishment of statistical method to determine the representative air quality monitoring station representing long-term ozone trends of Seoul. In this study, hourly ozone concentrations from 2002 to 2011 were used for further analysis. KZ-filter, correlation matrix, cluster analysis, and Kriging method were applied to select the representative station. The analysis based on correlation matrix found that long-term trend of ozone concentrations measured at Sinjung, Sadang, and Bun-dong showed a high correlation. The cluster analysis found that the former three stations belonged to the same cluster. The analysis based on Kriging method also showed that the former three stations were highly correlated with other stations in spatial distribution. Considering these results and the highest correlation coefficient of Sinjung station, the Sinjung station was the most suitable as the representative station used to understand the long-term ozone trend of Seoul. This result could be applied to understand long-term trend of other pollutants. Furthermore, this result can also be used to assess the appropriacy of spatial distribution of national air quality monitoring stations.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.295-305
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to understand of water quality characteristics of lake Paldang, especially at a certain representative site, right in front of Paldang dam ($P_2$ site) and to propose the directions of water quality management of lake Paldang. Water characteristics at $P_2$ site was investigated by principle components analysis and the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis. Also, seasonality was identified by the Kruskal-Wallis test and long term trend of nutrients and chlorophyll-a was analyzed by seasonal decomposition method at lake Paldang statistically. The primary factor affecting on water quality at $P_2$ site was identified as nutrients, while physical parameters, such as rainfall and inflow rate were also important factors. At the result of linear regression analysis particulate organic phosphorus (POP) vs total phosphorus (TP) showed very high correlation of 0.78. TP loading was increased annually from 1995 to 2006. Chlorophyll-a and nutrients show seasonality at $P_2$ site. Long term trend of Chlorophyll-a was increased by increase of TP at lake Paldang.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.25-34
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• 2024

The long-term monitoring of the Soyang Lake's water quality, covering 25% of the North Han River watershed, is crucial for effective management of both lake water quality and pollution sources in the broader region. This study utilized continuous monitoring data from the front of the Soyang Dam spanning 2003 to 2022, aiming to analyze trends and provide foundational insights for water quality management. Results revealed a slightly poor grade (IV) for total nitrogen (T-N) in both surface and mid-depth layers, indicating a need for concentrated T-N management. Trend analyses using the Mann-Kendall test and Sen's Slope depicted a decreasing trend in total phosphorus (T-P) for both layers, attributed to non-point source pollution reduction projects initiated after the Soyang Lake's designation as a pollution control area in 2007. The LOWESS analysis showed a T-P increase until 2006, followed by a decrease, influenced by the impact of Typhoon Ewiniar in that year. This 20-year overview establishes a comprehensive understanding of the Soyang Lake's water quality and trends, allowing for a seasonal and periodical analysis of water quality changes. The findings underscore the importance of continued monitoring and management strategies to address evolving water quality issues in the Soyang Lake over time.

• Atmosphere
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.243-253
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• 2009

In other to interpret the long-term variations of sunshine duration, cloud lifetime, and precipitation intensity observed in and around Seoul and Busan for the period from 1986 to 2005, aerosol indirect effect was employed and applied. For the identification of long-term trend of aerosol concentration, observed visibility and AOT of AERONET sunphotometer data were also used over the same regions. The result showed that the time series of visibility was decreased and those of AOT increased, especially trends were remarkable in 2000s. In both regions, occurrence frequencies of observed cloudiness (cloud amount ${\leq}6/10$) and strong precipitation (rain rate > $0.5mmhour^{-1}$) have been steadily increased while those of cloudiness (cloud amount > 7/10) and weak precipitation (rain rate ${\leq}0.2mmhour^{-1}$) decreased. These results are corresponding to the trend of both visibility and AERONET data, implying the aerosol indirect effect that makes size of cloud droplet reduce, cloud life-time longer and precipitation efficiency decreased. Our findings demonstrate that, although these phenomena are not highly significant, weather and climate system over Korean urban area have been changed toward longer lifetime of small cloudiness and increasing precipitation intensity as a result of increased aerosol indirect effect.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.75-107
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• 2020

Using the data from 1980 to 2017, I show the long-term trends in the gender wage gap in Korea and analyze factors using decomposition method. It tended to decline until the 1990s, but gradually slowed after the 2000s. Gelbach(2016)'s decomposition method is used as an alternative rather than Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. The results show that the proportion of explanation of traditional factors, such as age, education, firm size, industry and occupation, are continuously decreasing in explaining the gender wage gap. Expecially, the proportion of explanation of age and that of education have decreased, and that of industry tended to decrease in the 1990s but to increase after the 2000s.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 1999

This paper is to estimate the long and short term variations of mean sea level in Korean coastal waters by identifying interrelations among the mean sea level, atmospheric pressure and air temperature along the coast. For this, long-term tidal data observed at tidal and weather observation stations were brought into a statistical analysis. It was noted that, in a general sense, an inverse relationship exists between the sea level and the atmospheric pressure and a positive relationship between the sea level and air temperature, respectively. The maximum difference of monthly mean sea level was in the range of 21 to 25 cm at the eastern and southeastern coasts, meanwhile more than 30 cm being in both in southern and western coasts. It was also noted that mean sea level continues to rise in a long-term basis. Long-term variation of mean sea level trends to rise 0.10 ∼ 0.44 cm per year for each region. However, the long-term variation of mean sea level in the isolated islands shows a different trend, Ullngdo being 0.41 cm fall per year and Chejudo being 0.44 cm rise per year.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.187-196
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• 2006

Forecasting the long-term water demand is important in the plan of water supply system because the location and capacity of water facilities are decided according to it. To forecast the long-term water demand, the existing method based on lpcd and population has been usually used. But, these days the trend among the variation of water demand has been disappeared, so expressing other variation of it is needed to forecast correct water demand. To accomplish it, we introduced the System Dynamics method to consider total connections of water demand factor. Firstly, the factors connected with water demand were divided into three sectors(water demand, industry, and population sectors), and the connections of factors were set with multiple regression model. And it was compared to existing method. The results are as followings. The correlation efficients are 0.330 in existing model and 0.960 in SD model and MAE are 3.96% in existing model and 1.68% in SD model. So, it is proved that SD model is superior to the existing model. To forecast the long-term water demand, scenarios were made with variations of employment condition, economic condition and consumer price indexes and forecasted water demands in 2012. After all scenarios were performed, the results showed that it was not needed to increase the water supply ability in Seoul.