• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.358-371
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• 2020

As climate change is expected to lead to a severe reduction of biodiversity, studies to investigate the reasons for habitat loss, growth decline, and death of Korean fir (Abies koreana Wilson), endangered alpine/subalpine species in Korea, have been conducted for years but found no clear answer yet. This study reviewed previous studies on Korean fir published in the journals in the past 40 years, 1980 through 2020, into 10-year units, examined the study trend by period, region, and subject with a focus on ecological studies, and analyzed the study results. The ecological studies were categorized into evolutionary ecology, physiological ecology, population ecology, and landscape ecology. Based on the results, we suggested the required research fields in the future. We found a total of 73 papers published in the past 40 years and 48 (65.8%) of them published in the past 10 years. In terms of region, Mt. Halla accounted for the most as 41 papers were on it. In terms of ecological subjects, the physiological ecology accounted for the most with 38, and the evolutionary ecology accounted for the least with 10. The review of the study results showed that many studies identified water stress caused by the water resource imbalance due to temperature increase and spring precipitation reduction following climate change as the main reason for the decline and habitat loss of Korean fir. However, recent studies suggested other factors, such as soil environment, disturbing organisms, and climatic events. The cause of the decline and death of the Korean fir not yet being clearly identified is that most of the studies dealt with the basic content, were carried out intermittently, and were concentrated in some regions. Therefore, we need long-term studies with advanced technology in each study subject at a local scale to find the cause of Korean fir decline and present sustainable management and conservation. Moreover, it is necessary to extend our study subjects to ecosystem ecology and systems ecology to integrate the results from various study subjects for a comprehensive understanding of the reason for Korean fir declines. The results of comprehensive studies could provide clearer answers for Korean fir's declines and the alternatives of conservation management and practices.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.13-24
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• 1994

Despite optimal local therapy such as surgery and/or radiotherapy, the long term outcome is poor for patients with advanced squamous cell carcinomma of head and neck, due to frequent loco-regional recurrence and distant metastases. We studied to determine whether the combination chemotherapy, especially as an adjuvant chemotherapy, would improve the survival of these patients. Between January, 1986 and December, 1992, 57 patients with previously untreated, locally advanced squamous cell arcinoma of head and neck were assigned to receive 2-3 cycles of induction chemotherapy consisting of 5-fluorouracil(F) and cisplatin(P) every 3 weeks and standard local therapy such as surgery and/or radiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with the same FP regimens. Of the 57 enroled patients, 45 patients were evaluable. The obtained results were as following: 1) Among 45 evaluable patients, 18 patients finished all treatment protocol including adjuvant chemotherapy and 27 patients had no adjuvant chemotherapy. The difference of age, sex, performance status, disease stage, and tumor differentiation was not significant statistically between adjuvant chemotherapy group and no-adjuvant chemotherapy group. 2) After induction chemotherapy, 7/45(15.4%), 30/45(67%) achieved complete remission and partial remission respectively with 82.4% overall response rates in entire patients. 3) The 4year progression free survival was 43.3% in adjuvant chemotherapy group and 24.1% in no-adjuvant chemotherapy group(p>0.05). The 4year overall survival was 56.9% and 25.5% respectively(p>0.05). There was no significant different in the patterns of local recurrence and distant metastasis between the two groups. 4) Adverse reactions from combination chemotherapy included nausea, vomiting, mucositis, diarrhea and hematologic bone marrow depression. These were mild and tolerated by patients, and these was no episode of any life threatening toxicities. In conclusion, adjuvant chemotherapy after induction chemotherapy and local therapy did not show statistically significant survival improvement, but there was trend of prolongation of survival when compared to no adjuvant chemotherapy. Thus, large scale phase III randomized controlled studies are strongly recommended.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.2_1
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• pp.121-137
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• 2020

Data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite and national emission inventories were used in this study to analyze air quality in East Asia and estimate the impact of domestic and foreign emissions on South Korea's air quality, based on which future emissions were predicted. The concentration trends of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in East Asia from 2005 to 2015 showed that both substances were highest in North East China (NEC), followed by South East China (SEC) and Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA). The average SO₂ concentration was 1.63 times higher in NEC than in SMA. Analysis on the ratios of NO₂/SO₂ and NO_x/SO_x provides an indirect picture of the effect of transboundary air pollutants on atmospheric composition in Korea. The concentration ratio of NO₂/SO₂ in all study areas peaked in 2013 and SMA's emission ratio of NO_x/SO_x increased in 2015 by over 22% from 2013. Despite the reduction in domestic emissions, the concentration-to-emission ratios (NO₂/NO_x, SO₂/SO_x) rose gradually, which implies that other factors besides domestic emissions (e.g., foreign sources, lifetime, etc.) influence air quality in SMA. We estimated future emissions of NO_x and SO_x in SMA to be 296.2 and 39.0 ktons in 2025 and 284.4 and 33.8 ktons in 2035, respectively. Application of the inter-comparison techniques of this study to the data from the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Instrument (GEMS) is expected to provide concrete information which can be used to improve national emission inventories and figure out factors and sources that affect domestic air quality.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.77-83
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• 2016

The objectives of this study was to investigate the difference between organic-farming and conventional-farming soils relatives to soil chemical properties and microbial flora. Fifteen soil sampling sites were chosen from the certified organic upland farm, considered with its location, crop and application of organic compost types. Soil chemical properties were analyzed by standard methods established by National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration. For the soil chemical properties, the values of pH were ranged from 4.5 to 7.3. The values of electrical conductivity (EC) in the sampling sites were below 2 dS/m of convention cultivation soil. For analyzing the microbial flora, the bacillus(16S rDNA) and cladothricosis(18S rDNA) were analyzed by using PCR-DGGE (Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis) in the soil of 15 sampling sites. Cluster analysis of biodiversity index was performed by using pattern of DGGE. DGGE patterns and clustering analysis of bacterial DNA from soil extracts revealed that the bacterial community was differentiated between less than 5 years and more than 5 years depending on the cultivation history. But there was no consistent tendency between cultivation history and regional trend in the case of molds. Therefore, it would be very effective to analyze bacterial clusters of organically cultivated soils in long - term cultivated soil for more than 5 years.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2011

Modern enterprises should concentrate their efforts on continuous improvements in focusing their development in the core areas of business and to reduce their expenses and to enhance the quality of service for customers. The enterprises should focus on their core business while outsourcing the non-core areas of business to external specialists for the purpose of reducing cost. In South Korea, the enterprises are becoming increasingly interested in outsourcing their logistics function, especially in using IT technologies to the 3PL. The underlying reason for this trend is because the logistics costs of Korean businesses are much higher than that of other advanced countries. This higher logistic costs weakens the price competitiveness of Korean companies in the overseas export markets and even dampening the balance of international trade. Domestically, the higher logistics costs have the effect of raising prices in the local markets and thus affecting the local economy. Therefore a solution is urgently needed to save the logistics costs for the Korean companies in the interest of increasing national competitiveness. Outsourcing to the 3PL is becoming an attraction solution to this problem. Thanks to the increasing supply of professional logistics companies, many of the enterprises are switching to the Third Party Logistics. Nevertheless the enterprises do not yet utilize the integrated third-party logistics services on a full scale. This study analyzes present conditions and problems of the domestic third-party logistics market and suggests directions for future development. To solve the problems in the domestic third-party logistics market, four actions are recommended. First there should be new supporting policies in the laws and regulations and a system for small and medium sized companies to grow. Solutions to structural problems such as abnormal multilevel merchandising, illegal operation of private cars, and freight dumping should be implemented concurrently. Furthermore, standards for new companies entry into the market should be enhanced to allow only the competitive distribution companies to enter the market. Second, development of variety of educational programs is needed through establishing human-resource development system and specialized formal educational institution focused on this market. Third, the third party distribution companies, which seek long-term relationships with the owners of goods, should endeavor to strengthen their communications capability. Fourth, adoption of high-tech distribution system and the advent of U-Logistics, making use of RFID is urgent. This study has the limitation of objectivity because it does not include various comparative case studies about companies relating to the Third Party Logistics and domestic franchise companies. However, this study is significant to the extent that it analyzes the general present conditions and the problems of domestic Third Party Logistics and suggests recommendations for revitalization of Third Party Logistics. For future studies, analyzing the successful cases of international third party logistics companies' empirical data and studying the application into domestic franchise companies would improve the objectivity of the results. This would assist the domestic third party logistics companies not only to perform excellent domestic logistics function but also to enter into the global market for international logistics.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.193-212
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• 2011

Mobile instant messaging service is surfacing to an important keyword in the mobile market together with popularization of Smart phones. Mobile instant messaging service in Korea has become popular to the degree of 87.9% usages from total Smartphone holders, and it is expected that using populations will be more enlarged afterwards if considering a fact that its populations of Smartphone is continuously being increased after exceeding 10 million persons (Trend Monitor, June 2011). In the instant messaging market where competitions have been deepened day by day, raising customer's royalties will be the key for company's business survivals and goals of corporate marketing strategies. It could be said that understanding on which factors affect to customer retentions and royalties is very important. Specially, as changing status is being progressed very quickly in case of innovative mobile services like the instant messaging service, research necessities on how many do consumers use the services after accepting them, how much do consumers use them variously, and whether does it connect to long-term relations have been increased, but studies on such matters are in insufficient situations actually. Therefore, this study examined on which effects were affected to use-diffusion and loyalty factors from perceived customer vales' factors having been occurred after accepting the mobile instant messaging service, namely 'functional value', 'monetary value', 'emotional value', and 'social value'. Also, the study looked into what kind of roles do the service usage and using variety play to service's continued using intents as a loyalty index, recommending intents to others, and brand switching intents. And then the study laid the main purpose in trying to provide implications for enhancing customer securities and royalties on the mobile instant messaging service through research's results. The research hypotheses are as follows; H1: Perceived values will affect influences to royalties. H2: Use-Diffusion will affect influences to loyalty. H3: Perceived value will affect influences to loyalty. H4: The use-diffusion will play intermediating roles between perceived values and loyalty. Total 276 cases among collected 284 ones were used for the statistical analysis by SPSS ver. 15 package. Reliability, Factor analysis, regression were done. As the result of research, 'monetary value' and 'emotional value' affected to 'usage' among perceived value factors, and 'emotional value' was appeared as affecting the largest influence. Besides, the usage affected to constant-using intents and recommending intents to others, and using varieties were displayed as affecting to recommending intents to others. On the other hand, 'Using' and 'Using diversity' were appeared as not affecting to 'brand switching intentions'. Meanwhile, as the result of recognizing about effects of perceived values on the loyalty, it was appeared such like 'continued using intents' affected to'functional value', 'monetary value', and 'social value' first, and also 'monetary value', 'emotional value', and 'social value' affected to 'recommending intents to others'. On the other hand, it was shown such like only 'social value' affected influences to 'brand switching intents', and thus contrary results with the factor 'constant-using intents' were displayed. So, it seems that there are many applications to service provides who are worrying about marketing strategies for making consumer retains (constant-using) and new consumer's inductions (brand-switching intents). Finally, as a result of looking into intermediating roles of the use-diffusion factor in relations between conceived values and royalties at hypothesis 4, 'using' and 'using diversity' were displayed as affecting significant influences all together. Regarding to research result's implications, for expanding and promoting continued uses of the mobile instant messaging service by service providers: First, encouraging recognitions on the perceived value connected to users' service usage are necessary. Second, setting up user's use-diffusion strategies are required so as to enhance the loyalty after understanding a fact that use-diffusion patterns affecting to the service's loyalty are different. Finally, methods of raising customer loyalties and making constant relationships have to be grouped by analyzing on what are the customer value's factors that can satisfy users in competitive alterations.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness and prognostic factors for patients treated with postoperative radiation therapy following surgery or with radiation therapy alone for squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 132 esophageal cancer patients treated with postoperative radiation therapy following surgery or patients who were treated with radiation therapy alone at our institution from 1989 to 2006. Thirty-five patients had stage II disease, 88 patients had stage III disease and nine patients had stage IV disease. Tumors were located at the upper esophagus in 18 patients, the mid esophagus in 81 patients and the distal esophagus in 33 patients. Sixty patients were treated with radiation therapy alone and 72 patients were treated with postoperative radiation therapy following surgery. Eight patients received a dose less than 40 Gy and 78 patients received a dose of 40 to 50 Gy. The remaining 46 patients received a dose of 50 to 60 Gy. The majority of patients who underwent postoperative radiation therapy received a dose of 45 Gy. Results: Actuarial survival rates for all of the patients at two years and five years were 24% and 5%, respectively. The median survival time was 11 months. Survival rates for patients who underwent postoperative RT at two years and five years were 29% and 8%, respectively. The corresponding survival rates for patients who received radiation alone were 18% and 2%, respectively. Survival rates at two years and five years were 43% and 15% for stage II disease, 22% and 2% for stage III disease and 0% and 0% for stage IV disease, respectively; these findings were statistically significant. Two-year survival rates for patients with upper, middle and distal esophageal cancer were 19, 29% and 22%, respectively. Although there was a trend of slightly better survival for middle esophageal tumors, this finding was not statistically significant. Complete response to radiation was achieved in 13 patients (22%) and partial response to radiation was achieved in 40 patients (67%) who received radiation alone. No response to radiation was noted in seven patients (12%). A statistically significant difference in survival rates was seen between patients that had a complete response and patients that had a partial response. Two-year survival rates for patients that had a complete response versus patients that had a partial response were 31% and 17%, respectively. There were no survivors for patients with no response as determined at two-year follow-up. Conclusion: We conclude that radiation therapy is an effective treatment for esophageal cancer. Stage and response to radiation therapy were noted to be prognostic factors. A more effective treatment modality is needed to improve long term survival because of the relatively dismal prognosis for this tumor.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.41 no.5 s.116
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• pp.527-544
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• 2006

This study provides a definition of heat waves, which indicate the conditions of strong sultriness in summer, appropriate to Korea and intends to clarify long term(1973-2006) averaged spatial and temporal patterns of annual frequency of heat waves with respect to their intensity. Based on examination of the Korean mortality rate changes due to increase of apparent temperature under hot and humid summer conditions, three consecutive days with at least $32.5^{\circ}C,\;35.5^{\circ}C,\;38.5^{\circ}C,\;and\;41.5^{\circ}C$ of daily maximum Heat Index are defined as the Hot Spell(HS), the Heat Wave(HW), the Strong Heat Wave(SHW), and the Extreme Heat Wave(EHW), respectively. The annual frequency of all categories of heat waves is relatively low in high-elevated regions or on islands adjacent to seas. In contrast, the maximum annual frequency of heat waves during the study period as well as annual average frequency are highest in interior, low-elevated regions along major rivers in South Korea, particularly during the Changma Break period(between late July and mid-August). There is no obvious increasing or decreasing trend in the annual total frequency of all categories of heat waves for the study period However, the maximum annual frequencies of HS days at each weather station were recorded mainly in the 1970s, while most of maximum frequency records of both the HW and the SHW at individual weather stations were observed in the 1990s. It is also revealed that when heat waves occur in South Korea high humidity as well as high temperature contributes to increasing the heat wave intensity by $4.3-9.5^{\circ}C$. These results provide a useful basis to help develop a heat wave warning system appropriate to Korea.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.145-153
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• 2013

It is a global trend that the water management policy is shifting from a water quality-oriented assessment to the aquatic ecosystem-based assessment. The majority of aquatic ecosystem assessment systems were developed solely based on physicochemical factors (e.g., water quality and bed structure) and a limited number of organisms (e.g., plankton and benthic organisms). Only a few systems use plants for a health assessment, although plants are sensitive indicators reflecting long-term disturbances and alterations in water regimes. The development of an assessment system is underway to evaluate and manage lakes as ecosystem units in the Korean Ministry of Environment. We reviewed the existing multivariate health assessment methods of other leading countries, and discussed their applicability to Korean lakes. The application of multivariate assessment methods is costly and time consuming, in addition to the correlation problem among variables. However, a single variable is not available at this moment, and the multivariate method is an appropriate system due to its multidimensional evaluation and cumulative data generation. We, therefore, discussed multivariate assessment methods in three steps: selecting metrics, scoring metrics and assessing indices. In the step of selecting metrics, the best available metrics are species-related variables, such as composition and abundance, as well as richness and diversity. Indicator species, such as sensitive species, are the most frequently used in other countries, but their system of classification in Korea is not yet complete. In terms of scoring metrics, the lack of reference lakes with little anthropogenic impact make this step difficult, and therefore, the use of relative scores among the investigated lakes is a suitable alternative. Overall, in spite of several limitations, the development of a plant-based multivariate assessment method in Korea is possible using mostly field research data. Later, it could be improved based on qualitative metrics on plant species, and with the emergence of further survey data.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2010

Nakdong Estuary Delta plays various roles of worldwide habitat for migratory birds and a sand supplier to Haewoondae Beach and Gwanganri, which are tourist attractions of Busan. In this study, long-term topographical changes of Nakdong Estuary (Jinwoo Islet, Sinja Islet, Doyodeung, Dadae Beach) coast were detected and interpreted. Through the analysis of 34 years' satellite images, it was found out that a part in between front side and back side of Jinwoo Islet increased, Sinja Islet was divided into two belts in 1970, and has formed an islet since the 1980s and extended westward. Due to the rapid development of small islets in front of Baekhabdeung since 1990s, Doyodeung formed in the late 1990s and is still growing. To make coastal map of Nakdong Estuary area, 13 images, of which the tide level was $99{\pm}13cm$, from the 112 Landsat images of the period from 1975 to 2009 were selected to section into water zone and land zone using NDV. And the rates of coastal line change such as MATLAB EPR(End Point Rate) and LRR(Linear Regression Rate) were calculated using DSAS 4.0(Digital Shoreline Analysis System). Through detecting topographical changes, EPR showed that the front(south) and back side(north) of Jinwoo Islet moved southward at -0.93~2.56m/yr, and changes in costal line and area of Jinwoo Islet were low and stable. The front and backside of Sinja Islet moved northward at 1~4m/yr, whereas the west side of Sinja Islet was stable at 2~3m/yr and east side of Sinja Islet moved northward at 10m/yr or faster. The front and back side of Doyodeung moved northward at 18~27m/yr, causing the increase of area, while the coastal line of Dadae Beach moved westward at 7m/yr, causing the expansion of the beach. LRR also demonstrated a similar trend to EPR. Although analysis of satellite images and GIS could enabled detection of topographical changes and quantitative analysis of natural phenomena, we found that continuous observation of natural phenomena and various analytical methods are required.