• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2009

Pot experiments using sand culture were conducted in 2004 under greenhouse conditions to evaluate the effect of nitrogen deficiency on red pepper biomass. Nitrogen stress was imposed by implementing 6 levels (40% to 140%) of N in Hoagland's nutrient solution for red pepper. Canopy reflectance measurements were made with hand held spectral sensors including $GreenSeeker^{TM}$, $Crop\;Circle^{TM}$, and $Field\;Scout^{TM}$ Chlorophyll meter, and a spectroradiometer as well as Minolta SPAD-502 chlorophyll meter. Canopy reflectance and dry weight of red pepper were measured at five growth stages, the 30th, 40th, 50th, 80th and 120th day after planting(DAT). Dry weight of red pepper affected by nitrogen stress showed large differences between maximum and minimum values at the 120th DAT ranged from 48.2 to $196.6g\;plant^{-1}$, respectively. Several reflectance indices obtained from $GreenSeeker^{TM}$, $Crop\;Circle^{TM}$ and Spectroradiometer including chlorophyll readings were compared for evaluation of red pepper biomass. The reflectance indices such as rNDVI, aNDVI and gNDVI by the $Crop\;Circle^{TM}$ sensor showed the highest correlation coefficient with dry weight of red pepper at the 40th, 50th, and 80th DAT, respectively. Also these reflectance indices at the same growth station was closely correlated with dry weight, yield, and nitrogen uptake of red pepper at the 120th DAT, especially showing the best correlation coefficient at the 80th DAT. From these result, the aNDVI at the 80th DAT can significantly explain for dry weight of red pepper at the 120th DAT as well as for application level of nitrogen fertilizer. Consequently ground remote sensing as a non-destructive real-time assessment of plant nitrogen status was thought to be a useful tool for in season nitrogen management for red pepper providing both spatial and temporal information.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.239-276
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• 2009

The paper investigates the possible relationship between earnings prediction by security analysts and special ownership ties that link security companies those analysts belong to and firms under analysis. "Security analysts" are known best for their role as information producers in stock markets where imperfect information is prevalent and transaction costs are high. In such a market, changes in the fundamental value of a company are not spontaneously reflected in the stock price, and the security analysts actively produce and distribute the relevant information crucial for the price mechanism to operate efficiently. Therefore, securing the fairness and accuracy of information they provide is very important for efficiencyof resource allocation as well as protection of investors who are excluded from the special relationship. Evidence of systematic distortion of information by the special tie naturally calls for regulatory intervention, if found. However, one cannot presuppose the existence of distorted information based on the common ownership between the appraiser and the appraisee. Reputation effect is especially cherished by security firms and among analysts as indispensable intangible asset in the industry, and the incentive to maintain good reputation by providing accurate earnings prediction may overweigh the incentive to offer favorable rating or stock recommendation for the firms that are affiliated by common ownership. This study shares the theme of existing literature concerning the effect of conflict of interests on the accuracy of analyst's predictions. This study, however, focuses on the potential conflict of interest situation that may originate from the Korea-specific ownership structure of large conglomerates. Utilizing an extensive database of analysts' reports provided by WiseFn(R) in Korea, we perform empirical analysis of potential relationship between earnings prediction and common ownership. We first analyzed the prediction bias index which tells how optimistic or friendly the analyst's prediction is compared to the realized earnings. It is shown that there exists no statistically significant relationship between the prediction bias and common ownership. This is a rather surprising result since it is observed that the frequency of positive prediction bias is higher with such ownership tie. Next, we analyzed the prediction accuracy index which shows how accurate the analyst's prediction is compared to the realized earnings regardless of its sign. It is also concluded that there is no significant association between the accuracy ofearnings prediction and special relationship. We interpret the results implying that market discipline based on reputation effect is working in Korean stock market in the sense that security companies do not seem to be influenced by an incentive to offer distorted information on affiliated firms. While many of the existing studies confirm the relationship between the ability of the analystand the accuracy of the analyst's prediction, these factors cannot be controlled in the above analysis due to the lack of relevant data. As an indirect way to examine the possibility that such relationship might have distorted the result, we perform an additional but identical analysis based on a sub-sample consisting only of reports by best analysts. The result also confirms the earlier conclusion that the common ownership structure does not affect the accuracy and bias of earnings prediction by the analyst.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 1979

Six natural populations of Pinus densiflora S. et Z. as shown in the location map (Flg 1) were studied during 1978. The numerial pouplation codes, 13 to 18. The results of populations 1 to 12 were reported in previous papers. Following the study methods described before, 20 trees were sampled from each population and morpological characteristics such as stem forms, branching habit needle and wood properties investigated. The results are summerized as follows; 1. The mean stand ages were ranged from 36 to 97 of years. The growth performances of trees of population 14. 15 and 18 was similar, but 13, 16, and 17 seemed to be inferior more or less. 2. The ratios of clear bole length were 0.70 in population 18 as the highest but 0.28 for population 16 as the lowest. 3. The population 17 was considered to be a stand of the coarser branching habit having the crown index (The maximum crown diameter/the crown height) 158 though the branching angles were almost horizontal. 4. The differences were observed in the clear bole length ratios and crown-indices between population as shown In Fig. 3 and 4. 5. As to the serration density, number of stomata row and resin duct; the significant differences exist between individual trees within population and also between populations. 6. Population 18 shown resin duct index 0.119 as the maximum. 7. The patterns of diameter growth, based on the width of 10-year-ring segment unit(for example, the 1st segment denotes the with between pith center and 10th year ring and the 2nd one is from 11th to 20th ring and so on.), were alike among populations as shown in Fig 9. 8. Significant differences between population in mean summer wood percentage as well as in wood specific gravity was observed. The values of wood specific gravity were increased with the increase of ages in population 14, 18 however vice versa in population 13, 15, and 17. 9. The fiber length was mereased with the increased of age but no differences between populations as shown in Fig. 12.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.303-314
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• 2004

Objectives: This study was carried out to assess exposure levels of organic dusts and ammonia in poultry farms in Korea. Methods: A total of six poultry farms were investigated. The farms were located in Namwon, Chonlabuk-do and in Kae-San, Chungchongbuk-do. This study consisted of a questionnaire and measuring organic dusts and ammonia. The questionnaire included the characteristics of the farms, work patterns and the tasks of the poultry farms. Results and Conclusions: The farmers raised the chickens 45 times a year and the average number of years in the poultry farm were eight years ranging from 2 to 12 years. They worked for seven days per week and the average hours spent caring the chickens are 6.3 hours per day. The duration of staying in the confinement buildings was 3.3 hours per day. The work time in summer was longest. The feed and the water supply systems were automatic and the control of ventilation windows used "winch curtain" was semiautomatic. They used mechanical ventilation system in winter and used dilution ventilation system in the other seasons. The geometric mean concentration of total and respirable dust sampled in the poultry confinement buildings was 4.0 mg/$m^3$and 0.9 mg/$m^3$ respectively. The ratio of respirable to total dusts range from 9 to 49 percent. There was no sample exceeding the criteria 10 mg/$m^3$ for total dust and 3 mg/$m^3$ for respirable dust in farms. The criteria have been recommended by Korean Ministry of Labor and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienist. The personal respirable dusts measured during a circle work averaged geometric mean concentration 1.4 mg/$m^3$ Two personal samples were exceeded the threshold 3 mg/$m^3$. There was a positive relation between an index and the personal samples of respirable dusts($R^2$=0.98). The index is calculated by multipling the total number of chickens in the farm by the age of the chickens and then dividing by the volume of the confinement building. The geometric mean concentration of area and personal ammonia samples was 23.3 ppm and 22.2 ppm, respectively. Some of the ammonia samples, both area and personal samples, exceeded the short term exposure limit value 35 ppm.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.128-136
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• 2002

Background: There are few studies that have reported on the pharmacokinetic(PK) disposition of fluoroquinolones in patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis(MDR-Tb), even though fluoroquinolones are frequently co-prescribed to those patients. In this study, the PK disposition of ofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone, was evaluated in patients with MD R -Tb. Methods: Twenty patients with MDR-Tb were given 2nd line Tb drugs including ofloxacin (300mg twice a day), prothionamide, cycloserine, para-aminosalicylic acid, kanamycin, and streptomycin. The patients were grouped according to their body mass index(BMI) as an index of emaciation (group A : 18.5$\leq$BMI <23, group B : BMI < 18.5). Blood samples were serially drawn and urine samples were collected upto 24 hours after the last dose of those drugs at steady state (over 1 month). The ofloxacin concentrations were determined using HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography). Results: The AUC of ofloxacin in group B was greater than that in group A ($31.4{\pm}8.9{\mu}g/ml{\cdot}h$ vs. $24.1{\pm}6.2{\mu}g/ml{\cdot}h$)(Check the symbols), (p<0.05). The total clearance(Cl/F) of ofloxacin was $0.16{\pm}0.03$ L/h/kg in group A, and $0.14{\pm}0.03$ L/h/kg in group B. The half-lives of ofloxacin in two groups were similar (group A : $5.3{\pm}0.8$ hours, group B : $5.7{\pm}0.9$ hours). In addition, the other PK parameters in two groups were also similar. Conclusions: The pharmacokinetics of ofloxacin in patients with MDR-Tb appears to be comparable with those of normal subjects, and the extent of emaciation appears to have an influence on the pharmacokinetics of ofloxaicn in chronic debilitated MDR-Tb patients.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.106-110
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• 2014

Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea (OSAH) is known to be related to nocturnal blood pressure (BP) and hypertension. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of hypertension according to the apnea-hypopnea grading. A total of 2,210 adults with snoring and obstructive sleep apnea were referred to our sleep center from July 2009 to May 2013. Clinical blood pressure (BP) was measured before sleeping (bedtime BP) and immediately after waking up in the next morning (morning BP). Subjects were classified into four groups based on the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) from PSG as follows: control group (n=470) simple snoring and with AHI<5; mild group (n=577) with $AHI{\geq}5$ and <15; moderate group (n=508) $AHI{\geq}15$ and <30; and severe group (n=655) with $AHI{\geq}30$. The differences and correlations between BP and PSG parameters according to the AHI groups were analyzed. Patient's were classified as nomentensive (blood pressure <120/90 mmHg, n=700), prehypertensive (blood pressure < $140-120{\leq}mmHg$, n=1297) hypertensive (blood pressure ${\geq}140/90mmHg$, n=214) according to the office blood pressure measurements. The comparison of sleep parameters showed that OSA groups had a significantly higher stage N1 (control group vs. moderate OSA, severe OSA; $66.4{\pm}30.7$ vs. $85.5{\pm}36.6$, $128.4{\pm}57.3$, p<0.001) and total arousal number (control vs. moderate OSA, severe OSA; $110.7{\pm}47.7$ vs. $150.8{\pm}56.6$, $236.6{\pm}95.8$, p<0.001) compared to control group. The comparison of sleep parameters showed that OSA groups had a significantly lower stage N2 (control group vs. moderate OSA, severe OSA; $172.6{\pm}47.2$ vs. $150.7{\pm}50.5$, $120.3{\pm}57.4$, p<0.001), stage N3 (control group vs. moderate OSA, severe OSA; $38.4{\pm}33.4$ vs. $27.4{\pm}26.0$, $56.1{\pm}27.5$, p<0.001), REM (control group vs. moderate OSA, severe OSA; $64.3{\pm}25.5$ vs. $56.1{\pm}27.5$, $47.3{\pm}25.9$, p<0.001) and mean SaO2% (control group vs. moderate OSA, severe OSA; $90.0{\pm}3.5$ vs. $82.5{\pm}5.5$, $70.0{\pm}8.8$, p<0.001) compared to control group. The Apnea-hypopnea index was significantly higher in OSA groups, increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure than in the nomentensive group (bed time systolic pressure vs. AHI; <120 vs. 120-139, 140-159, >159; $17.5{\pm}18.6$ vs. $24.9{\pm}21.0$, $31.0{\pm}25.7$, $42.3{\pm}31.7$, p<0.001), (bed time diastolic pressure vs. AHI; 60-79 vs. 80-89, 90-99, >99; $19.3{\pm}19.7$ vs. $22.4{\pm}20.3$, $29.8{\pm}23.3$, $38.8{\pm}28.5$, p<0.001). AHI was positively correlated with morning systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, bed time systolic pressure and diastolic pressure (r=0.314, 0.279, 0.233 and 0.200, respectively, p<0.001). We conclude that BMI, Age, neck circumference and AHI increase with the blood pressure.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.311-321
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate effect of stream channel naturalness on ecological health by using environmental factors and Fish Assessment Index (FAI) in the Han River of South Korea. These samples and data have been released from the research project titled Stream/River Ecosystem Survey and Health Assessment, which was conducted in 444 sites in the Han river watershed from 2008 to 2016. All samples were classified into five groups according to a degree of morphological changes of stream. Water chemistry analyses indicated a decline in water quality by decreasing stream channel naturalness, it is assumed that channelized stream was vulnerable to aquatic pollution compared to the natural meandering stream. In the result of frequency of dominant species, sensitive species and insectivore such as Zacco koreanus, Rhynchocypris kumgangensis and Pungtungia herzi were frequently dominated in the natural meandering stream while tolerant species and omnivores such as Carassius auratus and Cyprinus carpio were more dominated in the channelized streams. The FAI in the channelized stream shows decline to average of $46{\pm}25$ compared with that of the natural meandering stream ($80{\pm}20$). The decrease in FAI was highly influenced by changes in matrixes of fish assemblage structure such as number of sensitive species (M3), portion of omnivores (M5) and insectivores (M6). Moreover, annual average FAIs from 2008 to 2016 were significantly correlated with water chemistry, especially TN, TP and BOD ($r^2=0.59$, p<0.0001). Taken together, all the results suggest that the stream channelization could negatively impact on the water quality and fish assemblage structure, leading to degradation in aquatic ecosystem health.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.251-267
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• 2021

Remotely sensed vegetation indices (VIs) are empirically related with gross primary productivity (GPP) in various spatio-temporal scales. The uncertainties in GPP-VI relationship increase with temporal resolution. Uncertainty also exists in the eddy covariance (EC)-based estimation of GPP, arising from the partitioning of the measured net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) into GPP and ecosystem respiration (RE). For two forests and two agricultural sites, we correlated the EC-derived GPP in various time scales with three different near-surface remotely sensed VIs: (1) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), (2) enhanced vegetation index (EVI), and (3) near infrared reflectance from vegetation (NIRv) along with NIRvP (i.e., NIRv multiplied by photosynthetically active radiation, PAR). Among the compared VIs, NIRvP showed highest correlation with half-hourly and monthly GPP at all sites. The NIRvP was used to test the reliability of GPP derived by two different NEE partitioning methods: (1) original KoFlux methods (GPP_Ori) and (2) machine-learning based method (GPP_ANN). GPP_ANN showed higher correlation with NIRvP at half-hourly time scale, but there was no difference at daily time scale. The NIRvP-GPP correlation was lower under clear sky conditions due to co-limitation of GPP by other environmental conditions such as air temperature, vapor pressure deficit and soil moisture. However, under cloudy conditions when photosynthesis is mainly limited by radiation, the use of NIRvP was more promising to test the credibility of NEE partitioning methods. Despite the necessity of further analyses, the results suggest that NIRvP can be used as the proxy of GPP at high temporal-scale. However, for the VIs-based GPP estimation with high temporal resolution to be meaningful, complex systems-based analysis methods (related to systems thinking and self-organization that goes beyond the empirical VIs-GPP relationship) should be developed.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.107-116
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• 2014

Gonadal development and maturation mechanism were studied on the freshwater marsh clam Corbicula papyracea (Heude), which is the endangered species in Korea. The specimens were collected in the rearing ponds and waterway of NFRDI in Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do from January to December 2004, and then investigated by condition factor, relative growth, gonadal development phases and gonad histological characters based on 30-50 individuals every month. Comparing with the freshwater marsh clam, C. papyracea is small, light olive brown shell and violet interior. The hermaphrodite individuals of C. papyracea take an internal fertilization and fertilized eggs are stored in the foster-sack in the gills, then the hatched juveniles are released outside after an ovoviviparous process. The average water temperature of inhabit area was in range of $1.8-27.0^{\circ}C$ and usually took great effects on the gonad maturation of C. papyracea. The condition factor ranged from 0.14 to 0.21 throughout the year, which was the lowest during winter season (December-February), and gradually increased to the highest value of 0.21 in May. The ratio of meat weight to total weight was 25.9-38.7%, indicating the similar trend with condition factor. The highest values of condition factor and the ratio of meat weight appeared 1-2 months later than gonadosomatic index reached the peak value, it was probably because that the ovoviviparous eggs would spend a long period before hatching from the foster-sack in the gills. To synthesize the characters of meat weight, condition factor and gonad development by histological study, reproductive cycle of C. papyracea could be divided into five successive stages: multiplicative stage (December to February), growing stage (February to May), mature stage (June to August), spawning stage (August to November), recovery stage (November to December). The smallest shell length of matured C. papyracea was 12.6 mm, and individuals, larger than 16 mm, was formed the nursery in the gills.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.75-88
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• 2009

This paper presents a video quality assessment method based on quality degradation factors of real-time multimedia streaming services. The video quality degradation is caused by video source compression and network states. In this paper, we propose a blocky metric on an image domain to measure quality degradation by video compression. In this paper, the proposed boundary strength index for the blocky metric is defined by ratio of the variation of two pixel values adjacent to $8{\times}8$ block boundary and the average variation at several pixels adjacent to the two boundary pixels. On the other hand, unnatural image movement caused by network performance deterioration such as jitter and delay factors can be observed. In this paper, a temporal-Jerkiness measurement method is proposed by computing statistics of luminance differences between consecutive frames and play-time intervals between frames. The proposed final Perceptual Video Quality Metric (PVQM) is proposed by consolidating both blocking strength and temporal-jerkiness. To evaluate performance of the proposed algorithm, the accuracy of the proposed algorithm is compared with Difference of Mean Opinion Score (DMOS) based on human visual system.