• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.410-420
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• 2012

The heavy reliance on fossil fuels, especially oil and gas has triggered the global energy crisis. Continued use of petroleum fuels is now widely recognized as unsustainable because of their depleting supplies and degradation to the environment. To become less dependent on fossil fuels, current world is shifting paradigm in energy by developing alternative energy sources mainly through the utilization of renewable energy sources. In particular, bioenergy recovery from wastes with the help of microorganism is viewed as one of the promising ways to mitigate the current global warming crisis as well as to supply global energy. It has been proved that microorganism can generate power by converting organic matter into electricity using microbial fuel cells (MFCs). MFC is a bioelectrochemical device that employs microbes to generate electricity from bio-convertible substrate such as wastewaters including municipal solid waste, industrial, agriculture wastes, and sewage. Sustainability, carbon neutral and generation of renewable energy are some of the major features of MFCs. However, the MFC technology is confronted with a number of issues and challenges such as low power production, high electrode material cost and so on. This paper reviews the recent developments in MFC technology with due consideration of electrode materials used in MFCs. In addition, application of biocathodes in MFCs has been discussed.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.571-578
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• 2014

The garlic cultivation area is moved by change of grown environment due to global warming. It is important to predict changes in cultivation area, quantity and quality of each crop. This study was carried out to estimate the yield and response of garlic growth by the rapid temperature changes in the greenhouse with thermostat control system. Seedlings of Namdo garlic were planted on September 27, 2012 and harvested on May 30, 2013. The used treatments for a rapid temperature change in March-April-May were T0 (control): $6.0-10.4-17.2^{\circ}C$, T1: $6.0-5.4(-5)-17.2^{\circ}C$, T2: $6.0-10.4-22.2(+5)^{\circ}C$ and T3: $6.0-5.4(-5)-22.2(+5)^{\circ}C$. Total dried weight per plant of garlic significantly increased by 5.0% for T2, but T1 and T3 decreased by 12.5 and 4.6%, respectively, compared to T0. Total yields of bulb within the temperature change as T2 and T0 increased significantly (p<0.05), as compared to T1. Decreasing temperature significantly (p<0.05) reduced plant height, SPAD reading, crude protein and fiber contents etc., as compared to T0 and T2. ABA contents gradually increased with time but IAA content rapidly decreased. Conclusively, growth and yield of garlic were more affected by decreased temperature than increased temperature at bulb development stage.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.165-174
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• 1999

This study was conducted to analyze the priority of environmental problems in Korea by investigating the environmental professionals' perception. The delphi technique was applied to identify their risk perception towards some specific items related with pollution. A standardized questionnaire on environmental problems and their priorities was used to 74 subjects. In the questionnaire, the environmental problems were divided into the general ones,9 items, and the specific ones,30 items. Also, the perception was associated with two points of view which were the risk on general human health or ecosystem, and on the present situation in Korea. The priority of risk from general environmental problems on human health or ecosystem was analyzed in the order of 'water pollution', 'air pollution', 'soil contamination', 'waste', 'toxic chemical pollutants', 'food contamination', 'ocean contamination', 'odor pollution', and 'noise pollution'. The priority of risk on the present situation in Korea was analyzed in the order of 'water pollution','air pollution','waste','toxic chemical pollutants','food contamination','soil contamination','ocean contamination','odor pollution', and 'noise pollution'. And these priorities were significantly related with the characteristics of respondents such as sex, age, and major concerned area. However, for the first five priorities of risk from the specific environmental problems on human health or ecosystem, the environmental professionals agreed with 'automotive vehicle exhaust', 'domestic and industrial source pollutants to surface water', '$CO_2$nd g1oba1 warming effect','toxic air pollutant' and 'industrial source air pollution'. The priorities of risk on the present situation in Korea were similar to these results.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2014

Migration of methane ($CH_4$) gas from landfills to the surrounding environment negatively affects both humankind and the environment. It is therefore essential to develop management techniques to reduce $CH_4$ emissions from landfills to minimize global warming and to reduce the human risks associated with $CH_4$ gas migration. Oxidation of $CH_4$ in landfill cover soil is the most important strategy for $CH_4$ emissions mitigation. $CH_4$ oxidation occurs naturally in landfill cover soils due to the abundance of methanotrophic bacteria. However, the activities of these bacteria are influenced by several controlling factors. This study attempts to review the important issues associated with the $CH_4$ oxidation process in landfill cover soils. The $CH_4$ oxidation process is highly sensitive to environmental factors and cover soil properties. The comparison of various biotic system techniques indicated that each technique has unique advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of the best technique for a specific application depends on economic constraints, treatment efficiency and landfill operations.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.734-742
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• 2016

Global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels have been caused by decades of reckless development. Wind energy is one form of renewable energy and is considered a future energy source. The wind tower is designed with a fundamental frequency in the soft-stiff design between the 1P and 3P range to avoid resonance. Usually, to perform natural frequency analysis of a wind tower, the boundary condition is set to the Fixed-End, and soil-pile interaction is not considered. In this study, consideration of the effect of soil-pile interaction on the wind tower was included and the difference in the natural frequency was studied. The fixed boundary condition was not affected by the soil condition and depth of the pile and the coupled spring boundary condition was unaffected by the depth of pile but affected by the depth of the pile, and the Winkler spring boundary condition is affected by both the soil condition and the depth of the pile. Therefore, the coupled spring boundary condition should be used in shallow depth soil conditions because the soil condition does not take the shallow depth soil into consideration.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.83-91
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• 2006

Recently, the intensive rainstorm possibly induced by global warming plays a key role on the instability of railway adjacent slopes. The instability of slopes results as covering and loss of railway lines induced by slided soil mass. According to the site investigation on the failed slopes triggered by rainfall, low types of slope failure were observed: shallow, intermediate, gully erosion, and soil-rock interface failures. The observation reveals the different characteristics of slope failure depending on the thickness of soil layer, morphological features of slope, etc. Based upon the observations, flume tests were conducted to analyze the sliding mechanism of each failure. The variables of flume test are soil layer thickness, rainfall intensity, and morphology of slope under the constant condition of the percentage of fine, initial soil moisture content, slope angle and compaction energy. Test results show that shallow failure was mostly observed from the surface of the slope and caused by the soil erosion; in addition, compared to the other types of failure, the occurrence of initial erosion is late, however, the development of erosion is fast. In gully erosion failure, the collected water from the water catchment area helps erosion of the upper soil layer and transfer of residual corestone, which impedes the erosion process once the upper soil layers are eroded and corestone are exposed. The soil-rock interface failure shows the most fast initial erosion process among the failure types. Interestingly, the common feature observed from the different types of failure was the occurrence of the initial deformation near the toe of slopes which implies the existence of surbsurface flow along the downslope direction.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.6B
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• pp.541-549
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• 2010

While the number of rainy days is decreasing, the mean annual precipitation is increasing due to abnormal climate changes caused by the global warming in Korea. Owing to the biased-concentration of rainfall during specific short terms, not only flood but also drought becomes more and more serious. From the literature, it is easily found that previous studies about flood have been intensively conducted. However, previous studies about drought have been performed rarely. This study conducted the comparison between two representative drought indexes calculated from soil moisture and precipitation. Study area was Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do in Korea. Soil Moisture Index(SMI) was calculated from soil moisture data while the Standardized Precipitation Index(SPI) and the Palmer Drought Severity Index(PDSI) were calculated from meteorological data. All monthly data utilized in this study were observed at the KoFlux Tower. After the comparative analysis, three indexes showed similar tendency. Therefore, it is thought that the drought index using soil moisture measured at the KoFlux Tower is reasonable, which is because the soil moisture is immediately affected by all the meteorological factors.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.40-43
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• 2005

The island alpine biogeography of Mt. Halla (Hallasan), Jeju Island (Jejudo), Korea is discussed. The presence of numerous species of alpine flora on Mt. Halla, the southernmost distributional limit for certain species, may primarily be attributed to palaeo-environmental factors, since it can not be wholly explained by reference to current environmental conditions. The alpine flora on the peak of Mt. Halla, mainly above 1,500m a.s.l, is evidently descended from immigrants from NE Asia via the Korean Peninsula during the epochs of the Ice Age. These plants, which are very intolerant of competition with temperate vegetation, have been able to persist in alpine belts thanks to their harsh climatic conditions, sterile soil, rugged topography and cryoturbation. The alpine plants on Hallasan are in a stage or process of retreat toward the mountaintop, most likely due to recent climatic amelioration. The lower limit of some species seems to coincide with maximum summer isotherms. The continued survival of arctic-alpine and alpine plants on the summit of Hallasan, Jejudo, the Korean Peninsula, however, is in danger, if global warming associated with the greenhouse effect continues.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2007

This study investigated the effect of parked cars in the sunshine on the increase of air temperature on a sunny day. Air temperatures were determined both from inside of the parked cars and the top surface of the vehicle at which one car was parked under the sunshine and the other in the shade for the duration of 27 hours. The surface temperatures of asphalt and bare soil were simultaneously measured in both locations, sunshine and shade areas, along with a couple of meteorological factors. The sensible heat fluxes from the surfaces of asphalt, bare soil and two vehicles were estimated by utilizing those observed data. The results are as follows; 1) The surface temperatures of bare soil, asphalt and two vehicles increased with $30{\sim}37^{\circ}C,\;37{\sim}46^{\circ}C\;and\;42{\sim}49^{\circ}C$ respectively during the day. 2) The sensible heat fluxes were noticeably higher from the top surface of the parked vehicle in the sunshine than from the asphalt or bare soil. The differences of sensible heat fluxes between the vehicle's roof and the other two surfaces of asphalt and bare soil were 60 (asphalt) and 85 (bare soil) $W/m^2$ during the daytime.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

Subterranean termites forage by constructing tunnel networks in soil and encounter food resources during tunnel excavation. Some species of termites can travel up to 150 m underground. They often travel to the surface to find wood cellulose to feed their colony, which in turn causes extensive damage to wooden architecture, such as timber-frame houses. This type of damage has been constantly increasing along with global warming because higher temperatures provide an ecological niche for termites. The damage is closely related to termite territory size and distribution. Recently, as a way to research termite control, the necessity of a mathematical model to simulate termite territory formation in relation to damage has increased. So far, however, few studies have been conducted on the development of a model because it is difficult to quantify or characterize the relationship between territorial behavior and field conditions including complicated environmental factors. In the present study, we suggest a simulation model of the territoriality of the Formosan subterranean termites, Coptotermes formosanus (Shiraki), and Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar), based on empirical data. The model consists of 2 procedures. One describes tunnel network growth for each colony, and the other represents territoriality based on tunnel-tunnel interactions between different colonies. Using the model, we show changes in territorial competition according to the termination probability of tunnel growth.