• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.159-162
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• 2002

Innovative and nondestructive characterization techniques have been developed to locate and quantify nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) in the vadose and saturated zones in the subsurface environment. One such technique is the partitioning interwell tracer test (PITT). The PITT is a simultaneous displacement of partitioning and non-partitioning tracers through a subsurface formation. Partitioning tracers will partition into the NAPL during their transport through NAPL-contaminated formations. Mean travel times of partitioning and non-partitioning tracers are used to estimate the quantity of NAPL encountered by the displaced tracer pulse. Travel times are directly proportional to the partitioning coefficient and the volume of NAPL contacted in the subsurface environment. This paper discusses the conceptual background, design and implementation of PITTs. (This document has not been subjected to Agency review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency, and no official endorsement should be inferred.)

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2010

Discharged materials from the point or non-point source are released into the sea, and as the results, marine environment is directly affected. We must estimate the impacts of contaminants to marine pollution rapidly and accurately. Therefore, it is needed on early warning system for appreciating marine environmental impacts, and required a bioassay to evaluate abnormal changes. A bioassay test was developed to examine the effects of heavy metal contaminants on the early life stages of the marine annimals. We have studied the effects of metals on early development of a sea urchin species, Strongylocentrotus intermedius. S. intermedius embryos were tested with six metals (Cu, Ag, Zn, Cd, Cr, Ni) and showed the highest sensitivity to Cu as well as the lowest sensitivity to Cd. The order of biological impact for metals was Cu>Ag>Ni>Zn>Cr>Cd. In accordance with the results, sea urchins embryos can provide biological criteria for seawater quality assessment. The sensitivity of developmental bioassay whith S. intermedius is at intermediate level among marine organisms commonly used in aquatic bioassays. And this sea urchin can be routinely employed as a test organism for ecotoxicity assays.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.475-480
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• 2023

Objectives: This study examined differences in health care spending and characteristics among older adults in Korea by high-cost status (persistently, transiently, and never high-cost). Methods: We identified 1 364 119 older adults using data from the Korean National Insurance Claims Database for 2017-2019. Outcomes included average annual total health care spending and high-cost status for 2017-2019. Linear regression was used to estimate differences in the outcomes while adjusting for individual-level characteristics. Results: Persistently and transiently high-cost older adults had higher health care spending than never high-cost older adults, but the difference in health care spending was greater among persistently high-cost older adults than among transiently high-cost older adults (US$20 437 vs. 5486). Despite demographic and socioeconomic differences between transiently high-cost and never high-cost older adults, the presence of comorbid conditions remained the most significant factor. However, there were no or small differences in the prevalence of comorbid conditions between persistently high-cost and transiently high-cost older adults. Rather, notable differences were observed in socioeconomic status, including disability and receipt of Medical Aid. Conclusions: Medical risk factors contribute to high health care spending to some extent, but social risk factors may be a source of persistent high-cost status among older adults in Korea.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.983-997
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• 2015

This research evaluates the soil conditions for seismic stations situated in Romania using the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR). The strong ground motion database assembled for this study consists of 179 analogue and digital strong ground motion recordings from four intermediate-depth Vrancea seismic events with $M_w{\geq}6.0$. In the first step of the analysis, the influence of the earthquake magnitude and source-to-site distance on the H/V curves is evaluated. Significant influences from both the earthquake magnitude and hypocentral distance are found especially for soil class A sites. Next, a site classification method proposed in the literature is applied for each seismic station and the soil classes are compared with those obtained from borehole data and from the topographic slope method. In addition, the success and error rates of this method are computed and compared with other studies from the literature. A more in-depth analysis of the H/V results is performed using data from seismic stations in Bucharest and a comparison of the free-field and borehole H/V curves is done for three seismic stations. The results show large differences between the free-field and the borehole curves. As a conclusion, the results from this study represent an intermediary step in the evaluation of the soil conditions for seismic stations in Romania and the need to perform more detailed soil classification analysis is highly emphasized.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.596-601
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• 2006

Because of insufficiency of energy resources and pollution of environment, it is necessary to develop alternative energy sources. Nuclear fission energy is used widely for source of electric Power but being restricted due to radioactivity problem. Nuclear fission is highlighted as the new generation of nuclear energy and researched worldwide because of low risk of radiation effect. The representatives of fusion research is China's EAST, KSTAR of Korea and ITER of world. Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research(KSTAR) project is on progress for the completion in August, 2007. In this study, the research of utility system for KSTAR be carried out. The utility system of KSTAR is consist of water cooling & heating system, $N_2$ gas system, DI water system, service water system and instrument air & auto control system. The progress of KSTAR utility system is under commissioning state after construction completion. The optimal operation scenario will be verified during commissioning and adopted to the KSTAR operation.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.85-95
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• 1992

The purpose of this research was to find out the most explainable variables influencing fashion leadership. This research was carried out by both the theoretical and empirical study. For the theoretical study, the research of fashion leadership was based on the fashion opinion leadership and innovativeness. The study included the analysis of variables influencing fashion leadership, such as clothing importance, clothing conformity, clothing anticonformity, perceived risk of clothing, use of fashion information source and demographic variables. For the empirical study, fashion leadership was measured by fashion opinion leadership and innovativeness. The variables influencing on the fashion leadership were measured by self-image, social participation, clothing behaviors(clothing importance, normative conformity, identificational conformity, clothing anticonformity, clothing independance), demographic variables(major fields of students, year of education, family income). Data were obtained from 335 female college and university students in Chung-Buk area by self-administered questionaire. The data collected through the questionaire were analyzed by the stastical thechique-stepwise regression. The results of the study were as follow: 44.6 percent of the total variance of fashion leadership was explained by the five variables: Clothing importance, use of marketer-dominated fashion information source, identificational conformity, traditional-modern self image and clothing anticonformity. Family income and the major fields of students are significantly related to the fashion leadership.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.135-150
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• 2012

This paper presents a portfolio model for a long-term power generation mix problem. The proposed portfolio model evaluates generation mix by considering the tradeoffs between the expected cost for power generation and its variability. Unlike conventional portfolio models measuring variance, we introduce Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) in designing the variability with aims to considering events that are enormously expensive but are rare such as nuclear power plant accidents. Further, we consider uncertainties associated with future electricity demand, fuel prices and their correlations, and capital costs for power plant investments. To obtain an objective generation by each energy source, we employ the sample average approximation method that approximates the stochastic objective function by taking the average of large sample values so that provides asymptotic convergence of optimal solutions. In addition, the method includes Monte Carlo simulation techniques in generating random samples from multivariate distributions. Applications of the proposed model and method are demonstrated through a case study of an electricity industry with nuclear, coal, oil (OCGT), and LNG (CCGT) in South Korea.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.23-30
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• 1998

An estimation of seismic risk parameters by seismic zones of the Korea Peninsula in order to calculate the seismic hazard values using these was erformed. Seven seismic source zones were selected in consideration of seismicity and geology of Korean Peninsula. The seismicity parameters that should be estimated are maximum intensity, activity rate and b value in the Gutenberg - Richter relation. For computation of these parameters, least square method or maximum likelihood method is applied to the earthquake data in two ways; the one for the data without maximum intensity and the other with maximum intensity. Earthquake data since Choseon Dynasty is regarded as complete and estimation of parameters was made for these data using above two ways. And recently, a new method is published that estimate the seismicity parameters using mixed data containing large historical events and recent complete observations. Therefore, this method is applied to the whole earthquake data of the Korean Peninsula. It turns out that the b value computed considering maximum intensity is slightly lower than that computed considering without maximum intensity, and it becomes still lower when the incomplete data prior to Choseon Dynasty is used. In the case of the activity rates, the values obtained without maximum intensity and that with maximum intensity are similar, though they are lower when the incomplete data is used. The values of maximum intensities are usually lower when considering incomplete data. In the seismic source zone including the Yangsan Fault zone, however, the values are higher when considering the incomplete data.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.130-137
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• 2022

In the geological repository of radioactive nuclear waste, anaerobic corrosion can generate hydrogen, and may conservatively lead to the production of hydrogen-air layer. The accumulated hydrogen may cause a hazardous flame propagation resulting from any potential ignition sources. This study numerically investigates the processes of ignition and flame propagation in the layered mixture. Simple geometry was chosen to represent the geological repository, and reactive flow simulations were performed with different ignition power, energy, and locations. The simulation results revealed the effects of power and energy of ignition source, which were also analyzed theoretically. The mechanism of layered flame propagation was suggested, which includes three stages: propagation into the hydrogen area, downward propagation due to the product gas, and horizontal propagation along the top wall. To investigate the effect of the ignition source location, simulations with eight different positions were performed, and the boundary of hazardous ignition area was identified. The simulation results were also explained through scaling analysis. This study evaluates the potential risk of the accumulated hydrogen in geological repository, and illustrates the layered flame propagation in related ignition scenarios.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.79-89
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• 2007

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the present status of several environmental problems caused by emerging toxic substances such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and arsenic in various environmental media in Vietnam. Monitoring data reported during the 1990s demonstrated elevated contamination of DDTs in most of these compartments in Vietnam. Studies in frame of the Asia-Pacific Mussel Watch Program revealed that fish, mussels and resident birds from Vietnam contained higher concentrations of DDTs as compared to other countries in region, suggesting the role of Vietnamese environment as a significant emission source of DDT in the Southeast Asian region. The estimated dietary intakes of PCBs and DDTs for Vietnamese were relatively high among Asian developing countries, suggesting potential risk for humans posed by thesechemicals. Widespread contamination of some endocrine active compounds such as alkylphenols and phthalates was observed at various sites along the coasts of northern and middle Vietnam. The presence of significant source of bisphenol-A along Red River estuary was revealed with the concentrations comparable to those reported for developed nations. A case study on seasonal variation of alkylphenols and phthalates in surface water of river delta and estuary of north and middle Vietnam indicated the differences in distribution of these compounds between dry and rainy seasons. Higher concentrations of alkylphenols and phthalates were found in dry season in estuary; while the contrasting pattern was observed in the river delta, showing elevated residues in rainy season. This result suggests the different behavior of alkylphenols and phthalates in river delta and coastal environment. From ecotoxicological perspectives, concentrations of bis-phenol A and di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalates [DEHP] in surface water from some locations in Vietnam exceeded the guideline values for Ecotoxicological Effects and the Environmental Risk Limit, respectively, suggesting potential for toxic implications on aquatic wildlife. Widespread and elevated arsenic contamination was discovered inour recent surveys in groundwater in a large area of suburban areas of Hanoi city, the capital of Vietnam. The most recent investigation in 4 villages showed about more than 50 % of groundwater samples contained As concentrations exceeding 50 g/L (the WHO and Vietnamese standard). In particular, in Son Dong villages, 58 % of samples analyzed contained As concentrations higher than 200 g/L. Good correlations were found in As concentrations in water and hair and urine of peoples in corresponding families, suggesting the chronic exposure to As by people living in As-contaminated ground water areas. In Son Dong village, As levels in hair (mean: 1.7 mg/kg dry wt) and urine (g/g creatinine) exceeding the reference values recommended by WHO, suggesting potential for human risk posed by long term accumulation of As in human body. Future studies should be focused on the time trends of POPs and EDCs in biota in Vietnam in order to predict future trend of contamination and to reveal new clues for understanding possible toxic impacts on aquatic organisms. The issues of arsenic contamination in groundwater and their chronic toxic implications on human health should be systematically investigated in the future.