• Title/Summary/Keyword: Work Environment Monitoring

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An Assessment and Review of IUCN Red List for Vascular Plants in Korean Peninsula (한반도 관속식물 IUCN 적색목록 평가와 문제점)

  • Chang, Chin-Sung;Kim, Hye Won;Kim, Hui
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.106 no.2
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    • pp.111-120
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    • 2017
  • The best source of information on the conservation status of species at a global scale is the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Until now, 236 vascular plants from Korean peninsula have been evaluated using the IUCN red list categories and criteria. It indicated that five taxa were considered as critically endangered, 20 as endangered and nine as vulnerable species as a threatened status. On the other hand, the rest (189 taxa) were assessed as a least concern, which did not qualify for threatened species categories. Korea Ministry of Environment published a revised version of 57 species list by re-classifying endangered species with idiosyncratic qualitative criteria for two levels (I and II) followed by status reviews in 2011. However, two thirds species proposed by Ministry of Environment do not qualify as threatened. The major difficulties found in applying IUCN Red List criteria at the global scale was a lack of knowledge on the status of species at broader geographic scales and the perceived difficulty the causes. The lack of consistency between two lists constrains the prioritization of species-based conservation work at the national level. Due to a lack of centralized monitoring data for most species, this status is largely qualitatively and so it carries a high level of uncertainty. This is reflected in the high number of species with an unknown population trend. The current list of endangered species of flora and fauna by the Ministry of Environment should be recognized as the national list (local and population extinction), which is different from the IUCN Red list due to the different geographical contexts. Also, it is necessary to improve the quality of evaluation and conservation management system rather than presenting massive number of endangered species list.

Water Quality Assessment and Turbidity Prediction Using Multivariate Statistical Techniques: A Case Study of the Cheurfa Dam in Northwestern Algeria

  • ADDOUCHE, Amina;RIGHI, Ali;HAMRI, Mehdi Mohamed;BENGHAREZ, Zohra;ZIZI, Zahia
    • Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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    • v.33 no.6
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    • pp.563-573
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    • 2022
  • This work aimed to develop a new equation for turbidity (Turb) simulation and prediction using statistical methods based on principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple linear regression (MLR). For this purpose, water samples were collected monthly over a five year period from Cheurfa dam, an important reservoir in Northwestern Algeria, and analyzed for 12 parameters, including temperature (T°), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), turbidity (Turb), dissolved oxygen (DO), ammonium (NH4+), nitrate (NO3-), nitrite (NO2-), phosphate (PO43-), total suspended solids (TSS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The results revealed a strong mineralization of the water and low dissolved oxygen (DO) content during the summer period. High levels of TSS and Turb were recorded during rainy periods. In addition, water was charged with phosphate (PO43-) in the whole period of study. The PCA results revealed ten factors, three of which were significant (eigenvalues >1) and explained 75.5% of the total variance. The F1 and F2 factors explained 36.5% and 26.7% of the total variance, respectively and indicated anthropogenic pollution of domestic agricultural and industrial origin. The MLR turbidity simulation model exhibited a high coefficient of determination (R2 = 92.20%), indicating that 92.20% of the data variability can be explained by the model. TSS, DO, EC, NO3-, NO2-, and COD were the most significant contributing parameters (p values << 0.05) in turbidity prediction. The present study can help with decision-making on the management and monitoring of the water quality of the dam, which is the primary source of drinking water in this region.

Application of Cathodic Protection on Metallic Structure in Extremely Acidic Fluids

  • Chang, H.Y.;Yoo, Y.R.;Jin, T.E.;Kim, Y.S.
    • Corrosion Science and Technology
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    • v.4 no.4
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    • pp.140-146
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    • 2005
  • Fossil fired power plant produces the electric energy by using a thermal energy by the combustion of fossil fuels as like oil, gas and coal. The exhausted flue gas by the combustion of oil etc. contains usually many contaminated species, and especially sulfur-content has been controlled strictly and then FGD (Flue Gas Desulfurization) facility should be installed in every fossil fired power plant. To minimize the content of contaminations in final exhaust gas, high corrosive environment including sulfuric acid (it was formed during the process which $SO_2$ gas combined with $Mg(OH)_2$ solution) can be formed in cooling zone of FGD facility and severe corrosion damage is reported in this zone. These conditions are formed when duct materials are immersed in fluid that flows on the duct floors or when exhausted gas is condensed into thin layered medium and contacts with materials of the duct walls and roofs. These environments make troublesome corrosion and air pollution problems that are occurred from the leakage of those ducts. The frequent shut down and repairing works of the FGD systems also demand costs and low efficiencies of those facilities. In general, high corrosion resistant materials have been used to solve this problem. However, corrosion problems have severely occurred in a cooling zone even though high corrosion resistant materials were used. In this work, a new technology has been proposed to solve the corrosion problem in the cooling zone of FGD facility. This electrochemical protection system contains cathodic protection method and protection by coating film, and remote monitoring-control system.

A Research on the Reproductive Properties of Great Tits in the Urban Forests (도시녹지에서 박새의 번식특성에 관한 연구)

  • Jeong, Hyu-Jin;Cho, Eun-A;Ko, Hyeon-Seo;Jang, Gab-Sue
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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    • v.15 no.5
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    • pp.155-163
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    • 2012
  • This study was carried out to monitor reproductive responses of great tits in 17 urban forests in Daegu metropolitan city. The reproductive perspectives of great tits were surveyed by using 106 artificial bird nests, of which five or seven nests were set up in every urban forest. A ratio of artificial nests used by great tits for their reproduction was 27.4%. It was showing that forests, where the reproductive response was higher, was located at the edge of the city, or was known as having a good vegetation structure in the urban area. The laying date of a great tit was a little earlier in forests in the middle of the city. It might be dependent on the density of artificial land uses including a residential area and an industrial complex, which are able to increase an urban micro-temperature. Otherwise, natural forests or forest patches nearby natural forests located at the edge of the city were showing that the laying date of great tits was relatively later than the oneee in the forest in the middle of the city. There was a big difference of reproduction perspectives of great tit between the 1st and 2nd reproduction. In the 1st reproduction, a clutch size was larger, while an egg volume was so low. Otherwise, the clutch size was shown so smaller in the 2nd reproduction than in the 1st reproduction, while the egg volume was larger in the 2nd reproduction. It might be due to the survival strategy of a great tit to prepare the winter season for a juvenile. Many variables, regarding to the problem of climate changes, have been linked to the environment of urban area and the bird habitats. Finally, Monitoring a bird reproduction is a valuable work for managing an urban forest as well as for conserving a natural forest.

A Study on the Influencing Factors of Knowledge Sharing at GKMC (GKMC하 지식공유영향요인에 관한 연구)

  • Song, Chung Geun
    • Informatization Policy
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    • v.21 no.3
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    • pp.85-101
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    • 2014
  • This study analyzed the influencing factors for knowledge sharing at GKMC, and then tried to illuminate the policy meanings implied in the results. To build a framework of analysis, reviewing the KM-related studies, the author selected five influencing factors for knowledge sharing, such as CMC quality, community commitment, structural social capital, cognitive social capital, and relational capital, and actors, and identified the fact that all the factors have a positive effect on knowledge sharing. In the case of Kwang-ju metropolitan city, the first factor that affects knowledge sharing is community commitment, the second one is CMC quality, and the third one is structural social capital. This result means that to succeed in knowledge sharing, the local government managers should try to shape the bonding among members, and then to get rid of the causes of complaints. In addition, local government also needs to predict problems claims and take proper actions for GKMC to be used conveniently through monitoring their work continuously. Furthermore, they should make a free and happy working environment, closely examining the change of the relationship among social capitals.

Flora of Gonggeom-ji Wetlands Protection Area (Sangju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do) (공검지(경북 상주) 습지보호지역의 식물상)

  • Song, Im Geun;Park, Seon Joo
    • Journal of Wetlands Research
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.203-214
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    • 2013
  • Knowing how many species live in a ecosystem is a major work because of the distributions of species are determined by the environmental condition. This study was carried out to investigate the distribution of vascular plants of Gonggeom-ji, located in Sangju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, from April to October on 2012. The vascular plants were summarized as 240 taxa including 69 families, 176 genus, 204 species, 2 subspecies, 29 varieties, and 5 forma. Among the investigated taxa, 3 taxa of Korean endemic plants were included. Based on the list of specially designated plants by Ministry of Environment, 11 taxa including Alisma orientale, Monochoria korsakowii and Nymphoides peltata were recorded. The naturalized plants were identified as 26 taxa and the ratio of naturalized index (NI) was 10.8% of vascular plants recorded. 31 taxa of hydrophytes showed 17.8% of Korea. To conservation of wetlands, we suggest that it is required to minimize for unnecessary disturbance of human and to make a strategy for effective management by continuous monitoring for ecosystem alteration.

Viability and Luciferase Activity of Freeze-Dried Recombinant Biosensor Cells for Detecting Aromatic Hydrocarbons

  • Kim, Mi-Na;Park, Hoo-Hwi;Lim, Woon-Ki;Shin, Hae-Ja
    • Biomedical Science Letters
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    • v.9 no.4
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    • pp.195-201
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    • 2003
  • Aromatic hydrocarbons are of major concern among genotoxic chemicals due to their toxicity and persistence. Some microorganisms can utilize aromatic hydrocarbons as carbon and energy sources by inducing expression of catabolic operon(s). The XylR regulatory protein activates transcription of the catabolic enzymes to degrade BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) from its cognate promoters, Pu and Ps upon exposure of the cells to the aromatic hydrocarbons. The activity of XylR on the promoters was previously monitored using luciferase luc reporter system. The xylR, its promoter Pr and the promoter Po for the phenolic compound catabolic operon were introduced upstream of firefly luciferase luc in the pGL3b vector to generate about 7.1 kb of pXRBTEX. Here E. coli harboring the plasmid was freeze-dried under various conditions to fin,d optimal conditions for storage and transport. The cell viability and luciferase activity were maintained better, when the cells were freeze-dried at -7$0^{\circ}C$ in the addition of the 10% skim milk or 12% sucrose. However, coaddition of protectants such as 10% skim milk plus 10% glucose or 12% sucrose plus 10% glucose, resulted in much better viability and bioluminescence activity compared with the effect of single addition of each protectant. In addition, it was shown that the freeze-dried cells maintained almost intact bioluminescent activities and cell viability for at least 1 week after freeze-drying. This work demonstrated that the properly freeze-dried recombinant bacterial cells could be utilized as a whole-cell biosensor for simple and rapid monitoring of BTEX in the environment.

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Gender, Professional and Non-Professional Work, and the Changing Pattern of Employment-Related Inequality in Poor Self-Rated Health, 1995-2006 in South Korea

  • Kim, Il-Ho;Khang, Young-Ho;Cho, Sung-Il;Chun, Hee-Ran;Muntaner, Carles
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.44 no.1
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    • pp.22-31
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    • 2011
  • Objectives: We examined gender differential changes in employment-related health inequalities according to occupational position (professional/nonprofessional) in South Korea during the last decade. Methods: Data were taken from four rounds of Social Statistical Surveys of South Korea (1995, 1999, 2003, and 2006) from the Korean National Statistics Office. The total study population was 55435 male and 33913 female employees aged 25-64. Employment arrangements were divided into permanent, fixed-term, and daily employment. Results: After stratification according to occupational position (professional/nonprofessional) and gender, different patterns in employment - related health inequalities were observed. In the professional group, the gaps in absolute and relative employment inequalities for poor self-rated health were more likely to widen following Korea's 1997 economic downturn. In the nonprofessional group, during the study period, graded patterns of employment-related health inequalities were continuously observed in both genders. Absolute health inequalities by employment status, however, decreased among men but increased among women. In addition, a remarkable increase in relative health inequalities was found among female temporary and daily employees (p = 0.009, < 0.001, respectively), but only among male daily employees (p = 0.001). Relative employment-related health inequalities had clearly widened for female daily workers between 2003 and 2006 (p = 0.047). The 1997 Korean economic downturn, in particular, seemingly stimulated a widening gap in employment health inequalities. Conclusions: Our study revealed that whereas absolute health inequalities in relation to employment status increased in the professional group, relative employment-related health inequalities increased in the nonprofessional group, especially among women. In view of the high concentration of female nonstandard employees, further monitoring of inequality should consider gender specific patterns according to employee's occupational and employment status.

A Study on the Hospital Information System in Korea (우리나라 병원정보시스템 실태에 관한 연구)

  • 전기홍;조우현
    • Health Policy and Management
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.1-26
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    • 1994
  • As the hospital environment is changing rapidly, management is therefore obligated to use new ways to provide better service to patients. For example information system is introduced to some hospitals in Korea. Information system has several benefits such a soperational efficiency by on-line delivery and processing of data, accurate and rapid information production, continuous monitoring of performance and feedback, improvement of work process and better service quality. Still, many hospitals cannot be sure that information system is useful for improving organization performance. Because only one or two area of hospital information system were considered for development and with limited development hospital information system cannot be used effectively. The purpose of this study is to suggest the model of information system utilizaton and to analyze the hospital in formation system in Korea. The results are following; 1. In Korea, proportion of operating system of comuter is 31% of UNIX, 11% of IBM OS and 10% of PC LAN. 2. As we expect, scope of application software and amounts of heardware and software invest ments are affected by concern of CEO. 3. Many CIO(chief information officer) say that the biggest problems are lack of after-service and obsolescence of computer equipments in terms of hardware and shortage of application software for hospital in terms of software. 4. Personnel of information system department is so small that hospital information system can't be improved. 5. During the development of information system, full-time participation of end user is only 20% hospital with almost less than 12 person-month. This study was accomplished by survey through mail questionnaires. Response to the survey was only 55% and it was hard to generalize all the result obtained from this survey. However, We hope that this study would be helpful for helth care organization to acknowlege hospital information system in korea and to design the future architecture and frame of information system.

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Elements and Application of "SmartHome" Concept for Older Adults in USA (미국에서 노인을 위한 "스마트홈(SmartHome)" 개념의 요소와 적용)

  • Moon, Changho
    • Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.7-14
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    • 2011
  • This paper is intended to suggest some reference materials for future elderly housing design, especially smart home, in Korea, by reviewing the elements and applications of smart home concept for older adults in USA. Research method includes collecting materials by attending the regular SmartHome$^{(R)}$ part meeting, the navigation of related homepages, and the analysis of collected materials. Current researches in Korea look initial stage and show some general principles without practical concept & technologies of elderly facilities. SeniorSmart$^{(R)}$ Center in USA started on August 2007 with the 3 parts of SmartHOME$^{(R)}$, SmartWHEELS$^{(R)}$ and SmartBRAIN$^{(R)}$. The Center has been doing various multidisciplinary research projects but slowing down the planned processes due to national economic recession. The major researches of SmartHome$^{(R)}$ part can be summarized as follows; CS-PFP( Continuous Scale Physical Function Performance) laboratory is being in operation to help older adults and families make the difficult decision regarding the ability and safety to live independently. Three levels of necessary laboratories from uninhabited space to senior living environment were accommodated for field research. As core technologies of SmartHome$^{(R)}$, predicting & warning system of fall risk on recognizing gait signature patterns to identify any deviation from the normal patterns of the older adults, home monitoring system which will send alerts to a specified relative and/or health care professional when vital signs of the older adults will not be within normal parameters, and Mobility & Research Clinic for evaluating, treating the older adults & multidisciplinary research are under development. SmartHome$^{(R)}$ has made collaborative research agreements for field laboratory with various retirement communities and also is continuing to work for experimental software engineering with the Fraunhofer Institute, Germany.