• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.140-145
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• 2006

We measured activities of the ubiquitous tripeptide non-protein thiol (L-${\gamma}$-glutamyl-L-cysteinyl-glycine), glutathione (GSH), which is believed to playa fundamental role in detoxifying xenobiotics in biological systems, as a metabolic biomarker for benzo(${\alpha}$)pyrene and Aroclor 1254 exposure in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. Reproductive oysters were exposed to the pollutants for 50 days by the algal vectoring method in which the oysters were fed with concentrated standard algal foods grown in culture media containing Aroclor 1254 (0, 5, 50, 500 ng/g) or benzo(${\alpha}$)pyrene (0, 10, 100, 1,000 ng/g). Both pollutants induced maternal GSH activities in 10 days in a dosage-dependent manner (p<0.05), although Aroclor 1254 was stronger. The pollutant-driven GSH elevation persisted for 20 to 30 days depending on the pollutants and concentrations. Thereafter, a drastic decline in the GSH activity was observed due to metabolic failure, after which the oyster GSH remained at low levels throughout the remainder of the experiment. The pollutant exposures influenced maternal reproductive output in terms of fertilization, hatching, and morphology. These results imply that changes in activity of the GST-catalyzing molecule can be used as an oyster biomarker for Aroclor 1254 and benzo(${\alpha}$)pyrene exposure.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.316-322
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• 2001

Objectives : To explore the possible effect of an interaction between summertime heat waves and ozone on cardiopulmonary mortality during the 1994 heat wave in Korea. Methods : The unusually hot summer of 1994 in Korea was defined as the heat wave in this study. We examined the associations of air pollutants with daily cardiopulmonary deaths between 1991-1995, considering the product term of the heat wave and each pollutant, weather and time trends. Results : During the heat wave, while temperatures were uniformly higher than those of other summers, the within-heat-wave difference in mortality paralleled that in the regional ozone levels. In terms of the influence of the heat wave, the results of ozone were different to those of total suspended particles (TSP) and sulfur dioxide $(SO_2)$. The ozone association (relative risk (RR) : 1.036; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.018-1.054) was observed only under heat wave conditions, while the TSP (RR : 1.006, 95% CI = 0.999-1.012) and the $SO_2$ (RR = 1.018, 95% CI : 1.011-1.024) associations were found under normal weather conditions (per interquartile increase of each pollutant; results of three pollutants model). The ozone association under heat wave was attributable to the statistical interaction between the heat wave and ozone. Conclusions : These results support the possibility of a biological synergy between the heat wave and ozone, one that is not evident between the heat wave and other major pollutants like particles or $SO_2$.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 2021

Effective nonpoint source (NPS) pollution management requires frequent water quality monitoring, which is, however, often costly to be implemented in practice. Statistical techniques and machine learning methods allow us to identify and focus on fundamental environmental variables that have close relationships with NPS pollutants of interest. This study developed surrogate models to predict the concentrations of suspended sediment (SS) and total phosphorus (T-P) from turbidity and runoff discharge rates using multiple linear regression (MLR) and random forest (RF) methods. The RF models provided acceptable performance in predicting SS and T-P, especially when runoff discharge rates were high. The RF models outperformed the MLR models in all the cases. Such finding highlights the potential of RF techniques and models as a tool to identify fundamental environmental variables that are measured in relatively inexpensive ways or freely available but still able to provide information required to quantify the concentrations of NP S pollutants. The analysis of relative importance rates showed that the temporal variations of SS and T-P concentrations could be more effectively explained by that of turbidity than runoff discharge rate. This study demonstrated that the advanced statistical techniques such as machine learning could help to improve the efficiency of NPS pollutants monitoring.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.232-238
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• 2010

In order to investigate the treatment efficiency of pollutants in free water surface constructed wetlands (FWS CWs) with lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) cultivation pond, the experiment was consisted of two sites (site I and II) in Lake Juam, Korea. The sites were configured a lotus cultivation pond (with fertilizer application) - a dropwort bed - a reed bed for site I, and a lotus cultivation pond (without fertilizer application) - a dropwort bed - a reed bed for site II. Removal rate of COD in site I and II were 13.3% and 26.0%, respectively. Removal rate of total nitrogen (TN) was 29.7% for site I, and 36.3% for site II. Removal rate of total phosphorus (TP) in site I and II were 36.0% and 36.5%, respectively. COD, TN and TP in effluent from site I (with fertilizer) was higher than that in site II (without fertilizer), showing that COD, TN and TP in effluent were strongly influenced by fertilizer addition. Therefore, in order to satisfy established water-quality standards, the amount of fertilizer used in lotus cultivation showed be evaluated.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.879-885
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• 2009

The present study was carried out to develop biological criteria for water quality assessment using benthic diatoms. Selecting of the indicator diatoms, three parameters were considered: broad distribution (180 taxa occurred over 3% at upper level), species abundance (158 taxa occurred over $1.5{\times}10^5cells/cm^2$), and sensitivity (184 taxa occurred more than once as 1st and 2nd dominant species). Overall, total 208 taxa were selected, including 38 varieties, 170 species, 34 genera, 9 families, 3 orders, and 1 phylum. The most dominant taxonomic group (family) was Naviculaceae (52%), followed by Diatomaceae (15%), Nitzschiaceae (12%) and Achnantaceae (11%). COD and TP were proposed as new water quality standards (draft) to improve the existing BOD standard and to manage and control efficiently non-biodegradable organic pollutants. With this regard, we used TP standard (draft) in developing biological water quality criteria for diatoms. TP standards (draft) proposed as Ia = 0.02 mg/L or less, Ib = 0.05 mg/L or less, II = 0.1 mg/L or less, III = 0.2 mg/L or less, IV = 0.4 mg/L or less, V = 0.6 mg/L or less and VI = above 0.6 mg/L. Biological assessment system (4 class system) was developed and proposed for diatom using modified Tropic Diatom Index (TDI). Biological assessment of TDI appear B grade (Good).

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.757-767
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• 2006

Biological assessments are the primary tool for evaluating the biological condition of a water body and makes it possible to understand accumulative and long-term effect of stressors. They also provide reliable biological information for which disturbed systems are to be restored. Sustainable water environment is not enough with attaining only the clean water, but it should sustain healthy and diverse aquatic life. Aquatic organisms are affected by various factors, including not only water quality but also habitat condition and stressors, and thus good condition of both physical and chemical water quality is prerequisite for sustaining healthy organisms. Therefore, biological assessment, along with other physical and chemical assessments, are crucial for evaluating the health of a water body. Overall, sustainability of water environment demands the attainment and maintenance of ecological integrity, which is resulted from the combination of physical, chemical and biological integrity. The biological criteria will play very important role in the water resource management and policy issues, and thus bioassessment program should be fully implemented and supported eventually by the law. To keep ecosystem health of water environment safely from the toxic pollutants and other stressors, the following suggestions need to be considered in environmental quality standards in Korea. For the first step, the biological indicators need to be introduced in evaluating river quality condition; they provide a qualitative description of biological condition of water body. Secondly, the biological water quality standards using biotic indices should be developed and implemented under the consideration of characteristics of Korean river systems. Lastly, the ecological status classification regime (ESCR) should be developed and introduced; it could be used in quality assessment of the water environment in general. In developing ESCR, integration of physico-chemical, biological, and habitat parameters should be taken into account.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.532-541
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• 2016

The National Environmental Specimen Bank (NESB) has been collecting broad leave samples to monitor environmental pollution from five different designated sampling areas. In order to ensure the reproducibility and comparability of the results, all the procedures from selecting trees and pooling leaves to make the representative sample are defined in the standard operation procedures(the SOP). The representative samples were subjected to the chemical analyses for some heavy minerals and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons(PAHs). The uncertainty levels involved in each step of the SOP, that is, the sampling and the chemical analysis, were derived using the Robust ANOVA, which enables the relative comparison among the different levels of pollutants concentrations with confidence. Furthermore, the effect of the varying degrees of precipitation on the pollutants concentration of the leaves was also examined. Overall, the biological difference estimated from the duplicate samples was found to exceed the variation across the site, implying even aerial deposition over site. Samples from Gwanak Mt. showed highest heavy metal concentrations than the other sites. Washing off effect of the pollutants adhering in the form of particles on the leaf surface was found to be affected by the cumulative precipitation.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.149-156
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to reduce the contaminants (total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), fine particle, odor and total airborne bacteria) during cooking process in cooking chamber, and to decrease the health damage in indoor space that has bad work environment. In order to solve the shortcomings of existing air purifiers and remove all kinds of pollutants effectively, this study focused on the development of indoor air purifiers which are made of bar type. Bio-ceramics filter which combines activated carbon and loess. The air cleaners developed with 4 measuring items including TVOCs, particulate matter, complex odor and total airborne bacteria were measured comparing their pre-service test to their post-service test after a period of time. The measured results showed higher removal efficiency of 91.02% as the concentration of TVOCs was reduced from $2,500{\mu}g/m^3$ to $223{\mu}g/m^3$. Second, the particulate matter removal ratio was 97.51% efficient with average concentration of $26.68{\mu}g/m^3$. Third, the odor showed 95.20% reduction as air dilution ratio averaged out at 144. Last, total airborne bacteria was eliminated by over 94% showing the changeable concentration from $787{\sim}814CFU/m^3$ to $47{\sim}40CFU/m^3$. In addition, the removal rate of harmful pollutants is excellent, and it is expected that the environment of the existing poor cooking room will be greatly improved by using the developed air purifier in combination with the ventilation device and the stove hood.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.110-119
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• 2004

The combination of biological and physical/chemical technologies is a promising technique to reduce highly concentrated pollutants in livestock wastewater. It is suggested to treat livestock wastewater efficiently as follows: firstly, biodegradable organic matters, nitrogen and some of phosphorus should be removed by a biological treatment process and then residual non-biodegradable organic matters, color and phosphorus be eliminated by physicochemical technologies. In this study, therefore, the integrations of chemical coagulation, activated carbon adsorption, Fenton oxidation and ozonation were evaluated to provide appropriate post-treatment processes for biologically pre-treated livestock wastewater. After chemical coagulation followed by ozonation or Fenton oxidation process, the quality of treated wastewater could meet the discharge limit in Korea. However, a yellowish brown color still remained in the treated wastewater after a single method such as coagulation and Fenton oxidation was applied. The ozonation was found to be the most effective technology for the decolorization. Neither simple biological nor physicochemical treatment provides adequate decolorization and sufficient depletion of organics in livestock wastewater so far. Consequently, the integration of Fenton oxidation and ozonation with a biological treatment process is recommended to treat livestock wastewater in terms of removal efficiency.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.41-45
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• 2014

The biological aerated filter (BAF) reactor is regarded as an effective biological wastewater treatment method. It can remove pollutants by carrier filtration and biodegradation. Due to its advantages, which include high biomass retention, tolerance to toxicity, excellent removal efficiency, and slurry separation, BAF has been widely used to remove COD, $NH_4{^+}-N$, phosphorus, and other harmful organic substances. In this study, the BAF reactor was used to remove organic contaminants of domestic wastewater of Korea at both the benchand pilot-scale. The main objectives of this study are to: (i) investigate the removal efficiency of organic contaminants (ex. COD, nitrate, phosphorus) in BAF reactors at both scales; (ii) characterize the small-scale wastewater treatment plant using the BAF reactor. The concentration of COD in the influent increased from 69 to 246 mg/L. During the operation period, the final effluent concentration of COD remained maximum 4.0 mg/L, and the average removal efficiency was above 88%. The present study investigated the removal efficiencies of COD, TN, TP and $NH_4{^+}-N$ from smelting wastewater by BAF system. When treating wastewater in both bench and pilot-scale reactors, the BAF worked well.