• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.183-189
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• 2012

Tsutsugamushi disease or scrub typhus cause by Orientia tsutsugamushi is an endemic disease in Korea. Chigger mites and field rodents play roles in transmission of the disease by the vector and host of the agent. The purpose of this study is to investigate the density of the chigger mites and field rodents due to environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity, soil thickness and the various vegetations to the 9 field rodent collection sites. The total 62 field rodents was captured by the Sherman collapsible traps from April to October 2009 at the Jangseong of Jeonnam Province, Korea. The trapping rate of the field rodents by the different collecting sites was dominant at subside storage water (24%), bush near by dam (22%), bank around field (20%), followed by 18% of grassy field and surround cattle shed. The distribution of chigger mites by the different collecting sites was the highest at Bush near by dam (28.7%). And the sites of subside storage water, bank around field and surround cattle shed were 20.4%, 18.8%, 16.4%, respectively. On the other hand the collecting sites of stream bank and ridges between rice paddies were not collected. The temperature to the collecting sites was showed $24.1^{\circ}C$ in June and $24.2^{\circ}C$ in October which was higher than April ($10.6^{\circ}C$), whereas lower than May ($25.3^{\circ}C$) and September ($26.8^{\circ}C$). The highest number of mites was collected at $24.2^{\circ}C$ and 46.6% relative humidity in October. The chigger mites and field rodents were highly collected between 18 and 24% at the sites where are loosely in the superficial layers of the soil from 8.0 cm to 10.2 cm. Total 25 species of vegetation were distributed at the collecting sites. In the present study, strong evidence was found that bank around field and grassy field were provided for the prevalence sites of tsutsugamushi disease.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.175-183
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• 2012

Objectives: Controversy regarding the relationship between exposure to Agent Orange and disease has progressed for more than four decades, both at home and abroad. Recently, the allegation by US veteran Steve House of the burial of Agent Orange at the US Army base Camp Carroll located in Waegwan-eup, Korea, has emerged. We reviewed published articles and reports related to Agent Orange. Methods: Articles and reports were collected online using the keywords 'agent orange' and 'health' and then reviewed. Results: A number of epidemiologic studies have reported disease outcomes due to exposure to Agent Orange, while others were unable to establish a link to the injuries of veterans of the Vietnam War. This can be explained by the fact that accurate exposure assessment should be carried out since exposure misclassification in epidemiologic studies can affect estimates of risk. In the case of the burial of Agent Orange at Camp Carroll, an exposure pathway could be through underground water supplies, which differs from the cases of Vietnam and Seveso in Italy. Conclusion: There still remains a dispute among academics regarding the relationship between exposure to Agent Orange and disease, although Agent Orange is a highly toxic chemical. This dispute indicates that accurate exposure pathway and exposure assessment is needed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.186-194
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors of sleep disturbance and sleep patterns of elderly hospitalized women patients between young-old (65-74 years), old (76-84 years) and old-old (85 years and above). Methods: The questionnaire included the environmental disturbance factors (Paik, 2000), degree of pain (Wang & Kim,1995), disease symptoms (Paik, 2000), depression (Kee, 1996) and sleep patterns (Oh, Song, & Kim, 1998). Data were analyzed using frequencies, means, ${\chi}^2$-test, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression (SPSS 14.0). Results: The middle, and oldest group's environmental disturbance factors of degree of pain, disease symptoms, depression and sleep patterns were higher than those of the younger group. The younger, middle, and oldest group's sleep pattern had a significant negative correlation with environmental disturbance factors, degree of pain, disease symptoms and depression. The model including variables related to environmental, physical and psychological disturbance factors, explained the following variances in sleep pattern: 26.8% for the youngest group, 27.6% for the middle group and 40.7% for the oldest group. Conclusion: The result of this study offer basic data for the development of nursing intervention programs to improve sleep patterns for hospitalized women patients according to age differences.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.384-391
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• 2016

In this study, regions infected by pine wilt disease were extracted by using object-based classification method (OB-infected region), and the characteristics of special distribution about OB-infected region were figured out. Scale 24, Shape 0.1, Color 0.9, Compactness 0.5, and Smoothness 0.5 was selected as the objected-based, optimal weighted value of OB-infected region classification. The total accuracy of classification was high with 99% and Kappa coefficient was also high with 0.97. The area of OB-infected region was approximately 90 ha, 16% of the total area. The OB-infected region in Age class V and VI was intensively distributed with 97% of the total. Also, The OB-infected region in Middle and Large DBH class was intensively distributed with 99% of the total. In terms of the topographic characteristics of OB-infected region, the damages occurred approximately 86% below the altitude of 200 m, and occurred 91% with a slope less than 10 degree. The damage occurred a lot in low hilly mountain and undulating slope. In addition, the accessibility to road and residential area from OB-infected region was less than 300 m in large part. Overall, it was figured out that artificial effect is stronger than natural effect with regard to the spread of pine wilt disease.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.715-727
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• 2020

It is well known that atmospheric environments, including both meteorology and air quality, significantly affect public health, such as chronic lung disease and cancer, and respiratory infections. In this study, we have analyzed correlations between the number of daily respiratory outpatients and the atmospheric environments data for about ten years for the city of Busan, South Korea. The respiratory problem patients data have been categorized into two health-vulnerable groups by age over 65(DayPA_O65) and under 20(DayPA_U20), each of which shows relatively higher correlations with air quality and meteorology, respectively. However, time series analysis with factor separation results in that DayPA_O65 and DayPA_U20 show a higher relation with variance components and daily irregular factors of atmospheric concentrations, respectively.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.183-186
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• 2011

During the summer of 2005, specimens of soybean cultivars (Daepung, Daewon, Hwanggeum and Taegwang) showing frogeye leaf spot (FLS) were obtained from various areas in Korea. Eight isolates identified as Cercospora sojina were inoculated on the adaxial leaf surfaces of 63 Korean soybean cultivars; the disease responses to each isolate were evaluated 14 days and 21 days after inoculation. Based on the disease responses (resistant or susceptible) of the cultivars by the isolates, a set of cultivars (Anpeong, Bogwang, Cheongdu No. 1, Cheongja No. 3, Dachae, Daemang, Jangwon, Namhae, Sowon, Taegwang) were selected and inoculated with seven isolates for further testing pathogenic variance. Interestingly, 6 out of 7 tested C. sojina isolates revealed differential ability in infecting different soybean cultivars. This result may indicate the possibility of new race occurrence or pathogenic variation; this also presents evidence for prevalent FLS occurrence during humid and hot weather in Korea.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.265-269
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• 2017

Environment-friendly, commercially-available agricultural products were investigated for antimicrobial activity against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, as a pathogen of sclerotium disease. Then ${\beta}$-thujaplicin from Chamaecyparis obtuse was investigated for antifungal activity against six kinds of pathogenic fungi. It showed a statistically significant (p <0.001) growth inhibition effect on Sclerotinia sclerotiorum as a pathogen of sclerotium disease, Rhizoctonia solani AG-4 as a pathogen of damping off, Phytophthora capsici as a pathogen of phytophthora blight, and Colletotrichum coccodes as a pathogen of anthracnose at a concentration of 50 ppm and on Stemphylium solani as a pathogen of spotting disease and Alternaria alternata as a pathogen of black mold at a concentration of 100 ppm. In conclusion, these results indicate that it may be possible to develop environment-friendly agricultural products using ${\beta}$-thujaplicin compounds.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.22-34
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• 2020

Objectives: Based on the concept of environmental justice, we developed an evaluation model for setting and adopting the direction of environmental health policy using environmental health indicators and statistics from the local governments of Seoul, including environmentally susceptible populations. Methods: We selected a total of 20 variables based on data officially released from national and local governments. After the classification of these variables into the five components of environmental pressure, environmental status, environmental disease, sensitive population, and socioeconomic status, a basic model was constructed to calculate the relative scores of the local governments. Results: The cumulative impact scores for assessment of environmental health status were similar to those of the environmental pressure and status components. The highest five cumulative impact scores fell between 114 and 147. Local government A reported the highest scores and had high environmental pressure, environmental status and socioeconomic status. In addition, the evaluation of the other four local governments indicated that they exhibited above average scores for environmental pressure and environmental status, two did so for environmental disease, and four for sensitive population. Conclusion: We constructed a model to evaluate the environmental health status of the local governments of Seoul based on cumulative impact scores under the concept of environmental justice. As an approach for studying environmentally vulnerable areas through relative ranking, this model was feasible for policy-setting. In addition, this approach would be an analytically useful tool for decision-makers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.69-70
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• 2002

Arsenic (As) is a ubiquitous element found in several forms in foods and environmental media, such as soil, air, and water. The primary route of human exposure is through ingestion of arsenic-contaminated food and drinking water. The predominant form of arsenic in drinking water is inorganic arsenic, which is both highly toxic and readily bioavailable.(omitted)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.60-61
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• 2006