• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.377-385
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• 2017

Objectives: Although mercury (Hg) exposure is known to be neurotoxic in humans, its effects on liver function have been less often reported. The aim of this study was to investigate whether total Hg exposure in Korean adults was associated with elevated serum levels of the liver enzymes aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT). Methods: We repeatedly examined the levels of total Hg and liver enzymes in the blood of 508 adults during 2010-2011 and 2014-2015. Cross-sectional associations between levels of blood Hg and liver enzymes were analyzed using a generalized linear model, and nonlinear relationships were analyzed using a generalized additive mixed model. Generalized estimating equations were applied to examine longitudinal associations, considering the correlations of individuals measured repeatedly. Results: GGT increased by 11.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.5 to 18.0%) in women and 8.1% (95% CI, -0.5 to 17.4%) in men per doubling of Hg levels, but AST and ALT were not significantly associated with Hg in either men or women. In women who drank more than 2 or 3 times per week, AST, ALT, and GGT levels increased by 10.6% (95% CI, 4.2 to 17.5%), 7.7% (95% CI, 1.1 to 14.7%), and 37.5% (95% CI,15.2 to 64.3%) per doubling of Hg levels, respectively, showing an interaction between blood Hg levels and drinking. Conclusions: Hg exposure was associated with an elevated serum concentration of GGT. Especially in women who were frequent drinkers, AST, ALT, and GGT showed a significant increase, with a significant synergistic effect of Hg and alcohol consumption.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.195-202
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• 2011

This study analyzed and modeled the relationships between the probabilities of two exotic species occurrence (i.e. largemouth bass and blue gill) and environmental factors such as climatic and geographical variables using Generalized Additive Models (GAM), Generalized Liner Models and Classification Tree Analysis (CTA). The most moderate occurrence probability of largemouth bass was predicted using GAM with an area under the curve (ADC) of 0.88 and Kappa of 0.42, while those of blue gill was suggested by using CTA with an AUC of 0.92 and Kappa of 0.44. The most significant environmental variable in terms of changes in deviance for both species was the annual air temperature for the occurrence probability. Dams had stronger effect on the occurrence of largemouth bass than blue gill. Model development and prediction for the occurrence probability of fish species and richness are necessary to prevent further spread of exotic fishes such as largemouth bass and blue gill because they can threaten habitats of native river ecosystem through various mechanisms.

• Transactions on Control, Automation and Systems Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2000

A new speech enhancement algorithm for speech corrupted by slowly varying additive colored noise is suggested based on a state-space signal model. Due to the FIR structure and the unimportance of long-term past information, the receding horizon (RH) FIR filter known to be a best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE) filter is utilized in order to obtain noise-suppressed speech signal. As a special case of the colored noise problem, the suggested approach is generalized to perform the single blind signal separation of two speech signals. It is shown that the exact speech signal is obtained when an incoming speech signal is noise-free.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.765-777
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• 2009

Our study aimed to illustrate long term trend in 10 micrometer particular matters excluding confounding effect. Daily 10 micrometer particular matters data were measured in 27 places and meteorological data (maximum temperature, humidity and maximum wind speed, solar radiation) were obtained from the national institute of environmental research for the period from January, 1996 to December 2000. To estimate the increasing and decreasing long term trend in a set of observed data, set up the model. The model included regression spline smooth function on the time and meteorological factors to capture the seasonal time trend and any possible nonlinear relationship. The result was estimated to decrease slightly after adjusting for meteorological factors and seasonal time trend.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.99 no.6
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• pp.908-913
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• 2010

This study analyzed the impact of climatic and topographic factors on tree radial growth of Pinus densiflora and Quercus spp. in central regions of Korea. To find the relationship between annual tree radial growth and climatic factors, we took the core samples from individual trees and measured the tree radial width. On the assumption that the tree radial growth is related to the tree age, we estimated the radial growth by the tree age as an independent variable. Also, we estimated the standard growth, defined as the radial growth of trees aged 30. As results, we found the spatial auto-correlation in the radial growth of the red pine. Moreover, we also found the relationships between climatic and topographic and the standard growth using the GAM (Generalized Additive Model). Increase of temperature has negative impacts on the radial growth of Pinus densiflora, while it has positive impacts on the radial growth of Quercus spp.. On the other hands, increase of precipitation has negative impacts on the radial growth of both species. Lastly, we predicted the spatial distribution changes of Pinus densiflora and Quercus spp. using the temperature increase scenario and the Geographic Information System (GIS) based forest type map. We could predict that Pinus densiflora is more vulnerable than Quercus spp. to climate change so that the habitats of Pinus densiflora will be gradually changed to the habitats of Quercus spp. in eastern coastal and southern regions of Korea after 60 years.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.513-521
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• 2020

In this paper, we have developed a Fama - French five factor model (FF5 model) from Fama & French (2015) by using concept of time-varying coefficient. For a data set, we have used monthly data form Kenneth R. French home page, it include Japan portfolios (classified by using size and book-to-market) and 5 factors from July 1990 to April 2020. The first analysis, we used Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF test) for the stationary test, from the result, all Japan portfolios and 5 factors are stationary. Next analysis, we estimated a coefficient of Fama - French five factor model by using a generalized additive model with a thin-plate spline to create the time-varying coefficient Fama - French five factor model (TV-FF5 model). The benefit of this study is TV-FF5 model which can capture a different effect at different times of 5 factors but the traditional FF5 model can't do it. From the result, we can show a time-varying coefficient in all factors and in all portfolios, for time-varying coefficients of Rm-Rf, SMB, and HML are significant for all Japan portfolios, time-varying coefficients of RMW are positively significant for SM, and SH portfolio and time-varying coefficients of CMA are significant for SM, SH, and BM portfolio.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.149-158
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• 2023

Background: Injury is one of the major health problems in South Korea. Few studies have evaluated both intentional and unintentional injury when investigating the association between exposure to air pollutants and injury. Objectives: We aimed to explore the association between short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and years of life lost (YLLs) due to injury. Methods: Data on daily YLLs for 2002~2019 were obtained from the the Death Statistics Database of the Korean National Statistical Office. This study estimated short-term exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of <10 ㎛ (PM₁₀), particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of <2.5 ㎛ (PM_2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O₃). This time series study was conducted using a generalized additive model (GAM) assuming a Gaussian distribution. We also evaluated a delayed effect of ambient air pollution by constructing a lag structure up to seven days. The best-fitting lag was selected based on smallest generalized cross validation (GCV) value. To explore effect modification by intentionality of injury (i.e., intentional injury [self-harm, assault] and unintentional injury), we conducted stratified subgroup analyses. Additionally, we stratified unintentional injury by mechanism (traffic accident, fall, etc.). Results: During the study period, the average daily YLLs due to injury was 307.5 years. In the intentional injury, YLLs due to self-harm and assault showed positive association with air pollutants. In the unintentional injury, YLLs due to fall, electric current, fire and poisoning showed positive association with air pollutants, whereas YLLs due to traffic accident, mechanical force and drowning/submersion showed negative associations with air pollutants. Conclusions: Injury is recognized as preventable, and effective strategies to create a safe society are important. Therefore, we need to establish strategies to prevent injury and consider air pollutants in this regard.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.4 s.91
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• pp.304-315
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• 2006

This study is performed to reexamine the association between ambient air pollution and daily mortality in seven major cities of Korea using a method of meta-analysis with the data filed for the period 1998-2001. These cities account for half of the Korean population (about 23 million). The observed concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO, mean=1.08 ppm), ozone ($O_3$, mean=33.97 ppb), particulate matter less than 10 ${\mu}m$ ($PM_{10},\;mean=57.11\;{\mu}g/m^3$), nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$, mean=25.09 ppb), and sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$, mean=9.14 ppb) during the study period were at levels below Korea's current ambient air quality standards. Generalized additive models were applied to allow for the highly flexible fitting of seasonal and long-term time trends in air pollution as well as nonlinear associations with weather variables, such as air temperature and relative humidity. Also, we calculated a weighted mean as a meta-analysis summary of the estimates and its standard error. In city-specific analyses, an increase of $41.17{\mu}g/m^3(IQR)\;of\;PM_{10}$ corresponded to $1{\sim}12%$ more deaths, given constant weather conditions. Like most of air pollution epidemiologic studies, this meta-analysis cannot avoid fleeing from measurement misclassification since no personal measurement was taken. However, we can expect that a measurement bias be reduced in district-specific estimate since a monitoring station is better representative of air quality of the matched district. Significant heterogeneity was found for the effect of all pollutants. The estimated relative risks from meta-like analysis increased compared to those relative risks from pooled analysis. The similar results to those from the previous studies indicated existence of health effect of air pollution at current levels in many industrialized countries, including Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.361-368
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• 2008

Objective to assess whether exposure to air pollutants is associated with postneonatal infant death, using a timeseries methodology, between 1999 and 2003 in Seoul, Korea.. Methods We investigated the short-term effects of air pollution for 548,725 live births during the study period. The daily count of postneonatal infant deaths from all causes and from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) by birth order was analyzed by a Generalized Additive Poisson model, with controlling for the effects of seasonal trends, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and day of the week as covariates. Results During the study period, we observed 699 deaths from all causes and 47 deaths from SIDS. We did not find any significant associations between daily mortality and ambient levels of air pollutants except for CO and $NO_2$. The estimated relative risk of postneonatal infant death from all causes was 1.17 (95% CI=1.04-1.32) and 1.16 (95% CI=1.03-1.29) by IQR (interquartile range) for CO and $NO_2$ respectively. Also, we observed no clear trend of the mortality effects of air pollution by birth orders. Conclusion In conclusion, our findings suggest that air pollution, in general, influenced adversely postneonatal infant death from all-cause and SIDS although it was not statistically significant. This study may support that the rationale.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2001

Air pollution epidemiologic studies are intrinsically difficult because the expected effect size at general environmental levels is small, exposure and misclassification of exposure are common, and exposure is not selective to a specific pollutant. In this review paper, epidemiologic study designs and analytic methods are described, and two nationwide projects on air pollution epidemiology are introduced. This paper also demonstrates that possible confounding issues in time-series analysis can be resolved and the impact on the use of data from ambient monitoring stations may not be critical. In this paper we provide a basic understanding of the types of air pollution epidemiologic study designs that be subdivided by the mode of air pollution effects on human health (acute or chronic). With the improvements in the area of air pollution epidemiologic studies, we should emphasize that elaborate models and statistical techniques cannot compensate for inadequate study design or poor data collection.