• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 1997

In order to analyze the shifts in the volume and profits of Computed Tomography(CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI) utilization for a year before and after the implementation of insurance coverage for CT, this study has been undertaken examining CT and MRI cost data from 'Y' University Hospital situated in Seoul, Korea. Following are the results of this study: 1. The medical insurance payment for CT, implemented on January 1, 1996, increased CT utilization from January 1996 to April 1996 due to low insurance premiums: however, from May 1996 the number of CT cases significantly decreased as a result of strengthened medical cost reviews and the new 'Detailed standards for approval of CT' announced near the end of April 1996 by the insurer. 2. Since the implementation of insurance coverage for CT, CT fee reduction rates for reimbursements by the insurer to the hospital were 50% and 40% for January and February, respectively, and 31% and 15% for March and April. A significant point in the lowering of the reduction rate was reached in May at 11%; furthermore, since June the reduction rate fell below the average reduction rate for reimbursements for all procedures. If the 'Detailed standards for approval of CT' had been announced before the implementation of insurance coverage for CT, CT utilization would not have been so high due to the need to meet those 'standards'. In addition, loss of hospital profits resulting from the reduction for reimbursements would not have occurred. 3. The shifts in MRI utilization showed that there was no particular change with the beginning of insurance coverage for CT, and the introduction of the 'Detailed standards for approval of CT' made MRI utilization increase because MRI is free of restrictions imposed by the insurer. 4. The relationship between CT utilization and MRI utilization showed that they were supplementary to each other before insurance coverage for CT, but that CT was substituted for MRI because of strengthened medical cost reviews after t~e beginning of insurance coverage for CT. 5. The shifts in volume by patient characteristics showed that the number of inappropriate case patients, according to the insurer's "Standards for approval", decreased more than the number of appropriate case patients after the introduction of insurance coverage for CT. Therefore, the health insurance fee schemes for CT have influenced patient care. 6. The shifts in profits from CT utilization showed a net profit decrease of 31.6%. In order to match the pre-coverage profit level, 5,471 more cases would need to be seen and productivity would need to be increased by 32.7%. This profit decrease resulted from a decrease of CT utilization and low reimbursements. With insurance coverage, net profits from CT were 24.4%, and a margin of safety ratio was 39.6%. Because of the net profits and margin of safety ratio, CT utilization fees for insured appropriate cases could not be considered inappropriate. 7. The shifts in profits from MRI utilization before and after the introduction of CT coverage showed that in order to match pre-CT coverage profit levels, 2,011 more cases would need to be seen and productivity would need to be increased by 9.2%. The reasons for needing to increase the number of cases and productivity result from cost burdens created by adding new MRI units. But with CT coverage already begun, MRI utilization increased. Combined with a minor increase in the MRI fee schedule, MRI utilization showed a net profit increase of 18.5%. Net profits of 62.8% and a 'margin of safety ratio' of 43.1% for MRI utilization showed that the hospital relied on this non-covered procedure for profits. 8. The shifts in profits from CT and MRI utilization showed the net profits from CT decreased by 2.33billion Won while the net profits from MRI increased by 815.7million Won. Overall, these two together showed a net profit decrease of 1.51billion Won. The shifts in utilization showed a functional substitutionary relationship, but the shifts in profits did not show a substitutionary relationship. From these results, We can conclude that if insurance is to be expanded to include previously uncovered procedures using expensive medical equipment, detailed standards should be prepared in advance. The decrease in profits from the shifts in coverage and changes in fees is a difficult burden that should be shared, not carried by the hospital alone. Also, a new or improved fee schedule system should include revised standards between items listed and the appropriateness of the fee schedule should constantly be ensured. This study focused on one university hospital in Seoul and is therefore limited in general applicability. But it is valuable for considering current issues and problems, such as the influence of CT coverage on hospital management. Future studies will hopefully expand the scope of the issues considered here.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.139-155
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• 2009

For the last few decades, many studies have tried to explore and unveil venture companies' success factors and unique features in order to identify the sources of such companies' competitive advantages over their rivals. Such venture companies have shown tendency to give high returns for investors generally making the best use of information technology. For this reason, many venture companies are keen on attracting avid investors' attention. Investors generally make their investment decisions by carefully examining the evaluation criteria of the alternatives. To them, credit rating information provided by international rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor's, Moody's and Fitch is crucial source as to such pivotal concerns as companies stability, growth, and risk status. But these types of information are generated only for the companies issuing corporate bonds, not venture companies. Therefore, this study proposes a method for evaluating venture businesses by presenting our recent empirical results using financial data of Korean venture companies listed on KOSDAQ in Korea exchange. In addition, this paper used multi-class SVM for the prediction of DEA-based efficiency rating for venture businesses, which was derived from our proposed method. Our approach sheds light on ways to locate efficient companies generating high level of profits. Above all, in determining effective ways to evaluate a venture firm's efficiency, it is important to understand the major contributing factors of such efficiency. Therefore, this paper is constructed on the basis of following two ideas to classify which companies are more efficient venture companies: i) making DEA based multi-class rating for sample companies and ii) developing multi-class SVM-based efficiency prediction model for classifying all companies. First, the Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA) is a non-parametric multiple input-output efficiency technique that measures the relative efficiency of decision making units(DMUs) using a linear programming based model. It is non-parametric because it requires no assumption on the shape or parameters of the underlying production function. DEA has been already widely applied for evaluating the relative efficiency of DMUs. Recently, a number of DEA based studies have evaluated the efficiency of various types of companies, such as internet companies and venture companies. It has been also applied to corporate credit ratings. In this study we utilized DEA for sorting venture companies by efficiency based ratings. The Support Vector Machine(SVM), on the other hand, is a popular technique for solving data classification problems. In this paper, we employed SVM to classify the efficiency ratings in IT venture companies according to the results of DEA. The SVM method was first developed by Vapnik (1995). As one of many machine learning techniques, SVM is based on a statistical theory. Thus far, the method has shown good performances especially in generalizing capacity in classification tasks, resulting in numerous applications in many areas of business, SVM is basically the algorithm that finds the maximum margin hyperplane, which is the maximum separation between classes. According to this method, support vectors are the closest to the maximum margin hyperplane. If it is impossible to classify, we can use the kernel function. In the case of nonlinear class boundaries, we can transform the inputs into a high-dimensional feature space, This is the original input space and is mapped into a high-dimensional dot-product space. Many studies applied SVM to the prediction of bankruptcy, the forecast a financial time series, and the problem of estimating credit rating, In this study we employed SVM for developing data mining-based efficiency prediction model. We used the Gaussian radial function as a kernel function of SVM. In multi-class SVM, we adopted one-against-one approach between binary classification method and two all-together methods, proposed by Weston and Watkins(1999) and Crammer and Singer(2000), respectively. In this research, we used corporate information of 154 companies listed on KOSDAQ market in Korea exchange. We obtained companies' financial information of 2005 from the KIS(Korea Information Service, Inc.). Using this data, we made multi-class rating with DEA efficiency and built multi-class prediction model based data mining. Among three manners of multi-classification, the hit ratio of the Weston and Watkins method is the best in the test data set. In multi classification problems as efficiency ratings of venture business, it is very useful for investors to know the class with errors, one class difference, when it is difficult to find out the accurate class in the actual market. So we presented accuracy results within 1-class errors, and the Weston and Watkins method showed 85.7% accuracy in our test samples. We conclude that the DEA based multi-class approach in venture business generates more information than the binary classification problem, notwithstanding its efficiency level. We believe this model can help investors in decision making as it provides a reliably tool to evaluate venture companies in the financial domain. For the future research, we perceive the need to enhance such areas as the variable selection process, the parameter selection of kernel function, the generalization, and the sample size of multi-class.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.147-211
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• 1995

Medication is a kind of medical service and a therapeutic nursing function which takes large portion of nursing service and requires complicated procedures. So many different medical personnel should be involved and cooporate each other in order to accomplish medication. Medication is also a vital nursing service, So nurse feels heavy responsibi lity in that she gives medication to the patient finally, so she has much responsibility if medication error is happened. Therefore it seems very important to clarify the problem of medication system and method, and find the subculture of medication situation because it may promote nursing productivity. The study was conducted to 1. Describe and interpret medication situation. 2. Find out the problem of medication system and method and on alternatives. 3. Compare the medication system and method of hospitals which are located in Seoul with object hospital Ethnographic methodology was used to study medication situation by doing participant observation and interview of health care personnel. Ten nurses and three nurse aids were interviewed. Two residents and internists, two phamacists and two accountants were also interviewed. Data was obtained and analized according to Developmental Research Sequence introduced by Spradly. On the basis of this data the results were as follows. 1. The overall flow of medication system was devided into six stage : first, checking doctor's order : second writing doctor's order, : third, transfering slip into the related departments such as account department, pharmacy : fourth, distribution of medication from pharmacy to unit : fifth, identifing medication by nurses : and finally, medicating to the patient. Behaviorors have been under a lot of stress in that they have to do much works, especially paperworks, So too much time were needed. They also have been suffered interpersonal conflicts among health care personnel and role conflicts in the process of doing medication service. 2. In the process of checking order, the problem was that too much time was required for checking order and paperwork. The more the order changes the more the paperwork is. Nurses have been suffering difficulties in calling internist in order to get bill. Even if writing down slip for medication order is doctor's job, Sometimes nurse has been expected to write slip by doctors or nurse would write slip beacuse of two much complexities and efforts for calling doctors. If the slip were incorrect, much time complicated procedures were more required for correcting it. So delay of administering drug would be resulted consequently. Drugs were delivered from pharmacy to units by delivery agent and phamacist. But because drugs were delivered without arranging room number of patient. Nurse should rearrange drugs in order of the room number So it had made waste time and effort, and Even when emergency drugs were needed, Prompt delivery of drug was not easy because of many reasons. For nurses, it took too long in the identification of the right drug. Actually nurses have heavy burden when medication error happens because nurse is the final actor who gives medication to the patient, So every three shift nurse ought to check drugs as soon as every shift begins. That's why it took too much time due to repeated confirming procedure. When nurses had to go patient room in order to give medications, there were difficulties in watching patient until the patient take medicine correctly. So it was impossible to check every patient wheather he took medicine or not especially in hectic situation. 3. There were many hospitals in Seoul which have similar medication system and method as object hospital according to the results of questionaire. This means that many hospitals have been suffering srimilar problems which were identified in object hospital. 4. Recommendations for promoting simplification of medication system and method were the following : Redesigning of slip from two pieces of paper into one : early discharge announcement system, and slip confirming through computer and controlling of period of prescreption from one day to two or three days : designing personal drug storage box for each patient and using it. If nurses follow the recommendations, they will make medication short & simple, and also have enough time of direct nursing care 5. Even though there were many difficulties in medicating patients. Medication itself has been considered as a caring among nurses because it makes rapport between nurse and patient. So nurses had better accept medication as a portion of nusing service not a original portion of phamacist. There are some limits in this research in terms of confining to only one unit of one hospital, and treating it especially in view of nurses' aspects, So further researchs should be continnued from various kmds of viewpoints of doctors, phamacists and so on. ${\cdot\cdot\cdot}$. Especially esthnographic study of computerized medication system and method seems to be followed.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.122-131
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• 2002

Muscovite, chlorite and biotite in metapelites of the Ogcheon Hetamorphic Belt are studied using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), backscattered electron images (BEI) of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and lattice fringe images of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These minerals are observed to be intergrown under a polarized light microscope and are apparently interlayered below EPMA resolution; EPMA data often indicate mixtures of phyllosilicates such as muscovite/chlorite (M/C), biotite/chlorite (B/C), muscovite/pyrophyllite/chlorite (M/P/C). biotite/pyrophyllite/chlorite (B/P/C) or biotite/muscovite/chlorite (B/M/C). BEI observations show that the three minerals (muscovite, chlorite and biotite) are mixed at various scales in a grain through the garnet zone, and the interlayering of the three minerals are observed from TEM lattice fringe images and selected area electron diffraction patterns. The result of TEM observations reveals that 7-$\AA$ layers (serpentine, precursor of chlorite) are interlayered within 10-$\AA$ layers (muscovite) at 100~200 $\AA$ scale as well as M/C in the chlorite zone. The 7-$\AA$ layers become smaller in size and less frequent in the biotite tone, and 10-$\AA$ layers are interlayered with chlorite (14 $\AA$) at an individual layer scale. The 7-$\AA$ layers are no longer observed in the garnet zone, and 10-$\AA$ layers (biotite) are interlayered with chlorite (B/C) at 50~100 $\AA$ scale. Relatively large scale (1000~2000 $\AA$) of intergrowth is also frequently observed from the garnet zone samples. However, rocks from all three metamorphic zones show interlayering of a few units of 7-, 10- and 14-$\AA$ layers with each other at TEM observations. The result of this study implies that metamorphic minerals such as muscovite, chlorite and biotite form through disequilibrum mineral reactions resulting in inhomogenious phases.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.82 no.2
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• pp.139-151
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• 1993

The virgin forests on and around Sungin-bong in Ulreung-do, an island situated between the Korean peninsula and Japanese archipelago, were investigated phytosociologically. They were classified into two communities, i.e. Fagus crenata var. multinervis - Majanthemum dilatatum community and F. crenata var. multinervis - Sasa kuriensis community. The former was subdivided into several units ; Acer takesimense - Allium victorialis var. platyphyllum group, including Tsuga sieboldii - Taxus cuspidata var. tatifolia subgroup and a typical subgroup, and Acer mono var. savatieri - Rumohra standishii group, including Dystaenia takeshimana subgroup and a typical subgroup. The other was subdivided into two subunits ; Acer okamotoanum group and a typical group. It was estimated that this area was orginally covered with beech and maple dominated forest vegetation and with Machilus dominated forest or bamboo forest. However, in these days, The natural vegetation of it has been destroyed and in future, may also be disturbed gradually by human activities. Judging from the coincidence method, the structure and distribution of the forest communities was more related to altitude than to topography. The phytomass, based upon the basal area of each community to $100m^2$ showed that Acer mono var. savatieri - Rumohra standishii group ($BA=7574.1cm^2$, $P=9,882,058cm^3$) haved the largest value and Tsuga sieboldii - Taxus cuspidata var. latifolia subgroup($BA=2126.3cm^2$, $P=1,746,755cm^3$) showed the smallest value. The flora of the vascular plants collected from this area consists of 71 families, 187 genera, 243 species, 1 subspecies, 44 varieties, 6 forms and 294 taxa in total.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.82 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 1993

This study was conducted to obtain necessary information to improve beekeeping farmhouses management and to establish related problem. Using data obtained from 50 beekeeping farmhouses in Korea, current status of management and optimum sales scale were analysed. The results of the study are summarized as follows ; 1. Managers of beekeeping farmhouses are relatively old(64% of them is over 50 years old) and highly educated and experienced(76% of them is in the business more than 10 years). 2. Only a portion of managers(38%) considers beekeeping as a major job, while the rest(62%) involves as a side job working with other agricultural business. 3. Major supply of labor force comes from family group. Total input of family labor is 6.4 months a year. Fourty-four percent of management units is migrating and 56% of them is settled in specific locations. 4. In 1991, the average number of conventional beehive casks per farmhouse is decreased by 2.94 casks but improved-type beehive casks is increased by 13.79 casks. Total number of beehive casks per farmhouse is increased by 12.66 casks during the year. 5. Major cost items of beekeeping farmhouses include bee colony aquisition cost, feeding cost, depreciation cost, wages in an order. The average yearly profit rate of farmhouses is about 29.4%. 6. The break-even point of honey sales is about 3 million won. The optimum sales scale was 52.2l, then average production cost was estimated 53,800Won.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.80 no.3
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• pp.257-264
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• 1991

Korea has accomplished the afforestation of its forest land in the early 1980's. To meet the increasing demand for forest products and forest recreation, a development of scientific forest management system is needed as a whole. For this purpose the development of efficient forestfire management system is essential. In this context, the purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical foundation of forestfire danger rating system. In this study, it is hypothesized that the degree of forestfire risk is affected by Weather Factor and Man-Caused Risk Factor. (1) To accommodate the Weather Factor, a statistical model was estimated in which weather variables such as humidity, temperature, precipitation, wind velocity, duration of sunshine were included as independent variables and the probability of forestfire occurrence as dependent variable. (2) To account man-caused risk, historical data of forestfire occurrence was investigated. The contribution of man's activities make to risk was evaluated from three inputs. The first, potential risk class is a semipermanent number which ranks the man-caused fire potential of the individual protection unit relative to that of the other protection units. The second, the risk sources ratio, is that portion of the potential man-caused fire problem which can be charged to a specific cause. The third, daily activity level is that the fire control officer's estimate of how active each of these sources is, For each risk sources, evaluate its daily activity level ; the resulting number is the partial risk factor. Sum up the partial risk factors, one for each source, to get the unnormalized Man-Caused Risk. To make up the Man-Caused Risk, the partial risk factor and the unit's potential risk class were considered together. (3) At last, Fire occurrence index was formed fire danger rating estimation by the Weather Factors and the Man-Caused Risk Index were integrated to form the final Fire Occurrence Index.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.95-120
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• 1996

College level educational training system for the allied health manpower in the country is one of the oldest junior college education programs, and has been developed at very steady phase. Since the school years of the programs limited for 2 to 3 years by the education related law, qualification of the manpower is insufficient to meet the rapidly changing needs in the field of allied health and medicine. The system is comparable with that of developed countries where 4-year baccalaureate degree programs are basically required to be an allied health personnel. Thus, education and training background of allied health program graduates of the country confronts the barriers in competition and cooperation with the graduates of foreign countries at equal basis. Beside, junior college graduates can hardly find the way through advanced courses at 4-year colleges in their specialties except a few programs such as environmental sicience or courses in hygiene. It has long been sought to develop the education and training programs for junior college graduates. Some of them are already materilized and some show remarkable progress while some need to tackle. Wide opening of the opportunity to enroll extensive education program for the junior college graduates of allied health science majors in 4-year colleges with eventual grant of bachelor's degree for those who successfully completed the programs should soon be substantiated. The study was focused to emphasize the necessity of the extensive education and training for the junior college graduate allied health manpower, and to show possibility of the education program development in connection with the 4-year degree granting education programs. The outcome of the study can be summarized as followings. 1. A total number of graduates from eight allied health sciences related programs of junior colleges by the year of 1995 are 109,320. 2. According to the survey report analysed through questionnaires, 99.7% of respondents including administrative deans and professors of junior colleges agreed with the establishment of extensive education and training programs in junior colleges. 53.9% of administrative deans, 52.9% of professors and 47.6% of the graduates expected that it is possible to learn more about their majors, and to earn bachelor's degree through the extensive education programs. Other opinions include that the programs can provide supplementary opportunities to fortify in the area of basic life science, and development of research and technology. 3. It was also found through the survey that 91.2% of the deans, 87.8% of the professors and 68.2% of the graduates responded that the most appropriate organizations to open the extensive education and training programs for allied health manpower are junior colleges where allied health personnel are taught and trained. The majority of the respondents agreed that the acceptable number of credits offered for the previous 2-year junior college graduates are $50\sim60$, and those for the current 3-year graduates are $20\sim30$ units. 4. It was strongly suggested through the survey that baccalaureate degree should be granted for those who successfully completed the extensive courses. The suggestion was claimed by 94.1% of the deans, 89.4% of the professors and 83.4% of the graduates. 5. The model curricula for the extensive education and training programs for the allied health manpower are designed for the purpose of broad capability in practice, enrichment of knowledge and promotion of proficiency for the self access in the major areas. 6. To meet the universal standards of allied health education and training program, it is recommended that opening of the curricula for the extensive, and as well as intensive, courses within junior colleges(continuation education institute) should be materialized. The special baccalaureate degree programs within junior colleges are also recommended to accommodate the junior college graduates and to grant the degree fellowing successful completion of the courses. As a part of the education revolution in progress, the school years at junior college level should be flexible depending upon the nature of course and trend of the universe. For instance, the school years for the allied health manpower should be extended to two to four years from current two to three years.

• Neonatal Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.53-63
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• 2010

Purpose : Extrauterine growth restriction (EUGR) in preterm infants is a major problem in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and it has been related to long-term growth deficit and neurodevelopmental issues. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of and risk factors for EUGR. Methods : The study subjects consisted of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants with a gestational age $\leq$32 weeks that were born at the Seoul National University Children's Hospital between November 2005 and April 2009. EUGR was defined as weight for gestation, lower than the 10th percentile on discharge. Results : The frequency of EUGR was 67% (n=111/166). By multiple logistic regression, the presence of small for gestational age (SGA) was the greatest predictor of EUGR, birth weight and daily weight gain during the first 28 days were independent predictors of EUGR. Risk factors for EUGR in non-SGA infants were evaluated because 56% (64/114) of non-SGA infants developed EUGR at discharge. Daily weight gain in the first 28 days was also decreased in EUGR group and independently predicted the risk of EUGR in the non-SGA group. Conclusion : EUGR was a common problem in the NICU. SGA was the most significant predictive factor of the EUGR. Half of the non-SGA infants also developed EUGR, revealing poor weight gain in the early days was as an important predictor. These results support the importance of early nutritional intervention for weight gain which have lagged behind other modern therapeutic interventions when the infant is clinically unstable.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.152-163
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• 2001

Based upon the sedimentological, geochemical and micropaleontological analyses of two sediment cores from the Antarctic Peninsula (AP), three distinct lithological units can be recognized: (1) ice-proximal an/or ice-distal diamictons in the lower part of the cores, accumulated just seaward of the grounding line of the ice shlef until 11,000 yrs BP; (2) diatomaceous mud between 6,000 and 2,500 yrs BP in the middle part, resulted from a large influx of organic materials by enhanced production of open marine condition; (3) diatomaceous sandy mud since 2,500 yrs BP, characterized by an increase in sand content and decrease in TOC and diatom abundance in the lower layers, which reflects the formation of more extensive and seasonally persistent sea ice. Based on the C-14 radiocarbon dating, the sub-ice shlef deposition of the diamicton on the AP western shelf completed around 11,000 yrs BP. Colder condition was reinstated between 12,800 and 11,600 BP with a dropin TOC content and diatom abundance, which is coincident with the Younger Dryas event in the North Atlanticregion. At this time, the ice shelf, that is now absent in the study area, appears to advance as evidenced by an abrupt increase in sea-ice taxa. A climatic optimum is recognized between 9,000 and 2,500 BP, coincide witha mid-Holocene climatic optimum 'Hypsithermal Warm Period' from the other Antarctic sites. During this time, diatomaceous mud accumulated by a large influx of organic materials by enhanced production occurred in openmarine condition. Around 2,500 BP, diatomaceous sandy mud reflects the formation of more extensive and seasonally persistent sea ice, coincident with the onset of the Neoglacial in the Antarctic. Our results provide evidence of climatic change from the Antarctic Peninsula`s western shelf that helps in determining the existence and timing of Holocene milennial-scale climatic events in the Southern Hemisphere.