• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.281-287
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• 2011

BACKGROUND: According to Korean regulations, bottled waters (BWs) can not be treated with chemical disinfectants like chlorine, so UV and ozone disinfection is applied. During the past several years, chemicals were detected in some BWs, and the public was concerned about the safety of BWs. METHODS AND RESULTS: Mineral waters were stored for 180 days at $25^{\circ}C$ and $50^{\circ}C$, tested acetaldehyde and formaldehyde by HPLC. When mineral waters were put in a PET bottles, the formaldehyde level ranged from 5 to $66{\mu}g/L$ during 180 days at $50^{\circ}C$. While the acetaldehyde level ranged from 31 to $221{\mu}g/L$, it was low than $16{\mu}g/L$ in glass bottle. CONCLUSION(s): This result showed that formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were detected higher in PET bottles than glass bottles, these also increased depending on the time of storage. Concentration of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde could be significantly influenced by the time of storage and temperature.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.708-718
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• 2020

Offensive odor is recognized as a social environmental problem due to its olfactory effects. Ammonia(NH₃), hydrogen sulfide(H₂S) and benzene(C₆H₆) are produced from various petrochemical plants, public sewage treatment plants, public livestock wastes, and food waste disposal facilities in large quantities. Therefore efficient decomposition of offensive odor is needed. In this study, the removal efficiency of atmospheric-pressure plasma operating at an ambient condition was investigated by evaluating the concentrations at upflow and downflow between the plasma reactor. The decomposition of offensive odor using plasma is based on the mechanism of photochemical oxidation of offensive odor using free radical and ozone(O₃) generated when discharging plasma, which enables the decomposition of offensive odor at ordinary temperature and has the advantage of no secondary pollutants. As a result, all three odor substances were completely decontaminated within 1 minute as soon as discharging the plasma up to 500 W. This result confirms that high concentration odors or mixed odor materials can be reduced using atmospheric-pressure plasma.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.570-578
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• 2003

Background : Ambient particles during Asian dust events are usually sized less than $10{\mu}m$, known to be associated with the adverse effects on the general populations. But, there has been no considerable evidence linking these particles to the adverse effects on airways. The objectives of this study was to investigate the possible adverse effects of Asian dust events on respiratory function and symptoms in subjects with bronchial asthma. Patients and Methods : From march to June 2002, Asthmatic patients who were diagnosed with bronchial challenge test or bronchodilator response were enrolled. We divided them into three groups; mild, moderate, and severe, according to the severity. Subjects with other organ insufficiency such as heart, kidney, liver, and malignancy were excluded. All patients completed twice daily diaries and recorded peak flow rate, respiratory symptom, and daily activity. Daily and hourly mean pollutant levels of particulate matter < $10{\mu}m$ in diameter($PM_{10}$), nitrogen dioxide($NO_2$), sulphur dioxide($SO_2$), ozone($O_3$) and carbon monoxide(CO) were measured at the 10 different monitoring sites. Results : Dust events occured 14 times during the study period. Daily averages of 4 air pollutant were measured with an increased level of $PM_{10}$, decreased level of $NO_2$ and $SO_2$, and no change in CO during dust days compared to those during control days. An increase in $PM_{10}$ concentration was associated with an increase of subjects with PEF variability of >20% (p<0.05), night time symptom(p<0.05), and a decrease in mean PEF (p<0.05), which were calculated by the longitudinal data analysis. Otherwise, there was no association between $PM_{10}$ level and bronchodialtor inhaler, and daytime respiratory symptoms. Conclusion : This study shows evidence that ambient air pollution, especially $PM_{10}$, during Asian dust events, could be one of the many aggravating factors at least in patients with airway diseases. This data can be used as a primary source to set up a new policy on air environmental control and to evaluate the safety of air pollution index. We also expect that this research will help identify precise components of dust, which are more linked to the adverse effects.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.210-215
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• 2021

For sterilization of microorganisms of the Listeria genus contaminating enoki mushroom, pilot mushroom grower equipped with air sterilization devices were developed. Sterilization experiments were performed using physical and chemical treatments. Internal temperature and humidity were controlled, maintaining 6.62℃±0.30 in the upper shelves, 6.46℃±0.24 in the middle shelves, and 6.48℃±0.25 in the lower shelves. Humidities were 79.97%±4.42, 79.43%±4.06, and 79.94±4.30%, respectively, with a temperature setting of 6.5℃, and a relative humidity of 75%. A suitable enoki mushroom cultivation stage for air sterilizer application was during the growth stage, with temperature in the 6.5~8.5℃ range, and humidity of 70~80%. At these same internal conditions, the ozone concentration in the mushroom cultivator was found to be 160 ppb during ion-cluster generator operation. After physical sterilization, the Listeria innocua survival rate was 0.1 to 0.9% using ion cluster sterilization, and 9.3 to 10.6% using UV air sterilization. The Listeria innocua survival rates on different materials were 9.3~10.6% on the metal specimen, and 9.9~16.2% on the plastic wrapper. The survival rate was particularly high on the rough side of the plastic wrapper. Ion cluster air sterilization is a labor-saving and effective method for suppressing the occurrence of Listeria bacteria on mushroom growers walls and shelves. For the plastic wrapper, chemical sterilization is more effective than physical sterilization.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.6_1
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• pp.1739-1756
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• 2021

Atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) is mainly caused by anthropogenic emissions. It contributes to the formation of secondary pollutants and ozone through chemical reactions, and adversely affects human health. Although ground stations to monitor NO₂ concentrations in real time are operated in Korea, they have a limitation that it is difficult to analyze the spatial distribution of NO₂ concentrations, especially over the areas with no stations. Therefore, this study conducted a comparative experiment of spatial interpolation of NO₂ concentrations based on two linear-regression methods(i.e., multi linear regression (MLR), and regression kriging (RK)), and two machine learning approaches (i.e., random forest (RF), and support vector regression (SVR)) for the year of 2020. Four approaches were compared using leave-one-out-cross validation (LOOCV). The daily LOOCV results showed that MLR, RK, and SVR produced the average daily index of agreement (IOA) of 0.57, which was higher than that of RF (0.50). The average daily normalized root mean square error of RK was 0.9483%, which was slightly lower than those of the other models. MLR, RK and SVR showed similar seasonal distribution patterns, and the dynamic range of the resultant NO₂ concentrations from these three models was similar while that from RF was relatively small. The multivariate linear regression approaches are expected to be a promising method for spatial interpolation of ground-level NO₂ concentrations and other parameters in urban areas.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.48-61
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• 2022

South Korea is quite vegetation rich country which has 63% forests and 16% cropland area. Massive NOx emissions from megacities, therefore, are easily combined with BVOCs emitted from the forest and cropland area, then produce high ozone concentration. BVOCs emissions have been estimated using well-known emission models, such as BEIS (Biogenic Emission Inventory System) or MEGAN (Model of Emission of Gases and Aerosol from Nature) which were developed using non-Korean emission factors. In this study, we ran MEGAN v2.1 model to estimate BVO Cs emissions in Korea. The MO DIS Land Cover and LAI (Leaf Area Index) products over Korea were used to run the MEGAN model for June 2012. Isoprene and Monoterpenes emissions from the model were inter-compared against the enclosure chamber measurements from Taehwa research forest in Korea, during June 11 and 12, 2012. For estimating emission from the enclosed chamber measurement data. The initial results show that isoprene emissions from the MEGAN model were up to 6.4 times higher than those from the enclosure chamber measurement. Monoterpenes from enclosure chamber measurement were up to 5.6 times higher than MEGAN emission. The differences between two datasets, however, were much smaller during the time of high emissions. More inter-comparison results and the possibilities of improving the MEGAN modeling performance using local measurement data over Korea will be presented and discussed.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.63-75
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• 2023

Due to the development of industry, interest in air pollutants has increased. Air pollutants have affected various fields such as environmental pollution and global warming. Among them, environmental diseases are one of the fields affected by air pollutants. Air pollutants can affect the human body's skin or respiratory tract due to their small molecular size. As a result, various studies on air pollutants and environmental diseases have been conducted. Asthma, part of an environmental disease, can be life-threatening if symptoms worsen and cause asthma attacks, and in the case of adult asthma, it is difficult to cure once it occurs. Factors that worsen asthma include particulate matter and air pollution. Asthma is an increasing prevalence worldwide. In this paper, we study how air pollutants correlate with the number of emergency room admissions in asthma patients and predict the number of future asthma emergency patients using highly correlated air pollutants. Air pollutants used concentrations of five pollutants: sulfur dioxide(SO₂), carbon monoxide(CO), ozone(O₃), nitrogen dioxide(NO₂), and fine dust(PM₁₀), and environmental diseases used data on the number of hospitalizations of asthma patients in the emergency room. Data on the number of emergency patients of air pollutants and asthma were used for a total of 5 years from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2017. The model made predictions using two models, Informer and LTSF-Linear, and performance indicators of MAE, MAPE, and RMSE were used to measure the performance of the model. The results were compared by making predictions for both cases including and not including the number of emergency patients. This paper presents air pollutants that improve the model's performance in predicting the number of asthma emergency patients using Informer and LTSF-Linear models.

• Proceedings of the KOR-BRONCHOESO Conference
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• 1972.03a
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• pp.6-7
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• 1972

The air pollutants can be classified into the irritant gas and the asphixation gas, and the irritant gas is closely related to the otorhinolaryngological diseases. The common irritant gases are nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, hydrogen carbon compounds, and the potent and irritating PAN (peroxy acyl nitrate) which is secondarily liberated from photosynthesis. Those gases adhers to the mucous membrane to result in ulceration and secondary infection due to their potent oxidizing power. 1. Sulfur dioxide gas Sulfur dioxide gas has the typical characteristics of the air pollutants. Because of its high solubility it gets easily absorbed in the respiratory tract, when the symptoms and signs by irritation become manifested initially and later the resistance in the respiratory tract brings central about pulmonary edema and respiratory paralysis of origin. Chronic exposure to the gas leads to rhinitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis, and olfactory or gustatory disturbances. 2. Carbon monoxide Toxicity of carbon monoxide is due to its deprivation of the oxygen carrying capacity of the hemoglobin. The degree of the carbon monoxide intoxication varies according to its concentration and the duration of inhalation. It starts with headache, vertigo, nausea, vomiting and tinnitus, which can progress to respiratory difficulty, muscular laxity, syncope, and coma leading to death. 3. Nitrogen dioxide Nitrogen dioxide causes respiratory disturbances by formation of methemoglobin. In acute poisoning, it can cause pulmonary congestion, pulmonary edema, bronchitis, and pneumonia due to its strong irritation on the eyes and the nose. In chronic poisoning, it causes chronic pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary edema. 4. Ozone It has offending irritating odor, and causes dryness of na sopharyngolaryngeal mucosa, headache and depressed pulmonary function which may eventually lead to pulmonary congestion or edema. 5. Smog The most outstanding incident of the smog occurred in London from December 5 through 8, 1952, because of which the mortality of the respiratory diseases increased fourfold. The smog was thought to be due to the smoke produced by incomplete combustion and its byproduct the sulfur oxides, and the dust was thought to play the secondary role. In new sense, hazardous is the photochemical smog which is produced by combination of light energy and the hydrocarbons and oxidant in the air. The Yonsei University Institute for Environmental :pollution Research launched a project to determine the relationship between the pollution and the medical, ophthalmological and rhinopharyngological disorders. The students (469) of the "S" Technical School in the most heavily polluted area in Pusan (Uham Dong district) were compared with those (345) of "K" High School in the less polluted area. The investigated group had those with subjective symptoms twice as much as the control group, 22.6% (106) in investigated group and 11.3% (39) in the control group. Among those symptomatic students of the investigated group. There were 29 with respiratory symptoms (29%), 22 with eye symptoms (21%), 50 with stuffy nose and rhinorrhea (47%), and 5 with sore thorat (5%), which revealed that more than half the students (52%) had subjective symptoms of the rhinopharyngological aspects. Physical examination revealed that the investigated group had more number of students with signs than those of the control group by 10%, 180 (38.4%) versus 99 (28.8%). Among the preceding 180 students of the investigated group, there were 8 with eye diseases (44%), 1 with respiratory disease (0.6%), 97 with rhinitis (54%), and 74 with pharyngotonsillitis (41%) which means that 95% of them had rharygoical diseases. The preceding data revealed that the otolaryngological diseases are conspicuously outnumbered in the heavily polluted area, and that there must be very close relationship between the air pollution and the otolaryngological diseases, and the anti-pollution measure is urgently needed.