Objectives: This study is aimed at identifying the influential factors on the pulmonary function of ordinary residents in the surrounding areas of Yeosu Industrial Complex. Methods: The PFT (Pulmonary Function Test) was conducted on the target residents numbering 989 people (male 361, female 628). The exposed group (813 people) resided within the radius of 5km from Yeosu Industrial Complex and the control group (176 people) resided in the radius of more than 15 km from May 2007 to November 2007. The survey also took into account other factors including personal characteristics, life habits, respiratory diseases and allergic symptoms, medical histories, and the living environments of the residents in order to further identify influential factors on pulmonary function. Result: When comparing the PFT values of the exposure groups to the control group of the same city, values of the exposure groups were meaningfully lower with an %FEV1 of 107.05% and %FVC of 100.28%. Conversely, the control group reported an %FEV1 and %FVC of 107.26% and 102.85% respectively, indicating that ambient air pollutants reduce lung function. The odds ratio of asthma diagnosis history increased when a subjects residence was close to a heavily trafficked road, traffic amount was huge, a bed was used, and the family had less than four members. However the results were not statistically meaningful. The odds ratios of abnormal pulmonary function were statistically higher among those with asthma(OR=4.29, CI=1.75-10.56), wheezing (OR=2.59, CI=1.24-5.41), and nasal congestion (OR=2.87, CI=1.36-6.08) (p<0.01). The factors affecting FEV1 were symptoms including asthma, passive smoking and allergic eye disease (R2=0.049, p<0.001). For the FVC symptoms including asthma (R2=0.014, p<0.001) were measured. The analysis showed that FVC decreased with increases in O3 and CO(p<0.01). Furthermore, FEV1 decreased with increases in O3(p<0.01). Conclusions: These results will provide preliminary data for establishing responsive measures to protect the health of residents in industrial complexes from air pollution, and to develop lasting environmental health policies.
Daphnia Magna Stratus has been widely accepted as useful species for estimating the toxicity of chemicals to aquatic invertebrate and recommended as species for the testing chemicals from the international guideline as well as Korean guideline. The study was performed for the acute toxicity test by using water flea(D. Magna) for effluents from several wastewater treatment plants and drainage canals in GyeongBuk area. Five heavy metals, 1,4-Dioxane and Perchlorate were tested. Most Toxicity Units(TU) of Industrial wastewater effluents were less than 1 which means effluent was not toxic to D. Magna. However, effluents containing 1,4-Dioxane and Perchlorate were significantly toxic to D. Magna. Therefore, facilities should reduce the 1,4-dioxane since new regulations will force them after the year of 2011.
This research was done to clarify the cooling effect of water particles generated from a fountain. This effect is a one way to control the heat island effect of big cities. The result of this research was drawn by setting the jets of water in a certain height, and then studying the diffusion of water particles, which is affected by the size of the particles and the wind speed, and the cooling effect caused by the diffusion.
1) When a diameter of a water drop was 500 ㎛ and the wind speed was 2.0 to 6.0 m/sec, the water drop diffused 75 to 190m, and the water vapor spread over 175 to 440 m. As a result, there was more than 0.5℃ of cooling effect on the temperature in the atmosphere 130 to 330m around the water fountain.
2) When a diameter of a water drop was 750 ㎛ and the wind speed was 2.0 to 6.0 m/sec, the water drop diffused 65 to 150 m, and the water vapor spread over 160 to 405 m. Moreover, there was more than 0.5℃ of cooling effect on the temperature in the atmosphere 110 to 275 m around the water fountain.
3) After studying on the relationship between the diameter of water drop and the wind speed, and the diffusion of water particles and the range of the atmosphere that was cooled, a result could be drawn from the research that the smaller the diameter of the water vapor gets and the faster the wind speed becomes, the wider the water particles diffuse and the cooler the atmosphere around the fountain becomes.
4) This research further extrapolates that when the ordinary water(tap water, water from river and stream) is used in a fountain, the cooling effect of the air near the fountain can be approached similarly. If the seawater is used in a fountain, there is to be more to concern not only on cooling effect on the air, but also on other effects on surrounding environment generated by the salt in seawater.
A study on the grain size change, sedimentary facies and age indicator of volcanic tephra was analysis through four cores (P1 ~ P4) at the Ulleung Basin in the East Sea of Korea. The two cores (P1 and P2) were collected in the northeastern side of the Ulleung Basin (about 2,000 m in water depth), while the other two cores (P3 and P4) with the water depth of about 1,500 m and 1,700 m, respectively, were collected from the continental slope of the southwestern and western side of the Ulleung Basin. Four sedimentary facies and eight sedimentary subfacies were identified. The four facies were massive sand, bioturbated mud, homogeneous mud, and laminated mud. The eight subfacies were further divided as pumiceous ash massive sand, scorieaous massive sand, plain bioturbated mud, pyrite filamented bioturbated mud, distinctly laminated mud, indistinctly laminated mud, thinly laminated mud and homogeneous mud. The homogeneous mud was not found in the core of P3 which is located in the western side of Ulleung Basin (close to the Korean coast). In the case of laminated mud facies, the thinly laminated mud facies was dominated in the lower part of core sequences of the Ulleung Basin (P1 and P2), while the indistinctly laminated mud were overally distributed in the core sequences from the continental slope of Ulleung Basin. The Tephra layers from the core sequences of central Ulleung Basin were more dominated and distinctive than those from the core sequences of continental slope. This is related to the distance from the volcanic source and the amount of sediment supply. The core locations of Ulleung-Oki Tephra layers in the central Ulleung Basin were in the upper part of core sequences, while those in the continental slope were in the lower part of core sequences. This is indicated that the amounts of sediment supply in the continental slope after the Ulleung-Oki eruption were very high and different sedimentary environment between upper and lower of Tephra layer.
We have established a wind map of Singapore, a city-state characterized its land cover by urban buildings to confirm a possibility of wind farm development. As a simple but useful approximation of urban canopy, a zero-plane displacement concept was employed. The territory is divided into 15 sectors having similar urban building layouts, and zero-plane displacement, equivalent roughness height at each sector was calculated to setup a terrain boundary condition. Annual mean wind speed and mean wind power density map were drawn by a CFD micrositing model, WindSim where Changi International Airport wind data was used as an in-situ measurement. Unfortunately, predicted wind power density does not exceed 80 W/m2 at 50 m above ground level which would not sufficient for wind power generation. However, the established Singapore wind map is expected to be applied for wind environment assessment and urban planning purpose.
The aim of this paper is to correlate the release characteristics of marine and lake sediment with their vicinal oxic conditions. We performed lab-scale simulation experiments using field sediment and water in order to compare the release concentrations and the release rates one another. To provide a few different kinds of oxic environments we used natural air flow and some oxygen releasing compounds such as CaO2 and MgO2. In case of phosphates, in each oxic condition, removal of phosphorus via biological activity and that via salt precipitation with the metal ions lowered the release rates. The behavior of the nitrogen-origin salts seemed to greatly depend on the typical biological actions - growth of biomass, nitrification, and partial denitrification. Generally speaking, the control of releases of NH3-N, PO4-P, T-N and T-P was successful under the oxic conditions meanwhile COD, nitrates and nitrites were difficult to reduce the releases into the bulk water because of the considerable microbial oxidation. Based on typical diffusive mass transfer kinetics the changes of concentrations of the nutrients were computed for qualitative and quantitative comparisons.
The variation of groundwater level in Jeju Island is analyzed with the data of precipitation observed from 48 monitoring post and groundwater level observed from 84 monitoring wells during 2001 to 2009. The groundwater level rises in summer and falls in winter. The rise of groundwater level by precipitation is fast and small in the eastern region and slow and large in the western region. However, the speed of fall during the period of no rain is slower in the eastern region than in the western region. It tells that permeability is greater in the eastern region than in the western region. In this paper, we set up the base level of groundwater and calculate recharge volume between the base level and groundwater surface. During the period, the average recharge volume was 9.83 ×109㎥ and the maximum recharge volume was 2.667 ×1010㎥ after the typhoon Nari. With these volume and the recharge masses obtained by applying the recharge ratio of 46.1%, estimated by Jeju Province (2003), the porous ratio over the whole Jeju Island is 16.8% in average and 4.6% in the case of maximum recharge volume just after typhoon Nari. A large difference in the two ratios is because that it takes time for groundwater permeated through the ground just after rain fall to fill up the empty porous part. Although the porous ratios over the whole Jeju Island obtained in this way has a large error, they give us the advantage to roughly estimate the amount of recharged groundwater mass directly from observing the groundwater level.
Adsorption experiment of carbon dioxide was performed on MCM41 silica impregnated with two kinds of EDA(ethylenediamine) and MEA(monoethanolamine). The prepared adsorbents were characterized by BET surface area, X-ray diffraction and FT-IR. The CO2 capture study was investigated in a U type packed column with GC/TCD. The results of XRD for MCM-41 and amine-impregnated MCM41 showed typical the hexagonal pore system. BET results showed the MCM 41 impregnated amine to have a surface area of 141 m2/g to 595 m2/g and FT-IR revealed a N-H functional group at about 1400cm-1 to 1600cm-1. The CO2 adsorption capacity on EDA and MEA was as follow: MCM41-EDA30 > MCM41 -EDA40 >MCM41-EDA20 >MCM-EDA10 and MCM41-MEA40 >MCM41-MEA30 > MCM41-MEA20> MCM41-MEA10. The MCM41-EDA30 showed the highest adsorption capacity due to physical adsorption and chemical adsorption by amino-group content. The results suggest that mesoporous media with EDA is effective adsorbent for CO2 capture from flue gases.
In this study, thermal environment changes for a marathon course of IAAF World Championship, Daegu 2011 were modeled to provide improvements of thermal environment, so that runners could have the maximum condition and citizens pleasant streets.
The three biggest size of intersections were selected for the study. Envi-met, 3G microclimate model, were used for a thermal environment analysis and three different cases - present status, planting roadside tree scenario, and roof-garden scenario - were compared. The followings are the results of the study.
1. The highest thermal distribution were shown at 1 p.m., but there was no significant difference between a thermal distribution at 1 p.m. and that at 5 p.m. since a heat flux from buildings affects thermal distributions rather than insolation does.
2. Tree planting or adding environmental friendly factors might lead a temperature drop effect, but the effect was not significant for areas covered with impermeability packing materials such as concrete or asphalt (especally, for Site case 2)
3. The combination of tree planting and adding environmental friendly factors also brought a temperature drop effect (Site 1 and 2) and this case showed even better result if green spaces (especially, parks) were closed.
The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of combination of disinfection process (electrolysis, UV process) on Escherichia coli (E. coli) disinfection and oxidants (OH radical, ClO2, HOCl, H2O2 and O3) generation. The effect of electrolyte type (NaCl, KCl and Na2SO4) on the E. coli disinfection and oxidants generation were evaluated. The experimental results showed that performance of E. coli disinfection of electrolysis and UV single process was similar. Combination of electrolysis and UV process enhanced the E. coli disinfection and 4-carboxybenzaldehyde (4-CBA, indicator of the generation of OH radical) degradation. It is clearly showed synergy effect on disinfection and OH radical formation. However chlorine (ClO2, HOCl) and oxygen type (H2O2, O3) oxidants were decreased with the combination of two process. In electrolysis + UV complex process, electro-generated H2O2 and O3 were reacted with UV light of UV-C lamp and increased 4-CBA degradation(increase OH radical). Disinfection of electrolyte of chlorine type was higher than that of the sulfate type electrolyte due to the higher generation of OH radical and oxidants.
In order to develop bacterial cellulose (BC) with antimicrobial activity against pathogenic microorganisms, silver and chitosan were incorporated into BC, respectively. Experiment results showed that antimicrobial activity against pathogenic microorganisms was improved with increasing silver concentration. Chitosan also showed a direct proportion between its concentration and antimicrobial activity. These results suggest that antimicrobial effects of BC using silver and chitosan are well proven to be effective. We also tested the stainability of BC with natural colorant for the application of food industry. Stainability of BC was enhanced with increasing natural colorant concentration. Decolorization of BC stained was observed by dipping it into distilled water with one hour-intervals. As a result, there was no significant difference. Combination of natural colorant-stainability and antibiosis of BC is expected to be useful in making colored antibiotic BC in various industrial application areas, considering its antimicrobial activity, high stainability and low decolorization tendency.
This study investigated the application of experimental design methodology to optimization of conditions of air-plasma and oxygen-plasma oxidation of N, N-Dimethyl-4-nitrosoaniline (RNO). The reactions of RNO degradation were described as a function of the parameters of voltage (X1), gas flow rate (X2) and initial RNO concentration (X3) and modeled by the use of the central composite design. In pre-test, RNO degradation of the oxygen-plasma was higher than that of the air-plasma though low voltage and gas flow rate. The application of response surface methodology (RSM) yielded the following regression equation, which is an empirical relationship between the RNO removal efficiency and test variables in a coded unit: RNO removal efficiency (%) = 86.06 + 5.00X1 + 14.19X2 - 8.08X3 + 3.63X1X2 - 7.66X2 2 (air-plasma); RNO removal efficiency (%) = 88.06 + 4.18X1 + 2.25X2 - 4.91X3 + 2.35X1X3 + 2.66X1 2 + 1.72X3 2 (oxygen-plasma). In analysis of the main effect, air flow rate and initial RNO concentration were most important factor on RNO degradation in air-plasma and oxygen-plasma, respectively. Optimized conditions under specified range were obtained for the highest desirability at voltage 152.37 V, 135.49 V voltage and 5.79 L/min, 2.82 L/min gas flow rate and 25.65 mg/L, 34.94 mg/L initial RNO concentration for air-plasma and oxygen-plasma, respectively.
A ecosystem model was applied for understanding of circulation process of state variables in marine ecosystem. A mass balance was conducted by calculating the physical process. The sensitivity analysis was conducted to know which coefficient is the most effective factor to the state variables in the model. The results of the mass balance indicate that the primary production was 58.6 ton C/day in the case of mass flux. DIN and DIP in nutrient ingestion of phytoplankton were each 7.9 ton N/day, 1.1 ton P/day. POC and DOC in mineralization of organic matter were each 10.8 ton C/day, 40.6 ton C/day. The results of sensitivity analysis showed that the maximum growth rate of phytoplankton was the most important factor for overall state variables. In the case of nutrients, Half saturation constant of DIN, and mineralization rate of DOM for COD were important factor.