A strain of Amphidinium species was established from samples collected from the intertidal zone of a sandy beach of Jeju Island, Korea. Its cells were 13.0-15.0 μm in length and 10.0-13.0 μm in width. Its cell shape was round or oval and dorsoventrally flat. A pyrenoid was located in the center of the cell and a nucleus was posteriorly located. Its epicone was small and left-deflecting. Its cingulum had V-shape on the ventral side, forming a ventral ridge and extending to the sulcus. Polygonal amphiesmal vesicles and ring-shaped body scales not described previous were observed on the surface of the cell. Its morphological features were consistent with those of previously described Amphidinium fijiense. Phylogeny based on ITS region and LSU rDNA sequences revealed that this Amphidinium isolate was clearly clustered with other A. fijiense strains, but separated from other Amphidinium species. These results indicate that this Amphidinium isolate is A. fijiense. This study reports its presence for the first time in the intertidal zone of a sandy beach of Jeju Island, Korea.

In this study, we investigated the difference in the affective characteristics between science-gifted students and general students through the positive experiences about science (PES) index. We also explored ways to apply the characteristics of gifted classes suggeseted by the teachers of this study, which had a positive effect on science-gifted students, to general science classes. For this study, a PES survey was carried on middle school science-gifted students enrolled in the gifted education center in the central region and general middle school students in the same area who had no experience in gifted education. Based on the survey result, we conducted in-depth interviews with teachers, having teaching experience with both science-gifted and general students. The results revealed that science-gifted students showed a significantly higher PES index than general students in all five areas of PES. The area with the largest difference between the two groups was science-related self-concept and the smallest was science academic emotion. Teachers suggested ways to apply the characteristics of science-gifted classes to general science classes, such as organizing general science classes around inquiry activities, supporting class materials such as MBL or tablets, reconstructing the classes using materials reflecting students’ needs, and changing the textbook content and narrative style, to induce students' interest and curiosity. Based on the study results, ways to enhance the PES through science classes for general students were proposed.

This study reported on the phytoplankton community and seasonal changes in the Seoul passage section and downstream in the Han River in 2012. Field samples were collected monthly from the upper (Paldang), middle (Cheongdam), and downstream (Seongsan) areas of the Seoul passage section. Water temperature, DO, pH, and conductivity were measured at each station. All environmental factors measured were recorded similarly at the three stations. The water temperature ranged from 2 to 30°C and the dissolved oxygen ranged from 4.8 to 9.1 mg L-1, showing typical patterns of temperate regions. The phytoplankton cell concentrations ranged from 990 cells mL-1 (Paldang, December) to 2.9×104 cells mL-1 (Seongsan, March), and the chlorophyll-a content showed similar patterns to the cell numbers. The phytoplankton community was comprised of 75 genera and 95 species, including 37 diatoms, 29 Chlorophyta, 11 cyanobacteria, and two dinoflagellates. The number of species that appeared seasonally varied greatly, from nine species (Paldang, May) to 35 species (Cheongdam, December). Diatoms were the most dominant in all stations and seasons, except in summer. In contrast, chlorophytes and cyanobacteria showed sporadic high numbers in the summer and fall seasons. Four diatoms Stephanodiscus hantzschii f. tenuis, S. hantzschii, Fragilaria sp., and Aulacoseira spp., a chlorophyte Actinastrum hantzschii, and a cyanobacterium Microcystis sp. were each present in proportions greater than 10%. This study provides fundamental data from phytoplankton communities and environmental factors in the Han River for understanding water quality for long-term environmental monitoring.

In this study, to investigate an optimal configuration method for the modeling system, we performed an optimization experiment by controlling the types of compilers and libraries, and the number of CPU cores because it was important to provide reliable model data very quickly for the national air quality forecast. We were made up the optimization experiment of twelve according to compilers (PGI and Intel), MPIs (mvapich-2.0, mvapich-2.2, and mpich-3.2) and NetCDF (NetCDF-3.6.3 and NetCDF-4.1.3) and performed wall clock time measurement for the WRF and CMAQ models based on the built computing resources. In the result of the experiment according to the compiler and library type, the performance of the WRF (30 min 30 s) and CMAQ (47 min 22 s) was best when the combination of Intel complier, mavapich-2.0, and NetCDF-3.6.3 was applied. Additionally, in a result of optimization by the number of CPU cores, the WRF model was best performed with 140 cores (five calculation servers), and the CMAQ model with 120 cores ( five calculation servers). While the WRF model demonstrated obvious differences depending on the number of CPU cores rather than the types of compilers and libraries, CMAQ model demonstrated the biggest differences on the combination of compilers and libraries.

Provider-oriented weather information has been rapidly changing to become more customer-oriented and personalized. Given the increasing interest in wellness and health topics, the demand for health weather information, and biometeorology, also increased. However, research on changes in the human body according to weather conditions is still insufficient due to various constraints, and interdisciplinary research is also lacking. As part of an effort to change that, this study surveyed medical practitioners at an actual treatment site, using questionnaires, to investigate what kind of weather information they could utilize. Although there was a limit to the empirical awareness that medical staff had about weather information, most respondents noted that there is a correlation between disease and weather, with cardiovascular diseases (coronary artery disease (98.5%) and hypertension (95.9% ), skin diseases (atopic dermatitis (100%), sunburn (93.8%)) being the most common weather-sensitive ailments. Although there are subject-specific differences, most weather-sensitive diseases tend to be affected by temperature and humidity in general. Respiratory and skin diseases are affected by wind and solar radiation, respectively.

This study analyzes the PM10 characteristics (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 ㎛), concentration, and emissions in eight large South Korean cities (Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Daegu, Gwangju, Ulsan, Busan, Jeju). The annual median of PM10 concentration showed a decline of 0.02~1.97 ㎍/㎥ in the regions, except for Incheon, which recorded an annual 0.02 ㎍/㎥ increase. The monthly distribution levels were high in spring, winter, fall, and the summer, but were lower in summer for all regions except for Ulsan. These differences are thought to be due to the dust in spring and the cleaning effect of precipitation in summer. The variation in concentrations during the day (diurnal variation) showed that PM10 levels were very high during the rush hour and that this was most extreme in the cities (10.00 and 18.00-21.00). The total annual PM10 emissions analysis suggested that there had been a general decrease, except for Jeju. On-road mobile (OM) sources, which contributed a large proportion of the particulates in most regions, decreased, but fugitive dust (FD) sources increased in the remaining regions, except for Daegu. The correlation analysis between PM10 concentrations and emissions showed that FD could be used as a valid, positive predictor of PM10 emissions in Seoul (74.5% (p<0.05)), Dajeon (47.2% (p<0.05)), and Busan (59.1% (p<0.01)). Furthermore, industrial combustion (IC) was also a significant predictor in Incheon (61.7% (p<0.01)), and on-road mobile (OC) sources were a valid predictor in Daegu (24.8% (p<0.05)).

The effect of weather on disease was investigated based on results reported in academic papers. Weather-sensitive disease was selected by analyzing the frequency distributions of diseases and correlations between diseases and meteorological factors (e.g., temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind speed). Correlations between disease and meteorological factors were most frequently reported for myocardial infarction (MI) (28%) followed by chronic ischemic heart disease (CHR) (12%), stroke (STR) (10%), and angina pectoris (ANG) (5%). These four diseases had significant correlations with temperature (meaningful correlation for MI and negative correlations for CHR, STR, and ANG). Selecting MI, as a representative weather-sensitive disease, and summarizing the quantitative correlations with meteorological factors revealed that, daily hospital admissions for MI increased approximately 1.7%-2.2% with each 1℃ decrease in physiologically equivalent temperature. On the days when MI occurred in three or more patients larger daily temperature ranges (2.3℃ increase) were reported compared with the days when MI occurred in fewer than three patients. In addition, variations in pressure (10 mbar, 1016 mbar standard) and relative humidity (10%) contributed to an 11%-12% increase in deaths from MI and an approximately 10% increase in the incidence of MI, respectively.

Sensitivity analysis of the WRF model according to the impact of nudging (e.g., nudging techniques and application domains) was conducted during high nocturnal ozone episode to improve the prediction of the regional ozone concentration in the southeastern coastal area of the Korean peninsula. The analysis was performed by six simulation experiments: (1) without nudging (e.g., CNTL case), (2) with observation nudging (ONE case) to all domains (domain 1∼4), (3) with grid nudging (GNE case) to all domains, (4)∼(6) with grid nudging to domain 1, domain 1∼2 and domain 1∼3, respectively (GNE-1, GNE-2, GNE-3 case). The results for nudging techniques showed that the GNE case was in very good agreement with those observed during all analysis periods (e.g., daytime, nighttime, and total), as compared to the ONE case. In particular, the large effect of grid nudging on the near-surface meteorological factors (temperature, relative humidity, and wind fields) was predicted at the coastline and nearby sea during daytime. The results for application domains showed that the effects of nudging were distinguished between the meteorological factors and between the time periods. When applied grid nudging until subdomain, the improvement effects of temperature and relative humidity had differential tendencies. Temperature was increased for all time, but relative humidity was increased in daytime and was decreased in nighttime. Thus, GNE case showed better result than other cases.