ObjectiveAs the number of North Korean adolescent refugees drastically increased in South Korea, there is a growing interest in them. Our study was conducted to evaluate the mental health of the North Korean adolescent refugees residing in South Korea.MethodsThe subjects of this study were 102 North Korean adolescent refugees in Hangyeore middle and high School, the public educational institution for the North Korean adolescent refugees residing in South Korea, and 766 general adolescents in the same region. The Korean version of Child Behavior Check List (K-CBCL) standardized in South Korea was employed as the mental health evaluation tool.ResultsThe adolescent refugees group showed a significantly different score with that of the normal control group in the K-CBCL subscales for sociality (t=29.67, p=0.000), academic performance (t=17.79, p=0.000), total social function (t=35.52, p=0.000), social withdrawal (t=18.01, p=0.000), somatic symptoms (t=28.85, p=0.000), depression/anxiety (t=13.08, p=0.000), thought problems (t=6.24, p=0.013), attention problems (t=4.14, p=0.042), internalized problems (t=26.54, p=0.000) and total problems (t=5.23, p=0.022).ConclusionThe mental health of the North Korean adolescent refugees was severe particularly in internalized problems when compared with that of the general adolescents in South Korea. This result indicates the need for interest in not only the behavior of the North Korean adolescent refugees but also their emotional problem.

Gas-gas heaters (GGHs) are used to reheat gases through desulfurization in coal-fired power plants to reduce low-temperature corrosion and white smoke. Wrinkled heating elements are installed inside the GGH to perform effective heat exchange. An optimization study of the heating element shape was conducted to reduce the differential pressure effectively and improve performance. An integrated analysis model was applied. Based on actual operational data, a computational fluid dynamic analysis was conducted on the L-type heating element and GGH system. The experiments applied the optimal latin hypercube sampling method, and numerical analysis was performed for each sample. Based on the response surface, the result of the sample was optimized through the pointer algorithm. For the integrated analysis model, validation was performed by comparison with the actual operational data, and the thermal-fluid characteristics of the heating element and GGH system were analyzed to set three parameters: plate angle, undulated angle, and pitch 1. From the optimization result, increases in the undulated angle and pitch 1 reduce the pressure drop by widening the heating element cross section. By increasing the plate angle, the heat transfer area is secured and the reduced heat transfer coefficient is compensated, improving the GGH performance.

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