• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.412-421
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• 2023

Ultrasound brain stimulation is spot-lighted by its capability of inducing brain cell activation in a localized deep brain region and ultimately treating impaired brain function while the efficiency and directivity of neural modulation are highly dependent on types of stimulus waveforms. Therefore, to optimize the types of stimulation parameters, we propose a cell-cultivable ultrasonic transducer having a series stack of a spin-coated polymer piezoelectric element (Poly-vinylidene fluoride-trifluorethylene, PVDF-TrFE) and a parylene insulating layer enhancing output acoustic pressure on a glass-coverslip which is commonly used in culturing cells. Due to the uniformity and high accuracy of stimulus waveform, tens of neuronal cell responses located on the transducer surface can be recorded simultaneously with fluorescence microscopy. By averaging the cell response traces from tens of cells, small changes to the low intensity ultrasound stimulations can be identified. In addition, the reduction of stimulus distortions made by standing wave generated from reflections between the transducers and other strong reflectors can be achieved by placing acoustic absorbers. Through the proposed ultrasound transducer, we could successfully observe the calcium responses induced by low-intensity ultrasound stimulation of 6 MHz, 0.2 MPa in astrocytes cultured on the transducer surface.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.1-42
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• 2021

The outlook for Korea's consumer price inflation rate has a profound impact not only on the Bank of Korea's operation of the inflation target system but also on the overall economy, including the bond market and private consumption and investment. This study presents the prediction results of consumer price inflation in Korea for the next three years. To this end, first, model selection is performed based on the out-of-sample predictive power of autoregressive distributed lag (ADL) models, AR models, small-scale vector autoregressive (VAR) models, and large-scale VAR models. Since there are many potential predictors of inflation, a Bayesian variable selection technique was introduced for 12 macro variables, and a precise tuning process was performed to improve predictive power. In the case of the VAR model, the Minnesota prior distribution was applied to solve the dimensional curse problem. Looking at the results of long-term and short-term out-of-sample predictions for the last five years, the ADL model was generally superior to other competing models in both point and distribution prediction. As a result of forecasting through the combination of predictions from the above models, the inflation rate is expected to maintain the current level of around 2% until the second half of 2022, and is expected to drop to around 1% from the first half of 2023.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.295-320
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• 2023

Jeongseon-gun has the SaBuk Public Library, 17 small libraries, and the Jeongseon Educational Library. In 2023, with the completion of the Jeongseon County Public Library, there is a need to establish innovative library policy strategies that consider balanced development by region. The primary goal of this study was to set the direction for the future of Jeongseon County's public libraries and provide appropriate strategies. To achieve this, an examination of the local situation and characteristics of Jeongseon County was conducted, followed by an analysis of the operational status of the public libraries. Additionally, a satisfaction survey and demand analysis were conducted among the residents of Jeongseon County regarding the libraries, to analyze directions for library improvements. Ultimately, taking into account the local characteristics, library status, and residents' needs, an optimized strategy for the region was presented. As a result of the study, the operational goal to achieve the vision was set as "a life-friendly library that shares the healthy lives of residents of Jeongseon-gun," and emphasized its role as a companion close to daily life for the healthy lives of Jeongseon-gun residents. The four strategic tasks to promote the operational goals were expressed as "a library that grows with local residents," "a library that provides multicultural exchange," "a sustainable future-oriented library," and "a library that cooperates with the local community."

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.515-532
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• 2023

Bentonite, predominantly consists of expandable clay minerals, is considered to be the suitable buffering material in high-level radioactive waste disposal repository due to its large swelling property and low permeability. Additionally, the bentonite has large cation exchange capacity and specific surface area, and thus, it effectively retards the transport of leaked radionuclides to surrounding environments. This study aims to review the thermodynamic sorption models for four radionuclides (U, Am, Se, and Eu) and eight bentonites. Then, the thermodynamic sorption models and optimized sorption parameters were precisely analyzed by considering the experimental conditions in previous study. Here, the optimized sorption parameters showed that thermodynamic sorption models were related to experimental conditions such as types and concentrations of radionuclides, ionic strength, major competing cation, temperature, solid-to-liquid ratio, carbonate species, and mineralogical properties of bentonite. These results implied that the thermodynamic sorption models suggested by the optimization at specific experimental conditions had large uncertainty for application to various environmental conditions.

• Clean Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2023

Due to the strengthening of environmental requirements, aging denitrification facilities need to improve their performance. The present study aims to suggest the possibility of improving performance using computational analysis techniques. This involved modifying both the geometric design and the operating conditions, including the flow path shape of the equipment such as the inlet guide vane and the curved diffusing part, and the flow control of the ammonia injection nozzle. The conditions presented in this study were compared with existing operating conditions in terms of the flow uniformity, the NH₃/NO molar ratio of the mixed gas flowing into the catalyst layer, and the total pressure drop of the facility. The flow field applied in the computational analysis ranged from the outlet of the economizer in the combustion furnace to the inlet of the air preheater, the full domain of the denitrification facility. The performances were derived by solving the flow fields using ANSYS-Fluent and the injection amount of ammonia was adjusted for each nozzle using Design Xplorer. Compared to the denitrification performances of the equipment currently in operation, the conditions proposed in this study showed an improvement in the flow uniformity and NH₃/NO composition ratio by 45.1% and 8.7%, respectively, but the total pressure drop increased by 1.24%.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.606-614
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• 2023

This study was conducted to optimize the size of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus (OF) as a material of sikhae and to investigate the quality characteristics. The results on the protease activity of OF meat, protein and ash contents of the bone, and yields and hardness of fish bone during fermentation time suggest that the suitable fish weight for sikhae was less than 250 g. The proximate compositions of the OF sikhae fermented under optimum condition (fermentation for 9 days at 15℃), were 73.0% moisture, 12.0% crude protein, 1.3% crude fat and 2.4% ash. The salinity, titration acidity and amino acid nitrogen contents per 100 g sikhae were 1.7 g, 2.46 g, and 311.3 mg, respectively. The lactic acid bacteria concentration in the sikhae were 8.84 log CFU/g, which were higher than those (5.78-6.62 log CFU/g) of 5 kind of commercial flounder sikhae. The functional properties, such as ACE inhibitory activity (69.0%), antioxidative activity (69.3%), α-glucosidase inhibitory activity (22.7%), xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity (88.2%), and nitrite scavenging activity (96.4%) of the sikhae were superior to those of 5 kind of commercial flounder sikhae.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.483-490
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• 2022

Floating LiDAR is a system that provides a new paradigm for wind condition observation, which is essential when creating an offshore wind farm. As it can save time and money, minimize environmental impact, and even reduce backlash from local communities, it is emerging as the industry standard. However, the design and verification of a stable platform is very important, as disturbance factors caused by fluctuations of the buoy affect the reliability of observation data. In Korea, due to the nation's late entry into the technology, a number of foreign equipment manufacturers are dominating the domestic market. The west coast of Korea is a shallow sea environment with a very large tidal difference, so strong currents repeatedly appear depending on the region, and waves of strong energy that differ by season are formed. This paper conducted a study examining buoys suitable for LiDAR operation in the waters of Korea, which have such complex environmental characteristics. In this paper, we will introduce examples of optimized design and verification of ship-type buoys, which were applied first, and derive important concepts that will serve as the basis for the development of various platforms in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.37-46
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• 2023

Dynamic soil properties are essential factors for predicting the detailed behavior of the ground. However, there are limitations to gathering soil samples and performing additional experiments. In this study, we used an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict dynamic soil properties based on static soil properties. The selected static soil properties were soil cohesion, internal friction angle, porosity, specific gravity, and uniaxial compressive strength, whereas the compressional and shear wave velocities were determined for the dynamic soil properties. The Levenberg-Marquardt and Bayesian regularization methods were used to enhance the reliability of the ANN results, and the reliability associated with each optimization method was compared. The accuracy of the ANN model was represented by the coefficient of determination, which was greater than 0.9 in the training and testing phases, indicating that the proposed ANN model exhibits high reliability. Further, the reliability of the output values was verified with new input data, and the results showed high accuracy.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.370-385
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• 2023

Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (Cyano-HABs) are an international environmental problem that negatively affects the ecosystem as well as the safety of water resources by discharging cyanotoxins. In particular, the discharge of microcystins (MCs), a highly toxic substance, has been studied most actively, and various water treatment methods have been proposed for this purpose. In this paper, we reviewed adsorption technology, which is recognized as the most feasible, economical, and efficient method among suggested treatment methods for removing MCs. Activated carbons (AC) are widely used adsorbents for MCs removal, and excellent MCs adsorption performance has been reported. Research on alternative adsorption materials for AC such as biochar and biosorbents has been conducted, however, their performance was lower compared to activated carbon. The impacts of adsorbent properties(characteristics of pore surface chemistry) and environmental factors (solution pH, temperature, natural organic matter, and ionic strength) on the MCs adsorption performance were also discussed. In addition, toward effective control of MCs, the possibility of the direct removal of harmful cyanobacteria as well as the removal of dissolved MCs using adsorption strategy was examined. However, to fully utilize the adsorption for the removal of MCs, the application and optimization under actual environmental conditions are still required, thereby meeting the environmental and economic standards. From this study, crucial insights could be provided for the development and selection of effective adsorbent and subsequent adsorption processes for the removal of MCs from water resources.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.423-428
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• 2024

Microneedles with micron-sized needle arrays are an emerging technology for the transdermal administration of active pharmaceutical ingredients with minimally invasive pain. Over the past decade, although various additive manufacturing technologies have been employed for precise fabrication of microneedles, these methods are often limited by material compatibility and bioavailability, in addition to being time-consuming and costly. In here, we compare the resolution of Polyjet and DLP-SLA 3D printing methods for the precise fabrication of biodegradable PCLDA/PEGDA microneedles. To enhance the structural accuracy of the microneedles from both printing methods, we evaluate the 3D printing conditions, including 3D printing angle and needle height and diameter. Molds for microneedles are fabricated using optimized 3D printing methods, and subsequent replica molding processes are employed to fabricate the polymeric microneedles with sharp need tips. Finally, we use photocurable PCLDA and PEGDA for biodegradable and biocompatible microneedles, and their mechanical properties as PCLDA concentrations are analyzed to assess the strength required for skin insertion. This study has demonstrated the efficient and low-cost fabrication of high-resolution microneedles for transdermal drug delivery.