• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.393-400
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• 2005

Hydrogen($H_2$) as a clean, and renewable energy carrier will be served an important role in the future energy economy. Several biological $H_2$ production processes are known and currently under development, ranging from direct bio-photolysis of water by green algae, indirect bio-photolysis by cyanobacteria including the separated two stage photolysis using the combination of green algae and photosynthetic microorganisms or green algae alone, dark anaerobic fermentation by fermentative bacteria, photo-fermentation by purple bacteria, and water gas shift reaction by photosynthetic or fermentative bacteria. In this paper, biological $H_2$ production processes, that are being explored in fundamental and applied research, are reviewed.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.151-160
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• 1997

This study was planned to evaluate the urinary ascorbic acid as a new biological marker for the intoxication of cadmium, which could possibly be driven by its increased utilization and environmental pollution. In order to meet this goal, we have peformed measurement of urinary ascorbic acid concentration, histopathological examination of the kidney, and biochemical test for the liver function using cadmium-intoxicated rats by oral administration. The average concentrations of urinary ascorbic acid in the $CdCl_2$-treated rats were 214.0 mg/dl for 100 ppm group and 254.3 mg/dl for 200 ppm group during experimental period of 50 days. These levels are 24 and 28 times higher than one in the control group (9.0 mg/dl), respectively. Ultrastructural study showed the eosinophilic hyaline cast and focal effacement, fusion in the renal tubules, as well as loss of foot processes on the glomerular epithelial cells. These results suggested that cadmium may be responsible for renal glomerular injury. The blood levels of AST, ALT and LDH in the treated groups (199 IU/I, 88 IU/I, 1190 U/I for the 100 ppm group and 270 IU/I, 226 IU/I, 760 U/I for the 200 ppm group) were higher than ones in the control group(143 IU/I, 50 IU/I, 334 U/I). These results indicated the cadmium induced the damage of liver function. In conclusion, the administration of cadmium showed a remarkable increase of urinary ascorbic acid with renal and hepatic damage. Therefore, it is expected that measurement of urinary ascorbic acid would be an powerful method as a noninvasive biomarker for cadmium intoxication.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.702-708
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• 2018

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as a significant air pollutant, is generated mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, building materials using painting, etc. The inhalation of a certain amount of VOCs can be deleterious to human health, e.g., headaches, nausea and vomiting. In addition, it can also cause memory loss and even increase the rate of leukemia. Therefore, as one of the methods for reducing VOCs in air, polyacrylonitrile/fly ash (PAN/FA) composite nanofibrous membranes were fabricated by electrospinning. To observe their VOCs adsorption capacity, the morphological structure of PAN/FA nanofibrous mats was investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and the VOCs (chloroform, benzene, toluene, and xylene) adsorption capacity of PAN/FA membranes were tested by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The results indicated that the PAN nanofiber containing 40 wt. % FA powder had the smallest fiber diameter of 283 nm; they also showed the highest VOCs adsorption capacity compared to other composite membranes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.82 no.4
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• pp.328-336
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• 1993

This study was conducted to investigate sensitivity of tree seedlings to $SO_2$. Visible injury symptoms and changes of ethylene production were investigated in tree seedlings with the fumigation of $SO_2$ in gas chamber 4 hours a day for six days. The symptoms of visible injury did not appear below 0.5ppm level of $SO_2$ exposure but a change of visible injury with the passage of time appeared at 1.5 and 2.5ppm in all seedlings. With the higher the concentration and/or the longer exposure of $SO_2$ the visible injury symptoms on leaves increased in all seedlings. The sensitivity of seedlings to $SO_2$ was the highest in Liriodendron tulipifera followed by Pinus strobus, Ginkgo biloba, Pinus densiflora and Pinus koraiensis. The amount of ethylene production was more at 1.5 and 2.5ppm of $SO_2$ exposure than at 0.5ppm and the peak time of it came faster at higher levels. The amount of ethylene production was significantly different among tree seedlings. It showed a higher at production of ethylene in Liriodendron tulipifera compared to Ginkgo biloba and the ethylene production of Pinus trees to $SO_2$ were the highest in Pinus strobus followed by Pinus densiflora and Pinus koraiensis. In needle of Pinus strobus the ethylene production increased with the increasing rate of visible injury until the injury rate of 40-50% and than decreased with the increasing rate of visible injury since the rate of 50%.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.6466-6474
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to indicate the problem and its improvement plan derived from pollution discharge industries inspection, implementation process on overall instruction including record management, and utilization of information about emission. This focuses on analyzing the inspection system of pollution discharge industries and the actual condition of management system with survey and interview from the managers. As a result of examining the administration information system from each of structural and practical perspectives, the users were not able to receive support for inspection through the system because it was designed based on licensing. Also according to results of survey and interview, it was difficult to input checkup data and to maintain the information of emission in a sustainable manner. This problem occurs since the current system is not utilized properly. Thus, this study examines similar systems operated in Korea and suggests measure to make improvements. The measures are considered as constructing simple user interface for systematizing of administrative works, simplifying the input matters, linking systems of inspection and emission information, establishing statistical function of emission information, and managing inspection functions through the mobile system.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2003

Ultrasonic inspection methods are widely used for detecting flaws in materials. The signal analysis step plays a crucial part in the data interpretation process. A number of signal processing methods have been proposed to classify ultrasonic flaw signals. One of the more popular methods involves the extraction of an appropriate set of features followed by the use of a neural network for the classification of the signals in the feature space. This paper describes an alternative approach which uses the least mean square (LMS) method and expectation maximization (EM) algorithm with the model based deconvolution which is employed for classifying nondestructive evaluation (NDE) signals from steam generator tubes in a nuclear power plant. The signals due to cracks and deposits are not significantly different. These signals must be discriminated to prevent from happening a huge disaster such as contamination of water or explosion. A model based deconvolution has been described to facilitate comparison of classification results. The method uses the space alternating generalized expectation maximization (SAGE) algorithm In conjunction with the Newton-Raphson method which uses the Hessian parameter resulting in fast convergence to estimate the time of flight and the distance between the tube wall and the ultrasonic sensor Results using these schemes for the classification of ultrasonic signals from cracks and deposits within steam generator tubes are presented and showed a reasonable performances.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.861-866
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to investigate the biodegradation of dissolved organic matter derived from animal carcass disposal soil using soil inhabited bacteria and to identify the bacteria involved in the biodegradation. The two soils were obtained from the animal carcass burial sites located in Anseong, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. The results indicated that during the biodegradation experiments (56 days), 48% of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was mineralized within 13 days in soil-derived solution 1 (initial DOC = 19.88 mgC/L), and the DOC concentration at 56 days was $8.8{\pm}0.4$ mg C/L, indicating 56% mineralization of DOC. In soil-derived solution 2 (initial DOC = 19.80 mgC/L), DOC was mineralized drastically within 13 days, and the DOC concentration was decreased to $6.0{\pm}0.4$ mg C/L at 56 days (76% mineralization of DOC). Unlike DOC value, the specific UV absorbance ($SUVA_{254}$) value, an indicator of proportion of aromatic structures in total organic carbon, tended to increase until 21 days and then decreased thereafter. The $SUVA_{254}$ values in soil-derived solutions 1 and 2 were the highest at 21 days. The microbial analysis demonstrated that Pseudomonas fluorescens, Achromobacter xylosoxidans, Nocardioides simplex, Pseudomonas mandelii, Bosea sp. were detected at 14 days of incubation, whereas Pseudomonas veronii appeared as a dominant species at 56 days.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.394-399
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• 2013

The recalcitrant hairs which are accumulated in the U-trap equipped to prevent the stench from the drainage produce the phenomenon of blocking the flow of water through the home drainage pathway. The chemical dissolution solutions commercially manufactured are excessively poured into U-trap to solve this blocking problem. In this study, the specially designed instrument was developed for the experiments to cut and crush the hairs of which main component are the recalcitrant keratin proteins. The performance of the instrument for cutting and crushing hairs was investigated using experimental methods. The cutting and weighing method was used in order to obtain the average length of a large amount of hairs cut by instrument. This method is relatively simple to measure the weight of cutting hairs to obtain the average length of the fibers, the values of average length showed not greater tolerances. Also the average cutting number was defined to evaluate the performance of the cutting and crushing instruments designed for this study. We were able to apply these evaluation methods to provide the criteria to obtain the optimal structure of instrument and proper operation time in the given experimental conditions. These experimental methods and results will provide the good example to design and to analyze the various device that can be used for cutting the fibers. The cutting and crushing instrument developed in this study showed the effective abilities to cutting the hairs. The general using the cuttting and crushing instrument at every home would be helpful to prevent water environmental pollution.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.6-14
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• 2016

BACKGROUND: Residual organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effect to human health and the environment. They were designated as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) by Stockholm Convention. Greenhouse strawberry is economic crop in agriculture, and its cultivation area and yield has been increased. Therefore, we tried to investigate the POPs residue in greenhouse soil and strawberry.METHODS AND RESULTS: Extraction and clean-up method for the quantitative analysis of OCPs was developed and validated by gas chromatography (GC) with electron capture detector (ECD). The clean-up method was established using the modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe(QuEChERS) method for OCPs in soil and strawberry. Limit of quantitation (LOQ) and recovery rates of OCPs in greenhouse soil and strawberry were 0.9-6.0 and 0.6-0.9 μg/kg, 74.4-115.6 and 75.6-88.4%, respectively. The precision was reliable sincerelative standard deviation (RSD) percentage (0.5-3.7 and 2.9-5.2%) was below 20, which was the normal percent value. The residue of OCPs in greenhouse soil was analyzed by the developed method, and dieldrin, β-endosulfan and endosulfan sulfate were detected at 1.6-23, 2.2-28.4 and 1.8-118.6 μg/kg, respectively. Those in strawberry were not detected in all samples.CONCLUSION: Dieldrin, β-endosulfan and endosulfan sulfate in a part of investigated greenhouse soil were detected. But those were not detected in investigated greenhouse strawberry. These results showed that the residue in greenhouse soil were lower level than bioaccumulation occurring.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.56-75
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• 2018

Korean Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Stations (PAMS) have been established since the late 2001 to monitor ambient air concentrations of VOC species, which would enhance understanding photo-chemical formation of ozone and subsequently contribute to developing efficient ozone control strategies. The present study aims at identifying major VOC species and examining their trends by analyzing PAMS monitoring data collected from the year 2006 to 2016. All the 18 PAMS sites operated by the Ministry of Environment were included in the study. PAMS monitored the 56 target VOC species, which are classified into four groups, alkenes, lower alkanes ($C{\leq}3$), higher alkanes ($C{\geq}4$), aromatics. The higher alkanes and aromatics dominated over the lower alkanes and alkenes in the type 2 and 3 PAMS sites except Joongheung site. N-butane was a major alkane species, toluene was a major aromatic species and most of VOCs showed decreasing trends in these sites. On the other hand, only the alkenes showed decreasing trends at the Joongheung site in Yeosu. Major sources of abundant species such as ethane, propane, n-butane, toluene were estimated by analyzing seasonal variations, correlation with other VOC species, and emission profiles. A major source of n-butane was identified as LPG cars, while major sources of toluene varied considerably from one site to another. The lower alkanes were composed of ethane and propane, both of which showed a strong seasonal variation, low in the summer and high in the winter, indicating that a major source might be the heating by gaseous fuels. Ozone formation potentials of VOC species were evaluated by applying MIR and POCP to the measured VOC species concentrations. Toluene contributed the most to total ozone forming potentials followed by m,p-xylene for all the type 2 and 3 PAMS sites except for two sites in Yeosu-Gwangyang. Ethylene and propylene were the first and second contributors to total ozone forming potentials at Joongheung site in Yeosu.