• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.45-53
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• 2023

The growth of Si on 4H-SiC substrate has a wide range of applications as a very useful material in power semiconductors, bipolar junction transistors and optoelectronics. However, it is considerably difficult to grow very fine crystalline Si on 4H-SiC owing to the lattice mismatch of approximately 20 % between Si and 4H-SiC. In this paper, we report the growth of a Si epilayer by an Al-related nanostructure cluster grown on a 4H-SiC substrate using a mixed-source hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) method. In order to grow hexagonal Si on the 4H-SIC substrate, we observed the process in which an Al-related nanostructure cluster was first formed and an epitaxial layer was formed by absorbing Si atoms. From the FE-SEM and Raman spectrum results of the Al-related nanostructure cluster and the hexagonal Si epitaxial layer, it was considered that the hexagonal Si epitaxial layer had different characteristics from the general cubic Si structure.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.94-109
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• 2023

1,3-Dioxolane is an exciting material that has attracted widespread interest in the chemical, paint, and pharmaceutical industries as a solvent, electrolyte, and reagent because 1,3-dioxolane is not toxic, carcinogenic, explosive, auto-flammable, and multifunctional, and due to their excellent miscibility in most organic and aqueous solvent conditions. Recently, this material has received increasing attention as a CO₂-selective polymer precursor to separating CO₂ from flue gas and natural gas mixtures. Poly(1,3-dioxolane) (PDXL) possesses higher ether oxygen content than polyethylene oxide (PEO), which demonstrates superior membrane CO₂/N₂ separation properties owing to their polar ether oxygen groups exhibiting strong affinity toward CO₂. Thus, PDXL-based membranes displayed an outstanding CO₂ solubility selectivity over non-polar (N₂, H₂, and CH₄) gases. However, the polar groups of PDXL, like PEO, promote chain packing efficiency and cause polymer crystallization, thereby reducing its gas permeability, which should be improved. In this short review, we discuss the recent advancement and limitations of PDXL membranes in gas separation applications. To conclude, we provide future perspectives for inhibiting the limits of 1,3-dioxolane-based polymers in the CO₂ separation process.

• Journal of Space Technology and Applications
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.199-212
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• 2023

In contrast to the short-term nature of lunar missions in the past, lunar missions in new space era aim to extend the presence on the lunar surface and to use this capability for the Mars exploration. In order to realize extended human presence on the Moon, production and use of consumables and fuels required for the habitation and transportation using in-situ resources is an important prerequisite. The Global Exploration Roadmap presented by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), which reflects the space exploration plans of participating countries, shows the phases of progress from lunar surface exploration to Mars exploration and relates in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) capabilities to each phase. Based on the ISRU Gap Assessment Report from the ISECG, ISRU technology is categorized into in-situ propellant and consumable production, in-situ construction, in-space manufacturing, and related areas such as storage and utilization of products, power systems required for resource utilization. Among the lunar resources, leading countries have prioritized the utilization of ice water existing in the permanent shadow region near the lunar poles and the extraction of oxygen from the regolith, and are preparing to investigate the distribution of resources and ice water near the lunar south pole through unmanned landing missions. Resource utilization technologies such as producing hydrogen and oxygen from water by hydroelectrolysis and extracting oxygen from the lunar regolith are being developed and tested in relevant lunar surface analogue environments. It is also observed that each government emphasizes the use and development of the private sector capabilities for sustainable lunar surface exploration by purchasing lunar landing services and providing opportunities to participate in resource exploration and material extraction.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.352-361
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• 2023

Steam methane reforming is currently the most widely used technology for producing hydrogen, a clean fuel. Hydrogen produced by steam methane reforming contains impurities such as carbon monoxide, and it is essential to undergo an appropriate post-purification step for commercial usage, such as fuel cells. Recently, membrane separation technology has been gaining great attention as an effective purification method; in this study, we evaluated the feasibility of using commercial polysulfone membranes for biogas upgrading to separate and recover hydrogen from a hydrogen/carbon monoxide gas mixture. Initially, we examined the physicochemical properties of the commercial membrane used. We then conducted performance evaluations of the commercial membrane module under various conditions using mixed gas, considering factors such as stage-cut and operating pressure. Finally, based on the evaluation results, we carried out simulations for process design. The maximum H₂ permeability and H₂/CO separation factor for the commercial membrane process were recorded at 361 GPU and 20.6, respectively. Additionally, the CO removal efficiency reached up to 94%, and the produced hydrogen concentration achieved a maximum of 99.1%.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.102-110
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• 2023

This paper introduces scarf welding process of thin substrates using flexible laser transmission welding (f-LTW) technology. We examined the behavior of tensile strength relative to the scarf angle for flexible applications. Thin plastic substrates with the thickness of less than 100 ㎛ were bonded and a jig to form a slope at the edge of the substrate was developed. By developing the scarf welding process, we successfully created a flexible bonding technology that maintains joint's thickness after the process. The tensile strength of the joint was assessed through uniaxial test, and we found that the tensile strength increases as the slope of bonding interface decreases. By conducting stress analysis at the bonding interface with respect to the slope angle, design factor of bonding structure was investigated. These findings suggest that the tensile strength depends on the geometry of the joint, even under the same process conditions, and highlights the significance of considering the geometry of the joint in welding processes.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.381-397
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• 2023

The most representative design used in clinical trials is randomization, which is used to accurately estimate the treatment effect. However, comparison between the treatment group and the control group in an observational study without randomization is biased due to various unadjusted differences, such as characteristics between patients. Propensity score weighting is a widely used method to address these problems and to minimize bias by adjusting those confounding and assess treatment effects. Inverse probability weighting, the most popular method, assigns weights that are proportional to the inverse of the conditional probability of receiving a specific treatment assignment, given observed covariates. However, this method is often suffered by extreme propensity scores, resulting in biased estimates and excessive variance. Several alternative methods including trimming, overlap weights, and matching weights have been proposed to mitigate these issues. In this paper, we conduct a simulation study to compare performance of various propensity score weighting methods under diverse situation, such as limited overlap, misspecified propensity score, and treatment contrary to prediction. From the simulation results overlap weights and matching weights consistently outperform inverse probability weighting and trimming in terms of bias, root mean squared error and coverage probability.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.107-115
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• 2023

High turbidity in source water can have adverse effects on water treatment plant operations and aquatic ecosystems, necessitating turbidity management. Consequently, research aimed at predicting river turbidity continues. This study developed a multi-class classification model for prediction of turbidity using LightGBM (Light Gradient Boosting Machine), a representative ensemble machine learning algorithm. The model utilized data that was classified into four classes ranging from 1 to 4 based on turbidity, from low to high. The number of input data points used for analysis varied among classes, with 945, 763, 95, and 25 data points for classes 1 to 4, respectively. The developed model exhibited precisions of 0.85, 0.71, 0.26, and 0.30, as well as recalls of 0.82, 0.76, 0.19, and 0.60 for classes 1 to 4, respectively. The model tended to perform less effectively in the minority classes due to the limited data available for these classes. To address data imbalance, the SMOTE (Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique) algorithm was applied, resulting in improved model performance. For classes 1 to 4, the Precision and Recall of the improved model were 0.88, 0.71, 0.26, 0.25 and 0.79, 0.76, 0.38, 0.60, respectively. This demonstrated that alleviating data imbalance led to a significant enhancement in Recall of the model. Furthermore, to analyze the impact of differences in input data composition addressing the input data imbalance, input data was constructed with various ratios for each class, and the model performances were compared. The results indicate that an appropriate composition ratio for model input data improves the performance of the machine learning model.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.143-160
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• 2023

This study applied the stream physical habitat assessment system to obtain basic information for river restoration and watershed management in high-gradient and mid-gradient streams in the Naeseongcheon basin. The total length of high-gradient and mid-gradient streams in the Naeseongcheon basin is about 273 km, and as a result of the assessment, it was analyzed that suboptimal reach was about 8.2 km, normal reach was 180.3 km, and marginal reach was 84.7 km. In addition, the physical habitat quality of high-gradient streams was analyzed to be normal condition with an average of 106 points (53%), and in particular, the score of channel/hydraulic category, which is the most important for the habitat of aquatic animals, was analyzed to be normal, close to the limit, with an average of 54 points (45%). The physical habitat quality of mid-gradient streams was found to be in normal condition with an average of 90 points (45%), and the score of channel/hydraulic category was in marginal condition with an average of 39 points (32%). Overall, among 165 reaches of high-gradient and mid-gradient streams in the Naeseongcheon basin, 4 reaches (3%) were evaluated as suboptimal, 119 reaches (72%) were normal, and 42 reaches (25%) were considered marginal. These results showed that the physical habitat of Naeseongcheon was significantly disturbed. Disturbance of stream physical habitat in the Naeseongcheon basin occured due to farmland around stream, urbanization, reservoir construction, and river maintenance.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.599-608
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• 2023

The increasing interest in soil moisture data using satellite data for applications of hydrology, meteorology, and agriculture has led to the development of methods for generating soil moisture maps of variable resolution. This study demonstrated the capability of generating soil moisture maps using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data provided by Google Earth Engine (GEE). The soil moisture map was derived using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image and optical image. SAR data provided by the Sentinel-1 analysis ready data in GEE was applied with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) based on Sentinel-2 and Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)-based Land Cover map. This study produced a soil moisture map in the research area of Victoria, Australia and compared it with field measurements obtained from a previous study. As for the validation of the applied method's result accuracy, the comparative experimental results showed a meaningful range of consistency as 4-10%p between the values obtained using the algorithm applied in this study and the field-based ones, and they also showed very high consistency with satellite-based soil moisture data as 0.5-2%p. Therefore, public open data provided by GEE and the algorithm applied in this study can be used for high-resolution soil moisture mapping to represent regional land surface characteristics.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.10
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• pp.655-665
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• 2023

In this study, unit hydrographs are calculated when precipitations of 10 scales instantaneously occurs in a virtual watershed with a constant slope and roughness. Then, the relationship between the peak flow rate and the peak occurrence time of the unit hydrograph was calculated for the precipitation scale, respectively. At this time, the virtual watershed simplified with a rhombic shape, a constant slope, and a flow condition with a certain roughness was applied instead of a natural watershed in order to understand the effect the precipitation scale has on the peak value of the unit hydrograph. And it was assumed that the precipitation in the basin was effective rainfall and the runoff was direct runoff, and the runoff flowed in a straight, uniform flow from the drop point to the outlet. The relationship between the peak flow and the peak occurrence time of the unit hydrograph was calculated in the case of 10 types of precipitation scales of 10 mm, 40 mm, 90 mm, 160 mm, 250 mm, 360 mm, 640 mm, 1,000 mm, 1,210 mm, and 1,690 mm of effective precipitation. A noteworthy achievement of this study is that, even without the storage effect of the watershed, as the scale of precipitation increases, the depth of runoff increases, so the flow rate in the watershed increases and the distance per unit time increases, so the peak flow rate increases and the peak occurrence time increases. This is a nonlinear characteristic of watershed runoff.