• Journal of Korea Society of Waste Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.205-213
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• 2017

The current study was performed to investigate the effect of recycling coir substrates on the growth, fruit yield, and quality of strawberry plants. Analysis of physical properties revealed that the pH of a fresh coir substrate was 5.04 while those of substrates reused for one and two years were 5.20 and 5.33, respectively. The electrical conductivity (EC) of a new substrate was as high as $4.58dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$. This can cause salt stress after transplanting. The EC tended to decrease as the substrate was recycled, and the EC of a two-year recycled substrate was $1.48dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$. The fresh substrate had lower nitrogen and calcium concentrations, but higher phosphate, potassium, and sodium concentrations than the recycled coir substrate. The coir substrates recycled for one or two years maintained better chemical properties for plant growth than the fresh substrate. Strawberry growth varied depending on the number of years that the coir substrate was recycled. In general, strawberries grown in substrates that had been reused for two years did better than those grown in substrates that had been reused once or were fresh. Ninety days after transplanting, a plant grown in a substrate that had been reused for two years contained 25 leaves, which was 3.6 more than with a fresh substrate. In addition, the plants grown in a substrate that had been reused for two years exhibited larger leaf areas than those grown in other substrates. Coir substrates that had been reused for one year increased the number and area of leaves, but not as much as the substrate that had been reused for two years. One- and two-year reused coir substrates increased the weight of strawberries produced relative to the unused substrate, but the difference was not statistically significant. The plants grown in two-year reused substrates were longer and wider, as well. Also, the number of fruits per plant was higher when substrates were reused. Specifically, the number of fruits per plant was 28.7 with a two-year reused substrate, but only 22.2 with a fresh substrate. The fruit color indices (as represented by their Hunter L, a, b values) were not considerably affected by recycling of the coir substrate. The Hunter L value, which indicates the brightness of the fruit, did not change significantly when the substrate was recycled. Neither Hunter a (red) nor b (yellow) values were changed by recycling. In addition, there were no significant changes in the hardnesses, acidities, or soluble solid-acid ratios of fruits grown in recycled substrates. Thus, it is thought that recycling the coir substrate does not affect measures of fruit quality such as color, hardness, and sugar content. Overall, reuse of coir substrates from hydroponic culture as high-bed strawberry growth substrates would solve the problems of new substrate costs and the disposal of substrates that had been used once.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.220-226
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• 2009

Purpose : Macrovascular complications are the main cause of mortality in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The purpose of this study was to clarify the presence of early vascular changes and to assess the risk factors of macrovascular complications in young adults with T1DM diagnosed in childhood and adolescence. Methods : Seventy-two patients ($23.9{\pm}2.4$ years) with T1DM diagnosed before 18 years of age and twenty normal controls were included. The incidence of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and other risk factors of macrovascular complication were reviewed. Flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) and mean intima-media thickness (IMT) measured by ultrasound were compared between patients and control subjects, and their correlations with macrovascular risk factors were analyzed. Results : Of the 72 patients, 32 (44.4%) had hypertension. The proportions of maleness (P=0.03) and mean body mass index (P=0.04) were higher in the hypertensive patients than in normotensive patients. Thirty-one (N=69, 44.9%) patients had dyslipidemia and LDL-cholesterol was positively correlated with mean HbA1c (r=0.32, P=0.008) and total daily insulin dose (r=0.27, P=0.02). The mean IMT was significantly higher in patients than in control subjects ($0.43{\pm}0.06$ mm vs $0.39{\pm}0.06$ mm, P=0.03). There was no difference in the value of FMD between patients and controls, but the duration of the disease after pubertal onset was negatively correlated with FMD (r=-0.34, P=0.01). Conclusion : Hypertension, dyslipidemia and atherosclerotic vascular change were observed in young adults with T1DM diagnosed during childhood and adolescence; this strongly suggests that meticulous screening of macrovascular complications and control of their risk factors should be conducted.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.245-255
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• 2004

In recent years, an increasing number of studies on pig in vitro maturation(IVM) and in vitro fertilization(IVF) have been separated. the wide range of new technologies, including that in applied molecular genetics, has increased this interest. the production of viable porcine embryos in vitro is a prerequisites for the successful production of transgenic pigs to date. The efficiency of IVM/IVF techniques in the porcine is lower than that obtained in other species such as cattle and mouse. The several problems are generally thought to be the cause of poor results: the low rate of MPN formation derived from inadequate IVM of oocytes, the high incidence of polyspermy after IVF and cell blocking at 4 cell during embryos culture. For there reasons overcoming, many studies have been conducted to improve in vitro embryo-genic competence of oocytes. In the last several years, many maturation culture media have been evaluated and various exogenous factors such as hormones and grows factors have been tested to improve the efficiency of porcine in vitro system. In the study several antioxidants have been examined to improve in vitro fertilization and development of porcine oocytes. In this study, several antioxidants were examined to determine the effects on the development of oocytes to the cleavage, morula and blastocyst stage when added at the maturation(IVM) or in vitro fertilization(IVF) or in vitro culture(IVC) of porcine embryos. Porcine oocytes were matured, fertilized and embryos were cultured in defind conditioned medium in vitro with or without supplementation with the antioxidents of cysteine, catalase and glutathione. 1. Significant improvement of blastocyst rate (27.2％ versus 15.4％, p<0.05) were achieved when catalase(500U/$m\ell$) were added to TCM-199 medium and morula rate(72.0％ versus 53.9％, p<0.05) were significantly higher when glutathione(1.0mM/$m\ell$) were added to TCM-199 medium than those of control. 2. In mTBM medium for oocytes fertilization, the addition of cysteine, catalase and glutathione had no positive effect on embryonic development. glutathione had no positive effect on embryonic development. In conclusion, this study shows that addition of catalase, gluththione during IVM improved the rate of porcine embryo development.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.684-689
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• 2012

Poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) microspheres is one of the widely-used polymeric materials for the bio-field application and the electric materials. For the synthesis of PAA microspheres, the polymerization technique using surfactants is applied. After the synthesis, the purification and separation processes are required for the removal of surfactant. When general organic solvents were used, many problems, such as huge amount of waste solvent, additional separation processes, and the possibility of residual media, were occurred. Thus, High-pressure Soxhlet extraction using liquid $CO_2$ was developed to solve these problems. In this study, High-pressure Soxhlet extraction of the synthesized PAA microspheres using liquid $CO_2$ was conducted for the removal of Monasil PCA which is used for the dispersion polymerization of acrylic acid in compressed liquid Dimethyl ether (DME). The morphology of the extracted PAA particles was checked by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and the residual concentration of Monasil PCA was analyzed by inductively coupled plasma - Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). For studying the effect of the solvent effect, Soxhlet extraction was conducted using n-hexane, liquid DME, and liquid $CO_2$. In case of n-hexane, some extracted PAA microspheres were produced. However, deformation was also occurred due to the high thermal energy of n-hexane vapor. Liquid DME could not remove Monasil PCA. When using liquid $CO_2$, the extracted PAA microspheres which were free for the residual solvent were produced without deformation. For finding the optimum operating condition, high-pressure Soxhlet extraction was conducted for 8 hours with changing the temperature of reboiler and condenser. When the extractor temperature is $19.6{\pm}0.2^{\circ}C$ and the pressure is $51.5{\pm}0.5$ bar, the best removal efficiency was obtained.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.831-838
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• 2008

This study investigated the characteristics of nitrogen removal and microbial community in a lab-scale A$_2$O activated sludge process filled with the fluidized media at an aerebic basin. The change of microbial community was monitored based on quinone profiles of activated sludge according to feeding sewage with/without external carbon source. Low C/N ratio(COD$_{Cr}$/T-N of 1.24) sewage was fed. The obtained results from this study were as follows; Ubiquinone(UQ) in the influent was in the descending order of UQ-8, UQ-10 and UQ-9. Menaquinone(MK) was simpler and much less than UQ. The ratio of UQ/MK was less than 0.41 and the dissimilarity was below 0.26. Without an external carbon source, MK-8 was the dominant species and there were 3 kinds of quinone species and low DQ and EQ values in an anaerobic basin. The ratio of UQ/MK increased to 2.3 in an anoxic basin. In an oxic basin, UQ-7 and UQ-8 were the dominant species. UQ-7 was dominating in suspended microorganisms, while UQ-8 was in attached microorganisms. With an external carbon source addition, MK-8 decreased but UQ-8 increased in an anaerobic basin. So did quinone species, DQ and EQ values. There was also a change in an anoxic basin with the improvement of denitrification. UQ-8 decreased instead, MK-7 and MK-8 increased. UQ/MK ratio decreased 2.3 to 1.4. It means that the dominant species change from Pseudomonas sp. to Bacillus and Micrococcus species. etc. In an oxic basin, UQ-8 replaced UQ-7 in suspended microorganisms and UQ-10 replaced UQ-8 in attached microbials. This seemed related with the growth of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobactor species.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.371-380
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• 2018

Aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different nutrient solutions and various light qualities generated by LED on the growth and glucosinolates contents of watercress (Nasturtium officinale) grown under hydroponics for 3 weeks. The seeds of watercress were sown on crushed rockwool media and raised them for two weeks. They were transplanted in a semi-DFT (deep flow technique) hydroponics system. A controlled-environment room was maintained at $20{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and $16{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ temperatures and $65{\pm}10%$ and $75{\pm}10%$ relative humidity (day and night, respectively), with a provided photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of $180{\pm}10{\mu}mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$ and a photoperiod of 16/8h. To find out the best kinds of nutrient solutions for growing watercress, Otsuka House 1A (OTS), Horticultural Experiment Station in Korea (HES), and Netherland's Proefstaion voor Bloemisterij en Gasgroente (PBG) were adapted with initial EC of $1.0-1.3dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ and pH of 6.2, irradiating PPFD with fluorescent lamps (Ex-1). Either monochromatic (W10 and R10) or mixed LEDs (R5B1, R3B1, R2B1G1, and W2B1G1) were irradiated with a differing ratio of each LED's PPFD to understanding light quality on the growth and glucosinolates contents of watercress (Ex-2). Although significant difference in the shoot growth of watercress was not found among three nutrient solutions treatments, but the root fresh weight increased by 13.7% and 55.1% in PBG and OTS compared to HES, respectively. OTS increased the gluconasturtiin content by 96% and 65% compared to PBG and HES. Compared with the white light (W10), the red light (R10) showed a 101.3% increase in the shoot length of watercress. Increasing blue light portion positively affected plant growth. The content of total glucosinolates in watercress was increased by 144.5% and 70% per unit dry weight in R3B1 treatment compared with R2B1G1 and W10 treatments, respectively. The growth and total glucosinolates contents of the watercress were highest under R3B1 among six light qualities.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.83-89
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• 2010

We investigated the growth of cucumber plants, the uptake and use of mineral nutrients, such as $NO_3$-N, $NH_4$-N, $K^+$, $Ca^{+}^{+}$, $Mg^{+}^{+}$ and $Na^+$, absorbed from media solution, and the synthesis and distribution of soluble sugars under nutrient-deficient condition. Difference in plant growth revealed after 20 days of treatment. Nitrate uptake in nutrient-deficient condition was significantly reduced compared with nutrient-normal treatment, and its distribution was primarily in petioles, stem, roots and less in leaves. In contrast, ammonium content was markedly predominated in fast growing organs, and it was significantly different in growing leaves, expanded leaves, and roots under similar growth conditions. $K^+$, lack by deficient nutrient condition, was found in growing leaves. The $Ca^{+}^{+}$ content did not show significant difference between treatments and a substantial portion of $Ca^{+}^{+}$ remained in petioles. The $Mg^{+}^{+}$ content was significantly higher in the leaves of nutrient-normal condition compared with nutrient-deficient condition while significantly lower in stem and roots. The behavior of $Na^+$ in plant was similar to $K^+$ although its content was relatively little. The highest $CO_2$ assimilation was observed in fully expanded leaves of nutrient-normal condition, which was 1.7 times higher compared with nutrient-deficient condition. The instantaneous water use efficiency (A/E) and the A/gsratio, which is an index of leaf intrinsic water use efficiency for individual leaves, was 1.2 and 1.1 times higher, respectively. The total soluble sugar (TSS) contents were highest in leaves followed by petioles, stems and roots, and in younger leaves. The growing leaves contained about 7,200 mg $kg^{-1}$ of TSS in nutrient-normal condition whereas the TSS contents in nutrient-deficient condition were not significantly different between leaves. The $Mg^{+}^{+}$ and $NH_4$- N were positively correlated with the TSS whereas $NO_3$ - N was negatively correlated.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.389-398
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• 2012

Virtual worlds have pursued reality as if they actually exist. In order to evaluate the sense of reality in the computer-simulated worlds, several subjective questionnaires, which include specific independent variables, have been proposed in the literature. However, the questionnaires lack reliability and validity necessary for defining and measuring the virtual realization. Few studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of visual factors on the sense of reality experienced by exposing to a virtual environment. Therefore, this study was aimed at reinvestigating the variables and proposing a more reliable and advisable questionnaire for evaluating the virtual realization, focusing on visual factors. Twenty-one questions were gleaned from the literature and subjective interviews with focused groups. Exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation was performed on the data obtained from 200 participants(females: 100) after exposing to a virtual character image described in an extreme way. After removing poorly loading items, remained subsets were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis on the data obtained from the same participants. As a result, 3 significant factors were determined to efficiently measure the virtual realization. The determined factors included visual presence(3 subset items), visual immersion(7 subset items), and visual interactivity(4 subset items). The proposed factors were verified by conducting a subjective evaluation in which participants were asked to evaluate a 3D virtual eyeball model based on the visual presence. The results implicated that the measurement method was suitable for evaluating the degree of the virtual realization. The proposed method is expected to reasonably measure the degree of the virtual realization.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.424-431
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• 2018

Stormwater runoff containing considerable amounts of pollutants such as particulates, organics, nutrients, and heavy metals contaminate natural bodies of water. At present, best management practices (BMP) intended to reduce the volume and treat pollutants from stormwater runoff were devised to serve as cost-effective measures of stormwater management. However, improper design and lack of proper maintenance can lead to degradation of the facility, making it unable to perform its intended function. This study evaluated an infiltration trench (IT) that went through a series of maintenance operations. 41 monitored rainfall events from 2009 to 2016 were used to evaluate the pollutant removal capabilities of the IT. Assessment of the water quality and hydrological data revealed that the inflow volume was the most relative factor affecting the unit pollutant loads (UPL) entering the facility. Seasonal variations also affected the pollutant removal capabilities of the IT. During the summer season, the increased rainfall depths and runoff volumes diminished the pollutant removal efficiency (RE) of the facility due to increased volumes that washed off larger pollutant loads and caused the IT to overflow. Moreover, the system also exhibited reduced pollutant RE for the winter season due to frozen media layers and chemical-related mechanisms impacted by the low winter temperature. Maintenance operations also posed considerable effects of the performance of the IT. During the first two years of operation, the IT exhibited a decrease in pollutant RE due to aging and lack of proper maintenance. However, some events also showed reduced pollutant RE succeeding the maintenance as a result of disturbed sediments that were not removed from the geotextile. Ultimately, the presented effects of maintenance operations in relation to the pollutant RE of the system may lead to the optimization of maintenance schedules and procedures for BMP of same structure.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.574-583
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• 2021

Waste air containing ethanol (100 ppmv) and hydrogen sulfide (10 ppmv) was continuously treated by waste air-treating system composed of two annular photocatalytic reactors (effective volume: 1.5 L) packed with porous SiO₂ media carrying TiO₂-anatase photocatalyst, one of which was alternately operated for 32 d/run while the other was regenerated by 100 ℃ hot air with 15 W UV(-A)-light on. As its elimination-behavior of ethanol, the removal efficiencies of ethanol at 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd operation of the photocatalytic reactor system(A), turned out to be ca. 60, 55 and 54%, respectively, at their steady state condition. Unlike the elimination-behavior of ethanol, its hydrogen sulfide-elimination behavior showed repeated decrease of hydrogen sulfide removal efficiency by its resultant arrival at a lower level of steady state condition. Nevertheless, the removal efficiencies of hydrogen sulfide at 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd operation of the photocatalytic reactor system, turned out to be ca. 80, 75 and 73%, respectively, at their final steady state condition, higher by ca. 20, 20 and 19% than those of ethanol, respectively. Therefore, assuming that adsorption on porous SiO₂-photocatalyst carrier was regarded to belong to a reversible deactivation and that decreased % of removal efficiency due to the reversible deactivation of photocatalyst including the adsorption was independent of the number of its use upon regeneration, the increments of the decreased % of removal efficiency of ethanol and hydrogen sulfide, due to an irreversible deactivation of photocatalyst, for the 3^rd use of regenerated photocatalyst, compared with the 2^nd use of regenerated photocatalyst, were ca. 1 and 2%, respectively, which was insignificant or the less than those of ca. 5 and 5%, respectively, for the 2^nd use of regenerated photocatalyst compared with the 1^st use of virgin photocatalyst. This trend of the photocatalytic reactor system was observed to be similar to that of the other alternately-operating photocatalytic reactor system.