• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.117-129
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• 1981

An experiment with the tobacco plant was conducted in the pots. A sandy humic soil was used with 2 levels of pH, 3.5 and 5.8 with 2 kinds of anions, Cl as $NH_4Cl$ and $SO_4$ as $(NH_4)_2SO_4$, and with 4 levels of pF, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.5. The pH-treatment created different N-forms; $NH_4$ at low pH(3.5) and $NO_3$ at high pH (5.8). The results are summarized as follows: 1. At low pH (3.5) with high concentration of $NH_4$ given as $NH_4Cl$, the high content of $NH_4$ and Cl in tobacco resulted in plants suffering from $NH_4$ and Cl toxicity as well as Mn toxicity. As a result of these toxicity, an extremly abnormal growth of tobacco was clearly appeared. In the tobacco grown at low pH with $NH_4$ given as $(NH_4)_2SO_4$, a large amount of the $NH_4$ uptake developed Mg and Ca deficiencies. $NH_4-N$, which had been applied to the soil of high pH (5.8), was almost completely transformed into $NO_3-N$ by nitrification and, on this low acidic soil, the plants were all healthy regardless of Cl or $SO_4$ added together with $NH_4-N$. However, dry matter production was higher and maturity faster when $SO_4$ was used as anion than when Cl was used. 2. High moisture content in soil, to some extent, is necessary for a good development and growth of the tobacco plant. Phosphate uptake seemed to be limited at higher moisture stress. The dry matter yield of tops and roots of tobacco were in the order of pF 1.8 > 2.1 > 2.6 > 3.6, respectively. 3. Data of chemical analysis and dry matter yields of tops and roots showed that the tobacco plant followed the normal (C-A) concept. In the normal growth of plants, the carboxylate content of tops was quite comparable to the estimated (C-A) values. If $NH_4$ content of plants remains in quite high quantities, it must be analysed and taken into consideration for the (C-A) calculation. Al is not transported toward tops in toxic amounts due to its high immobility, it mostly stay in or on the roots, probably due to precipitation as a aolt. When Al is present in high quantities, it has to be considered into the (C-A) calculation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1255-1258
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• 2015

Background: Locally advanced head and neck cancer is generally incurable and has a short survival rate. This study aimed to evaluate symptom relief, disease response, and acute toxicity after palliative hypo-fractionated radiotherapy and long-term survival in affected patients. Materials and Methods: Between January 2011 to December 2011, 80 patients who were histopathologically diagnosed as having stage III or stage IV head and neck squamous cell carcinoma based on Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 1-3, were offered palliative radiotherapy (20 Gy/5Fr/5 Days). Later these patients were evaluated on 30th day after completion of treatment for disease response based on World Health Organisation (WHO) criteria and palliation of symptoms using symptomatic response grading and acute toxicities by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG). Many patients were given post radiation therapy (RT) palliative chemotherapy for appropriate palliative care and a few patients were selected for further curative RT. The overall survival was also evaluated among this group of patients with last follow up date of 1st May, 2014. Results: The most common presenting complaint was pain followed by dysphagia. Most patients (60-70%) had appreciable relief in their presenting symptoms. A good response was observed in the majority following palliative RT; a few patients had progressive disease and some had stable and regressed disease. None of the patients experienced radiation toxicity that required hospital admission. Almost all showed grade one and two acute skin and mucosal toxicity one month after completion of treatment. The mean survival days for patients given only hypofractionated palliative RT was 307 days, those with post palliative RT and palliative chemotherapy was 390 days and patients who went on to receive further palliative RT and curative RT dose had significantly overall survival of 582 days. Conclusions: Advanced head and neck cancer should be identified for suitable palliative hypofractionated radiotherapy to achieve acceptable symptom relief in a great proportion of patients and should be followed by palliative chemotherapy or curative RT in suitable cases for long-term symptom-free survival.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.241-250
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• 2009

During the past few years, titanium salts were investigated as alternative coagulants for the removal of organic matter of different molecular sizes in contaminated water. The flocculation efficiency of Ti-salt was comparable to those of $FeCl_3$ and $Al_2(SO_4)_3$ salts, commonly used coagulants. Incinerated sludge-$TiO_2$ showed higher surface area and photocatalytic activity than commercially available $TiO_2$. Metal-doped forms were produced by adding coagulant aids such as iron (Fe-), aluminium (Al-) and (Ca-) calcium salts during Ti-salt flocculation to increase pH. Ca- and Al- doped $TiO_2$ showed very high photocatalytic activity compared to Fe-doped $TiO_2$. When tested in a pilot scale plant for treatment of dye wastewater to check practical feasibility of the novel process, the removal ratio of the chemical oxygen demand was comparable to those of commonly used coagulants but the settling of sludge was faster. The $TiO_2$ generated after sludge incineration showed a high photocatalytic activity for degradation of volatile organic compounds and increased the rate of hydrogen production by water photosplitting. $TiCl_4$ coagulant and $TiO_2$ produced from different water sources with different concentrations had low acute toxicity compared to heavy metals and commercial $TiO_2$ when examined based on D. Magna mortality. This paper presents the production, characterisation and the photoactivity of $TiO_2$ produced from Ti-salt flocculated sludge. Different case studies are discussed to highlighted recent advances in this field.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.193-199
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• 2017

In this study, changes of soil properties including soil texture, specific surface area, organic matter content, pH, cation exchange capacity and exchangeable cations content were investigated in response to strong acid or base accident. The properties changed significantly when the soil reacted with 10 M HCl or 1 M NaOH (i.e., when one gram of soil received 50 and 5 mmol of HCl or NaOH), respectively. When the soil reacted with 10 M HCl or 1 M NaOH solution, soil texture changed from sandy loam to loamy sand and specific surface areas decreased from $5.84m^2/g$ to 4.85 and $1.92m^2/g$, respectively. The soil organic matter content was reduced from 3.23% to 0.96 and 0.44%, and the soil pH changed from 5.05 to 2.35 and 10.65, respectively. The cation exchange capacity decreased from 10.27 cmol/kg to 4.52 and 5.60 cmol/kg, respectively. Especially, high concentrations of $Al^{3+}$ or $Na^+$ were observed in acidic or basic spills, respectively, which is likely to cause toxicity to terrestrial organisms. The results suggest that restoration of soil properties, as well as soil remediation, needs to be carried out to maintain the soil function in chemical spill sites.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.93-102
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• 2011

In this study, experiments on total digestion and sequential extraction were conducted in order to understand total metal contents, and mobility, bioavaliability and toxicity of metals in marine dredged sediment from Busan New Port. The total concentrations of arsenic and heavy metals in the dredged sediment were relatively low as follows: Al (2.36~2.96 wt.%), As (1.6~3.3 mg/kg), Ba (30.0~33.8 mg/kg), Cd (0.12~0.18 mg/kg), Cr (27.5~35.0 mg/kg), Cu (11.3~15.0 mg/kg), Fe (2.91~3.51 wt.%), Mn (324~408 mg/kg), Ni (18.8~23.8 mg/kg), Pb (23.8~31.3 mg/kg), and Zn (70.0~86.3 mg/kg). In addition, it was found that most of Al (87.5~95.9%), As (74.1~93.8%), Ba (71.8~77.6%), Cr (69.5~94.3%), Cu (50.0~78.7%), Fe (70.8~87.6%), Ni (64.5~75.3%), Pb (53.4~64.3%), and Zn (62.5~81.7%) existed in the residual fraction, meaning that those elements might come from natural sources. On the other hand, Cd and Mn were present mainly in the non-residual fraction. Due to low concentrations of toxic heavy metals and high percentage of residual fraction, it could be possible to reuse the dredged sediment for bricks, pavement base material, etc.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.spc3
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• pp.194-198
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• 2012

Crystalline silicon solar cell remains the major player in the photovoltaic marketplace with 80% of the market, despite the development of various thin film technologies. Silicon's excellent efficiency, stability, material abundance and low toxicity have helped to maintain its position of dominance. However, the cost of silicon materials remains a major barrier to reducing the cost of silicon photovoltaics. Using the crystalline silicon wafer with thinner thickness is the promising way for cost and material reduction in the solar cell production. However, the thinner the silicon wafer is, the worse bow phenomenon is induced. The bow phenomenon is observed when two or more layers of materials with different temperature expansion coefficiencies are in contact, in this case silicon and aluminum. In this paper, the solar cells were fabricated with different thicknesses of Al layer in order to reduce the bow phenomenon. With less amount of paste applications, we observed that the bow could be reduced by up to 40% of the largest value with 120 micron thickness of the wafer even though the conversion efficiency decrease by 0.5% occurred. Since the bowed wafers lead to unacceptable yield losses during the module construction, the reduction of bow is indispensable on thin crystalline silicon solar cell. In this work, we have studied on the counterbalance between the bow and conversion efficiency and also suggest the formation of enough back surface field (BSF) with thinner Al layer application.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.595-602
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• 2008

Purpose: Ti-6Al-4V alloy is widely used as an implant material because of its good biocompatibility and good mechanical property compared with commercial pure titanium. Otherwise, toxicity of aluminum and vanadium in vivo has been reported. Ti-8Ta-3Nb alloy is recently developed in the R&D Center for Ti and Special Alloys and it was reported that this alloy has high mechanical strength, no cytotoxicity and similar biocompatibility to commercial pure titanium, but many studies are needed for its clinical use. In these experiment, we carried out different surface treatment on each Ti-8Ta-3Nb alloy disks, then cultured cell on it and assessed biological response. Materials and Methods: cpTi, Ti-6Al-4V, Ti-8Ta-3Nb alloy disks were prepared and carried out sandblasting and acid etching (SLA) or alkali-heat treatment (AH) on the Ti-8Ta-3Nb alloy disks. We cultured primary rat calvarial cells on each surface and assessed early cell attachment and proliferation by scanning electron microscopy, cell proliferation, alkaline phosphatase activity. Result: The rates of cell proliferation on the cpTi, Ti-8Ta-3Nb AH disks were higher than others (p<0.05) and alkaline phosphatase activity was significantly enhanced on the Ti-STa-8Nb AH disks(p<0.05). Conclusion: Most favorable cell response was shown on the Ti-8Ta-3Nb AH surfaces. It is supposed that alkali-heat treatment of the Ti-8Ta-3Nb alloy could be induced earlier bone healing and osseointegration than smooth surface.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.150-154
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• 2012

Ti-6Al-4V ELI (Extra Low Interstitial) alloy have been widely used as alternative to bone due to its excellent biocompatibility, although it still has many problems such as high elastic modulus and toxicity. Therefore, biomaterials with low elastic modulus and non toxic characteristics have to be developed. A novel ${\beta}$ Ti-35wt%Nb-7wt%Zr-Calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) composite that is a biocompatible alloy without elemental Al or V was fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at $1000^{\circ}C$ under 70 MPa using high energy mechanical milled (HEMM) powder. The microstructure and phases of the milled powders and the sintered specimens were studied using SEM, TEM, and XRD. Ti-35wt%Nb-7wt%Zr alloy was transformed from ${\alpha}$ phase to ${\beta}$ phase in the 4h-milled powder by sintering. The sintered specimen using the 4h-milled powder showed that all the elements were distributed very homogeneously and had higher density and hardness. ${\beta}$ Ti alloy-CPP composite, which has nanometer particles, was fabricated by SPS using HEMMed powder. During the sintering process, $CaTiO_3$, TixOy, and CaO were formed because of the reaction between Ti and CPP. The Vickers hardness of the composites increases with the increase of the milling time and the addition of CPP. The biocompatibility of the Ti-Nb-Zr alloys was improved by addition of CPP.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.108-112
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• 2012

Crystalline silicon solar cell remains the major player in the photovoltaic marketplace with 90 % of the market, despite the development of a variety of thin film technologies. Silicon's excellent efficiency, stability, material abundance and low toxicity have helped to maintain its position of dominance. However, the cost of silicon photovoltaic remains a major barrier to reducing the cost of silicon photovoltaics. Using the crystalline silicon wafer with thinner thickness is the promising way for cost and material reduction in the solar cell production. However, the thinner thickness of silicon wafer is, the worse bow phenomenon is induced. The bow phenomenon is observed when two or more layers of materials of different temperature expansion coefficiencies are in contact, in this case silicon and aluminum. In this paper, the solar cells were fabricated with different thicknesses of Al layer in order to reduce the bow phenomenon. With lower paste applications, we observed that the bow could be reduced by up to 40% of the largest value with 130 micron thickness of the wafer even though the conversion efficiency decrease of 0.5 % occurred. Since the bowed wafers lead to unacceptable yield losses during the module construction, the reduction of bow is indispensable on thin crystalline silicon solar cell. In this work, we have studied on the counterbalance between the bow and conversion efficiency and also suggest the formation of enough back surface field (BSF) with thinner Al paste application.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.311-319
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• 2020

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a newly emerging viral disease with fatal outcomes. However, no MERS-CoV-specific treatment is commercially available. Given the absence of previous structure-based drug discovery studies targeting MERS-CoV fusion proteins, this set of compounds is considered the first generation of MERS-CoV small molecule fusion inhibitors. After a virtual screening campaign of 1.56 million compounds followed by cell-cell fusion assay and MERS-CoV plaques inhibition assay, three new compounds were identified. Compound numbers 22, 73, and 74 showed IC₅₀ values of 12.6, 21.8, and 11.12 µM, respectively, and were most effective at the onset of spike-receptor interactions. The compounds exhibited safe profiles against Human embryonic kidney cells 293 at a concentration of 20 µM with no observed toxicity in Vero cells at 10 µM. The experimental results are accompanied with predicted favorable pharmacokinetic descriptors and drug-likeness parameters. In conclusion, this study provides the first generation of MERS-CoV fusion inhibitors with potencies in the low micromolar range.