• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.255-265
• /
• 2001

Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated an association between short-term exposure to particulate air pollutants and increased mortality. However the biological mechanism underlying these associations have not been fully established and also the chemical and physical characteristics of the pollutant particles are not well understood. The metal constituents of air pollutant particles and their bioavailability are considered to Play an important role as possible mediators of Particle-induced airway injury and inflammation. Sprague-Dawley rat alveolar macrophage cells (NR8383) were exposed to airborne and acid-leached particulate matter (PM). Titanium oxide and nickel subsulfide were used as negative and positive controls. Particle-induced reactive oxygen species formation in cells was detected using the fluorescent probe 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin diacetate. Expression of TNF-$\alpha$ and IL-6 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and PM-induced DNA double-strand breaks were determined with $\lambda$DNA/Hind III marker. Metals associated with air pollutant particles mediated intracellular oxidant production in alveolar macrophages, and the cytotoxicity and proinflammatory cytokine production induced by PM were associated with oxidative stress. The oxidants produced by air pollutant particles also are likely to induce DNA double-strand breaks. Our findings in alveolar macrophage cells exposed to PM and acid-leached PM support the hypothesis that metal components in urban air pollutants and their bioavailabilities might play an Important role in the induction of the adverse health effects.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.48 no.5
• /
• pp.1120-1125
• /
• 2016

The neutron decay constant, ${\alpha}$, and effective delayed neutron fraction, ${\beta}_{eff}$, are important parameters for the control of the dynamic behavior of nuclear reactors. For the heavy water zero power reactor (HWZPR), this document describes the measurements of the neutron decay constant by noise analysis methods, including variance to mean (VTM) ratio and endogenous pulse source (EPS) methods. The measured ${\alpha}$ is successively used to determine the experimental value of the effective delayed neutron fraction as well. According to the experimental results, ${\beta}_{eff}$ of the HWZPR reactor under study is equal to 7.84e-3. This value is finally used to validate the calculation of the effective delayed neutron fraction by the Monte Carlo methods that are discussed in the document. Using the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP)-4C code, a ${\beta}_{eff}$ value of 7.58e-3 was obtained for the reactor under study. Thus, the relative difference between the ${\beta}_{eff}$ values determined experimentally and by Monte Carlo methods was estimated to be < 4%.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.321-325
• /
• 2015

Determining the absolute neutrino mass scale and the neutrino mass hierarchy are central goals in particle physics, with important implications for the Standard Model. However, the final answer may come from cosmology, as laboratory experiments provide measurements for two of the squared mass differences and a stringent lower bound on the total neutrino mass - but the upper bound is still poorly constrained, even when considering forecasted results from future probes. Cosmological tracers are very sensitive to neutrino properties and their total mass, because massive neutrinos produce a specific redshift-and scale-dependent signature in the power spectrum of the matter and galaxy distributions. Stringent upper limits on ${\sum}m_v$ will be essential for understanding the neutrino sector, and will nicely complement particle physics results. To this end, we describe here a series of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations which include massive neutrinos, specifically designed to meet the requirements of the Baryon Acoustic Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) and focused on the Lyman-${\alpha}$ ($Ly{\alpha}$) forest - also a useful theoretical ground for upcoming surveys such as SDSS-IV/eBOSS and DESI. We then briefly highlight the remarkable constraining power of the $Ly{\alpha}$ forest in terms of the total neutrino mass, when combined with other state-of-the-art cosmological probes, leaving to a stringent upper bound on ${\sum}m_v$.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.53-59
• /
• 1985

Experiments related to nitriding silicon with addition of $Si_3N_4$ have provided information on the effects of such inclusion on the phase relationships of Reaction Bonded Silicon Nitride. In the current work specimens containing 0-25wt% Si3N4 which have 55.5wt% $\alpha$ 4.5wt% $eta$, 40wt% amorphous phase were nitrided for 7-20 hours at 1300-135$0^{\circ}C$ The evaluation of nitridation was per-formed by means of $\alpha$-and $\beta$-phase contents determination in nitrided specimens, In order to observe nitrided region between silicon and silicon nitride scanning electron microscopy was used to study reacted region between silicon and silicon nitride particle. For this purpose semiconductor-grade silicon wafer single crystal was used as a silicon source. The incorporation of small amount of $Si_3N_4$ powder is contributed to enhancing the rate of formation of $\alpha$-phase.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.111-116
• /
• 1999

The microstructure of vitreous bonded abrasives, which are used as the essential materials in the precise grinding, was investigated theoretically using two particle model. In this paper, a general equation applicable for a case in which there is a gap between abrasive grits is suggested. As a result, it was known that both the volume ratio of grit to glassy bond(V\ulcorner/V\ulcorner) and porosity(V\ulcorner) are the function of $\alpha$(the ratio of distance between grit to diameter of grit) and $\theta$(the angle from the center of pore to that of grit). Because the value $\alpha$ and $\theta$ can be get easily by using these suggested equations, the microstructure could be explained quantitatively. Also the raised error with the increasing amount of bond was modified by the simple assumption. As a result, in that case, both V\ulcorner/V\ulcorner and V\ulcorner were known to be the function of $\alpha$ and $\theta$(the ratio diameter of pore to that of grit).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.12
• /
• pp.4067-4071
• /
• 2021

The ¹³C (α,n)¹⁶O reaction cross-section is important data for nuclear physics, astrophysical, and neutrino physics experiments, however, they exhibit uncertainties due to the discrepancies in the experimental data. In this study, using the Nedis-2m program code, the energy spectrum of α-induced neutrons in a thin carbon target was calculated and the corresponding reaction cross-section was refined in the alpha particle energy range of 5-8 MeV. The results were used to calculate the intensity and energy spectrum of background neutrons produced in the liquid scintillator of KamLAND. The results will be useful in a variety of astrophysical and neutrino experiments especially those based on LS or Gd-LS detectors.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.57.1-57.1
• /
• 2019

In support of current and upcoming large-volume cosmological surveys such as the SDSS-IV eBOSS, LSST, and DESI, we present an extensive suite of high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations spanning a large range of cosmological and astrophysical parameters. We follow the evolution of gas, dark matter, neutrinos, and dark radiation, and consider several combinations of box sizes and number of particles - enhancing the resolution up to $3{\times}33283=110$ billion particles in a (100 h-1 Mpc)3 box size. We also provide 100,000 skewers for a variety of redshift slices and combination of cosmological and astrophysical parameters, useful for interpreting upcoming high-quality $Lyman-{\alpha}$ forest data. These novel simulations represent an improvement over our previous runs, and can be useful for a broader variety of cosmological and astrophysical applications, ranging from the three-dimensional modeling of the $Lyman-{\alpha}$ forest to cross-correlations between different probes, for studying the expansion history of the Universe including massive neutrinos, and for particle-physics related topics.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.488-494
• /
• 2010

Under W/O emulsion method using a homogenizer, ${\alpha}$-alumina powder was prepared to evaluate the effects of experimental conditions on its properties, such as particle shape, extent of aggregation, average particle size and distribution. The experimental parameters were the change of type, quantity and composition of emulsifiers as well as the change of O : W volumetric ratio and agitation rate. As results, in the case of the use of single surfactant of SP80, sphere-like particles could be prepared and the average particle size was hardly affected by the agitation speed more than 16000 rpm regardless of SP80 quantity used. When the extent of aggregation among sphere-like particles prepared using $HLB_m$ = 5 of [SP80 & TW80] was compared with that prepared using SP80 at the same vol% surfactant and agitation speed, the former showed more or less low aggregation phenomena and average particle size was slightly reduced. In addition, the fraction of nano-sized particles with low aggregation was increased by the use of 0.1 vol% n-butanol, as a co-surfactant, with $HLB_m$ = 5 of [SP80 & TW80].

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.11-15
• /
• 2017

Relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of particle beam needs to be evaluated at particle beam therapy centers before the clinical application of the particle beam. However, since RBE analysis is implemented manually, it is useful to have a tool that can easily and effectively handle the data of experiments to generate cell survival curve and to analyze RBE simultaneously. In this work, the development of a program for RBE analysis of particle beam therapy was presented. This RBE analysis program was developed to include two parts; fitting the cell survival curves to linear-quadratic model and calculating the RBE values at a certain endpoint using fitting results. This program was also developed to simultaneously compare and analyze the template results that stored experiment data with photon and particle beam irradiations. The results of the cell survival curve obtained by each irradiation can be analyzed by the user on a desired data after reading the template stored in the easy-to-use excel file. The analysis results include the cell survival curves with error range, which are appeared in the screen and the ${\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$ parameters of linear-quadratic model with 95% confidence intervals, RBE values, and $R^2$ values to evaluate goodness-of-fit of survival curves to model, which are stored in a text cvs file. This software can generate cell survival curve, fit to model, and calculate RBE all at once with raw experiment data, so it helps users to save time for data handling and to reduce the possibility of making error on analysis. As a coming plan, we will create a user-friendly graphical user interface to present the results more intuitively.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.77-83
• /
• 1996

Platelet-activating factor(PAF) is a phospholipid mediator of pulmonary inflammation, and immunologic reaction. In this study, the role of PAF on tumor necrosis factor$(TNF_{-{\alpha}})$ production by rat alveolar macrophages(AM) was examined. When PAF $(10^{-12}{\sim}10{-16}\;M)$ alone was added to AM culture, $(TNF_{-{\alpha}})$ production was not significantly increased above the resting level. In contrast, the combined addition of PAF $(10^{-6}\;M)$ and muramyl dipeptide(MDP) $(1.0\;{\mu}g\ml)$ to AM cultures markedly enhanced $(TNF_{-{\alpha}})$ production with 8.2 fold increase compared with AM culture in resting state. This potentiative effect was 313% above the sum of the separate effects of PAF and MDP. To characterize MDP effects on $(TNF_{-{\alpha}})$ production, the dose-response of AM cultured with various concentrations of MDP was tested. High level of MDP $(10\;{\mu}g\ml)$ could not significantly enhance the potentiation effect on $(TNF_{-{\alpha}})$ production compared with AM cultures with low level of MDP $(0.1\;{\mu}g\ml)$, i.e. 112.5% vs 107.8%, respectively when $10^{-10}$ M of PAF was simultaneously added to the cell culture. These data support that the potentiation of TNF. g production in AM culture is mediated by PAF rather than MDf It was also evaluated whether the similar result was obtained in silica, respirable toxic particle-treated AM culture. $(TNF_{-{\alpha}})$ production was also significantly enhanced in the PAF $(10^{-6}\;M)$ and silica $(50\;{\mu}g\ml)$-added cell cultures with 4.7 fold above the value of silica alone-stimulated cells. These results indicate that PAF can potentiate $(TNF_{-{\alpha}})$ production by MDP-or silica- stimulated AM and suggest that PAF may play a potent role in lung inflammation and disease associated with microbe and occupational dust exposures.