• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.494-498
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• 2016

Cold plasma has been developed to reduce microbial contamination and to improve safety of food and medical products. In addition, the technology can be used in the manufacture of sausages without addition of nitrite. To be applied in food industry commercially, the new technology should be safe and efficient. However, toxicological test of plasma-treated food is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the mutagenicity and immune toxicity of the meat products cured with plasma-treated water (PTW) as a nitrite source. Emulsion sausages were prepared with no nitrite (control), sodium nitrite (SCS), and PTW (SCP). For a mutagenicity test, the Ames test was performed with the sausage samples. For immune toxicity test, 8-wk-old female Balb/c mice were given free access to the sausages in order to evaluate the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α level. As a result, no mutagenicity was detected in the sausages by the Ames test. The serum TNF-α values were less than 10 pg/mL in mice after feeding control and treated samples for 32 d, indicating that no inflammatory response was occurred by feeding the sausages made by PTW. Therefore, the present study opens the possibility of using plasma-treated water as a nitrite source without any toxicity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.344-344
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• 2014

Transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors such as a In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) have advantages for large area electronic devices; e.g., uniform deposition at a large area, optical transparency, a smooth surface, and large electron mobility >10 cm2/Vs, which is more than an order of magnitude larger than that of hydrogen amorphous silicon (a-Si;H).1) Thin film transistors (TFTs) that employ amorphous oxide semiconductors such as ZnO, In-Ga-Zn-O, or Hf-In-Zn-O (HIZO) are currently subject of intensive study owing to their high potential for application in flat panel displays. The device fabrication process involves a series of thin film deposition and photolithographic patterning steps. In order to minimize contamination, the substrates usually undergo a cleaning procedure using deionized water, before and after the growth of thin films by sputtering methods. The devices structure were fabricated top-contact gate TFTs using the a-IGZO films on the plastic substrates. The channel width and length were 80 and 20 um, respectively. The source and drain electrode regions were defined by photolithography and wet etching process. The electrodes consisting of Ti(15 nm)/Al(120 nm)/Ti(15nm) trilayers were deposited by direct current sputtering. The 30 nm thickness active IGZO layer deposited by rf magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The deposition condition is as follows: a rf power 200 W, a pressure of 5 mtorr, 10% of oxygen [O2/(O2+Ar)=0.1], and room temperature. A 9-nm-thick Al2O3 layer was formed as a first, third gate insulator by ALD deposition. A 290-nm-thick SS6908 organic dielectrics formed as second gate insulator by spin-coating. The schematic structure of the IGZO TFT is top gate contact geometry device structure for typical TFTs fabricated in this study. Drain current (IDS) versus drain-source voltage (VDS) output characteristics curve of a IGZO TFTs fabricated using the 3-layer gate insulator on a plastic substrate and log(IDS)-gate voltage (VG) characteristics for typical IGZO TFTs. The TFTs device has a channel width (W) of $80{\mu}m$ and a channel length (L) of $20{\mu}m$. The IDS-VDS curves showed well-defined transistor characteristics with saturation effects at VG>-10 V and VDS>-20 V for the inkjet printing IGZO device. The carrier charge mobility was determined to be 15.18 cm^2 V-1s-1 with FET threshold voltage of -3 V and on/off current ratio 10^9.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-46
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• 2008

Even though fuel cell have high efficiency when pure hydrogen from gas tank is used as a fuel source, it is more beneficial to generate hydrogen from city gas (mainly methane) in residential application such as domestic or office environments. Thus hydrogen is generated by reforming process using hydrocarbon. Unfortunately, the reforming process for hydrogen production is accompanied with unavoidable impurities. Impurities such as CO, $CO_2$, $H_2S$, $NH_3$, $CH_4$, and $CH_4$ in hydrogen could cause negative effects on fuel cell performance. Those effects are kinetic losses due to poisoning of the electrode catalysts, ohmic losses due to proton conductivity reduction including membrane and catalyst ionomer layers, and mass transport losses due to degrading catalyst layer structure and hydrophobic property. Hydrogen produced from reformer eventually contains around 73% of $H_2$, 20% or less of $CO_2$, 5.8% of less of $N_2$, or 2% less of $CH_4$, and 10ppm or less of CO. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of carbon dioxide on fuel cell performance. The performance of PEM fuel cell was investigated using current vs. potential experiment, long run(10 hr) test, and electrochemical impedance measurement when the concentrations of carbon dioxide were 10%, 20% and 30%. Also, the concentration of impurity supplied to the fuel cell was verified by gas chromatography(GC).

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.160-164
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• 1999

Subsurface environments, including the intermediate vadose zone and aquifers, may be contributing to increased atmospheric concentrations of $N_2$O. Denitrification appears to be the major source of $N_2$O in the subsurface environment. In the intermediate vadose zone, the level of denitrifying activity is dependent on the soil morphology, particularly stratified layers within the soil profile, which impede water and solute movement and create conditions favorable for denitrification. Movement of organic C from the soil surface appears to support denitrifying activity by providing an energy source and increasing the consumption of $O_2$. Denitrirication and $N_2$O production have been observed in aquifers but appear to be of greatest significance in shallow unconfined aquifers. The lack of organic C, N $O_2$, or anaerobiosis is often a limiting factor for activity but seems to be site specific. The presence of denitrifying bacteria does not appear to be a major limitation, based on published results, but the ubiquity of denitrifiers in subsurface environments needs to be confirmed. The fate of the $N_2$O produced in subsurface environments is unknown. Transport of $N_2$O by up ward diffusion, by outgassing at contacts with surface waters, and by ground water use need to be quantified to determine the contribution to atmospheric $N_2$O. Contamination of subsurface environment with N $O_3$$^{ }$ and organics has the potential for increasing the contribution to atmospheric $N_2$O by enhancing denitrification .

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.244-251
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• 2015

The containment filtered venting system reduces the range of the contamination area around the nuclear power plant by strengthening the integrity of the containment building. In this study, the probabilistic assessment code MACCS2 was used to assess the effect of the CFVS to off-site. The accident source term was selected from a Probabilistic Safety Analysis report of SHINKORI 1&2 Nuclear Power Plant. The three source term categories from 19 STC were chosen to evaluate the effective dose and thyroid dose of residents around the power plant and the dose with CFVS and without CFVS were compared. The dose was calculated according to the distance from the nuclear power plant, so the damage scale based on the distance that exceeds the IAEA criteria for effective dose (100 mSv per 7 days) and thyroid dose (50 mSv per 7 days) were compared. The effective dose reduction rates of the STC-3, STC-4, STC-6 were about 95-99% in the whole range (0~35 km), 96-98% for the thyroid dose. There are similar results between effective dose and thyroid dose. After applying the CFVS, the damage scale that exceeds the effective dose criteria was about 1 km (mean). Especially, the STC-4 damage scale was decreased from 26 km (mean) to 1.2 km (mean) significantly. The damage scale that exceed the thyroid dose criteria was decreased to 2~3 km (mean). The STC-4 damage scale was also decreased significantly as compared to STC-3, STC-6 in terms of effective dose.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.167-176
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• 2015

The water quality of the Gulpo Stream flowing through Incheon, Bucheon, Seoul, and Kimpo is getting worse due to a slow flow rate and bank constructions by stream channelization as well as an inflow of pollutants from living-sewages and factory-sewages. Besides, a dry stream phenomenon caused by a lack of maintenance water upstream makes a self-purification system worse, and the water quality of the Gulpo Stream is currently at its lowest level. The accumulated sludge of the streambed is mostly formed by the deposition of particle pollutants due to the slow flow rate and an artificially straightened stream channel. This accumulated sludge adsorbs a great quantity of organic materials and heavy metals. Because of the internal contamination possibility by a re-gushing, even after the pollution source is removed, it can cause future water pollution. Without a total examination as previously recommended, it is considered difficult to accomplish practical efficiency. In conclusion, the management of periodic sediment management such as dredging would be necessary in the Gulpo Stream because sediment could be an internal pollution source of stream water under anaerobic conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.304-309
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• 2015

To evaluate the degree of contamination caused by oil spill accident in the sea, the in-situ sensors which are based on the scientific method are needed in the real site. The sensors which are based on the fluorescence detection theory can provide the useful data, such as the concentration of oil. However these kinds of sensors commonly are composed of the ultraviolet (UV) light source such as UV mercury lamp, the multiple excitation/emission filters and the optical sensor which is mainly photomultiplier tube (PMT) type. Therefore, the size of the total sensing platform is large not suitable to be handled in the oil spill field and also the total price of it is extremely expensive. To overcome these drawbacks, we designed the fluorimeter for the oil spill detection which has compact size and cost effectiveness. Before the detail design process, we conducted the experiments to measure the excitation and emission spectrum of oils using five different kinds of crude oils and three different kinds of processed oils. And the fluorescence spectrometer were used to analyze the excitation and emission spectrum of oil samples. We have compared the spectrum results and drawn the each common spectrum regions of excitation and emission. In the experiments, we can see that the average gap between maximum excitation and emission peak wavelengths is near 50 nm for the every case. In the experiment which were fixed by the excitation wavelength of 365 nm and 405 nm, we can find out that the intensity of emission was weaker than that of 280 nm and 325 nm. So, if the light sources having the wavelength of 365 nm or 405 nm are used in the design process of fluorimeter, the optical sensor needs to have the sensitivity which can cover the weak light intensity. Through the results which were derived by the experiment, we can define the important factors which can be useful to select the effective wavelengths of light source, photo detector and filters.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.147-152
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• 2015

Nitrogen (N) loading from domestic, agricultural and industrial sources can lead to excessive growth of macrophytes or phytoplankton in aquatic environment. Many studies have used nitrogen stable isotope ratios to identify anthropogenic nitrogen in aquatic systems as a useful method for studying nitrogen cycle. In this study to evaluate the precision and accuracy of Kjeldahl processes, two reference materials (IAEA-NO-3, N-1) were analyzed repeatedly. Measured the ${\delta}^{15}N-NO_3$ and ${\delta}^{15}N-NH_4$ values of IAEA-NO-3 and IAEA-N-1 were $4.7{\pm}0.2$‰ and $0.4{\pm}0.3$‰, respectively, which are within recommended values of analytical uncertainties. Also, we investigated spatial patterns of ${\delta}^{15}N-NO_3$ and ${\delta}^{15}N-NH_4$ in effluent plumes from a waste water treatment plant in Han River, Korea. ${\delta}^{15}N-NO_3$ and ${\delta}^{15}N-NH_4$ values are enriched at downstream areas of water treatment plant suggesting that dissolved nitrogen in effluent plumes should be one of the main N sources in those areas. The current study clarifies the reliability of Kjeldahl analytical method and the usefulness of stable isotopic techniques to trace the contamination source of dissolved nitrogen such as nitrate and ammonia.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2006

This study was carried out to survey the prevalence of foodborne pathogens in Sangshik products and their raw materials far the purpose of ensuring safety of those products in market, and establishing microbial regulatory standard. From 2002 to 2004, a total of 191 Sangshik products were purchased from market or mail-order sales, and major foodborne pathogens; E. coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter jejuni, Yersinia enterocolitica, E. coli O157:H7, Vibrio parahaemolyticus were tested. B. cereus, C. perfringens and E. coli were detected from 29 samples (15.2%), 21 samples (11.0%) and 1 sample (0.5%), respectively. But other tested bacteria were not detected. For the identification of contamination source, 53 Sangshik ingredients were collected from 9 different manufacture factories. The results were similar with the Sangshik products. Aerobic plate counts were ranging from $1.0X10^3cfu/g\;to\;1.5X10^8cfu/g$. B. cereus was detected from 13 samples (24.5%), and counted as less than 100 cfu/g. C. perfringens were detected from 2 samples (3.8%), and counted as less than 100 cfu/g. Other foodborne pathogens were not detected except for B. cereus and C. perfringens. From the results, it was revealed that potential of microbial hazard by Sangshik was relatively low. However, it would be suggested that hygienic management and controling be needed for the prevention of growing contaminated pathogens and cross contamination during process and sale due to improper storage and management.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.155-166
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• 1980

Studies have teen undertaken to investigate the degree of microbial contamination in the subsidiary materials which have been known as an important source of microorganisms associated with spoilage of fish sausage and fish paste products. Twenty hinds of food ingredients including starch, spices and condiments, 59 samples in total collected from commercial fish sausage processing plants and supermarket in the period of July to October 1979, were examined for standard plate count, coliform and fecal coliform, mold and yeast, thermoduric microorganisms, aerobic sporeformers (mesophilic and thermophilic), anaerobic sporeformers (mesophilic and thermophilic) and sulfide spoilage anaerobes. The results obtained are summarized as follows. 1. Among the food ingredients examined, corn starch, black pepper, hot pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, beef extract and frank marked high bacterial contamination with general and sporeforming microorganisms. And bacterial content of marked samples were generally higher than that of the samples from plants. 2. The high standard plate count caused by high content of these bacteria like thermoduric, mesophilic or thermophilic sporeforming aerobes. 3. Bacterial content of food ingredients such as black pepper and beef extract being used in plants, and black pepper, hot pepper, onion and garlic from the market were exceeded the bacterial standards being enforced in Japan and U. S. A. 4. Average standard plate count was in the range of 10$^4$to 10$^{5}$ /g for black pepper, wheat flour, onion and garlic collected from plants, and 10$^{5}$ to 10$^{7}$ /g for black pepper, hot pepper, onion and garlic from market. No plate count was observed in pepper essence and coloring material. 5. Coliform organism was detected in starch, black pepper, hot pepper, onion, garlic, ginger and gluten that showed high standard plate but no fecal coliform in the samples except black pepper and hot pepper. 6. Average mold and yeast count was 140 to 460/g for corn starch, wheat flour and black pepper from plants, and 10$^3$/g for black pepper and hot pepper from market. No count was observed in the other ingredients. 7. Sulfide spoilage sporeforming anaerobes boiled for 5 min. at 10$0^{\circ}C$ and incubated at 55$^{\circ}C$ was not detected in all the samples examined.