• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.431-439
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• 2014

The purposes of this research were to investigate the enrichment of metal-reducing bacteria from KURT groundwater and the identification of the microbial diversity by 16S rRNA as well as to examine microbial Fe(III)/Mn(IV) reduction and to analyze morphological features of interactions between microbes and precipitates and their mineralogical composition. To cultivate metal-reducing bacteria from groundwater sampled at the KURT in S. Korea, different electron donors such as glucose, acetate, lactate, formate, pyruvate and Fe(III)-citrate as an electron accepter were added into growth media. The enriched culture was identified by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis for the diversity of microbial species. The effect of electron donors (i.e., glucose, acetate, lactate, formate, pyruvate) and electron acceptors (i.e., akaganeite, manganese oxide) on microbial iron/manganese reduction and biomineralization were examined using the 1st enriched culture, respectively. SEM, EDX, and XRD analyses were used to determine morphological features, chemical composition of microbes and mineralogical characteristics of the iron and manganese minerals. Based on 16S rRNA gene analysis, the four species, Fusibacter, Desulfuromonas, Actinobacteria, Pseudomonas sp., from KURT groundwater were identified as anaerobic metal reducers and these microbes precipitated metals outside of cells in common. XRD and EDX analyses showed that Fe(III)-containing mineral, akaganeite (${\beta}$-FeOOH), reduced into Fe(II)/Fe(III)-containing magnetite ($Fe_3O_4$) and Mn(IV)-containing manganese oxide (${\lambda}-MnO_2$) into Mn(II)-containing rhodochrosite ($MnCO_3$) by the microbes. These results implicate that microbial metabolism and respiratory activities under anaerobic condition result in reduction and biomineralization of iron and manganese minerals. Therefore, the microbes cultivated from groundwater in KURT might play a major role to reduce various metals from highly toxic, mobile to less toxic, immobile.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.502-509
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• 2013

To estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, we established inventory of conventional rice cultivation from farmers in Gunsan and Iksan, Jeonbuk province in 2011~2012. This study was to calculate carbon footprint and to analyse the major factor of GHGs. We carried out a sensitivity analysis using the analyzed main factors of GHGs and estimated the mitigation potential of GHGs. Also we tried to suggest agricultural methods to reduce GHGs that farmers of this case study can apply. Carbon footprint of rice production unit of 1 kg was 2.21 kg $CO_2.-eq.kg^{-1}$. Although amount of $CO_2$ emissions is largest among GHGs, methane had the highest contribution of carbon footprint on rice production system after methane was converted to carbon dioxide equivalent ($CO_2$-eq.) multiplied by the global warming potential (GWP). Source of $CO_2$ in the cultivation of rice farming is incomplete combustion of fossil fuels used by agricultural machinery. Most of the $CH_4$ emitted during rice cultivation and major factor of $CH_4$ emission is flooded paddy field in anaerobic condition. Most of the $N_2O$ emitted from rice cultivation process and major sources of $N_2O$ emission is application of fertilizer such as compound fertilizer, urea, orgainc fertilizer, etc. As a result of sensitivity analysis due to the variation in energy consumption, diesel had the highest sensitivity among the energies inputs. If diesel consumption is reduced by 10%, it could be estimated that $CO_2$ potential reduction is about 2.5%. When application rate of compound fertilizer reduces by 10%, the potential reduction is calculated to be approximately 1% for $CO_2$ and approximately 1.8% for $N_2O$. When drainage duration is decreased until 10 days, methane emissions is reduced by approximately 4.5%. That is to say drainage days, tillage, and reducing diesel consumption were the main sources having the largest effect of GHG reduction due to changing amount of inputs. Accordingly, proposed methods to decrease GHG emissions were no-tillage, midsummer drainage, etc.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 2023

Almost all of the water from agricultural dams located to the upper of the Yeongsan river is supplied as irrigation water for farmland and thus is not discharged to the main stream of the river. Also, most of the irrigation water does not return to the river after use, adding to the lack of flow in the main stream. As a result, the water quality and aquatic health of the river have become the poorest among the four major rivers in Korea. Therefore, in this study, several strategies for water quality improvement of the river were developed considering pollution reduction and flow rate increase, and their effect analysis was performed using a water quality model. The results of this study showed that the target water quality of the Yeongsan river could be achieved if flow increase strategies (FISs) are intensively pursued in parallel with pollution reduction. The reason is because the water quality of the river has been steadily improved through pollution reduction but this method is now nearing the limit. In addition, rainfall-related FISs such as dam construction and water distribution adjustment may be less effective or lost if a megadrought continues due to climate change and then rainfall does not occur for a long time. Therefore, in the future, if the application conditions for the FISs are similar, the seawater desalination facility, which is independent of rainfall, should be considered as the priority installation target among the FISs. The reason is that seawater desalination facilities can replace the water supply function of dams, which are difficult to newly build in Korea, and can be useful as a climate change adaptation facility by preventing water-related disasters in the event of a long-term megadrought.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.942-948
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• 2010

To predict the potential reduction of $CH_4$ by recovering several types of wastes as of reusable energy sources like RDF, the $CH_4$ emission for each type of waste from Landfill Site 3 of SUDOKWON Landfill was estimated for the period of 2017 to 2024. Without any recovering effort on types of wastes being disposed of at the Landfill, there are producing a total of $526{\times}10^6\;Nm^3$ of $CH_4$; municipal waste of $337{\times}10^6\;Nm^3$, construction waste of $178{\times}10^6\;Nm^3$, and facility waste of $11{\times}10^6\;Nm^3$. It composed of 41.5% to that observed from 2002 to 2009. With properly retrieved by MT(Mechanical Treatment), it released a total of $158{\times}10^6\;Nm^3$ $CH_4$; $127{\times}10^6\;Nm^3$, $28{\times}10^6\;Nm^3$, and $4{\times}10^6\;Nm^3$, respectively. Additionally, when biologically degradable residues can be fully treated by MBT (Mechanical & Biological Treatment) system, the total amount of $CH_4$ emitted from the site will be lowered down as low as $115{\times}10^6\;Nm^3$, which is comparably lower showing only 21.8% to that for without any energy recovery practice. Futhermore, it is far less showing 9.1% to that obtained from 2002 to 2009. It can be decided that predictable amount of $CH_4$ emission reduced could be successfully accomplished and enhanced through ways of energy recovery efforts such as further scale adjustment of LFG treatment capacity in association with currently implemented practices in the landfill site.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.9-20
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• 2010

In order to visualize participating media in 3D space, they usually calculate the incoming radiance by subdividing the ray path into small subintervals, and accumulating their respective light energy due to direct illumination, scattering, absorption, and emission. Among these light phenomena, scattering behaves in very complicated manner in 3D space, often requiring a great deal of simulation efforts. To effectively simulate the light scattering effect, several approximation techniques have been proposed. Volume photon mapping takes a simple approach where the light scattering phenomenon is represented in volume photon map through a stochastic simulation, and the stored information is explored in the rendering stage. While effective, this method has a problem that the number of necessary photons increases very fast when a higher variance reduction is needed. In an attempt to resolve such problem, we propose a different approach for rendering particle-based volume data where kernel smoothing, one of several density estimation methods, is explored to represent and reconstruct the light in-scattering effect. The effectiveness of the presented technique is demonstrated with several examples of volume data.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.5_1
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• pp.507-519
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• 2017

The applications of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) as a vegetation index has been widely used to understand vegetation biomass and physiological activities. However, NDVI is not suitable way for monitoring vegetation stress because it is less sensitive to change in physiological state than biomass. PRI (Photochemical Reflectance Index) is well developed to present physiological activities of vegetation, particularly high-light-stress condition, and it has been adopted in several satellites to be launched in the future. Thus, the understanding of PRI performance and the development of analysis method will be necessary. This study aims to interpret the characteristics of light-stress-sensitive PRI in shadow areas and to evaluate the PRI calculated by other wavelengths (i.e., 488.9 nm, 553.6 nm, 646.9 nm, and 668.4 nm) instead of 570 nm that used in original PRI. Using airborne-based hyperspectral image, we found that PRI values were increased in shadow detection due to the reduction of high light induced physiological stress. However, the qualities of both PRI and NDVI data were dramatically decreased when the shadow index (SI) exceeded the threshold (SI<25). In addition, the PRI calculated using by 553.6 nm had best correlation with original PRI. This relationship was improved by multiple regression analysis including reflectances of RED and NIR. These results will be helpful to the understanding of physiological meaning on the application of PRI.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.58-64
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• 1982

The fresh threshed paddy-mat dryings on the various environments were analyzed on their drying characteristics and rice quality resulted. The moisture content of paddy was mainly determined by the accumulated solar energy received, and which was expressed as a simple equation. The drying characteristics revealed to follow a constant rate drying type, and as the depth increased the more typical constant-rate drying pattern was observed. The relationship between the drying rate and bed depth was established with a simple exponential equation. The raking operation during the drying period showed a favorable effect both on the drying rate and the reduction of crack formation. Drying environments such as straw mat, concrete, ground, polyethylene film did not affect significantly the drying rate and rice quality. Considering the drying rate and quality, the optimum bed depth of mat paddy drying was around 6 cm.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2013

The purpose of the present study is to determine whether Schisandra chinensis (SC) has a protective effect on high fat diet (HFD)-induced fatty liver including hepatic lipid accumulation in rats. The HFD-induced obese rats were weighed after SC extracts were administered through the gastrointestinal tract at a concentration of 250 mg/kg b.w/day for 5 weeks. After 5 weeks, all of the rats on a high fat-diet were 36.5% heavier compared with normal controls. In contrast, rats on a high-fat diet supplemented with SC were 23.5% lighter than rats fed only a high-fat diet. Although there was no significant difference in food intake among the groups during the experimental diet period, the body weight gain of the SC group was significantly lower than the weights of the HFD groups. SC treatment slightly decreased the liver weight. Reduction of hepatic TBARS contents by SC was observed in rats fed a diet containing SC, and antioxidant activity was markedly increased in HFD＋SC group compared to those of HFD group in liver. Moreover, total-lipid and triglyceride contents in the liver of groups fed a diet containing SC were significantly lower compared to those of the HFD group. High fat feeding elevated liver cholesterol concentration, but the addition of SC to the HFD rats resulted in the significant decrease in liver cholesterol. In histological observation of liver tissues, the hepatocytes of HFD rats showed a typical fatty liver morphology showing numerous lipid droplets in cytoplasm, whereas administration of SC reduced the size and numbers of lipid droplets. These results clearly demonstrated the attenuation of SC on nonalcoholic fatty liver induced by obese rats fed HFD.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.196-200
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• 2004

In order to improve dendritic formation of Nd$_2$Fe$\_$14/B phase in the strip-cast Nd-Fe-B alloys that are frequently used for production of high energy sintered magnets, effect of small substitutional additives such as Cu (0.3～1.0 at. %) and Co (0.5～1.5 at.%) on the phase formation and microstructures of the strip-cast alloys based on Nd$\_$14/Fe$\_$80/B$\_$6/ were investigated. As the amount of Cu addition increased, formation of Nd$_2$Fe$\_$14/B dendrites along the direction normal to the strip surface was suppressed with the reduction of the strip thickness mainly due to the increase of fluidity of the melt. However, both the dendrites and their <001> preferred orientation along the direction normal to the strip surface were improved with the increase of the strip thickness as the amount of Co addition increased. The dendrites became finer after small amount of Cu or Co was added. While small copper additions tended to stabilize the formation of primary Fe, small cobalt additions suppressed it. When small amount of Zr was added, however, the dendrite structures were totally collapsed with excessive grain growth of Nd$_2$Fe$\_$14/B.