• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.31-40
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• 2016

The analysis of nuclear materials and environmental samples is an important issue in nuclear safeguards and nuclear forensics. An analysis technique for safeguard samples has been developed for the detection of undeclared nuclear activities and verification of declared nuclear activities, while nuclear forensics has been developed to trace the origins and intended use of illicitly trafficked nuclear or radioactive materials. In these two analytical techniques, mass spectrometry has played an important role in determining the isotope ratio of various nuclides, contents of trace elements, and production dates. These two techniques typically use similar analytical instruments, but the analytical procedure and the interpretation of analytical results differ depending on the analytical purpose. The isotopic ratio of the samples is considered the most important result in an environmental sample analysis, while age dating and impurity analysis may also be important for nuclear forensics. In this review, important aspects of these techniques are compared and the role of mass spectrometry, along with recent progress in related technologies, are discussed.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.699-703
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• 2007

Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) by isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) interfaced with gas chromatography (GC) is a state of the art analytical technique for stable isotopes in earth sciences, environmental sciences and forensics. Since early 1990s, GC-IRMS has been widely used to investigate the authenticity of food in forensic science and to trace the sources of organic contaminants in environmental science. In Korea, a GC-IRMS was firstly installed at the Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI) in early 2005. In this study, we introduce the GC-IRMS of the KBSI shortly to stimulate various isotope-related researches of Korea, and report preliminary CSIA results for BTEX of different manufacturers.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.835-845
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• 2019

File Carving is a technique for attempting to recover a file without metadata, such as a formated storage media or a damaged file system, and generally looks for a specific header / footer signature and data structure of the file. However, file carving is faced with the problem of recovering fragmented files for a long time, and it is very important to propose a solution for digital forensics because important files are relatively fragmented. To overcome these limitations, various carving techniques and tools are continuously being developed, and data sets from various researches and institutions are provided for functional verification. However, existing data sets are ineffective in verifying tools because of their limited environmental conditions. Therefore, this paper refers to the importance of fragmented file carving and develops 16 images for carving tool verification based on scenarios. The developed images' carving rate and accuracy of each media is shown through Foremost which is well known as a commercial carving tool.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.737-751
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• 2023

The importance of digital forensics in the cloud environment is increasing as businesses and individuals move their data from On-premise to the cloud. Cloud data can be stored on various devices, including mobile devices and desktops, and encompasses a variety of user behavior artifacts, such as information generated from linked accounts and cloud services. However, there are limitations in securing and analyzing digital evidence due to environmental constraints of the cloud, such as distributed storage of data and lack of artifact linkage. One solution to address this is archiving services, and Google's Takeout is prime example. In this paper, user behavior data is analyzed for cloud forensics based on archiving data and necessary items are selected from an investigation perspective. Additionally, we propose the process of analyzing selectively collected data based on time information and utilizing web-based visualization to meaningfully assess artifact associations and multi-behaviors. Through this, we aim to demonstrate the value of utilizing archiving data in response to the increasing significance of evidence collection for cloud data.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.259-266
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• 2023

The demand for rare-earth elements (REEs) is increasing owing to their significance as prominent materials in electronics, high-tech industries, geological research, nuclear forensics, and environmental monitoring. In general, the utilization of REEs in various applications requires the use of chromatographic techniques to separate individual elements. However, REEs have similar physicochemical properties, which makes them difficult to separate. Recently, several studies have examined the separation of REEs using LN resin as the stationary phase and aqueous nitric acid and hydrochloric acid solutions as eluents. Using this method, light REEs have been separated using dilute acid solutions as the eluent, whereas heavy REEs are separated using solutions with high acid concentrations. To increase the separation resolution between different REEs, either the column length or resin size is changed. In addition, the suggested methods are implemented to decrease the analysis time. This review presents technical information on the chromatographic separation of REEs using the LN resin and discusses the optimal experimental conditions.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.457-468
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• 2023

Buildings, bridges, and dams are examples of civil infrastructure that play an important role in public life. These structures are prone to structural variations over time as a result of external forces that might disrupt the operation of the structures, cause structural integrity issues, and raise safety concerns for the occupants. Therefore, monitoring the state of a structure, also known as structural health monitoring (SHM), is essential. Owing to the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution, next-generation sensors, such as wireless sensors, UAVs, and video cameras, have recently been utilized to improve the quality and efficiency of building forensics. This study presents a method that uses a target-based system to estimate the dynamic displacement and its corresponding dynamic properties of structures using UAV-based video. A laboratory experiment was performed to verify the tracking technique using a shaking table to excite an SDOF specimen and comparing the results between a laser distance sensor, accelerometer, and fixed camera. Then a field test was conducted to validate the proposed framework. One target marker is placed on the specimen, and another marker is attached to the ground, which serves as a stationary reference to account for the undesired UAV movement. The results from the UAV and stationary camera displayed a root mean square (RMS) error of 2.02% for the displacement, and after post-processing the displacement data using an OMA method, the identified natural frequency and damping ratio showed significant accuracy and similarities. The findings illustrate the capabilities and reliabilities of the methodology using UAV to evaluate the dynamic properties of structures.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2013

This study was performed to summarize application of ${\delta}^{13}C$, ${\delta}^{37}Cl$ and ${\delta}D$ of trichloroethylene (TCE) to studies on environmental forensic field regarding identification of TCE sources and evaluation of contribution of TCE to groundwater using data collected from literatures. ${\delta}^{13}C$, ${\delta}^{37}Cl$ and ${\delta}D$ of TCE give some information regarding sources of TCE because they show specific value according to manufacturing method. Also, TCE do not show a significant isotopic fractionation owing to adsorption and dilution. The isotopic fractionation mainly occurs by biodegradation. In addition, isotopic fractionation factor for TCE is different according to a kind of microorganism participated in biodegradation. However, the isotopic data of TCE have to be applied with chemical compositions of TCE and other hydrogeologic factors because isotopic fractionation of TCE is influenced by various factors.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.405-417
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• 2023

The submerged floating tunnel (SFT) is tethered by mooring lines anchored to the seabed, therefore, the structural integrity of the anchor should be sensitively managed. Despite their importance, reaction forces cannot be simply measured by attaching sensors or load cells because of the structural and environmental characteristics of the submerged structure. Therefore, we propose an effective method for estimating the reaction forces at the seabed anchor of a submerged floating tunnel using a structural pattern model. First, a structural pattern model is established to use the correlation between tunnel motion and anchor reactions via a deep learning algorithm. Once the pattern model is established, it is directly used to estimate the reaction forces by inputting the tunnel motion data, which can be directly measured inside the tunnel. Because the sequential characteristics of responses in the time domain should be considered, the long short-term memory (LSTM) algorithm is mainly used to recognize structural behavioral patterns. Using hydrodynamics-based simulations, big data on the structural behavior of the SFT under various waves were generated, and the prepared datasets were used to validate the proposed method. The simulation-based validation results clearly show that the proposed method can precisely estimate time-series reactions using only acceleration data. In addition to real-time structural health monitoring, the proposed method can be useful for forensics when an unexpected accident or failure is related to the seabed anchors of the SFT.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.557-564
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• 2023

Nuclear materials such as uranium are used as fuel for nuclear power generation, but there is a high possibility that they will be used for non-peaceful purposes, so international inspections and regulations are being conducted. Isotope analysis data of fine particulate obtained from nuclear facilities can provide important information on the origin and concentration method of nuclear material, so it is widely used in the field of nuclear safety and nuclear forensics. In this study we describe the analytical method that can directly identify nuclear particles and measure their isotopic ratios for fine samples using a large-geometry secondary ion mass spectrometer and introduce its preliminary results. Using the U-200 standard material, the location of fine particles was identified and the results consistent with the standard value were obtained through microbeam analysis.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.204-209
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• 2008

Marine accidents show various causes and effects in Korea where 3 sides of the country are surrounded by the ocean. Every year, 600 to 700 marine accidents occur mostly by small fishing boats. There are repeated accidents which involve crashes of coastal ships with fishing boats, which produce casualties and massive environmental hazard and the need for underwater search for shipwrecks. From the beginning of 21st century, the decrease of large ships with large number of crews led to the emergence of digitalvessels and the digital data storage of the installed equipments on the vessels, marine digital forensic - the extraction and analysis of the stored digital data within digital vessels - became necessary. This article is intended to suggest marine digital forensics as a solution of collecting evidence for discovering the causes, liabilities and compensations of marine accidents.