• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.107-114
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• 2007

This study aimed to investigate the hexachlorobenzene (HCB) dechlorinating ability of sediment microbes collected from a natural canal receiving secondary effluents from an industrial estate and nearby factories. Nine sites along the stream and one in the estuary in the Gulf of Thailand into which the canal spills were specified and sampling for sediment and water. Preliminary analysis of the sediments showed that the first four sites nearest to the discharging location were contaminated by HCB within the range of 0.18 to 1.25 ppm. Apart from that, 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene which has never been commercially produced or used in any manufacturing processes except for the transformation from higher chlorinated benzene was also identified in the range of 0.16 to 0.24 ppm. This suggested a possibility of sporadically HCB contamination in this stream. Of more important, people in the community along this canal earn their living by coastal fishery; hence, posing a risk of spreading HCB and its less chlorinated congeners via food chain from caught marine creatures to human. As a result, there is an urgent need to understand the behavior of HCB dechlorination in this stream sediment which can lead to a clean-up action in the future. Serum bottles with sediment slurries (sediment to water ratio of 1:1 (v/v) and filtered to remove particles larger than 0.7 mm) from each site were inoculated with 2 mg/l of HCB, kept anaerobically in the dark at room temperature without any nourishment, and analyzed for HCB and its less-chlorinated congeners every 6 days. Total chemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, and volatile suspended solids were in the range of 21,492-73,584, 158,100-518,100 and 6,000-32,700 mg/l, respectively. It was found that all sediment slurries began to dechlorinate HCB in 12 to 30 days and the HCB was completely removed within 42 to 60 days or so. On the other hand, there was no HCB dechlorination occurred in the controlled set which was sterilized by autoclaving prior to the addition of HCB. This implies that the HCB transformation was solely due to microorganisms' activities. HCB was dechlorinated principally via pentachlolobenzene to 1,2,3,5-tetrachlorobenzene and terminated at 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene which is the major pathway as reported by many researchers. Dichlorobenzene has not been detected in any samples within the dechlorination period of 60 days. The results indicate that the microbial matrix in the sediment of this stream has an outstanding capability to dechlorinate HCB. Existing substrates and nutrients which mainly sorbed onto the solid phase and the typical temperature in Thailand were sufficient and suitable to promote the activities of these HCB-dechlorinating microbes.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1-11
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• 2011

This study mainly focused on the method of accurately extracting damage information in the im agery change detection process using the constructed high resolution aerial im agery. Bongwha-gun in Gyungsangbuk-do which had been severely damaged from a localized torrential downpour at the end of July, 2008 was selected as study area. This study utilized aerial im agery having photographing scale of 30cm gray image of pre-disaster and 40cm color image of post-disaster. In order to correct errors from the differences of the image resolution of pre-/post-disaster and time series, the prelim inary phase of image processing techniques such as normalizing, contrast enhancement and equalizing were applied to reduce errors. The extent of the damage was calculated using one to one comparison of the intensity of each pixel of pre-/post-disaster im aged. In this step, threshold values which facilitate to extract the extent that damage investigator wants were applied by setting difference values of the intensity of pixel of pre-/post-disaster. The accuracy of optimal image processing and the result of threshold values were verified using the error matrix. The results of the study enabled the early exaction of the extents of the damages using the aerial imagery with identical characteristics. It was also possible to apply to various damage items for imagery change detection in case of utilizing multi-band im agery. Furthermore, more quantitative estimation of the dam ages would be possible with the use of numerous GIS layers such as land cover and cadastral maps.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.246-252
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• 2016

Since thermal power plant (TPP) equipment is operated under very high pressure and temperature, failures of the equipment give rise to severe losses of life and property. To prevent the losses, fault detection method is, therefore, absolutely necessary to identify abnormal operating conditions of the equipment in advance. In this paper, we present Mahalanobis distance (MD) based fault detection method for steam boiler tube in TPP. In the MD-based method, it is supposed that abnormal data samples are far away from normal samples. Using multivariate samples collected from normal target system, mean vector and covariance matrix are calculated and threshold value of MD is decided. In a test phase, after calculating the MDs between the mean vector and test samples, alarm signals occur if the MDs exceed the predefined threshold. To demonstrate the performance, a failure case due to boiler tube leakage in 200MW TPP is employed. The experimental results show that the presented method can perform early detection of boiler tube leakage successfully.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.873-887
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• 1996

Platelet-derived growth factor(PDGF) is one of the polypeptide growth fators. PDGF has been reported as a biological mediator which regulates activities of wound healing process including the cell proliferation, migration and metabolism. Recent studies indicated that demineralized root surface as the primary site for growth factor application has advantages over other application method, especially due to binding capacity of growth factor for exposed matrix component of deminera1ized dentin surface. The purpose of this study is to evaluate optimal application time of PDGF-BB on proliferation of human gingival fibroblasts using deminera1ized dentin surface as primary application site. Human gingival fibroblasts and dentin slabs were prepared from the first premolar tooth extracted for the orthodontic treatment, cells were cultured in DMEM/I0% FBS at the $37^{\circ}C$, 5% CO2 incubator. All of the dentin slabs were preconditioned with Tetracycline HCI(100mg/ml) solution and rinsed in PBS. In the cell proliferation experiment, experimental group was immersed in DMEM containing 10% FBS, 50ng/rnl PDGF-BB during different time(30sec, 1, 2, 4, 8 minutes) and dried. Cells at concentration of $1{\times}10^5$cells/ml were seeded in each culture well which contained dentin slabs and incubated for 6 hours. Then, all of the dentin slabs were moved into new 24 well culture dish and incubated for 24, 48, 72 hours. The cell counting was done by hemocytometer with inverted phase contrast microscope after trypsinization. The results were as follows : The application of PDGF-BB for 1, 2 min slightly increased the number of gingival fibroblasts, and the application of PDGF-BB for 4, 8 min prominently increased the number of gingival fibroblasts. The application of PDGF-BB for 4 min showed maximum proliferation rate of gingival fibroblasts at 24, 48, 72 hours, and the application of PDGF-BB for 8 min showed less proliferation rate of gingival fibroblasts compared to the application of PDGF-BB for 4 min at 24, 48, 72 hours. In conclusion, the application of PDGF-BB for 4 min appeared to be optimal to obtain maximum proliferation of gingival fibroblasts using demineralized dentin surface as primary applicaton site of PDGF-BB.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2012

Purpose: Zirconia blocks for all ceramic dentures are divided into two groups. One is pre-heated block and the other is binder added block. In this study, the possibility of recycling the remained parts of binder added block after CAD/CAM machining with slip casting process was investigated. Methods: Owing to the binder added block contain large amount of organic matter, Binder burn-out was must be carried out before ball milling for preparing the casting slip. Binder burn-out was accomplished at $600^{\circ}C$ for 10 hours. Ball milling was performed with 5mm zirconia ball and 60mm polyethylene bottle. From 0% to 5% at 1% intervals of alumina was added to zirconia powder for preparing slip. Solid casting was achieved with plaster mold. Cast bodies were dried and sintered at $1,500^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour. Linear shrinkage, apparent porosity, water absorption, bulk density, and flexural strength were tested. Microstructures were observed by SEM, EDS and XRD analysis were executed. Results: Optimum slips for casting was prepared with 300g ball, 100g powder, and 180g distilled water. Cast body without alumina showed 26% of linear shrinkage, 6.07 of apparent density, and 470MPa of three point bend strength. On the other hand, as received zirconia block, which was sintered at the same conditions, showed 23% of linear shrinkage, 6.10 of apparent density, and 680MPa of three point bend strength. When 3% of alumina was added to zirconia, sintered body showed 23% of linear shrinkage, 6.10 of apparent density, and 780MPa of three point bend strength. SEM photomicrographs and EDS analysis showed alumina particles uniformly dispersed in zirconia matrix, and XRD analysis showed no phase transformation of tetragonal zirconia particles was occurred when alumina was added. Conclusion: According to the all of this experimental results, 3% of alumina added cast zirconia body showed excellent mechanical properties more than as received binder containing zirconia block.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1540-1545
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• 2012

Steroidogenesis requires coordination of the anabolic and catabolic pathways of lipid metabolism, but the profile of proteins associated with progesterone synthesis in cyclic and pregnant corpus luteum (CL) is not well-known in cattle. In Experiment 1, plasma progesterone level was monitored in cyclic cows (n = 5) and pregnant cows (n = 6; until d-90). A significant decline in the plasma progesterone level occurred at d-19 of cyclic cows. Progesterone level in abbatoir-derived luteal tissues was also determined at d 1 to 5, 6 to 13 and 14 to 20 of cyclic cows, and d-60 and -90 of pregnant cows (n = 5 each). Progesterone level in d-60 CL was not different from those in d 6 to 13 CL and d-90 CL, although the difference between d 6 to 13 and d-90 was significant. In Experiment 2, protein expression pattern in CL at d-90 (n = 4) was compared with that in CL of cyclic cows at d 6 to 13 (n = 5). Significant changes in the level of protein expression were detected in 32 protein spots by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE), and 23 of them were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). Six proteins were found only in pregnant CL, while the other 17 proteins were found only in cyclic CL. Among the above 6 proteins, vimentin which is involved in the regulation of post-implantation development was included. Thus, the protein expression pattern in CL was disorientated from cyclic luteal phase to mid pregnancy, and alterations in specific CL protein expression may contribute to the maintenance of pregnancy in Korean native cows.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.1031-1037
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• 1998

To investigate the effect of cooling rate and annealing temperature on the corrosion of Zircaloy-4 and Zr-2. 5Nb alloys, autoclave corrosion tests were performed at $500^{\circ}C$ for the specimens prepared by various heat treatments. The specimens were heat-treated at $1050^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes and cooled by ice-brine quenching, water quenching, oil quenching, air cooling, and furnace cooling. To investigate the effect of annealing temperature, the specimens were annealed at $\alpha$, ($\alpha$+$\beta$)-, and $\beta$-temperatures. It was observed from the $500^{\circ}C$ corrosion test that nodular corrosion occurred on the Zircaloy-4 alloy but did not occur on the Zr-2.5Nb alloy. The corrosion resistance of Zircaloy-4 increased with increasing the cooling rate. On the other hand, the corrosion resistance of Zr-2.5Nb decreased with increasing the cooling rate and the annealing temperature. It is suggested that corrosion resistance of Zircaloy-4 would be controlled by the distribution of Fe and Cr element in the matrix and precipitates, while that of Zr-2.5Nb alloy the niobium concentration and $\beta_{-Nb}$ phase.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.437-443
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• 2017

SiC-based composite materials with light weight, high durability, and high-temperature stability have been actively studied for use in aerospace and defense applications. Moreover, environmental barrier coating (EBC) technologies using oxide-based ceramic materials have been studied to prevent chemical deterioration at a high temperature of $1300^{\circ}C$ or higher. In this study, an ytterbium silicate material, which has recently been actively studied as an environmental barrier coating because of its high-temperature chemical stability, is fabricated on a sintered SiC substrate. $Yb_2O_3$ and $SiO_2$ are used as the raw starting materials to form ytterbium disilicate ($Yb_2Si_2O_7$). Suspension plasma spraying is applied as the coating method. The effect of the mixing method on the particle size and distribution, which affect the coating formation behavior, is investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. It is found that the originally designed compounds are not effectively formed because of the refinement and vaporization of the raw material particles, i.e., $SiO_2$, and the formation of a porous coating structure. By changing the coating parameters such as the deposition distance, it is found that a denser coating structure can be formed at a closer deposition distance.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.437-446
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• 2014

Problems appear when triptans are taken orally. For example, the bioavailability of triptan is reduced by the digestive system, and the drug level in the blood reduces rapidly over time; there is also a possibility of gastrointestinal disorder. To improve side effects, a transdermal patch has been prepared in hydrogel form. The polymer matrix that makes up the hydrogel uses PVA; PEG is used as an additive to induce inter/intra hydrogen bonding of the PVA and almotriptan drug is added. In addition, to accelerate micro-phase separation between PVA chains, liquid nitrogen is used. In FT-IR analysis, the absorption bands of PVA, PEG, and almotriptan were found. The degree of crystallinity, the water uptake ability and tensile strength were increased with increasing PEG content. In drug release tests, the amount of drug released increased depending on the PEG content. In this study, hydrogels with 10 wt% PEG showed better performance in drug release. Approximately 60% of the total drug amount was released in 2 hr, and the drug continued to release for 1 day. Thus, the prepared hydrogel patch is suitable as a transdermal formulation for the second dose administration of triptans to patients who require recurrent migraine treatment within 24 hr after the first administration.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.246-252
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: Pesticides are broadly used to control weeds and pests, and the residues remaining in crops are managed in accordance with the MRLs (maximum residue limits). Therefore, an analytical method is required to quantify the residues, and we conducted a series of analyses to select and validate the quick and simple analytical method for tolpyralate in five agricultural products using QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe) method and LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry). METHODS AND RESULTS: The agricultural samples were extracted with acetonitrile followed by addition of anhydrous magnesium sulfate, sodium chloride, disodium hydrogencitrate sesquihydrate and trisodium citrate dihydrate. After shaking and centrifugation, purification was performed with d-SPE (dispersive-solid phase extraction) sorbents. To validate the optimized method, its selectivity, linearity, LOD (limit of detection), LOQ (limit of quantitation), accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility from the inter-laboratory analyses were considered. LOQ of the analytical method was 0.01 mg/kg at five agricultural products and the linearity of matrix-matched calibration were good at seven concentration levels, from 0.0025 to 0.25 mg/L (R²≥0.9980). Mean recoveries at three spiking levels (n=5) were in the range of 85.2~112.4% with associated relative standard deviation values less than 6.2%, and the coefficient of variation between the two laboratories was also below 13%. All optimized results were validated according to the criteria ranges requested in the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) guidelines. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we suggest that the selected and validated method could serve as a basic data for detecting tolpyralate residue in imported and domestic agricultural products.