• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.71-79
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• 2016

Background: It is necessary to analyze radioactivity of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) in products to ensure radiological safety required by Natural Radiation Safety Management Act. The pretreatments for the existing analysis methods require high technology and time. Such destructive pretreatments including grinding and dissolution of samples make impossible to reuse products. We developed a rapid and simple procedure of radioactivity analysis for thorium series in the products containing NORM. Materials and Methods: The developed method requires non-destructive or minimized pretreatment. Radioactivity of the product without pretreatment is initially measured using gamma spectroscopy and then the measured radioactivity is adjusted by considering material composition, mass density, and geometrical shape of the product. The radioactivity adjustment can be made using scaling factors, which is derived by radiation transport Monte Carlo simulation. Necklace, bracelet, male health care product, and tile for health mat were selected as representative products for this study. The products are commonly used by the public and directly contacted with human body and thus resulting in high radiation exposure to the user. Results and Discussion: The scaling factors were derived using MCNPX code and the values ranged from 0.31 to 0.47. If radioactivity of the products is measured without pretreatment, the thorium series may be overestimated by up to 2.8 times. If scaling factors are applied, the difference in radioactivity estimates are reduced to 3-24%. Conclusion : The developed procedure in this study can be used for other products with various materials and shapes and thus ensuring radiological safety.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2012

Air-borne pollen, biogenically created aerosol particle, influences Earth's radiative balance, visibility impairment, and human health. The importance of pollens has resulted in numerous experimental studies aimed at characterizing their dispersion and transport, as well as health effects. There is, however, limited scientific information concerning the optical properties of airborne pollen particles contributing to total ambient aerosols. In this study, for the first time, optical characteristics of pollen such as aerosol backscattering coefficient, aerosol extinction coefficient, and depolarization ratio at 532 nm and their effect to the atmospheric aerosol were studied by lidar remotes sensing technique. Dual-Lidar observations were carried out at the Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology (GIST) located in Gwagnju, Korea ($35.15^{\circ}E$, $126.53^{\circ}N$) for a spring pollen event from 5 to 7 May 2009. The pollen concentration was measured at the rooftop of Gwangju Bohoon hospital where the building is located 1.0 km apart from lidar site by using Burkard trap sampler. During intensive observation period, high pollen concentration was detected as 1360, 2696, and $1952m^{-3}$ in 5, 6, and 7 May, and increased lidar return signal below 1.5km altitude. Pollen optical depth retrieved from depolarization ratio was 0.036, 0.021, and 0.019 in 5, 6, and 7 May, respectively. Pollen particles mainly detected in daytime resulting increased aerosol optical depth and decrease of Angstrom exponent.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.5 s.95
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• pp.687-693
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• 2006

The Stone Powder Sludge(below SPS) is the by-product from the process that translates stone power of 8mm under as crushed fine aggregate. It is the sludge as like cake that has average particle size of $7{\mu}m$, absorbing water content of 20 to 60%, and $SiO_2$ content of 60% over. Because of high water content of SPS, it is not only difficult to handle, transport, and recycle, but also makes worse the economical efficiency due to high energy consuming to drying. This study is aim to recycle SPS as it is without drying. Target product is the lightweight foamed concrete that is made from the slurry mixed with pulverized mineral compounds and foams through hydro-thermal reaction of CaO and $SiO_2$. Although in the commercial lightweight foamed concrete CaO source is the cement and $SiO_2$ source is high purity silica powder with $SiO_2$ of 90%, we tried to use the SPS as $SiO_2$ source. From the experiments with factors such as foam addition rate and replacement proportion of SPS, we find that the lightweight foamed concrete with SPS shows the same trends as the density and strength of lightweight foamed concrete increases according to decrease of foam addition rate. But in the same condition, the lightweight foamed concrete with SPS is superior strength and density to that with high purity silica. This trends is distinguished according to increase of replacement proportion of SPS, also the analysis of XRF shows that the hydro thermal reaction translates SPS to tobermorite. Although SPS has low $SiO_2$ contents, the lightweight foamed concrete with SPS has superior strength and density, because it reacts well with CaO due to extremely fine particles. We conclude that it is possible to replace the high purity silica as SPS in the lightweight foamed concrete experimentally.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.4 s.109
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• pp.436-447
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• 2004

Wetland plants have evolved specialized adaptations to survive in the low-oxygen conditions associated with prolonged flooding. The development of internal gas space by means of aerenchyma is crucial for wetland plants to transport $O_2$ from the atmosphere into the roots and rhizome. The formation of tissue with high porosity depends on the species and environmental condition, which can control the depth of root penetration and the duration of root tolerance in the flooded sediments. The oxygen in the internal gas space of plants can be delivered from the atmosphere to the root and rhizome by both passive molecular diffusion and convective throughflow. The release of $O_2$ from the roots supplies oxygen demand for root respiration, microbial respiration, and chemical oxidation processes and stimulates aerobic decomposition of organic matter. Another essential mechanism of wetland plants is downward water movement across the root zone induced by water uptake. Natural and constructed wetlands sediments have low hydraulic conductivity due to the relatively fine particle sizes in the litter layer and, therefore, negligible water movement. Under such condition, the water uptake by wetland plants creates a water potential difference in the rhizosphere which acts as a driving force to draw water and dissolved solutes into the sediments. A large number of anatomical, morphological and physiological studies have been conducted to investigate the specialized adaptations of wetland plants that enable them to tolerate water saturated environment and to support their biochemical activities. Despite this, there is little knowledge regarding how the combined effects of wetland plants influence the biogeochemistry of wetland sediments. A further investigation of how the Presence of plants and their growth cycle affects the biogeochemistry of sediments will be of particular importance to understand the role of wetland in the ecological environment.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 1999

In this study, the dose distributions of a $^{32}$ p uniform cylindrical volume source and a surface source, a pure $\beta$emitter, were calculated in order to obtain information relevant to the utilization of a balloon catheter and a radioactive stent. The dose distributions of $^{32}$ p were calculated by means of the EGS4 code system. The sources are considered to be distributed uniformly in the volume and on the surface in the form of a cylinder with a radius of 1.5 mm and length of 20 mm. The energy of $\beta$particles emitted is chosen at random in the $\beta$ energy spectrum evaluated by the solution of the Dirac equation for the Coulomb potential. Liquid water is used to simulate the particle transport in the human body. The dose rates in a target at a 0.5mm radial distance from the surface of cylindrical volume and surface source are 12.133 cGy/s per GBq (0.449 cGy/s per mCi, uncertainty: 1.51%) and 24.732 cGy/s per GBq (0.915 cGy/s per mCi, uncertainty: 1.01%), respectively. The dose rates in the two sources decrease with distance in both radial and axial direction. On the basis of the above results, the determined initial activities were 29.69 mCi and 1.2278 $\mu$Ci for the balloon catheter and the radioactive stent using $^{32}$ P isotope, respectively. The total absorbed dose for optimal therapeutic regimen is considered to be 20 Gy and the treatment time in the case of the balloon catheter is less than 3 min. Absorbed doses in targets placed in a radial direction for the two sources were also calculated when it expressed initial activity in a 1 mCi/ml volume activity density for the cylindrical volume source and a 0.1 mCi/cm$^2$ area activity density for the surface source. The absorbed dose distribution around the $^{32}$ P cylindrical source with different size can be easily calculated using our results when the volume activity density and area activity density for the source are known.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.313-324
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• 2009

We explore the effect of particle shape and size on 3-dimensional (3D) network and pore structure of porous earth materials composed of glass beads and silica gel using NMR micro-imaging in order to gain better insights into relationship between structure and the corresponding hydrologic and seismological properties. The 3D micro-imaging data for the model porous networks show that the specific surface area, porosity, and permeability range from 2.5 to $9.6\;mm^2/mm^3$, from 0.21 to 0.38, and from 11.6 to 892.3 D (Darcy), respectively, which are typical values for unconsolidated sands. The relationships among specific surface area, porosity, and permeability of the porous media are relatively well explained with the Kozeny equation. Cube counting fractal dimension analysis shows that fractal dimension increases from ~2.5－2.6 to 3.0 with increasing specific surface area from 2.5 to $9.6\;mm^2/mm^3$, with the data also suggesting the effect of porosity. Specific surface area, porosity, permeability, and cube counting fractal dimension for the natural mongolian sandstone are $0.33\;mm^2/mm^3$, 0.017, 30.9 mD, and 1.59, respectively. The current results highlight that NMR micro-imaging, together with detailed statistical analyses can be useful to characterize 3D pore structures of various porous earth materials and be potentially effective in accounting for transport properties and seismic wave velocity and attenuation of diverse porous media in earth crust and interiors.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.50 no.11
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• pp.715-723
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• 2017

Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) in the water environment assemble fine, colloidal particles, such as clays, microorganisms and biomass, in large flocs, which are eventually subject to sedimentation and deposition and determine water/sediment quality and quantity. This study hence aimed to investigate the way that water and colloidal chemistry affects EPS-mediated flocculation of colloidal particles, using a jar-test experiment. Especially, ionic strength, divalent cation and humic substances concentrations were selected as experimental variables in the jar-test experiments, to elucidate their effects on EPS-mediated flocculation. A higher ionic strength increased flocculation capability, reducing electrostatic repulsion between EPS-attached colloidal particles and enhancing particle aggregation. 0.1 M NaCl ionic strength had higher flocculation capability, with 3 times larger floc size and 2.5 times lower suspended solid concentration, than 0.001 M NaCl. Divalent cations, such as $Ca^{2+}$, built divalent cationic bridges between colloidal particles and EPS (i.e., $colloid-Ca^{2+}-EPS$ or $EPS-Ca^{2+}-EPS$) and hence made colloidal particles to build into large, settelable flocs. A small $Ca^{2+}$ concentration enhanced flocculation capability, reducing suspended solid concentration 20 times lower than the initial dosed concentration. However, humic substances, adsorbed on colloidal particles, reduced flocculation, because they blocked EPS adsorption on colloidal particles and increased negative charges and electrostatic repulsion of colloidal particles. Suspended solid concentration in the tests with humic substances remained as high as the initial dosed concentration, indicating stabilization rather than flocculation. Findings about EPS-mediated flocculation in this research will be used for better understanding the fate and transport of colloidal particles in the water environment and for developing the best management practices for water/sediment quality.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.145-151
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• 2013

Purpose: In this study, we analyzed how the dose change by field size effects on atomic number of shielding materials while using 6 MeV election beam. Materials and Methods: The parallel plate chamber is mounted in $25{\times}25cm^2$ the phantom such that the entrance window of the detector is flush with the phantom surface. phantom was covered laterally with aluminum, copper and lead which thickness have 5% of allowable transmission and then the doses were measured in field size $6{\times}6$, $10{\times}10$ and $20{\times}20cm^2$ respectively. 100 cGy was irradiated using 6 MeV electron beam and SSD (Source Surface Distance) was 100 cm with $10{\times}10cm^2$ field size. To calculate the photon flux, electron flux and Energy deposition produced after pass materals respectively, MCNPX code was used. Results: The results according to the various shielding materials which have 5% of allowable transmission are as in the following. Thickness change rate with field size of $6{\times}6cm^2$ and $20{\times}20cm^2$ that compared to the field size of $10{\times}10cm^2$ found to be +0.06% and -0.06% with aluminum, +0.13% and -0.1% with copper, -1.53% and +1.92% with lead respectively. Compare to the field size $10{\times}10cm^2$, energy deposition for $6{\times}6cm^2$ and $20{\times}20cm^2$ had -4.3% and +4.85% respectively without shielding material. With aluminum it had -0.87% and +6.93% respectively and with lead it had -4.16% and +5.57% respectively. When it comes to photon flux with $6{\times}6cm^2$ and $20{\times}20cm^2$ of field sizes the chance -8.95% and +15.92% without shielding material respectively, with aluminum the number -15.56% and +16.06% respectively and with copper the chance -12.27% and +15.53% respectively, with lead the number +12.36% and -19.81% respectively. In case of electron flux in the same condition, the number -3.92% and +4.55% respectively without shielding material respectively, with aluminum the number +0.59% and +6.87% respectively, with copper the number -1.59% and +3.86% respectively, with lead the chance -5.15% and +4.00% respectively. Conclusion: In this study, we found that the required thickness of the shielding materials got thinner with low atomic number substance as the irradiation field is increasing. On the other hand, with high atomic number substance the required thickness had increased. In addition, bremsstrahlung radiation have an influence on low atomic number materials and high atomic number materials are effected by scattered electrons.