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Optimization of the cryopreserved condition for utilization of GPCR frozen cells (GPCR 냉동보관 세포의 활용을 위한 냉동조건의 최적화 연구)

  • Noh, Hyojin;Lee, Sunghou
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.1200-1206
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    • 2015
  • The major target for drug discovery, G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) is involved in many physiological activities and related to various diseases and disorders. Among experimental techniques relating to the GPCR drug discovery process, various cell-based screening methods are influenced by cell conditions used in the overall process. Recently, the utilization of frozen cells is suggested in terms of reducing data variation and cost-effectiveness. The aim of this study is to evaluate various conditions in cell freezing such as temperature conditions and storage terms. The stable cell lines for calcium sensing receptor and urotensin receptor were established followed by storing cultured cells at $-80^{\circ}C$ up to 4 weeks. To compare with cell stored at liquid nitrogen, agonist and antagonist responses were recorded based on the luminescence detection by the calcium induced photoprotein activation. Cell signals were reduced as the storage period was increased without the changes in $EC_{50}$ and $IC_{50}$ values $EC_{50}:3.46{\pm}1.36mM$, $IC_{50}:0.49{\pm}0.15{\mu}M$). In case of cells stored in liquid nitrogen, cell responses were decreased comparing to those in live cells, however changes by storage periods and significant variations of $EC_{50}/IC_{50}$ values were not detected. The decrease of cell signals in various frozen cells may be due to the increase of cell damages. From these results, the best way for a long-term cryopreservation is the use of liquid nitrogen condition, and for the purpose of short-term storage within a month, $-80^{\circ}C$ storage condition can be possible to adopt. As a conclusion, the active implementation of frozen cells may contribute to decrease variations of experimental data during the initial cell-based screening process.

How effective has the Wairau River erodible embankment been in removing sediment from the Lower Wairau River?

  • Kyle, Christensen
    • Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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    • 2015.05a
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    • pp.237-237
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    • 2015
  • The district of Marlborough has had more than its share of river management projects over the past 150 years, each one uniquely affecting the geomorphology and flood hazard of the Wairau Plains. A major early project was to block the Opawa distributary channel at Conders Bend. The Opawa distributary channel took a third and more of Wairau River floodwaters and was a major increasing threat to Blenheim. The blocking of the Opawa required the Wairau and Lower Wairau rivers to carry greater flood flows more often. Consequently the Lower Wairau River was breaking out of its stopbanks approximately every seven years. The idea of diverting flood waters at Tuamarina by providing a direct diversion to the sea through the beach ridges was conceptualised back around the 1920s however, limits on resources and machinery meant the mission of excavating this diversion didn't become feasible until the 1960s. In 1964 a 10 m wide pilot channel was cut from the sea to Tuamarina with an initial capacity of $700m^3/s$. It was expected that floods would eventually scour this 'Wairau Diversion' to its design channel width of 150 m. This did take many more years than initially thought but after approximately 50 years with a little mechanical assistance the Wairau Diversion reached an adequate capacity. Using the power of the river to erode the channel out to its design width and depth was a brilliant idea that saved many thousands of dollars in construction costs and it is somewhat ironic that it is that very same concept that is now being used to deal with the aggradation problem that the Wairau Diversion has caused. The introduction of the Wairau Diversion did provide some flood relief to the lower reaches of the river but unfortunately as the Diversion channel was eroding and enlarging the Lower Wairau River was aggrading and reducing in capacity due to its inability to pass its sediment load with reduced flood flows. It is estimated that approximately $2,000,000m^3$ of sediment was deposited on the bed of the Lower Wairau River in the time between the Diversion's introduction in 1964 and 2010, raising the Lower Wairau's bed upwards of 1.5m in some locations. A numerical morphological model (MIKE-11 ST) was used to assess a number of options which led to the decision and resource consent to construct an erodible (fuse plug) bank at the head of the Wairau Diversion to divert more frequent scouring-flows ($+400m^3/s$)down the Lower Wairau River. Full control gates were ruled out on the grounds of expense. The initial construction of the erodible bank followed in late 2009 with the bank's level at the fuse location set to overtop and begin washing out at a combined Wairau flow of $1,400m^3/s$ which avoids berm flooding in the Lower Wairau. In the three years since the erodible bank was first constructed the Wairau River has sustained 14 events with recorded flows at Tuamarina above $1,000m^3/s$ and three of events in excess of $2,500m^3/s$. These freshes and floods have resulted in washout and rebuild of the erodible bank eight times with a combined rebuild expenditure of $80,000. Marlborough District Council's Rivers & Drainage Department maintains a regular monitoring program for the bed of the Lower Wairau River, which consists of recurrently surveying a series of standard cross sections and estimating the mean bed level (MBL) at each section as well as an overall MBL change over time. A survey was carried out just prior to the installation of the erodible bank and another survey was carried out earlier this year. The results from this latest survey show for the first time since construction of the Wairau Diversion the Lower Wairau River is enlarging. It is estimated that the entire bed of the Lower Wairau has eroded down by an overall average of 60 mm since the introduction of the erodible bank which equates to a total volume of $260,000m^3$. At a cost of $$0.30/m^3$ this represents excellent value compared to mechanical dredging which would likely be in excess of $$10/m^3$. This confirms that the idea of using the river to enlarge the channel is again working for the Wairau River system and that in time nature's "excavator" will provide a channel capacity that will continue to meet design requirements.

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Recent Progress in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Research: A Review of Papers Published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering in 2006 (공기조화, 냉동 분야의 최근 연구 동향: 2006년 학회지 논문에 대한 종합적 고찰)

  • Han, Hwa-Taik;Shin, Dong-Sin;Choi, Chang-Ho;Lee, Dae-Young;Kim, Seo-Young;Kwon, Yong-Il
    • Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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    • v.20 no.6
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    • pp.427-446
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    • 2008
  • A review on the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering in 2006 has been accomplished. Focus has been put on current status of research in the aspect of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation and building environments. The conclusions are as follows. (1) The research trends of fluid engineering have been surveyed as groups of general fluid flow, fluid machinery and piping, etc. New research topics include micro heat exchanger and siphon cooling device using nano-fluid. Traditional CFD and flow visualization methods were still popular and widely used in research and development. Studies about diffusers and compressors were performed in fluid machinery. Characteristics of flow and heat transfer and piping optimization were studied in piping systems. (2) The papers on heat transfer have been categorized into heat transfer characteristics, heat exchangers, heat pipes, and two-phase heat transfer. The topics on heat transfer characteristics in general include thermal transport in a cryo-chamber, a LCD panel, a dryer, and heat generating electronics. Heat exchangers investigated include pin-tube type, plate type, ventilation air-to-air type, and heat transfer enhancing tubes. The research on a reversible loop heat pipe, the influence of NCG charging mass on heat transport capacity, and the chilling start-up characteristics in a heat pipe were reported. In two-phase heat transfer area, the studies on frost growth, ice slurry formation and liquid spray cooling were presented. The studies on the boiling of R-290 and the application of carbon nanotubes to enhance boiling were noticeable in this research area. (3) Many studies on refrigeration and air conditioning systems were presented on the practical issues of the performance and reliability enhancement. The air conditioning system with multi indoor units caught attention in several research works. The issues on the refrigerant charge and the control algorithm were treated. The systems with alternative refrigerants were also studied. Carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and their mixtures were considered and the heat transfer correlations were proposed. (4) Due to high oil prices, energy consumption have been attentioned in mechanical building systems. Research works have been reviewed in this field by grouping into the research on heat and cold sources, air conditioning and cleaning research, ventilation and fire research including tunnel ventilation, and piping system research. The papers involve the promotion of efficient or effective use of energy, which helps to save energy and results in reduced environmental pollution and operating cost. (5) Studies on indoor air quality took a great portion in the field of building environments. Various other subjects such as indoor thermal comfort were also investigated through computer simulation, case study, and field experiment. Studies on energy include not only optimization study and economic analysis of building equipments but also usability of renewable energy in geothermal and solar systems.

Soil Management Techniques for High Quality Cucumber Cultivation in Plastic Film Greenhouse (고품질 시설하우스 오이재배를 위한 토양 종합관리 기술)

  • Hyun, Byung-Keun;Jung, Sug-Jae;Jung, Yeon-Jae;Lee, Ju-Young;Lee, Jae-Kook;Jang, Byoung-Choon;Chio, Nag-Doo
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.44 no.5
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    • pp.717-721
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    • 2011
  • In case of plastic film greenhouses cultivating fresh vegetables on paddy soil, soil characteristics must be considered as more important factor than any other factors. Generally after the four years of cultivation, soils tend to increase electrical conductivity value, nutrient unbalance and soil pests. As a result, degradation of agricultural products occurred, therefore it is necessary to improve soil conditions. In this study, yield and economic cost of cucumber were analyzed. The best soil conditions for cucumber cultivation were alluvial or valley in soil topology, moderately or poorly drainage in soil drainage classes, coarse loamy soil in texture. In addition, rich-sunlight and-deep groundwater would be proper for the cucumber cultivation. Good environmental managements of plastic film greenhouse were as follows. The temperature needed to be adjusted three times. The optimal daytime temperature could be $22{\sim}28^{\circ}C$, the one from 12 until night could be $14{\sim}15^{\circ}C$, and the temperature from 24 to sunrise could be $10{\sim}12^{\circ}C$. During plant growth period, soil moisture content was as low as 10~15%, and it needed to be maintained as 15~20% during reproductive growth period. To control pests, catch crop cultivation and solar treatment were carried out, after those EC was reduced and the root-knot nematode was controled too. Cucumber yield from the plot with improved soil managements increased to $158.4Mg\;ha^{-1}$, but plot with successive cropping injury yielded $140.3Mg\;ha^{-1}$. The income from the plot with improved soil managements was 215,676 thousand won $ha^{-1}$, the plot with successive cropping injury was 131,649 thousand won $ha^{-1}$. Income rate of each plot was 51.8% and 38.4%, respectively.

A Study on Consumer Characteristics According to Social Media Use Clusters When Purchasing Agri-food Online (온라인 농식품 구매시 소셜미디어 이용 군집에 따른 소비자특성에 대한 연구)

  • Lee, Myoung-Kwan;Park, Sang-Hyeok;Kim, Yeon-Jong
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.195-209
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    • 2021
  • According to the 2019-2020 social media usage survey conducted by the Seoul e-commerce center, 5 out of 10 consumers have experienced shopping through social media. The cost of traditional advertising media has been reduced and advertising spending on social media has risen by 74%, indicating that social media is becoming a more important marketing element. While the number of users of social media has increased and corporate marketing activities have increased accordingly, research has been conducted in various aspects of marketing such as user motivation for social media, satisfaction, and purchase intention. There was no subdivided study on the differences in the social media usage frequency of consumers in actual purchasing behavior. This study attempted to identify differences in consumer characteristics by cluster in the agrifood purchase situation by grouping them by type according to the frequency of use of social media for consumers who purchase agri-food online. Product involvement, product need, and online purchase channel Consumer characteristics such as demographic distribution, perceived risk, and eating and lifestyle in each cluster were checked for the three agrifood purchase situations including choice, and types for each cluster were presented. To this end, questionnaire data on the frequency of social media use and online agrifood purchase behavior were collected from 245 consumers, and the validity of the measurement variables was secured through factor analysis and reliability analysis. As a result of cluster analysis according to the frequency of social media use, it was divided into three clusters. The first cluster was a group that mainly used open social media, and the second cluster was a group that used both open and closed social media and online shopping malls; The third cluster was a group with low online media usage overall, and the characteristics of each cluster appeared. Through regression analysis, the effect on product involvement, product need, and purchase channel selection when purchasing agri-food online through each of the three clusters was confirmed through regression analysis. As a result of the regression analysis, the characteristic of cluster 1 in the situation of purchasing agri-food online is a male in his 30s living in a rural area who has no reluctance to purchase agri-food on social media or online shopping malls. The characteristics of cluster 2 are mainly consumers who are interested in purchasing health food, and the consumer characteristics are represented. In the case of cluster 3, when purchasing products online, they purchase after considering quality and price a lot, and the consumer characteristics are represented as people who are more confident in purchasing offline than online. Through this study, it is judged that by identifying the differences in consumer characteristics that appear in the agri-food purchase situation according to the frequency of social media use, it can be helpful in strategic judgments in marketing practice on social media customer targeting and customer segmentation.

Effects of Local Cooling and Root Pruning on Budding and Local Heating on Heating Energy Consumption in Forcing Cultivation of Strawberry (딸기 촉성재배 시 국소 냉방 및 단근처리와 국소난방이 화방출뢰와 난방에너지소비에 미치는 영향)

  • Kwon, Jin Kyung;Kang, Suk Won;Paek, Yee;Moon, Jong Pil;Jang, Jae Kyung;Oh, Sung Sik
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.46-54
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    • 2019
  • Experiments of local cooling and heating on crown and root zone of forcing cultivation of strawberry 'Seolhyang' using heat pump and root pruning before planting were conducted. During the daytime, the crown surface temperature of the crown local cooling treatment was maintained at $18{\sim}22^{\circ}C$. This is suitable for flower differentiation, while those of control and root zone local cooling treatment were above $30^{\circ}C$. Budding rate of first flower clusters and initial yields were in the order of crown local cooling, root zone local cooling and control in root pruning plantlet and non pruning plantlet, except for purchase plantlet. Those of root pruning plantlet were higher than those of non pruning plantlet. These trends were evident in the yield of the first flower cluster until February 14, 2018, and the effect of local cooling and root pruning decreased from March 9, 2018. The budding rates of the second flower cluster according to the local cooling and root pruning treatments were not noticeable compared to first flower cluster but showed the same tendency as that of first flower cluster. In the heating experiment, root zone local heating(root zone $20^{\circ}C$+inside greenhouse $5^{\circ}C$) and crown local heating(crown $20^{\circ}C$+inside greenhouse $5^{\circ}C$) saved 59% and 65% of heating fuel, respectively, compared to control(inside greenhouse $9^{\circ}C$). Considering the electric power consumption according to the heat pump operation, the heating costs were reduced by 55% and 61%, respectively.

Esterification of Indonesia Tropical Crop Oil by Amberlyst-15 and Property Analysis of Biodiesel (인도네시아 열대작물 오일의 Amberlyst-15 촉매 에스테르화 반응 및 바이오디젤 물성 분석)

  • Lee, Kyoung-Ho;Lim, Riky;Lee, Joon-Pyo;Lee, Jin-Suk;Kim, Deog-Keun
    • Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.324-332
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    • 2019
  • Most countries including Korea and Indonesia have strong policy for implementing biofuels like biodiesel. Shortage of the oil feedstock is the main barrier for increasing the supply of biodiesel fuel. In this study, in order to improve the stability of feedstock supply and lower the biodiesel production cost, the feasibility of biodiesel production using two types of Indonesian tropical crop oils, pressed at different harvesting times, were investigated. R. Trisperma oils, a high productive non-edible feedstocks, were investigated to produce biodiesel by esterification and transesterification because of it's high impurity and free fatty acid contents. the kindly provided oils from Indonesia were required to perform the filtering and water removal process to increase the efficiency of the esterificaton and transesterification reactions. The esterification used heterogeneous acid catalyst, Amberlyst-15. Before the reaction, the acid value of two types oil were 41, 17 mg KOH/g respectively. After the pre-esterification reaction, the acid value of oils were 3.7, 1.8 mg KOH/g respectively, the conversions were about 90%. Free fatty acid content was reduced to below 2%. Afterwards, the transesterification was performed using KOH as the base catalyst for transesterification. The prepared biodiesel showed about 93% of FAME content, and the total glycerol content was 0.43%. It did not meet the quality specification(FAME 96.5% and Total glycerol 0.24%) since the tested oils were identified to have a uncommon fatty acid, generally not found in vegetable oils, ${\alpha}$-eleostearic acid with much contents of 10.7~33.4%. So, it is required to perform the further research on reaction optimization and product purification to meet the fuel quality standards. So if the biodiesel production technology using un-utilized non-edible feedstock oils is successfully developed, stable supply of the feedstock for biodiesel production may be possible in the future.

A Study on Major Safety Problems and Improvement Measures of Personal Mobility (개인형 이동장치의 안전 주요 문제점 및 개선방안 연구)

  • Kang, Seung Shik;Kang, Seong Kyung
    • Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.202-217
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    • 2022
  • Purpose: The recent increased use of Personal Mobility (PM) has been accompanied by a rise in the annual number of accidents. Accordingly, the safety requirements for PM use are being strengthened, but the laws/systems, infrastructure, and management systems remain insufficient for fostering a safe environment. Therefore, this study comprehensively searches the main problems and improvement methods through a review of previous studies that are related to PM. Then the priorities according to the importance of the improvement methods are presented through the Delphi survey. Method: The research method is mainly composed of a literature study and an expert survey (Delphi survey). Prior research and improvement cases (local governments, government departments, companies, etc.) are reviewed to derive problems and improvements, and a problem/improvement classification table is created based on keywords. Based on the classification contents, an expert survey is conducted to derive a priority improvement plan. Result: The PM-related problems were in 'non-compliance with traffic laws, lack of knowledge, inexperienced operation, and lack of safety awareness' in relation to human factors, and 'device characteristics, road-drivable space, road facilities, parking facilities' in relation to physical factors. 'Management/supervision, product management, user management, education/training' as administrative factors and legal factors are divided into 'absence/sufficiency of law, confusion/duplication, reduced effectiveness'. Improvement tasks related to this include 'PM education/public relations, parking/return, road improvement, PM registration/management, insurance, safety standards, traffic standards, PM device safety, PM supplementary facilities, enforcement/management, dedicated organization, service providers, management system, and related laws/institutional improvement', and 42 detailed tasks are derived for these 14 core tasks. The results for the importance evaluation of detailed tasks show that the tasks with a high overall average for the evaluation items of cost, time, effect, urgency, and feasibility were 'strengthening crackdown/instruction activities, education publicity/campaign, truancy PM management, and clarification of traffic rules'. Conclusion: The PM market is experiencing gradual growth based on shared services and a safe environment for PM use must be ensured along with industrial revitalization. In this respect, this study seeks out the major problems and improvement plans related to PM from a comprehensive point of view and prioritizes the necessary improvement measures. Therefore, it can serve as a basis of data for future policy establishment. In the future, in-depth data supplementation will be required for each key improvement area for practical policy application.

A Study on the Determinant of Capital Structure of Chinese Shipbuilding Industry (중국 조선기업 자본구조 결정요인에 관한 연구)

  • Jin, Siwen;Lee, Ki-Hwan;Kim, Myoung-Hee
    • Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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    • v.38 no.2
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    • pp.81-93
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    • 2022
  • Since 2008, China's shipping industry has been in a slump, with shipbuilding orders falling sharply, and high-growth excess capacity has become increasingly apparent, leaving many firms with sharply reduced orders at risk of bankruptcy and shutdown. To ensure the development of the shipbuilding industry and enhance the international competitiveness of the shipbuilding industry, it is necessary to analyze the present situation of the shipbuilding industry and the financial situation of the shipbuilding enterprises. And analyzing the problems faced by enterprises from the perspective of capital structure is very meaningful to the shipbuilders with high capital operation. We are trying to analyze the determinants of capital structure of China's shipbuilding listed companies. 30 listed Chinese shipbuilding and listed companies have been designated as sample companies that can obtain financial statements for 13 consecutive years. They also divided 30 sample companies into shipbuilding, shipbuilding-related manufacturing, and shipbuilding-related transportation. Dependent variable is the debt level of the year, independent variable includes the debt level of the previous year, fixed asset ratio, profitability ratio, depreciation cost ratio and asset size. The regression model of the panel used to analyze determinants is capital structure. The results of the empirical analysis are as follows. First, a fixed-effect model for the entire entity showed that the debt-to-equity ratio and the size of the asset in the previous period had a positive effect on the debt-to-equity ratio in the current period. Second, the impact of the profitability ratio on the debt level in the prior term also supports the capital procurement ranking theory rather than the static counter-conflict theory. Third, it was shown that the ratio of the depreciation of the prior term, which replaces the non-liability tax effect, affects the debt-to-equity ratio in the current period.

An Empirical Study on the Improvement of In Situ Soil Remediation Using Plasma Blasting, Pneumatic Fracturing and Vacuum Suction (플라즈마 블라스팅, 공압파쇄, 진공추출이 활용된 지중 토양정화공법의 정화 개선 효과에 대한 실증연구)

  • Jae-Yong Song;Geun-Chun Lee;Cha-Won Kang;Eun-Sup Kim;Hyun-Shic Jang;Bo-An Jang;Yu-Chul Park
    • The Journal of Engineering Geology
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    • v.33 no.1
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    • pp.85-103
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    • 2023
  • The in-situ remediation of a solidified stratum containing a large amount of fine-texture material like clay or organic matter in contaminated soil faces limitations such as increased remediation cost resulting from decreased purification efficiency. Even if the soil conditions are good, remediation generally requires a long time to complete because of non-uniform soil properties and low permeability. This study assessed the remediation effect and evaluated the field applicability of a methodology that combines pneumatic fracturing, vacuum extraction, and plasma blasting (the PPV method) to improve the limitations facing existing underground remediation methods. For comparison, underground remediation was performed over 80 days using the experimental PPV method and chemical oxidation (the control method). The control group showed no decrease in the degree of contamination due to the poor delivery of the soil remediation agent, whereas the PPV method clearly reduced the degree of contamination during the remediation period. Remediation effect, as assessed by the reduction of the highest TPH (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons) concentration by distance from the injection well, was uncleared in the control group, whereas the PPV method showed a remediation effect of 62.6% within a 1 m radius of the injection well radius, 90.1% within 1.1~2.0 m, and 92.1% within 2.1~3.0 m. When evaluating the remediation efficiency by considering the average rate of TPH concentration reduction by distance from the injection well, the control group was not clear; in contrast, the PPV method showed 53.6% remediation effect within 1 m of the injection well, 82.4% within 1.1~2.0 m, and 68.7% within 2.1~3.0 m. Both ways of considering purification efficiency (based on changes in TPH maximum and average contamination concentration) found the PPV method to increase the remediation effect by 149.0~184.8% compared with the control group; its average increase in remediation effect was ~167%. The time taken to reduce contamination by 80% of the initial concentration was evaluated by deriving a correlation equation through analysis of the TPH concentration: the PPV method could reduce the purification time by 184.4% compared with chemical oxidation. However, the present evaluation of a single site cannot be equally applied to all strata, so additional research is necessary to explore more clearly the proposed method's effect.