• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.111-123
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• 2021

Objective: Using domestic cats as a biomedical research model for fertility preservation, the present study aimed to characterize the influences of ovarian tissue encapsulation in biodegradable hydrogel matrix (fibrinogen/thrombin) on resilience to cryopreservation, and static versus non-static culture systems following ovarian tissue encapsulation and cryopreservation on follicle quality. Methods: In experiment I, ovarian tissues (n=21 animals; 567 ovarian fragments) were assigned to controls or hydrogel encapsulation with 5 or 10 mg/mL fibrinogen (5 or 10 FG). Following cryopreservation (slow freezing or vitrification), follicle viability, morphology, density, and key protein phosphorylation were assessed. In experiment II (based on the findings from experiment I), ovarian tissues (n=10 animals; 270 ovarian fragments) were encapsulated with 10 FG, cryopreserved, and in vitro cultured under static or non-static systems for 7 days followed by similar follicle quality assessments. Results: In experiment I, the combination of 10 FG encapsulation/slow freezing led to greater post-thawed follicle quality than in the control group, as shown by follicle viability (66.9%±2.2% vs. 61.5%±3.1%), normal follicle morphology (62.2% ±2.1% vs. 55.2%±3.5%), and the relative band intensity of vascular endothelial growth factor protein phosphorylation (0.58±0.06 vs. 0.42±0.09). Experiment II demonstrated that hydrogel encapsulation promoted follicle survival and maintenance of follicle development regardless of the culture system when compared to fresh controls. Conclusion: These results provide a better understanding of the role of hydrogel encapsulation and culture systems in ovarian tissue cryopreservation and follicle quality outcomes using an animal model, paving the way for optimized approaches to human fertility preservation.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.119-135
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• 2022

This paper used dynamic centrifuge tests to examine the seismic response for a deep temporary retaining wall with four input motions of 100, 1,000, and 2,400 years of return periods. The centrifuge model was designed based on an actual deep excavation design with a 50 m maximum excavation depth. The model backfill was prepared with dry silica sand at a relative density of 55%, and the retaining wall was modeled as a 24.8 m height diaphragm wall supported by struts. Acceleration response was amplified at the backfill surface, top of the wall, and near bedrock. However, in the middle of the model, input motion was de-amplified. The member forces of the wall and strut induced by the seismic load, which excited, were compared with the member force at rest condition. The wall's maximum negative and positive moments were increased to 36% and 10% compared to the maximum moment at rest. The maximum axial force increases to 70% of the at rest axial force on the bottom strut. The equivalent static analysis using Mononobe-Okabe (M-O) and Seed-Whitman (S-W) seismic earth pressures were compared to the centrifuge results. Considering the bending moment, the analysis results with the M-O theory underestimates but that with the S-W theory overestimates.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.119-127
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• 2006

Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GBFS) is produced in the manufacture process of pig-iron and shows a similar particle formation to that of natural sea sand and also shows light weight, high shear strength, well permeability, and especially has a latent hydraulic property by which GBFS is solidified with time. Therefore, when GBFS is used as a backfill material of quay or retaining walls, the increase of shear strength induced by the hardening is presumed to reduce the earth pressure and consequently the construction cost of harbor structures decreases. In this study, using the model sand box (50 cm$\times$50 cm$\times$100 cm), the model wall tests were carried out on GBFS and Toyoura standard sand, in which the resultant earth pressure, a wall friction and the earth pressure distribution at the movable wall surface were measured. In the tests, the relative density was set as Dr=25, 55 and 70% and the wall was rotated at the bottom to the active earth pressure side and followed by the passive side. The maximum horizontal displacement at the top of the wall was set as ${\pm}2mm$. By these model test results, it is clarified that the resultant earth pressure obtained by using GBFS is smaller than that of Toyoura sand, especially in the active-earth pressure.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.445-450
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• 1990

Changes in weight, volume and density of petiole tissue of Chinese cabbage during salting and blanching were investigated. Rapid changes in mass and volume occurred within 4 hours during salting in 5% salt solution and the changes were nearly completed after 8h. After salting, the reduction of mass and volume ranged between $22{\sim}27%\;and\;22{\sim}35%$, respectively. Average density of the sample was found to be 0.88g/ml, and increased to 1.020g/ml after salting. Air content of the sample ranged from 0.093 to 0.120ml/ml cabbage, and about 70% of the initial content was expelled from the tissue by salting. The changes of physical properties of the cabbage during steam blanching were similar to those during salting, but their relative values were smaller. A linearization model for physical changes during salting and blanching was proposed.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.313-317
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• 2005

Synthetic gene carriers such as poly-cationic polymers easily form complexes with plasmid DNA which contains negative charge. Chitosan is a polysaccharide that demonstrates much potential as a gene delivery system. The ability of depolymerized chitosan to condense DNA was determined using electrophoresis. Dynamic laser scattering and scanning electron microscopy were used to examine the size and the morphology of the chitosan/DNA complex. Parameters such as chitosan molecular weight and charge density influenced the complex size and the DNA amount condensed with chitosan. The cell viabilities in the presence of chitosan ranged between 84-108% of the control in all experiments. Gene expression efficacy using chitosan/DNA complex was enhanced in 293 cells relative to that using naked DNA, although it was lower than that using lipofecamine. Transfection efficacy using low molecular weight chitosan (Mw=8,517) was higher than those of the control and the other chitosan (MW=4,078). The low molecular weight chitosan (MW=8,517) with a high charge density (18.32 mV) fulfilled the requirements for a suitable model gene delivery system with respect to the condensing ability of DNA, complex formation, and transfection efficacy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.203-208
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• 2006

The main research conducted previously on GPS ionosphere in China is first introduced. Besides, the current investigations include as follows: (1) GPS-based spatial environmental, especially the ionosphere, monitoring, modeling and analysis, including ground/space-based GPS ionosphere electron density (IED) through occultation/tomography technologies with GPS data from global/regional network, development of a GNSS-based platform for imaging ionosphere and atmosphere (GPFIIA), and preliminary test results through performing the first 3D imaging for the IED over China, (2) The atmospheric and ionospheric modeling for GPS-based surveying, navigation and orbit determination, involving high precisely ionospheric TEC modeling for phase-based long/median range network RTK system for achieving CM-level real time positioning, next generation GNSS broadcast ionospheric time-delay algorithm required for higher correction accuracy, and orbit determination for Low-Earth-orbiter satellites using single frequency GPS receivers, and (3) Research products in applications for national significant projects: GPS-based ionospheric effects modeling for precise positioning and orbit determination applied to China's manned space-engineering, including spatial robot navigation and control and international space station intersection and docking required for related national significant projects.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.176-184
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• 2011

Cold air on sloping surfaces flows down to the valley bottom in mountainous terrain at calm and clear nights. Based on the assumption that the cold air flow may be the same as the water flow, current models estimate temperature drop by regarding the cold air accumulation at a given location as the water-like free drainage. At a closed catchment whose outlet is blocked by man-made obstacles such as banks and roads, however, the water-like free drainage assumption is no longer valid because the cold air accumulates from the bottom first. We developed an empirical model to estimate quantitatively the effect of cold pool on nocturnal temperature in a closed catchment. In our model, a closed catchment is treated like a "vessel", and a digital elevation model (DEM) was used to calculate the maximum capacity of the cold pool formed in a closed catchment. We introduce a topographical variable named "shape factor", which is the ratio of the cold air accumulation potential across the whole catchment area to the maximum capacity of the cold pool to describe the relative size of temperature drop at a wider range of catchment shapes. The shape factor is then used to simulate the density profile of cold pool formed in a given catchment based on a hypsometric equation. The cold lake module was incorporated with the existing model (i.e., Chung et al., 2006), generating a new model and predicting distribution of minimum temperature over closed catchments. We applied this model to Akyang valley (i.e., a typical closed catchment of 53 $km^2$ area) in the southern skirt of Mt. Jiri National Park where 12 automated weather stations (AWS) are operational. The performance of the model was evaluated based on the feasibility of delineating the temperature pattern accurately at cold pool forming at night. Overall, the model's ability of simulating the spatial pattern of lower temperature were improved especially at the valley bottom, showing a similar pattern of the estimated temperature with that of thermal images obtained across the valley at dawn (0520 to 0600 local standard time) of 17 May 2011. Error in temperature estimation, calculated with the root mean square error using the 10 low-lying AWSs, was substantially decreased from $1.30^{\circ}C$ with the existing model to $0.71^{\circ}C$ with the new model. These results suggest the feasibility of the new method in predicting the site-specific freeze and frost warning at a closed catchment.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.275-290
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• 2021

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere is mainly generated from anthropogenic emission sources. It forms ultra-fine particulate matter through chemical reaction and has harmful effect on both the environment and human health. In particular, ground-level SO2 concentrations are closely related to human activities. Satellite observations such as TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument)-derived column density data can provide spatially continuous monitoring of ground-level SO2 concentrations. This study aims to propose a 2-step residual corrected model to estimate ground-level SO2 concentrations through the synergistic use of satellite data and numerical model output. Random forest machine learning was adopted in the 2-step residual corrected model. The proposed model was evaluated through three cross-validations (i.e., random, spatial and temporal). The results showed that the model produced slopes of 1.14-1.25, R values of 0.55-0.65, and relative root-mean-square-error of 58-63%, which were improved by 10% for slopes and 3% for R and rRMSE when compared to the model without residual correction. The model performance by country was slightly reduced in Japan, often resulting in overestimation, where the sample size was small, and the concentration level was relatively low. The spatial and temporal distributions of SO2 produced by the model agreed with those of the in-situ measurements, especially over Yangtze River Delta in China and Seoul Metropolitan Area in South Korea, which are highly dependent on the characteristics of anthropogenic emission sources. The model proposed in this study can be used for long-term monitoring of ground-level SO2 concentrations on both the spatial and temporal domains.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.165-170
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• 2014

The objective of this study was to make growth and yield models of sowthistle (Ixeris dentata Nakai) by using an expolinear functional equation in a closed-type plant production system. The growth and yield of hydroponically-grown sowthistle were investigated under four different planting distances ($15{\times}10$, $15{\times}15$, $15{\times}20$, and $15{\times}25$ cm). Shoot dry weights per plant was the highest at $15{\times}25$ cm, but was the lowest at $15{\times}10$ cm. Shoot dry weights per area was the highest at $15{\times}15$ cm, but was the lowest at $15{\times}25$ cm. The optimum planting density and planting distance for yield of sowthistle were 44 plants/$m^2$ and $15{\times}15$ cm, respectively. Shoot dry weights per plant and per area were showed as an expolinear type functional equation. A linear relationship between shoot dry and fresh weights was observed to be linear regardless of the planting distance. Crop growth rate, relative growth rate and lost time in an expolinear functional equation showed quadratic function form. Radiation use efficiency of sowthistle was $4.3-6.1g{\cdot}MJ^{-1}$. The measured and estimated shoot dry weights showed a good agreement using days after transplanting as input data. It is concluded that the expolinear growth model can be a useful tool for quantifying the growth and yield of sowthistle in a closed-type plant production system.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2015

A leaching kinetics was conducted for the purpose of recovery of praseodymium in sulfuric acid ($H_2SO_4$) from REE slag concentrated by the smelting reduction process in an arc furnace as a reactant. The concentration of $H_2SO_4$ was fixed at an excess ratio under the condition of slurry density of 1.500 g slag/L, 0.3 mol $H_2SO_4$, and the effect of temperatures was investigated under the condition of 30 to $80^{\circ}C$. As a result, praseodymium oxide ($Pr_6O_{11}$) existing in the slag was completely converted into praseodymium sulfate ($Pr_2(SO_4)_3{\cdot}8H_2O$) after the leaching of 5 h. On the basis of the shrinking core model with a shape of sphere, the first leaching reaction was determined by chemical reaction mechanism. Generally, the solubility of pure REEs decreases with the increase of leaching temperatures in sulfuric acid, but REE slag was oppositely increased with increasing temperatures. It occurs because the ash layer included in the slag is affected as a resistance against the leaching. By using the Arrhenius expression, the apparent activation energy of the first chemical reaction was determined to be $9.195kJmol^{-1}$. In the second stage, the leaching rate is determined by the ash layer diffusion mechanism. The apparent activation energy of the second ash layer diffusion was determined to be $19.106kJmol^{-1}$. These relative low activation energy values were obtained by the existence of unreacted ash layer in the REE slag.