• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.260-269
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• 2021

BACKGROUND: Diquat dibromide is a fast-acting nonselective herbicide and plant growth regulator. In this study, in order to understand the possibility of unintentional pesticide contamination in the following crops, the phytotoxicity and transition of diquat dibromide residue in soil into the following crops such as pepper, radish, lettuce and corn have been assessed through phytotoxicity trial and residual evaluation in the unintentional contamination of the higher residual diquat dibromide. METHODS AND RESULTS: The pepper, radish, lettuce and corn were cultivated in the sandy soil and loam soil where the 35 mg/kg and 90 mg/kg diquat dibromide were applied, respectively. Mild growth inhibition symptoms were observed in radish, lettuce and corn crops at the 90 mg/kg- diquat dibromide treatment on the 30 day of cultivation. Diquat dibromide was analyzed using liquid chromatography QTRAP (LC-MS/MS). The recovery rates of diquat dibromide from soil and crop were determined within range from 89.1 to 116.4% with relative standard deviation less than 14.7%. Diquat dibromide residues in soil were found to be 23.90-30.22 and 69.59-82.57 mg/kg from the 35 mg/kg and 90 mg/kg of diquat dibromide-treated soil, respectively after 30 days of crop cultivation. This result implicates that diquat dibromide did not convert to metabolites and remained mostly in the soil, even though it was partially decomposed during crop cultivation. In addition, the diquat dibromide in pepper and radish that were grown for 47 days, and lettuce and corn that were cultivated for 30 days were detected to be 0.01 mg/kg or less in the sandy loam and loam soil where the 90 mg/kg diquat dibromide was applied. CONCLUSION(S): Diquat dibromide did not cause severe phytotoxicity in the following crops as well as it did not uptake and distribute to the following crops, even though it was considered to be residual in the soil.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.86-90
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• 2019

This study aimed to compare the disinfection efficiencies of the ultraviolet and plasma systems, the two systems designed and commercialized to disinfect water in aquaculture, by putting each in a 100 ℓ water tank and concentrating 1.0 ℓ of treated water to check the changes in the number of bacteria in the samples. Each system was operated for 6 hours to culture the typical seawater bacteria in the Marine agar, Thiosulfate citrate bile salts sucrose agar and Salmonella Shigella agar media, respectively, to check the number of bacteria in the media, and the changes in the number of Edwardsiella piscicida in the treated water were checked after the artificial inoculation of E. piscicida in the disinfected seawater. As a result, the two disinfection systems showed the almost similar levels of bacterial reduction efficiency between 99.5% and 99.9%. However, the result of this study showed that, with 100 ℓ of water treated for the same length of time using the two systems, the plasma system turned out to disinfect bacteria in a shorter period of time than the UV system. However, as the changes in the number of bacteria were checked for a short length of time (6 hours) in this study, it was judged that, considering the actual aquaculture environment in which the quality of water significantly changes with feed residues, excretions and coastal contamination, etc., and a lot of biofilms and organic matter exist, the plasma system would be more efficient than the UV system as the former is capable of continuously maintaining a certain level of efficiency than the latter that is limited in terms of efficiency depending on the level of turbidity and the existence of organic matter.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.5-12
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• 2019

The study is carried out to survey the proper management and to propose an eco - friendly separation system through efficient screening and resource recovery of excavated materials containing waste from various excavating fields such as reconstruction of landfill sites for reuse, reclamation of unsanitary landfill and residential land development of waste dumping sites. The current status and screening process and analytical characteristics of the excavated materials containing waste were reviewed. Through the analysis of the samples such as separated combustibles, recyclable soils and residues collected from the on-site visits we were able to understand the characteristics of separated materials and excavated materials containing waste such as calorific value, elementary composition, TOC, foreign material content and LOI. It has been found that elimination of the moisture of excavations, removal of attached soil from the surfaces of the excavated combustibles and the quantitative supply method of the input devices are the main operating factors as essential factors for the optimal separation of excavated materials containing waste. For efficient management and recycling of excavated materials containing, it is necessary to set criteria of ash content in separated combustibles and criteria organic matter content in separated soils.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.123-130
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• 2019

Chelatase catalyzes the insertion of divalent metal into tetrapyrrole and plays a key role in the biosynthesis of metallated tetrapyrroles, such as cobalamin, siroheme, heme, and chlorophyll. SirB is a sirohydrochlorin (SHC) chelatase that generates cobalt-SHC or iron-SHC by inserting cobalt or iron into the center of sirohydrochlorin tetrapyrrole. To provide structural insights into the metal-binding and SHC-recognition mechanisms of SirB, we determined the crystal structure of SirB from Bacillus subtilis subsp. spizizenii (bssSirB) in complex with cobalt ions. bssSirB forms a monomeric ${\alpha}/{\beta}$ structure that consists of two domains, an N-terminal domain (NTD) and a C-terminal domain (CTD). The NTD and CTD of bssSirB adopt similar structures with a four-stranded ${\beta}-sheet$ that is decorated by ${\alpha}-helices$. bssSirB presents a highly conserved cavity that is generated between the NTD and CTD and interacts with a cobalt ion on top of the cavity using two histidine residues of the NTD. Moreover, our comparative structural analysis suggests that bssSirB would accommodate an SHC molecule into the interdomain cavity. Based on these structural findings, we propose that the cavity of bssSirB functions as the active site where cobalt insertion into SHC occurs.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.92-96
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• 2019

Transition metal oxide is widely used as a water electrolysis catalyst to substitute for a noble metal catalyst such as $IrO_2$ and $RuO_2$. In this study, the sol-gel method is used to synthesize the $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER),. The CuxCo3-xO4 is synthesized at various calcination temperatures from $250^{\circ}C$ to $400^{\circ}C$ for 4 h. The $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ synthesized at $300^{\circ}C$ has a perfect spinel structure without residues of the precursor and secondary phases, such as CuO. The particle size of $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ increases with an increase in calcination temperature. Amongst all the samples studied, $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$, which is synthesized at 300?, has the highest activity for the OER. Its onset potential for the OER is 370 mV and the overpotential at $10mA/cm^2$ is 438 mV. The tafel slope of $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ synthesized at $300^{\circ}C$ has a low value of 58 mV/dec. These results are mainly explained by the increase in the available active surface area of the $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ catalyst.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.34-39
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• 2018

In this paper, the architecture of a safe stove with an automatic fire suppression function using a sound wave fire extinguisher has been proposed and developed for the first time. A microcontroller connected to a fire sensor detects and suppresses a fire by driving a fire extinguisher. The sound wave fire extinguisher is composed of a speaker and collimator, and is driven by a driver module including an audio amplifier. The attenuation of the sound wave is reduced by preventing the sound diffusion with an enclosure surrounding a stove. The frequency of the sound wave is set to 50 Hz, and the sound pressure of 93 dBA is measured at the distance of 0.5 m. It takes maximum 8 and 15 seconds to suppress the flame from 7-cc and 14-cc flammable liquid, respectively, which corresponds to 24% and 42% of the natural extinguishing time. Since the proposed safe stove is non-toxic and leaves no residues over the conventional ones, it would combine with various home appliances to suppress early-stage fires and prevent fire expansion.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.23-29
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• 2018

Recently rapid economic growth and technological development have led to an increase in the generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). As the amount of electric and electronic waste generated increases, the importance of processing waste printed circuit boards (PCB) is also increasing. Various studies have been conducted to recycle various valuable metals contained in a waste PCB in an environmentally friendly and economical manner. To get anode slime containing Ag and Au, Anode copper prepared from PCB scraps was used by means of electro-refining. Ag and Au recovery was conducted by leaching, direct reduction, and ion exchange method. In the case of silver, the anode slime was leached at 3 M $HNO_3$, 100 g/L, $70^{\circ}C$, and Ag was recovered by precipitation, alkali dissolution, and reduction method. In the case of gold, the nitrate leaching residues of the anode slime was leached at 25% aqua regia, 200 g/L, $70^{\circ}C$, and Au was recovered by pH adjustment, ion exchange resin adsorption, desorption and reduction method. The purity of the obtained Au and Ag were confirmed to be 99.99%.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.460-474
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• 2019

Background: Ginsenoside compound K (CK) is a promising drug candidate for rheumatoid arthritis. This study examined the impact of polymorphisms in NR1I2, adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette (ABC) transporter genes on the pharmacokinetics of CK in healthy Chinese individuals. Methods: Forty-two targeted variants in seven genes were genotyped in 54 participants using Sequenom MassARRAY system to investigate their association with major pharmacokinetic parameters of CK and its metabolite 20(S)-protopanaxadiol (PPD). Subsequently, molecular docking was simulated using the AutoDock Vina program. Results: ABCC4 rs1751034 TT and rs1189437 TT were associated with increased exposure of CK and decreased exposure of 20(S)-PPD, whereas CFTR rs4148688 heterozygous carriers had the lowest maximum concentration ($C_{max}$) of CK. The area under the curve from zero to the time of the last quantifiable concentration ($AUC_{last}$) of CK was decreased in NR1I2 rs1464602 and rs2472682 homozygous carriers, while $C_{max}$ was significantly reduced only in rs2472682. ABCC4 rs1151471 and CFTR rs2283054 influenced the pharmacokinetics of 20(S)-PPD. In addition, several variations in ABCC2, ABCC4, CFTR, and NR1I2 had minor effects on the pharmacokinetics of CK. Quality of the best homology model of multidrug resistance protein 4 (MRP4) was assessed, and the ligand interaction plot showed the mode of interaction of CK with different MRP4 residues. Conlusion: ABCC4 rs1751034 and rs1189437 affected the pharmacokinetics of both CK and 20(S)-PPD. NR1I2 rs1464602 and rs2472682 were only associated with the pharmacokinetics of CK. Thus, these hereditary variances could partly explain the interindividual differences in the pharmacokinetics of CK.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.45-52
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• 2019

$TiO_2$ as a raw material for producing titanium can be produced by carbon reduction of natural ilmenite ores over 1823 K and acid leaching of the obtained titanium-rich slag. However, the conventional process can cause very high energy consumption and a large amount of leaching residues. In the present study, we proposed the sulfurization of $FeTiO_3$ with $Na_2SO_4$ at temperatures below 1573 K, which can separate Fe in $FeTiO_3$ as the FeS based sulfide phase and Ti as the $TiO_2-Na_2O$ based oxide phase. This study is a fundamental study for sulfurization of $FeTiO_3$ to investigate the influence of reducing atmosphere, reaction temperature and the sulfur/Fe ratio on the separability and distribution behaviors of of Fe, Ti, and Na between the oxide phase and the sulfurized phase. At 1573 K and carbon saturation condition, the Fe can be separated from $FeTiO_3$ as Fe-C-S metal and a part of FeS, and the concentration of Fe in oxide decreased to 4 mass% after sulfurization.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2019

This study used microwave-nitric acid leaching with the aim of removing penalty elements such as As and Bi. Moreover, enhanced gold content from the gold concentrate sample. The leaching conditions were changed: leaching time, nitric acid concentrations and solid-liquid ratio; In order to improve the removal of penalty elements. As a result of the experiment; sample weight loss rate, As and Bi removal rate and gold content in the solid-residues have been increased when the nitric acid concentration and leaching time were increased while the solid-liquid ratio was decreased. The leaching conditions for the maximum As and Bi removal and gold content were: leaching with a 6.0 M nitric acid solution doing 5 min. At these, the solid-residue sample weight loss was 87 %. As removal rate was 98.23 % and Bi was completely removed (100 %). Furthermore, gold content increased from 81.36 g/t to 487.32 g/t. The XRD of the solid residue showed that pyrite disappeared as the nitric acid concentration was increased, whereas sulfur peaks was increased, too.