• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.849-862
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• 2017

With growing interests in using bacterial biopolymers in geotechnical practices, identifying mechanical properties of soft gel-like biopolymers is important in predicting their efficacy in soil modification and treatment. As one of the promising candidates, dextran was found to be produced by Leuconostoc mesenteroides. The model bacteria utilize sucrose as working material and synthesize both soluble and insoluble dextran which forms a complex and inhomogeneous polymer network. However, the traditional rheometer has a limitation to capture in situ properties of inherently porous and inhomogeneous biopolymers. Therefore, we used the particle tracking microrheology to characterize the material properties of the dextran polymer. TEM images revealed a range of pore size mostly less than $20{\mu}m$, showing large pores > $2{\mu}m$ and small pores within the solid matrix whose sizes are less than $1{\mu}m$. Microrheology data showed two distinct regimes in the bacterial dextran, purely viscous pore region of soluble dextran and viscoelastic region of the solid part of insoluble dextran matrix. Diffusive beads represented the soluble dextran dissolved in an aqueous phase, of which viscosity was three times higher than the growth medium viscosity. The local properties of the insoluble dextran were extracted from the results of the minimally moving beads embedded in the dextran matrix or trapped in small pores. At high frequency (${\omega}>0.2Hz$), the insoluble dextran showed the elastic behavior with the storage modulus of ~0.1 Pa. As frequency decreased, the insoluble dextran matrix exhibited the viscoelastic behavior with the decreasing storage modulus in the range of ${\sim}0.1-10^{-3}Pa$ and the increasing loss modulus in the range of ${\sim}10^{-4}-1\;Pa$. The obtained results provide a compilation of frequency-dependent rheological or viscoelastic properties of soft gel-like porous biopolymers at the particular conditions where soil bacteria produce bacterial biopolymers in subsurface.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.57-66
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• 1988

Sandy dust phenomena was observed from April 19 to 23, 1988 in Seoul and suspended particulate was collected by Andersen air sampler during this period. The samples were analyzed for 16 components $(SO_n^{2-}, NO_3^-, Cl^-, PO_4^{3-}, NH_4^+, F^-, Al, Fe, K, Cu, Mn, Na, Pb, Mg, Ca, Cd)$. The conclusions are as follwes: 1. Total suspended particulate concentation during the period of sandy dust phenomena was 489 $\mug/m^3$ (ordinary times: 140-125 $mug/m^3$) 2. The water - soluble ion component concentration of suspended particulate during the period of sandy dust phenomena was few and the metal concentration of that was more than that of ordinary times. 3. The cumulative frequency distribution of suspended particulates in logarithmic diagram did not show similar to normal log distribution during the period of sandy dust phenomena. 4. $SO_4^{2-}, NO_3^-, Cl^-, and PO_4^{3-}$ was onsided to coarse particle, and $NH_4^+$ and F to fine particle in the size distribution of water - soluble ion components during the period of sandy dust phenomena. 5. Metal concentration was high and Al, Fe, Cu, Mn, Na, Mg, and Ca was onsided to coarse particle, and K, Pb, and Cd to fine particle in the size distribution of metal components. 6. During the period of sandy dust phenomena the quantity of respirable particle (< 1 $\mum$) was about 3 times and that of metal components were about 2 - 11 times than that of ordinary times. 7. The concentrations of $NO_3^-, Cl^-, NH_4^+$ at ordinary times were 1.1 - 4 time than that of the period of sandy dust phenomena.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.193-198
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• 1978

Test-bricks were prepared from an artifically graded Ham Kang sand and a commercial CaO and autoclaved for 6 hours at $16 kg/cm^2$ pressure $(203^{\circ}C)$. Bricks were tested for compressive strength, free lime, saluble silica and amount of water absorption. Physical properties of bricks were very much depended on the size distribution of sand particle and the amount of soluble silica in bricks.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.17-25
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• 2011

A fabric of soil media may change due to certain factors such as dissolution of soluble particles, desiccation, and cementation. The fabric changes affect the mechanical behavior of soils. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of geo-material dissolution on shear strength. Experiments and numerical simulations are carried out by using a conventional direct shear and the discrete element method. The dissolution specimens are prepared with different volumetric salt fraction in sand soils. The dissolution of the specimens is implemented by saturating the salt-sand mixtures at different confining stresses in the experimental study or reducing the sizes of soluble particles in the numerical simulations. Experimental results show that the angle of shearing resistance decreases with the increase in the soluble particle content and the shearing behavior changes from dilative to contractive behavior. The numerical simulations exhibit that macro-behavior matches well with the experimental results. From the microscopic point of view, the particle dissolution produces a new fabric with the increase of local void, the reduction of contact number, the increase of shear contact forces, and the anisotropy of contact force chains compared with the initial fabric. The shearing behavior of the mixture after the particle dissolution is attributed to the above micro-behavior changes. This study demonstrates that the reduction of shearing resistance of geo-material dissolution should be considered during the design and construction of the foundation and earth-structures.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.159-168
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• 2008

A special field experiment has been carried out from March 2001 to June 2001 at the Changhowon in Kyunggi to investigate a better methodology for the estimation of dry deposition of pollutions applicable in Korea. In this study, dry deposition plate was used to measure of total and water soluble acidic mass fluxes, and CPRI(Coarse Particle Rotary Impactor), CI(Cascade Impactor) were also used to measure ambient concentrations in various particle size ranges. Sehmel-Hodgson model was used to estimate dry depostion velocity and Weibull probability distribution function was applied to get generalized particle size distribution for the size fractioned concentration data sampled by CPRI and CI. Atmospheric dry deposition fluxes of mass and ionic matters estimated by the various techniques(one-step, multi-step, equi-concentration, subdivision for only the coarse particle range, applying Weibull distribution function, etc.) were compared to flux data sampled by DDP. It was found out that the deposition fluxes estimation methodology calculated by the each particle size range devided by particle size distribution characteristics and the rapidly changed points of deposition velocity using Weibull probability distribution function was the most applicable.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.45-52
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• 2009

Black carbon, which is a by-product of combustion of fossil fuel and biomass burning, is the component that imposes the largest uncertainty on quantifying aerosol climate effect. The direct, indirect and semi-direct climate effects of black carbon depend on its state of the mixing with other water-soluble aerosol components. The process that transforms hydrophobic externally mixed black carbon particles into hygroscopic internally mixed ones is called "aging". In most climate models, simple parameterizations for the aging time scale are used instead of solving detailed dynamics equations on the aging process due to the computation cost. In this study, a new parameterization for the black carbon aging time scale due to condensation and coagulation is presented as a function of the concentration of hygroscopic atmospheric components and the black carbon particle size. It is shown that the black carbon aging time scale due to condensation of sulfuric acid vapors varies to a large extent depending on the sulfuric acid concentration and the black carbon particle size. This result indicates that the constant aging time scale values suggested in the literature cannot be directly applied to a global scale modeling. The aging time scale due to coagulation with internally mixed aerosol particles shows an even stronger dependency on particle size, which implies that the use of a particle-size-independent aging time scale may lead to a large error when the aging is dominated by coagulation.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2002

The particle size of medicinal materials is an Important physical property that affects the phar-maceutical behaviors such as dissolution, chemical stability, and bioavailability of solid dosage forms. The size reduction of raw medicinal powder is needed to formulate insoluble drugs or slightly soluble medicines and to improve the pharmaceutical properties such as the solubility, the pharmaceutical mixing, and the dispersion. The objective of the present study is to evaluate physiological activity of amorphous and nano-particle prep-arations of insoluble drug, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which were made by three types of fine grinding mills. The change of physical properties of ground UDCA was conformed by Mastersiger microplus and X-ray diffraction. We have investigated hepatoprotective effects of the nano-particle preparations of UDCA by plan-etary mill, vibration rod mill and jet mill in $CCI_4$-induced oxidatively injured mouse liver. The results showed that nano-particle preparations of UDCA all decreased reactive oxygen sepecies generation and lipid peroxi-dation in $CCI_4$-induced oxidative stress mice. Among them, nano-particle preparations by vibration rod mill and jet mill showed more significantly hepatoprotective effects compared to intact UDCA and planetary mill-ground UDCA. These results suggest that ground UDCA with vibration rod mill and jet mill shows a high amorphous state and the improved dissolution.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.385-390
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• 2017

This study investigated removal characteristic of soluble Cs in water by RPT (Radioactivity pollutant treatment) with coagulation and sedimentation. The RPT conducted with various chemical and natural coagulants to remove the soluble Cs which consisted pre-adsorption, Sedimentation and post-adsorption. Natural absorbent included Illite and zeolite. Especially, Illite divided LPI (Large Particle Illite) and SPI (Small Particle Illite) by grain size. Also, Chemical coagulants included high basicity PAC (poly aluminum chloride). The adsorbent had a plate structure mainly composed of quartz, albite and muscovite. The surface area were $4.201m^2/g$ and $4.227m^2/g$ and the particle sizes were $197.4-840.9{\mu}m$ and $3.28-53.57{\mu}m$, respectively. The adsorption efficiency of the natural Illite was 82.8% for LPI and 85.6% for SPI. The removal efficiency of turbidity, which was an indirect indicator of adsorbent recovery, was 96.4% and 98.3%, respectively.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.75-77
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• 2018

The electrostatic interaction between emerging quantum-confined nanostructures with plasmonic structures is crucial for future biological applications. Water-soluble green fluorescent copper nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) were fabricated. We demonstrate that L-ascorbic acid is considered as a key to precisely control small Cu-NPs and the capability of the surface ligands, while cetyltrimethylammonium bromide is used as a stabilizing agent controls the particle growth, and stabilizes the nanoparticles. Water-soluble green fluorescent Cu-NPs are tunable through modification of the reaction periods.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.58-69
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• 1976

It is well established that dissolution is freruently the rate limiting step in the gastrointestinal absorpton of a drug from a solid dosage from. The relationship between the dissolution rate and absorption is particularly distinct when considering drugs of low solubility. Consequently, numerous attempts have been made to modify the dissolution characteristics of poorly water soluble drugs. Since dissolution rate is directly proportional to surface area, one may increase the rate by decreasing the particle size of the drug. Levy has considered a number of methods by which a drug may be presented to the GI fludids in finely divided from. The direct method is the utilization of microcrystalline or micronized particles. A second method involves the administration of solutions from which, upon dilution with gastric fluids, the dissolved drug will precipitate in the form of very fine particles. A more unique way of obtaining microcrystalline dispersions of a drug has been ercently suggested by Sekiguchi et al. They have first proposed the formation of a eutectic mixture of a poorly water soruble drug with a physiologically inert, easily soluble carrier. When such systems are exposed to water or GI fluids, the soluble carrier will dissolve rapidly and the finely dispersed drug particles will then be released. It has been suggested by Shefter and Higuchi that the formation of crystalline solvate could be a powerful tool in affecting rapid disslution of highly insoluble substances. Goldberg et al. have noted that the formation of solid solution could reduce the particle size to a minimum and increase the dissolution rate as well as the solubility of the durgs. It has also been shown that the rates of solution of drugs were appreciably increased by coprectipitating the drug with soluble polymers. The increase was found to be sensitive to the method of preparation, the molecular weight of polymer and the particular ratio of drugs to polymer. Although several investigations have demontrated that the solubility and/or dissolution rates of drugs can be increased in this manner, little information is available in the literature related to the in vivo absorption pattern of drugs orally administered as PVP coprecipitates. Recently, however, it was demonstrated that both the rate and extent of absorption of the insoluble drug could be markedly enhanced when orally administered to rats in the form of a coprecipitate with PVP. The purpose of the present investigation was to ascertain the general appility of soluble polymer coprectation technique as a method for enhancing the in vitro dissolution rate of hydrophobic indomethacin. To accomplish this aim, the dissolution characteristics of pure indomethacin, indomethcin-polymer physical mixtures and indomethacin-polymer coprecipitates were quantitatively studied by comparing their relative dissolution rates. The solubility and dissolution behavior of these systems were also examined.