• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.11
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• pp.874-881
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• 2011

The present study describes a new technique to extract the primary silicon from an Al-Si alloy melt using centrifugal force during its solidification. The primary silicon was separated from an Al-50 wt.%Si alloy by centrifugal force in the form of a foam, which facilitated subsequent acid leaching to extract the pure silicon due to its wide surface area. The foam recovery after centrifugal separation was decreased as centrifugal acceleration was increased. The final recovery after acid leaching became closer to the solid fraction of the alloy, which was calculated from the Al-Si binary phase diagram, with increasing centrifugal acceleration due to the effective removal of the attached Al on the foam. The purity of the primary silicon obtained by the centrifugal separation method was over 99.99%, with only aluminum being also present.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2024

Under the influence of atmospheric turbulence, a star's point image will shake back and forth erratically, and after exposure the originally small star point will spread into a huge spot, which will affect the ground calibration of the star sensor. To analyze the impact of atmospheric turbulence on the positioning accuracy of the star's center of mass, this paper simulates the atmospheric turbulence phase screen using a method based on a sparse spectrum. It is added to the static-star-simulation device to study the transmission characteristics of atmospheric turbulence in star-point simulation, and to analyze the changes in star points under different atmospheric refractive-index structural constants. The simulation results show that the structure function of the atmospheric turbulence phase screen simulated by the sparse spectral method has an average error of 6.8% compared to the theoretical value, while the classical Fourier-transform method can have an error of up to 23% at low frequencies. By including a simulation in which the phase screen would cause errors in the center-of-mass position of the star point, 100 consecutive images are selected and the average drift variance is obtained for each turbulence scenario; The stronger the turbulence, the larger the drift variance. This study can provide a basis for subsequent improvement of the ground-calibration accuracy of a star sensitizer, and for analyzing and evaluating the effect of atmospheric turbulence on the beam.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.267-273
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• 2000

Objectives: We have previous reported that thawed testicular sperm and sperm extracted from seminiferous tubule could achieved optimal fertilization and pregnancy in azoospermic patients. However, thawed testicular sperm did not show motility in many cases. Therefore we studied viability of immotile sperm extracted from frozen-thawed seminiferous tubule using hypo-osmotic swelling (HOS) test and eosin-Y test. Materials and Methods: After sperm extraction using for ICSI, the remained sections of seminiferous tubules were frozen with a computerized freezer. For thawing and preparation of testicular sperm, the seminiferous tubules were thawed by removing from $LN_2$ and letting them at room temperature for 10 min followed by %37^{\circ}C$ water bath for 10 min. The prepared samples were washed for free of preservation medium and sperm preparation method described previous. Sperm was suspended in 0.1 ml hypoosmotic solution. After 30 minutes, the type of distally coiled sperm were assessed. Results: In 44 cases of cryopreservation of seminiferous tubules in obstructive azoospennic patients, the fertilization rates with 2PN were 71.4% and pregnancy rates were 34.1%. The presence of motile spermatozoa on subsequent post-thaw testicular sperm remarked 15.1% and were increased to 77.3% just before ICSI. After sperm extracted from frozen-thawed seminiferous tubule, 3 hrs later in in vitro culture, the cases of presence of motile sperm, reaction of hypo-osmotic swelling test and viable sperm were 63.6% (28/44), 93.2% (41/44), and 77.3% (34/44), respectively. Conclusions: Just after post-thawed testicular sperm did not showed motility. Although motility was gained after in vitro culture, many cases showed non-motile sperm until optimal insemination time. However, HOS test showed positive reaction in non-motile sperm. Therefore, HOS test is an alternative method for the selection of viable sperm for ICSI.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.134-139
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• 2012

Objectives : Proinflammatory process has been implicated as an underlying mechanism of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Previous studies have suggested a possible role of lymphotoxin alpha (LTA) gene in the development of schizophrenia and have prompted further investigation in bipolar patients. Association of the LTA +252A/G polymorphism with susceptibility to bipolar I disorder itself as well as with vulnerability among a subset of psychotic bipolar patients were tested. Methods : DNA extraction was done by a standard method and genotyping was carried out by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method in 114 Korean patients with bipolar I disorder and 202 healthy controls. SPSS v18.0 was used for statistical analysis. Comparisons of the genotype and allele distributions in LTA +252A/G polymorphism were made using a chi-square test. The genotype and allele associations were also evaluated using odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Statistical significance was accepted when p was < 0.05. Results : No significant association was found between the LTA +252A/G polymorphism and bipolar disorder. However, LTA +252G allele was present with significantly higher frequency among bipolar patients with psychotic features compared to those without (${\chi}^2$ = 4.69, p = 0.034, OR = 2.495, 95% CI = 1.069-5.827). Conclusion : The results suggest that the allele LTA +252G of the polymorphism may be associated with the psychotic subset of bipolar disorder but not with bipolar I disorder itself. Adequately powered subsequent studies should be conducted.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.392-398
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• 1997

A method of selective determination of inorganic and organic mercury compounds has been described. The $CHCl_3$ solution of a high molecular quaternary alkylammonium salt, Aliquat 336 was used for the simultaneous preconcentration of both inorganic, $Hg^{2+}$ as its thiocyanate complex, and organic mercury compounds, $CH_3HgCl$ and $C_2H_3O_2$ $HgC_6H_5$ by extraction from their aqueous solution. Selective separation of the inorganic mercury from the extract was followed by stripping with 3 M $HClO_4 $ solution for the subsequent determination by CVAAS. Organic mercury was also determined by CVAAS after removal of $CHCl_3solvent$ from the extract and decomposition of the residue with 4% $KMnO_4 $-1 MH_2$S0_4$. The mixtures of inorganic and organic mercury compounds contained 1.0 $\mug$ as Hg in 50 mL of sample solution(0.02 ${\mu}gHg/mL$) were analysed within ${\pm}6%$ by absolute errors.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1814-1828
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• 2021

Low-light image enhancement is a key technique to overcome the quality degradation of photos taken under scotopic vision illumination conditions. The degradation includes low brightness, low contrast, and outstanding noise, which would seriously affect the vision of the human eye recognition ability and subsequent image processing. In this paper, we propose an approach based on deep learning and Retinex theory to enhance the low-light image, which includes image decomposition, illumination prediction, image reconstruction, and image optimization. The first three parts can reconstruct the enhanced image that suffers from low-resolution. To reduce the noise of the enhanced image and improve the image quality, a super-resolution algorithm based on the Laplacian pyramid network is introduced to optimize the image. The Laplacian pyramid network can improve the resolution of the enhanced image through multiple feature extraction and deconvolution operations. Furthermore, a combination loss function is explored in the network training stage to improve the efficiency of the algorithm. Extensive experiments and comprehensive evaluations demonstrate the strength of the proposed method, the result is closer to the real-world scene in lightness, color, and details. Besides, experiments also demonstrate that the proposed method with the single low-light image can achieve the same effect as multi-exposure image fusion algorithm and no ghost is introduced.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.665-669
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• 1994

A rapid gas chromatographic (GC) profiling method was applied to dairy products (milk and cheeses) for the simultaneous analysis of volatile and nonvolatile organic acids. Cheese samples were first made into aqueous samples by dissolving in water. The aqueous samples were then extracted with organic solvents after the acidification and NaCI saturation. The organic layers (diethyl ether : hexane= 1 : 1) were extracted with $NaHCO_3$ saturated solution with subsequent solid-phase extraction of the aqueous phases using Chromosorb P column/diethyl ether followed by triethylamine treatment. The resulting triethylammonium salts of acids were directly converted into volatile tert.-butyldimethylsilyl derivatives, which were analyzed by dual-capillary column GC, and GC-mass spectrometry. From milk and four cheese samples studied, 31 organic acids including 21 fatty acids and other hydroxy and dioic acids were tentatively identified. The amounts of the fatty acids were different among the kinds of cheese and thus the simplified retention index (RI) spectra of organic acids were useful for the visual pattern recognition of each sample, when the Direct Comparision method between cheese and a blind sample were attempted, it was quickly recognized to be a gouda cheese with the 999 ppt match quality value.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.162-166
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• 1994

A rapid gas chromatographic (GC) profiling method for the simultaneous analysis of volatile and nonvolatile organic acids was applied to alcoholic beverages (white wine, red wine, brandy, and beer). It involves the solid-phase extraction of organic acids using Chromosorb P as the sorbent and diethyl ether as the eluent with subsequent triethylamine treatment. The resulting triethylammonium salts of acids were directly converted to volatile tert.-butyldimethylsilyl derivatives, which were analyzed by dual-capillary column GC and GC-mass spectrometry. From the alcoholic beverages studied, more than 29 organic acids were detected. When the simplified retention infer (RI) spectra of organic acids, and the direct comparisor method between alcoholic beverages and a test sample were attempted to identify a test sample, it was quickly recognized to be a red wine with the 998 ppt match quality value.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.196-213
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• 2002

The alkylphenols, chlorophenols and bisphenol A were determined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry-selected ion monitoring mode followed by three work-up methods for comparison; EPA method, isoBOC derivatization method and TBDMS derivatization method. Eleven phenols in water samples were extracted with dichloromethane. Also, solid-phase extraction (SPE) with XAD-4 and subsequent conversion to isobutoxycarbonyl derivatives or tert.-butyldimethylsilyl derivatives for sensitive analysis with the selected ion-monitoring (SIM) mode. The recoveries were 85.1~109.9% (EPA method) and 90.3~126.6% (isoBOC derivatization and TBDMS derivatization), respectively. The method detection limit of bisphenol A for SIM were 0.732 ${\mu}g/{\ell}$ (EPA method), 0.002 ${\mu}g/{\ell}$ (isoBOC derivatization) and 0.021 ${\mu}g/{\ell}$ (TBDMS derivatization). The SIM responses were linear with the correlation coefficient varying 0.9755~0.9981 (isoBOC derivatization), and 0.9908~0.9996 (TBDMS derivatization). When these methods were applied to treated wastewater sample from a polyethylene plant, the concentrations of 11 phenols were below the method detection limit.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.77-82
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• 2004

Quantifying rates of microbial processes under subsurface conditions is difficult, and is most commonly approximated by laboratory studies using aquifer materials. In this study a single-well, 'push-pull' test method is adapted for the in situ determination of denitrification rates in groundwater aquifers. The rates of stepwise reduction of nitrate to nitrite, nitrous oxide, and molecular nitrogen were determined by performing a series of push-pull tests at an experimental well field of Korea University. A single Transport Test, one Biostimulation Test, and four Activity Tests were conducted for this study. Transport tests are conducted to evaluate the mobility of solutes used in subsequent tests. These included bromide (a conservative tracer), fumarate (a carbon and/or source), and nitrate (an electron acceptor). At this site, extraction phase breakthrough curves for all solutes were similar, indicating apparent conservative transport of the solutes prior to biostimulation. Biostimulation tests were conducted to stimulate the activity of indigenous heterotrophic denitrifyinc microorganisms. Biostimulation was detected by the simultaneous production of carbon dioxide and nitrite after each injection. Activity tests were conducted to quantify rates of nitrate, nitrite, and nitrous oxide reduction. Estimated zero-order degradation rates decreased in the order nitrate '||'&'||'gt; nitrite '||'&'||'gt; nitrous oxide. The series of push-pull tests developed and field tested in this study should prove useful for conducting rapid, low-cost feasibi1ity assessments for in situ denitrification in nitrate-contaminated aquifers.