• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.846-853
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• 2016

We displayed four types of Solanum nigrum metallothionein (SMT) for the first time on the surface of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using an α-agglutinin-based display system. The SMT genes were amplified by RT-PCR. The plasmid pYES2 was used to construct the expression vector. Transformed yeast strains were confirmed by PCR amplification and custom sequencing. Surface-expressed metallothioneins were indirectly indicated by the enhanced cadmium sorption capacity. Flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry was used to examine the concentration of Cd²⁺ in this study. The transformed yeast strains showed much higher resistance ability to Cd²⁺ compared with the control. Strikingly, their Cd²⁺ accumulation was almost twice as much as that of the wild-type yeast cells. Furthermore, surface-engineered yeast strains could effectively adsorb ultra-trace cadmium and accumulate Cd²⁺ under a wide range of pH levels, from 3 to 7, without disturbing the Cu²⁺ and Hg²⁺. Four types of surfaceengineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains were constructed and they could be used to purify Cd²⁺-contaminated water and adsorb ultra-trace cadmium effectively. The surface-engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains would be useful tools for the bioremediation and biosorption of environmental cadmium contaminants.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.1043-1048
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• 1998

The decomposition performance of the Surface induced Plasma Chemical Processing(SPCP) for benzene, toluene, xylene and $NO_2$ were experimentally examined. Discharge exciting frequency range was 5kHz and 10kHz, and low frequency discharge requires high voltage to inject high electric power in gas and to decompose contaminants. The decomposition rate of dioxide nitrogen for 5kHz power in gas and to decompose contaminants. The decomposition rate of dioxide nitrogen for 5kHz power supply is only 85%, but it’s rate for 10kHz power supply is very high, more than 96% when peak voltage is 12kv. Aromatic hydrocarbon vapor of up to 1000ppm is almost throughly decomposed at the flow rate of 1000$\ell$/min or lower rate under the discharge with electric power of several hundred watts. High decomposition rate is shown in every case, that is, for SPCP reactor is necessary to obtain the decomposition rate of more than 80~98%. The decomposition rate of benzene, toluene and xylene were 90~98% and dioxide nitrogen was 45~96%.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.744-751
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• 2007

Wet scrubber is widely used to remove toxic gaseous contaminants in various industries such as semi-conductor industry, display manufacturing industry and so on. In this study, to optimize a packed bed scrubber as one of typical wet scrubber size while keeping its performance, four different packing materials were investigated at different air flow rates, liquid-gas ratios and pH values. Ammonia, hydrochloric acid and hydrofluoric acid were used as test gases to characterize the scrubber performance. Gas removal efficiency increased as the packing size decreased, which resulted in the increase of specific surface area. The increase of air flow rate led to the decrease of gas removal efficiency, while the increase of liquid-gas ratio led to the increase of gas removal efficiency. For the case of $NH_3$ gas, lower pH, and for the cases of HCl and HF, higher pH contributed to higher gas removal efficiency. Gas removal efficiency of a wet scrubber increased in the order of HCl < $NH_3$ < HF according to its water solubility.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.434-437
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• 2003

The fate and the behavior of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals in the environment are mainly controlled by their interactions with various components of soils and sediments. Due to their large surface area and abundance in many soils, smectites may greatly influence the fate and transport of the contaminants in the environment. In our experiment, PAH sorption by hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA)-modified smectite linearly increased in proportion to the amount of HDTMA added on the clay. However, trimethylammonium (TMA)-modified smectite did not show superiority in its sorption of PAH compared with the HDTMA-smectite or dodecyltrimethylammonium (DTMA)-smectite. Meanwhile, the smectites modified with the same cationic surfactants adsorbed Cd$^{2+}$ (heavy metal) significantly from water at low surfactant loading level, but the Cd$^{2+}$ adsorption linearly decreased as the loading of surfactant increased. The result shows that the sorption tendency of organoclays for organic or inorganic contaminants was significantly influenced by the amount and size of the surfactants added on the clay. It means that the stabilization and configuration of cationic surfactant formed on the clay interlayer according to the loading amount of each surfactant of different sizes may be an important factor in effectively sorbing environmental pollutants.nts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.650-654
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• 2003

A major problem of nuclear energy is the production of radioactive wastes. Needs for more environmentally favorable method to decontaminate radioactive contaminants make the use of liqui $d^ercritical $CO_2$ as a solvent medium. In removing radioactive metallic contaminants under $CO_2$ solvent, two methods - use of chelating ligands and that of water in $CO_2$ emulsion-are possible. In the chelating ligand method, a combination of ligands that can make synergistic effects seems important. We discuss about the properties of microemulsion formed by F-AOT and that by non-ionic surfactant. By adding acid in water core, decontamination of metallic parts, soils were possible. The rate of metal surface dissolution to the microemulsion solution was measured by QCM. The possibility of recovering the surfactants after use is also mentioned.ed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.84-85
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• 2009

New approaches for detecting, preventing and remedying environmental damage are important for protection of the environment. Procedures must be developed and implemented to reduce the amount of waste produced in chemical processes, to detect the presence and/or concentration of contaminants and decontaminate fouled environments. Contamination can be classified into three general types: airborne, surface and structural. The most dangerous type is airborne contamination, because of the opportunity for inhalation and ingestion. The second most dangerous type is surface contamination. Surface contamination can be transferred to workers by casual contact and if disturbed can easily be made airborne. The decontamination of the surface in the nuclear facilities has been widely studied with particular emphasis on small and large surfaces. The amount of wastes being produced during decommissioning of nuclear facilities is much higher than the total wastes cumulated during operation. And, the process of decommissioning has a strong possibility of personal's exposure and emission to environment of the radioactive contaminants, requiring through monitoring and estimation of radiation and radioactivity. So, it is important to monitor the radioactive contamination level of the nuclear facilities for the determination of the decontamination method, the establishment of the decommissioning planning, and the worker's safety. But it is very difficult to measure the surface contamination of the floor and wall in the highly contaminated facilities. In this study, the poly(styrene-ethyl acrylate) [poly(St-EA)] core-shell composite polymer for measurement of the radioactive contamination was synthesized by the method of emulsion polymerization. The morphology of the poly(St-EA) composite emulsion particle was core-shell structure, with polystyrene (PS)as the core and poly(ethyl acrylate) (PEA) as the shell. Core-shell polymers of styrene (St)/ethyl acrylate (EA) pair were prepared by sequential emulsion polymerization in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SOS) as an emulsifier using ammonium persulfate (APS) as an initiator. The polymer was made by impregnating organic scintillators, 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO) and 1,4-bis[5-phenyl-2-oxazol]benzene (POPOP). Related tests and analysis confirmed the success in synthesis of composite polymer. The products are characterized by IT-IR spectroscopy, TGA that were used, respectively, to show the structure, the thermal stability of the prepared polymer. Two-phase particles with a core-shell structure were obtained in experiments where the estimated glass transition temperature and the morphologies of emulsion particles. Radiation pollution level the detection about under using examined the beta rays. The morphology of the poly(St-EA) composite polymer synthesized by the method of emulsion polymerization was a core-shell structure, as shown in Fig. 1. Core-shell materials consist of a core structural domain covered by a shell domain. Clearly, the entire surface of PS core was covered by PEA. The inner region was a PS core and the outer region was a PEA shell. The particle size distribution showed similar in the range 350-360 nm.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.329-341
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• 2012

Magai Wareiishi Jizo (Buddhist statue carved on rock surface) is close to shoreline and a part of rock block is periodically immersed by seawater. Rock material of the Wareiishi-jizo statue is composed mainly of medium or coarse-grained biotite granite and very durable. However, physical properties of the rock have been changed according to the complex interactions of the salt solution and surrounding environment. Exfoliation of the rock surface is a serious condition by salt crystallization. Exfoliation (14.6%) is concentrated on the upper part of the rock block with mainly boundary of seawater as the center. On the other hand, lower part of the rock block show black layers by contaminants deposition. In addition, brown discoloration and biological contaminants is overlapped. Rock surface show high discoloration rate of 50.5% (black discoloration, 29.2% > yellow discoloration, 14.1% > brown discoloration, 4.4% > green discoloration, 2.9%). Upper part of the rock block had a lot of change in the physical properties than lower part that is immersed by seawater. In particular, surface properties of the rock block was very weak state at the boundary surface of seawater permeation.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.775-780
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• 2010

Over 90% of the livestock excretions were treated and utilized by land application in Korea. Excessive application of the livestock manure as fertilizer has been issued as a main pollutant source in groundwater and watersheds. This study was seasonally conducted to identify the discharging characteristics with a certain artificial rainfall intensity (13 mm/hr) in terms of surface runoff, groundwater, and soil residue mass depending on the livestock manure types. A experimental field was constructed with three different sites that pig liquid fertilizer (LF), cattle manure (CM), and standard (S). The pig liquid fertilizer of 1,200 L and cattle manure of 900 kg were sprayed on each site ($50m^2$). The standard area was firmly prevented from any other contaminants. In the LF site, farmland discharging rate (FDR) was computed as 0.006 in CODcr, 0.015 in TN, and 0.029 in TP, resulted from the mass balance among total injection mass, surface runoff and groundwater. In the CM site, 29% of the nitrogen and phosphorus in each were discharged to the surface, and 64% and 58% of them were remained in the farmland. Surface runoff rate of the CM was higher than that of the LF, resulted from the solid form of the CM.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.37 no.2 s.110
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• pp.21-29
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• 2005

Increase in the utilization rate of recycled paper has significantly increased the problem associated with stickies. Despite the effort to eliminate contaminants from recycled furnishes, stickies are still the most serious obstacle in using recycled paper. The amount of micro stickies that are too small to be eliminated by screening, tends to increase significantly as the closure level of white water system is increased and the quality of raw material deteriorates. To establish a process efficient in removing micro stickies is strongly required. In this study, the surface characteristic of micro stickies was investigated with contact angle measurement. Surface energies of MCC, PSA film and model micro stickies were 53.37 mN/m, 29.75mN/m, and 29.63mN/m, respectively. This indicates that the surface characteristic of MMS is very similar to PSA. Thus, solvent coating of PSA and evaporation of the solvent provided excellent model micro stickies for flotation experiment.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1997

The contamination structure and process on SUS 316 under various exposure conditions were investigated using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The metal-oxide, metal-H-oxides, CO, COH, and $C_xH_y$ are the main components of contaminants on the SUS surface. The compositional profiles of the contaminants are shown to be $C_xH_y$/CO(COH)/metal-oxide on SUS. The contamination proceeds in two steps. The oxidation of the metallic constituents followed by adsorption of hydrocarbons. Under UHV conditions the contamination is mainly due to the oxidation, and, as the exposure time increases, the oxidation continues. In HV or higher pressure, most of the oxides are formed almost immediately after exposure and as the exposure time increases the contamination of hydrocarbons continues to grow. For the SUS sample exposed to atmosphere, the metal oxide is distributed deep inside the surface with an exponentially decreasing concentration, and its thickness is nearly in the order of photoelectron mean free path. It is also seen that the Fe oxide is segregated over Cr oxide in the highly oxidized samples.