• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.544-551
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• 2020

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a simultaneous analytical method for berberine and palmatine, which are representative substances of Phellodendron amurense, and to evaluate the antioxidant activity. We evaluated the specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantification (LOQ) of analytical methods for berberine and palmatine using high-performance liquid chromatography. Our result showed that the correlation coefficients of the calibration curve for berberine and palmatine exhibited 0.9999. The LODs for berberine and palmatine were 0.32 to 0.35 µg/mL and the LOQs were 0.97 to 1.06 µg/mL, respectively. The inter-day and intra-day precision values for berberine and palmatine were from 0.12 to 1.93 and 0.19 to 2.89%, respectively. The inter-day and intra-day accuracies were 98.43-101.45% and 92.39-100.60%, respectively. In addition, the simultaneous analytical method was validated for the detection of berberine and palmatine. Moreover, we conducted FRAP and NaNO2 scavenging activity assays to measure the antioxidant activities of berberine and palmatine, and both showed antioxidant activity. These results suggest that P.amurense could be a potential natural resource for antioxidant activity and that the efficacy can be confirmed by investigating the content of the berberine and palmatine.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.155-173
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• 2022

Purpose: This study was undertaken to update the Nutrition Quotient for Elderly (NQ-E), which reflects dietary quality and behavior among Korean older adults. Methods: The first 29 items of the measurable food behavior checklist were obtained from a previous NQ-E checklist, recent literature reviews, and national nutrition policies and recommendations. One-hundred subjects (50 men and 50 women) aged ≥ 65 years living in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, including Gyeonggi Province, completed a pilot survey from March to April 2021. Based on the results of the pilot study, we conducted factor analysis and frequency analysis to determine whether the items of the survey were properly organized and whether the distribution of answers for each evaluation item was properly distributed. As a result, we reduced the number of items on the food behavior checklist and used 23 items for the national survey. Nationwide, 1,000 subjects (472 men and 528 women) aged > 65 years, completed the checklist survey, which was applied using a face-to-face survey method from May to August 2021. The construct validity of the NQ-E 2021 was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis, LISREL. Results: Seventeen food behavior checklist items were selected for the final NQ-E 2021. Checklist items addressed three factors: balance (8 items), moderation (2 items), and practice (7 items). Standardized path coefficients were used as the weights of items to determine nutrition quotients. NQ-E and three-factor scores were calculated according to the weights of questionnaire items. Conclusion: The updated NQ-E 2021 produced by structural equation modelling provides a suitable tool for assessing the dietary quality and behavior of Korean older adults.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.78-85
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• 2022

Natural white clay was treated with 6 M of H₂SO₄ and heated at 80℃ for 6 h under mechanical stirring and the resulting acid active clay was used as an adsorbent for the removal of Cs⁺ in water. The physicochemical changes of natural white clay and acid active clay were observed by X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF), BET Surface Area Analyser and Energy Dispersive X-line Spectrometer (EDX). While activating natural white clay with acid, the part of Al₂O₃, CaO, MgO, SO₃ and Fe₂O₃ was dissolved firstly from the crystal lattice, which bring about the increase in the specific surface area and the pore volume as well as active sites. The specific surface area and the pore volume of acid active clay were roughly twice as high compared with natural white clay. The adsorption of Cs⁺ on acid active clay was increased rapidly within 1 min and reached equilibrium at 60 min. At 25 mg L^- of Cs⁺ concentration, 96.88% of adsorption capacity was accomplished by acid active clay. The adsorption data of Cs⁺ were fitted to the adsorption isotherm and kinetic models. It was found that Langmuir isotherm was described well to the adsorption behavior of Cs⁺ on acid active clay rather than Freundlich isotherm. For adsorption Cs⁺ on acid active clay, the Langmuir isotherm coefficients, Q, was found to be 10.52 mg g^-1. In acid active clay/water system, the pseudo-second-order kinetic model was more suitable for adsorption of Cs⁺ than the pseudo-first-order kinetic model owing to the higher correlation coefficient R² and the more proximity value of the experimental value q_e,exp and the calculated value q_e,cal. The overall results of study showed that acid active clay could be used as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of Cs⁺ from water.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.33
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• pp.89-97
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare and evaluate the dose change according to the gas volume variations in the rectum, which was not included in the treatment plan during radiation therapy for cervical cancer. Materials and methods: Static Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (S-IMRT) using a 9-field and Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) using 2 full-arcs were established with treatment planning system on Computed Tomography images of a human phantom. Random gas parameters were included in the Planning Target Volume(PTV) with a maximum change of 2.0 cm in increments of 0.5 cm. Then, the Conformity Index (CI), Homogeneity Index (HI) and PTV D_max for the target volume were calculated, and the minimum dose (D_min), mean dose (D_mean) and Maximum Dose (D_max) were calculated and compared for OAR(organs at risk). For statistical analysis, T-test was performed to obtain a p-value, where the significance level was set to 0.05. Result: The HI coefficients of determination(R²) of S-IMRT and VMAT were 0.9423 and 0.8223, respectively, indicating a relatively clear correlation, and PTV D_max was found to increase up to 2.8% as the volume of a given gas parameter increased. In case of OAR evaluation, the dose in the bladder did not change with gas volume while a significant dose difference of more than D_mean 700 cGy was confirmed in rectum using both treatment plans at gas volumes of 1.0 cm or more. In all values except for D_mean of bladder, p-value was less than 0.05, confirming a statistically significant difference. Conclusion: In the case of gas generation not considered in the reference treatment plan, as the amount of gas increased, the dose difference at PTV and the dose delivered to the rectum increased. Therefore, during radiation therapy, it is necessary to make efforts to minimize the dose transmission error caused by a large amount of gas volumes in the rectum. Further studies will be necessary to evaluate dose transmission by not only varying the gas volume but also where the gas was located in the treatment field.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.278-295
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• 2022

Purpose: This study was undertaken to revise and update the Nutrition Quotient (NQ) for Korean adults, a tool used to evaluate dietary quality and behavior. Methods: The first 31 items of the measurable food behavior checklist were adopted based on considerations of the previous NQ checklist, recent literature reviews, national nutrition policies, and recommendations. A pilot survey was conducted on 100 adults aged 19 to 64 residing in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province from March to April 2021 using a provisional 26- item checklist. Pilot survey data were analyzed using factor analysis and frequency analysis to determine whether checklist items were well organized and responses to questions were well distributed, respectively. As a result, the number of items on the food behavior checklist was reduced to 23 for the nationwide survey, which was administered to 1,000 adults (470 men and 530 women) aged 19 to 64 from May to August 2021. The construct validity of the developed NQ (NQ-2021) was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis, linear structural relations. Results: Eighteen items in 3 categories, that is, balance (8 items), moderation (6 items), and practice (4 items), were finally included in NQ-2021 food behavior checklist. 'Balance' items addressed the intake frequencies of essential foods, 'moderation' items the frequencies of unhealthy food intakes or behaviors, and 'practice' items addressed eating behaviors. Items and categories were weighted using standardized path coefficients to calculate NQ-2021 scores. Conclusion: The updated NQ-2021 appears to be suitable for easily and quickly assessing the diet qualities and behaviors of Korean adults.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.spc1
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• pp.1107-1118
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• 2021

Climate change brought on by global warming increased the frequency of flood and drought on the Korean Peninsula, along with the casualties and physical damage resulting therefrom. Preparation and response to these water disasters requires national-level planning for water resource management. In addition, watershed-level management of water resources requires flow duration curves (FDC) derived from continuous data based on long-term observations. Traditionally, in water resource studies, physical rainfall-runoff models are widely used to generate duration curves. However, a number of recent studies explored the use of data-based deep learning techniques for runoff prediction. Physical models produce hydraulically and hydrologically reliable results. However, these models require a high level of understanding and may also take longer to operate. On the other hand, data-based deep-learning techniques offer the benefit if less input data requirement and shorter operation time. However, the relationship between input and output data is processed in a black box, making it impossible to consider hydraulic and hydrological characteristics. This study chose one from each category. For the physical model, this study calculated long-term data without missing data using parameter calibration of the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a physical model tested for its applicability in Korea and other countries. The data was used as training data for the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) data-based deep learning technique. An anlysis of the time-series data fond that, during the calibration period (2017-18), the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and the determinanation coefficient for fit comparison were high at 0.04 and 0.03, respectively, indicating that the SWAT results are superior to the LSTM results. In addition, the annual time-series data from the models were sorted in the descending order, and the resulting flow duration curves were compared with the duration curves based on the observed flow, and the NSE for the SWAT and the LSTM models were 0.95 and 0.91, respectively, and the determination coefficients were 0.96 and 0.92, respectively. The findings indicate that both models yield good performance. Even though the LSTM requires improved simulation accuracy in the low flow sections, the LSTM appears to be widely applicable to calculating flow duration curves for large basins that require longer time for model development and operation due to vast data input, and non-measured basins with insufficient input data.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.303-314
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• 2021

To understand how to efficiently observe the biomass and community of phytoplankton, phytoplankton sampling was carried out from June to October 2019 at the Yeongju dam sediment control reservoir(YJ) and Bohyeonsan dam reservoir(BH1 and BH2). The results derived from microscopic observation, such as the conventional phytoplankton qualitative/quantitative analysis, and from the CHEMTAX method based on the pigments, were compared. The relative contribution of phytoplankton, calculated by the microscopy and CHEMTAX methods, showed a significant difference in all four classes: cryptophyta, chlorophyta, cyanobacteria, and diatoms. In addition, the correlation between the two observation methods was poor. This might be caused by methodological differences in microscopy that do not consider the varying cell sizes among phytoplankton species. In this study, by converting the cells into carbon, the slope between both carbon biomasses based on microscopy and CHEMTAX was improved close to the 1 : 1 line, and the y-intercept was closer to 0 for cryptophyta and diatoms. For cyanobacteria, the slope increased, the y-intercept decreased, and the plot approached 1 : 1 although the correlation coefficients were not improved in all classes. The present study suggests that application of CHEMTAX based on pigment analysis could be a possible approach to efficiently determine the relative carbon proportions of individual classes of phytoplankton community composition.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.197-202
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• 2021

In this study, activated clay treated with H₂SO₄ (20% by weight) and heat at 90 ℃ for 8 h for acid white soil was used as an adsorbent for the removal of PO₄^3--P in water. Prior to the adsorption experiment, the characteristics of activated clay was examined by X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) and BET surface area analyser. The adsorption of PO₄^3--P on activated clay was steeply increased within 0.25 h and reached equilibrium at 4 h. At 5 mg/L of low PO₄^3--P concentration, roughly 98% of adsorption efficiency was accomplished by activated clay. The adsorption data of PO₄^3--P were introduced to the adsorption isotherm and kinetic models. It was seen that both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms were applied well to describe the adsorption behavior of PO₄^3--P on activated clay. For adsorption PO₄^3--P on activated clay, the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm coefficients, K_F and Q, were found to be 8.3 and 20.0 mg/g, respectively. The pseudo-second-order kinetics model was more suitable for adsorption of PO₄^3--P in water/activated clay system owing to the higher correlation coefficient R² and the more proximity value of the experimental value q_e,exp and the calculated value q_e,cal than the pseudo-first-order kinetics model. The results of study indicate that activated clay could be used as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of PO₄³-P from water.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.167-176
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• 2021

When producing recycled asphalt mix, it is important that the old binder of reclaimed asphalt pavement(RAP) should be well melted during blending in the mixer. The recycled asphalt mix is produced by instant mixing(IM) of all materials(RAP, virgin asphalt and new aggregates) all together in the mixer. However, in the same recycled mix, the binder around RAP aggregate was found to show higher oxidation level than the binder coated around the virgin aggregate because the old binder of RAP was not rejuvenated properly while instant mixing. The partially-rejuvenated RAP binder is assumed to be a high stiffness point in IM recycled mix. In this study, the stage mixing(SM) method was introduced; blending RAP and virgin asphalt for the first stage, and then mixing all together with hot new aggregates for the second stage. To compare the effect of the two mixing methods on moisture resistance of recycled mixes, a statistical t-test was performed between SM and IM using indirect tensile strength(ITS) and tensile strength ratio(TSR). Three conditioning methods were used; a 16-h freezing and then 24-h submerging, 48-h submerging, and 72-h submerging in 60℃ water. It was found that the TSR(=ITS_wet/ITS_dry) values of the mixes prepared by SM was clearly higher than the IM mixes, and coefficients of variation of SM mixes were lower than the IM mixes. It was also observed that the ITS_WET of SM was significantly different from the IM at α=0.05 level by statistical t-test. The ITS_WET of SM mix was reduced less than the IM mix in severer conditioned mixes. Therefore, it was concluded that the stage mixing method was an important blending technique for producing better-quality of recycled asphalt mixes, which would show higher moisture resistance than the recycled mixes produced by conventional instant mixing.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.11-18
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• 2021

A novel microwave dielectric composite material for ultra-low temperature co-fired ceramics (ULTCC) with (1-x)BaWO₄-xBaV₂O₆ (x=0.54~0.85) composition was prepared by firing a mixture of BaWO₄ and BaV₂O₆. Shrinkage tests showed that the ceramic composite begins to densify at a temperature as low as 550℃ and can be sintered at 650℃ with 98% of relative density under the influence of BaV₂O₆. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that BaWO₄ and BaV₂O₆ coexisted and no secondary phase was detected in the sintered bodies, implying good chemical compatibility between the two phases. Near-zero temperature coefficients of the resonant frequency (𝛕_f) could be achieved by controlling the relative content of the two phases, due to their positive and negative 𝛕_f values, respectively. With increasing BaV₂O₆ (x from 0.53 to 0.85), the 𝛕_f value of the composites increased from -7.54 to 14.49 ppm/℃, ε_r increased from 10.08 to 11.17 and the quality factor (Q×f value) decreased from 47,661 to 37,131 GHz. The best microwave dielectric properties were obtained for x=0.6 samples with ε_r=10.4, Q×f=44,090 GHz, and 𝛕_f=-2.38 ppm/℃. Chemical compatibility experiments showed the developed composites are compatible with aluminum electrode during co-firing process.