• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.111-124
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• 2003

Processes that cause immobilization of contaminants in soil are of great environmental importance because they may lead to a considerable reduction in the bioavailability of contaminants and they may restrict their leaching into groundwater. Previous investigations demonstrated that pollutants can be bound to soil constituents by either chemical or physical interactions. From an environmental point of view, chemical interactions are preferred, because they frequently lead to the formation of strong covalent bonds that are difficult to disrupt by microbial activity or chemical treatments. Humic substances resulting from lignin decomposition appear to be the major binding ligands involved in the incorporation of contaminants into the soil matrix through stable chemical linkages. Chemical bonds may be formed through oxidative coupling reactions catalyzed either biologically by polyphenol oxidases and peroxidases, or abiotically by certain clays and metal oxides. These naturally occurring processes are believed to result in the detoxification of contaminants. While indigenous enzymes are usually not likely to provide satisfactory decontamination of polluted sites, amending soil with enzymes derived from specific microbial cultures or plant materials may enhance incorporation processes. The catalytic effect of enzymes was evaluated by determining the extent of contaminants binding to humic material, and - whenever possible - by structural analyses of the resulting complexes. Previous research on xenobiotic immobilization was mostly based on the application of $^{14}$ C-labeled contaminants and radiocounting. Several recent studies demonstrated, however, that the evaluation of binding can be better achieved by applying $^{13}$ C-, $^{15}$ N- or $^{19}$ F-labeled xenobiotics in combination with $^{13}$ C-, $^{15}$ N- or $^{19}$ F-NMR spectroscopy. The rationale behind the NMR approach was that any binding-related modification in the initial arrangement of the labeled atoms automatically induced changes in the position of the corresponding signals in the NMR spectra. The delocalization of the signals exhibited a high degree of specificity, indicating whether or not covalent binding had occurred and, if so, what type of covalent bond had been formed. The results obtained confirmed the view that binding of contaminants to soil organic matter has important environmental consequences. In particular, now it is more evident than ever that as a result of binding, (a) the amount of contaminants available to interact with the biota is reduced; (b) the complexed products are less toxic than their parent compounds; and (c) groundwater pollution is reduced because of restricted contaminant mobility.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.266-271
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• 2009

We designed a thermo-optic switch based on a directional coupler with not only a high extinction ratio but also significantly low power consumption. The switch operates by using the thermo-optic effect of the polymer which the refractive index changes by heating the electrode. If the electrode is not powered (OFF), the input light will be coupled completely to the other waveguide. When the electrode is powered at a certain level (ON), input light launched into the input waveguide will remain in that waveguide due to the lower index adjusted in the other waveguide. The switch based on the directional coupler was designed using the generalized extinction ratio curve and the lateral shift of the input waveguide. The coupling length is 1,610 ${\mu}m$ and the extinction ratios are -28 and -30 dB for ON and OFF states, respectively. The electrode structures were optimized by thermal analysis. The transported heat into the waveguide is increased, as the electrode width (w) is increased and the center distance between the electrode and the waveguide (d) is decreased. Also, because the heat generated in the electrode affects the other waveguide, the temperature difference between two waveguides is varied as the given w and d. There are specific conditions which have the maximum of the temperature difference. That of the temperature difference is increased as the width and the temperature of the electrode are increased. Especially, when the switch is designed using the condition with the maximum of the temperature difference for switching, the temperature of the electrode can be decreased. We expect this condition will be the novel method for the reduction of the power consumption in a thermo-optic switch.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.18 no.1 s.116
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• pp.62-75
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• 2007

This paper describes a shaped-beam antenna for increasing the antenna gain of a radiating element. The proposed antenna structure is composed of an exciting element and a multi-layered disk array structure(MDAS). The stack micro-strip patch elements were used as the exciter for effectively radiating the electromagnetic power to the MDAS over the broadband, and finite metallic disk array elements - which give the role of a director for shaping the antenna beam with the high gain - were finitely and periodically layered onto it. The efficient power coupling between the exciter and the MDAS should be carried out in such a way that the proposed antenna has a high gain characteristic. The design parameters of the exciter and the MDAS should be optimized together to meet the required specifications to meet the required specifications. In this study, a shaped-beam antenna with high gain was optimally designed under the operating conditions with a linear polarization and the frequency band of $9.6{\sim}10.4\;GHz$. Two methods constructed using thin dielectric film and dielectric foam materials respectively were also proposed in order to implement the MBAS of the antenna. In particular, through the computer simulation process, the electrical performance variations of the antenna with the MDAS realized by the thin dielectric film materials were shown according to the number of disk array elements in the stack layer. Two kinds of antenna breadboard with the MDAS realized with the thin dielectric film and dielectric foam materials were fabricated, but experimentation was conducted only on the antenna breadboard(Type 1) with the MDAS realized with the thin dielectric film materials according to the number of disk array elements in the stack layer in order to compare it with the electrical performance variations obtained during the simulation. The measured antenna gain performance was found to be in good agreement with the simulated one, and showed the periodicity of the antenna gain variations according to the stack layer number of the disk array elements. The electrical performance of the Type 1 antenna was measured at the center frequency of 10 GHz. As the disk away elements became the ten stacks, a maximum antenna gain of 15.65 dBi was obtained, and the measured return loss was not less than 11.4 dB within the operating band. Therefore, a 5 dB gain improvement of the Type 1 antenna can be obtained by the MDAS that is excited by the stack microstrip patch elements. As the disk array elements became the twelve stacks, the antenna gain of the Type 1 was measured to be 1.35 dB more than the antenna gain of the Type 2 by the outer dielectric ring effect, and the 3 dB beam widths measured from the two antenna breadboards were about $28^{\circ}$ and $36^{\circ}$ respectively.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.858-863
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• 2010

The blueberry farming requires the soil condition of well-drainage, pH of 4.5 to 5.2, and high in organic matters for stable growth and development. Most of soil type of cultivated land in Korea, however, belongs to alkaline soils with low organic matter content and poor drainage. Therefore, the blueberry farmers use peat moss heavily to improve the soil condition, but the guideline on the effective and economic ratio of peat moss is not established yet. This study was performed to determine the cost effective peat moss ratio for amending soils, and to investigate the feasibility of using sawdust and coco peat as soil amendments. Peat moss, coco peat and sawdust are mixed with soil at the ratio of 0, 12.5, 50 and 100% (v/v). Among 3 organic materials with various mixture ratios, the pH of soil was the lowest in 100% peat moss and sawdust mixtures (pH 3.67 and pH 3.73, respectively), followed by pH 5.30 at 50% peat moss. The soil organic matter content are directly proportional to the mixture ratios in all three organic materials and the same trend was observed in the variation of content of exchangeable potassium in the coco peat treatments. On the contrary, the content of available phosphate, exchangeable calcium and magnesium decreased with increasing the ratio of organic materials. The nitrogen content in the leaves decreased as increasing the ratio of peat moss and coco peat in soil, but not of sawdust. The content of phosphate decreased but potassium increased as the ratio of sawdust and coco peat increased. There was no clear difference in the contents of magnesium and calcium among 3 organic materials. The plant height, stem diameter and dry weight of blueberry plants were the highest in 50 % peat moss, followed by 12.5% peat moss and 12.5% coco peat. The plants in 100% peat moss showed very poor growth. It can be concluded that peatmoss, when applied and managed appropriately, will be a good material for improving soil condition as well as securing desirable growth for blueberry. Upon coupling economic aspect, the optimum mixing ratio of peatmoss for blueberry farming is approximately 25-50%.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.243-248
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• 2022

As the scope of use of portable and wearable electronic devices is expanding, the limitations of heavy and bulky solid-state batteries are being revealed. Given that, it is urgent to develop a small energy harvesting device that can partially share the role of a battery and the utilization of energy sources that are thrown away in daily life is becoming more important. Contact electrification, which generates electricity based on the coupling of the triboelectric effect and electrical induction when the two material surfaces are in contact and separated, can effectively harvest the physical and mechanical energy sources existing in the surrounding environment without going through a complicated intermediate process. Recently, the interest in the harvest and utilization of wind energy is growing since the wind is an infinitely ecofriendly energy source among the various environmental energy sources that exist in human surroundings. In this study, the optimization of the energy harvesting device for the effective harvest of wind energy based on the contact electrification was analyzed and then, the utilization strategy to maximize the utilization of the generated electricity was investigated. Natural wind based Fluttering TENG (NF-TENG) using fluttering film was developed, and design optimization was conducted. Moreover, the safe high voltage generation system was developed and a plan for application in the field requiring high voltage was proposed by highlighting the unique characteristics of TENG that generates low current and high voltage. In this respect, the result of this study demonstrates that a portable energy harvesting device based on the contact electrification shows great potential as a strategy to harvest wind energy thrown away in daily life and use it widely in fields requiring high voltage.