• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.2977-2983
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• 2023

During normal operation, some parts of the fission product in the defective fuel rods can release into the primary loops in PWR and the escape rate coefficients are widely used to assess quantitatively the release behaviors of fission products in the industry. The escape rate coefficients have been standardized and have been validated by some drilling experiments before the 1970s. In the paper, the model to determine the escape rate coefficients of fission products has been established and the typical escape rate coefficients of noble gas and iodine have been deduced based on the measured radiochemical data in one operating PWR. The result shows that the apparent escape rate coefficients vary with the release-to-birth and decay constants for different fission products of the same element. In addition, it is found that the escape rate coefficients from the defective rod with large defects are much higher than the standard escape rate coefficients, i.e., averagely 4.4 times and 1.8 times for noble gas and iodine respectively. The enhanced release of fission products from the severe secondary hydriding of several defective fuel rods in one cycle may lead to the potential risk of the temporary shutdown of the operating reactors.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the main cause of visibility impairment by analyzing the contributions of the light extinction coefficient of major air pollution components and the change of the light extinction coefficient by relative humidity. Methods: The characteristics of the light extinction coefficient calculated by the photochemical method using fine particle component data measured in 2015 in the Gwangju area were examined. Results: The extinction efficiency per unit mass of $PM_{2.5}$ particles was $4.5m^2/g$ and that of $PM_{10-2.5}$ particles was $0.6m^2/g$. This difference indicates that most of the visibility impairment in Gwangju was caused by $PM_{2.5}$ particles. When visibility was poor, the contribution of ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate was significantly increased. Relative humidity was also a major cause of visibility decay. The influx of air currents in Gwangju was mostly caused by the long distance movement of pollutants emitted from the eastern part of China. Ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate, which are hygroscopic secondary contaminants, were the main causative agents of visibility impairment. Conclusions: Ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate were the main causative agents of visibility impairment in Gwangju. The influx of air currents in Gwangju was mostly caused by the long distance movement of pollutants emitted from the eastern part of China.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.115-128
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• 2012

This paper investigates the effects of diffuser on the acoustical parameters in music hall with consideration of the result of scattering coefficient measurement. A scale model hall of 600 seats with orchestra shell was used for experiments. The materials of 1:50 scale model was chosen through absorption coefficient measurement based on ISO 354. The model was matched to the computer simulation model in terms of reverberation time. In order to evaluate the effect of diffuser location, the measurements were accomplished with and without diffusers according to 7 configurations by diffuser-installed region; sidewall, balcony front, ceiling and so on. The following acoustical parameters were extracted from each measurement case; Reverberation time (RT), Early decay time (EDT), Clarity (C80), Center time (Ts), Sound strength (G) and Temporal diffusion (TD) from the auto-correlation function (ACF) of impulse responses. As a result, the absorption power and diffusion power were increased with number of diffusers. Accordingly RT, EDT and G were decreased by diffuser and the redirection of reflections was occurred briskly. Averaged TD was 6.05 to 6.30 by measurement cases. RT was found to be the most related factor to diffusion power (R = 0.94). The correlation between TD and EDT was high (R = 0.73). In addition, the effects of diffuser-installed location were discussed in terms of acoustical parameter variation.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.367-371
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• 1986

Dynamic and equilibrium properties of n-alkane chains immersed in solvent molecules have been investigated by a molecular dynamics method. The n-alkane chain is assumed to be a chain of elements (CH$_2$) interconnected by bonds having a fixed bond length and bond angle, but each bond of the chain is allowed to execute hindered internal rotation. We studied the effect of the number of the chain elements (N$_c$ = 10, 15 and 20) on the equilibrium properties of the system, e.g., the pair correlation functions between a chain element and solvent molecules, g$_{cs}$(r), and between the chain elements, g$_{cc}$(r), and the configurational properties such as the mean-square end-to-end distance < R$^2$ >, the mean-square radius of gyration < S$^2$ >, and the eigenvalues of the moment-of-inertia tensor < S$_i^2$ > / < S$^2$ > (i = 1, 2 and 3). We also studied the dynamic properties of the system, e.g., the autocorrelation function C(A;t) where A = R$^2$(t), = S$^2$(t), or = ${\vec{V}}(t)({\vec{V}}$ = velocity of the center of mass), and the diffusion coefficient D. The g$_{cs}$(r)'s are almost equal irrespective of the change of Nc while g$_{cc}$(r) becomes larger as N$_c$ increases; The MD computed configurational properties < R$^2$2 > and < S$^2$ > were found to be a little different from the values calculated from the statistical equations of < R$^2$ > and < S$^2$ >, it may be due to the fact that our model for the MD simulations includes a long-range volume effect. From the < S$_i^2$ > / < S$^2$ >, it is found that the chain molecule has a nearly spherical shape irrespective of the variation of N$_c$. For the dynamic properties we found that the C(R$^2$;t) and C(S$^2$;t) of lower N$_c$ decay faster than those of higher N$_c$, while the C($\vec V$;t) of the center of mass in the chain is weakly dependent on the N$_c$. The center of mass diffusion coefficient D$_c$ decreases as N$_c$ increases while the end point diffusion coefficient D$_e$ is nearly equal irrespective of the change of N$_c$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.743-752
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• 2009

One of the major problems associated with operation of domestic sewer lines involves hydraulic problems such as insufficient conveyance capacity, exceeding maximum velocity, and deficiency of minimum velocity. It has also been pointed out that influent concentration lower than design concentration of pollutants, which is mainly caused by unidentified inflow and infiltration, degrades the operational efficiency of many sewage treatment plants (STPs). A computer-added analysis method supporting a coupled simulation of sewage quality and quantity is essentially required to evaluate the status of existing STPs and to improve their efficiency by a proper sewer rehabilitation work. In this study, dynamic water quality simulations were conducted using MOUSE TRAP to investigate the principal parameters that governs the changes of BOD, ${NH_4}^+$, and ${PO_4}^{3-}$3- concentrations within the sewer networks based on data acquired through on-site and laboratory measurements. The BOD, ${NH_4}^+$ and ${PO_4}^{3-}$3- concentrations estimated by MOUSE TRAP was lower than theoretical pollution loads because of sedimentation and decomposition in the sewer. The results revealed that sedimentation is a most important factor than other biological reactions in decreasing pollutant load in the sewers of C-city. The sensitivity analysis of parameters pertaining to water quality changes indicated that the effect of the BOD decay rate, the initial DO concentration, the half-saturation coefficient of dissolved BOD, and the initial sediment depth is marginal. However, the influence of settling rate and temperature is relatively high because sedimentation and precipitation, rather than biological degradation, are dominant processes that affect water quality in the study sewer systems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.122-126
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• 2002

Contaminant transport in porous media is characterized by solving an advection-dispersion equation(ADE). The ADE can cover equilibrium phenomena of interest, which include sorption, decay, and chemical reactions. Among these phenomena, sorption mechanism is described by several types of sorption isotherm. If we assume the sorption isotherm as linear, the solution of ADE can be easily procured. However, if we consider the sorption isotherm as non-linear isotherm like a Dual Reactive Domain Model (DRDM), the resulting differential equation becomes non-linear. In this case, the solution of ADE cannot be easily acquired by an analytic method. In this paper, we present the numerical analysis of ADE using a DRDM. The results reveal that even if sorption data may be fitted well using linear or non-linear isotherm, the characteristics of contaminant transport of the two cases are different from each other. To be concrete, the retardation of linear isotherm has stronger effect than that of the DRDM. As the non-linearity of sorption isotherm increases, the difference of retardation effects of the two cases becomes larger. For a pulse source, the maximum concentration of the linear model is higher than that of the DRDM, but the plume of the DRDM moves faster than that of the linear model. Behaviors of contaminant transport using the DRDM are consistent with common features of a linear model. For instance, biodegradation effect becomes larger as time goes by The faster the seepage velocity is, the faster the plume of contaminant moves. The plume of the contaminant is distributed evenly over overall domain in the event of high dispersion coefficient.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.409-413
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• 2005

A method to estimate the autotrophic maximum specific growth rate is presented in this paper. First of all, the concentration of nitrifier is simulated based on the amount of N nitrified, the sludge age and the default value for the decay coefficient. Secondly the OUR of the sludge with access of ammonia is measured. The maximum specific growth rate can be calculated as ${\mu}_{max,A}\;=\;OUR_{max,A}/Y_A$. It was demonstrated that the maximum specific growth rate of autotrophic biomass is not a constants but a time variable parameter. It is concluded that using $OUR_{max,A}$ for dynamic estimating maximum specific growth rate is a good approach and that using a constant value for the maximum specific growth rate over a longer period of time could not predict the performance of activated sludge plants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.533-539
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• 2020

A quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) was applied to estimate biokinetic coefficients of Clostridium cadaveris and Clostridium sporogenes, which utilize protein as carbon source. Experimental data on changes in peptone concentration and 16S rRNA gene copy numbers of C. cadaveris and C. sporogenes were fitted to model. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta approximation with non-linear least squares analysis was employed to solve the ordinary differential equations to estimate biokinetic coefficients. The maximum specific growth rate (μ_max), half-saturation concentration (K_s), growth yield (Y), and decay coefficient (K_d) of C. cadaveris and C.sporogenes were 0.73 ± 0.05 and 1.35 ± 0.32 h^-1, 6.07 ± 1.52 and 5.67 ± 1.53 g/l, 2.25 ± 0.75 × 10¹⁰ and 7.92 ± 3.71 × 10⁹ copies/g, 0.002 ± 0.003 and 0.002 ± 0.001 h^-1, respectively. The theoretical specific growth rate of C. sporogenes always exceeded that of C. cadaveris at peptone concentration higher than 3.62 g/l. When the influent peptone concentration was 5.0 g/l, the concentration of C.cadaveris gradually decreased to the steady value of 2.9 × 10¹⁰ copies/ml at 4 h Hydraulic retention time (HRT), which indicates a 67.1% reduction of the initial population, but the wash out occurred at HRTs of 1.9 and 3.2 h. The 16S rRNA gene copy numbers of C. sporogenes gradually decreased to steady values ranging from 1.1 × 10¹⁰ to 2.9 × 10¹⁰ copies/ml. C. sporogenes species was predicted to wash out at an HRT of 1.6 h.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.193-200
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• 2016

Sertraline, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), has been reported to lead to cardiac toxicity even at therapeutic doses including sudden cardiac death and ventricular arrhythmia. And in a SSRI-independent manner, sertraline has been known to inhibit various voltage-dependent channels, which play an important role in regulation of cardiovascular system. In the present study, we investigated the action of sertraline on Kv1.5, which is one of cardiac ion channels. The effect of sertraline on the cloned neuronal rat Kv1.5 channels stably expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells was investigated using the whole-cell patch-clamp technique. Sertraline reduced Kv1.5 whole-cell currents in a reversible concentration-dependent manner, with an $IC_{50}$ value and a Hill coefficient of $0.71{\mu}M$ and 1.29, respectively. Sertraline accelerated the decay rate of inactivation of Kv1.5 currents without modifying the kinetics of current activation. The inhibition increased steeply between -20 and 0 mV, which corresponded with the voltage range for channel opening. In the voltage range positive to +10 mV, inhibition displayed a weak voltage dependence, consistent with an electrical distance ${\delta}$ of 0.16. Sertraline slowed the deactivation time course, resulting in a tail crossover phenomenon when the tail currents, recorded in the presence and absence of sertraline, were superimposed. Inhibition of Kv1.5 by sertraline was use-dependent. The present results suggest that sertraline acts on Kv1.5 currents as an open-channel blocker.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.71-80
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• 2018

In patients with epilepsy, depression is a common comorbidity but difficult to be treated because many antidepressants cause pro-convulsive effects. Thus, it is important to identify the risk of seizures associated with antidepressants. To determine whether paroxetine, a very potent selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), interacts with ion channels that modulate neuronal excitability, we examined the effects of paroxetine on Kv3.1 potassium channels, which contribute to high-frequency firing of interneurons, using the whole-cell patch-clamp technique. Kv3.1 channels were cloned from rat neurons and expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Paroxetine reversibly reduced the amplitude of Kv3.1 current, with an $IC_{50}$ value of $9.43{\mu}M$ and a Hill coefficient of 1.43, and also accelerated the decay of Kv3.1 current. The paroxetine-induced inhibition of Kv3.1 channels was voltage-dependent even when the channels were fully open. The binding ($k_{+1}$) and unbinding ($k_{-1}$) rate constants for the paroxetine effect were $4.5{\mu}M^{-1}s^{-1}$ and $35.8s^{-1}$, respectively, yielding a calculated $K_D$ value of $7.9{\mu}M$. The analyses of Kv3.1 tail current indicated that paroxetine did not affect ion selectivity and slowed its deactivation time course, resulting in a tail crossover phenomenon. Paroxetine inhibited Kv3.1 channels in a use-dependent manner. Taken together, these results suggest that paroxetine blocks the open state of Kv3.1 channels. Given the role of Kv3.1 in fast spiking of interneurons, our data imply that the blockade of Kv3.1 by paroxetine might elevate epileptic activity of neural networks by interfering with repetitive firing of inhibitory neurons.