• Advances in environmental research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 2020

We provide the first study on the occurrence of microplastics in Dal lake, Kashmir, India. Microplastics act as catastrophe that trigger many environmental problems. The key origins of microplastics are larger plastics, which split into smaller plastics after UV light disintegration. There is relatively little work carried out on the existence of microplastics. The present work has been undertaken on the occurrence of microplastics at four pre-selected sites (surface water) in Dal lake, Kashmir. The samples were taken to the laboratory to dissolve organic matter by using H2O2 (6%). To speed up the organic digestion; the treated mixture was heated on a hot plate at 70℃. The mixture was then subjected to density separation. The supernatant obtained was observed under the microscope (10X) and measurements were taken. At site-I, the microplastics ranged from 2-3 mm, site-II 5-6 mm, site-III 3-4 mm, site-IV 4-5 mm in thickness, indicating the presence of microplastics in the lake. The presence of microplastics indicated that the lake has undergone an anthropogenic change over a period of time. Our research highlights the value of enhancing the quality of the drainage system and sewage disposal. This work can be helpful to recognize successful microplastic control management techniques and possible threats associated with the Dal lake. So far, no such data on the presence of microplastics in Kashmir lakes is available.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.21-28
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• 2022

Currently, as we enter the 21st century, the level and interest of society, culture, economy, and science are rapidly developing, but science education is still struggling. In order to increase the efficiency of science education, it is most important to focus on elementary education based on basic science. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the main causes of Korea's science museum's regression as a museum focusing on experience, interest, and fun such as simple science experience centers and science theme parks. To this end, the influencing factors were identified by applying the algorithm of the actor-based model based on the data on the exhibition space and the exhibition movement of the science museum completed and operated in Korea over the past 5 years, and the problem of the visitor movement in the exhibition space was analyzed through the space system. In this study, it was confirmed that the exhibition environment was the best when the linear plot movement system and the picalesque plot were applied simultaneously in the museum's exhibition narrative theory, and the arrangement of major exhibition spaces, width of exhibition spaces, and separation of spaces for exhibition purposes were derived.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.9-15
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• 2022

Discarded bio-wastes, such as seeds and rinds, cause environmental problems. Multiple studies have recycled bio-wastes as eco-friendly energy sources to solve these problems. This study uses bio-waste to fabricate a mandarin peel powder based triboelectric nanogenerator (MPP-TENG). The MPP-TENG is based on the contact separation mode. It generates an open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of 156V and 2µA, respectively. In addition, MPP-TENG shows stable operation over continuous 3000s without any deviation in output. Also, the device exhibits maximum power density of 5.3㎼/cm² when connected to a resistance of 100MΩ. In an energy storage capacity test for 1000s, the MPP-TENG stores an energy of 171.6µJ in a 4.7µF capacitor. The MPP-TENG can power 9 blue LEDs and 54 green lettering LEDs. These results confirm that the MPP-TENG can provide a new avenue for eco-friendly energy harvesting device fabrication.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2023

The global demand for raw lithium materials is rapidly increasing, accompanied by the demand for lithiumion batteries for next-generation mobility. The batch-type method, which selectively separates and concentrates lithium from seawater rich in reserves, could be an alternative to mining, which is limited owing to low extraction rates. Therefore, research on selectively separating and concentrating lithium using an electrodialysis technique, which is reported to have a recovery rate 100 times faster than the conventional methods, is actively being conducted. In this study, a lithium ion selective membrane is prepared using lithium lanthanum titanate, an oxide-based solid electrolyte material, to extract lithium from seawater, and a large-area membrane manufacturing process is conducted to extract a large amount of lithium per unit time. Through the developed manufacturing process, a large-area membrane with a diameter of approximately 20 mm and relative density of 96% or more is manufactured. The lithium extraction behavior from seawater is predicted by measuring the ionic conductivity of the membrane through electrochemical analysis.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.390-400
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• 2022

Nanofiltration (NF) membranes are more popular than reverse osmosis (RO) membranes as they can be operated at much lower pressures for applications in treatment of wastewater from industries like food processing and pharmaceutical as well as municipal sewage water. The separation mechanism in case of NF membranes is based on solution diffusion as well as sieving, for which the crosslinking density of the thin film of the composite membrane is less then RO membrane. Unlike ceramic membranes, membrane fouling is one of the chronic problems that occur during the nanofiltration process in polymeric membranes. Membrane cleaning is done to get rid of reversible as well as irreversible fouling by treatment with sodium hypochlorite. Compared to polymeric membranes, ceramic membranes show higher stability against these agents. In this review different types of ceramic membrane applied wastewater treatment by NF process are discussed.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.175-179
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• 2022

The physical properties of biomaterials are important for their isolation and separation from body fluids. In particular, the precise evaluation of the multi-physical properties of single biomolecules is essential in that the correlation between physical and biological properties of specific biomolecule. However, the majority of scientific equipment, can only determine specific-physical properties of single nanoparticles, making the evaluation of the multi-physical properties difficult. The improvement of analytical techniques for the evaluation of multi-physical properties is therefore required in various research fields. In this study, we developed a motion-tracking algorithm to evaluate the multi-physical properties of single-nanoparticles by analyzing their behavior. We observed the Brownian motion and electric-field-induced drift of fluorescent nanoparticles injected in a microfluidic chip with two electrodes using confocal microscopy. The proposed algorithm is able to determine the size of the nanoparticles by i) removing the background noise from images, ii) tracking the motion of nanoparticles using the circular-Hough transform, iii) extracting the mean squared displacement (MSD) of the tracked nanoparticles, and iv) applying the MSD to the Stokes-Einstein equation. We compared the evaluated size of the nanoparticles with the size measured by SEM. We also determined the zeta-potential and surface-charge density of the nanoparticles using the extracted electrophoretic velocity and the Helmholtz-Smoluchowski equation. The proposed motion-tracking algorithm could be employed in various fields related to biomaterial analysis, such as exosome analysis.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.447-457
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• 2023

Single-atom Pd clusters anchored on t-BaTiO₃ material was synthesized using hydrothermal and ultrasonic methods for the effective piezoelectric catalytic degradation of pollutants using vibration energy. XRD patterns of BaTiO₃ loaded with monoatomic Pd were obtained before and after calcining, and showed typical cubic-phase BTO. TEM and HAADF-STEM images indicated single-atom Pd clusters were successfully introduced into the BaTiO₃. The piezoelectric current density of the prepared Pd-BaTiO₃ binary composite was significantly higher than that of the pristine BaTiO₃. Under mechanical vibration, the nanomaterial exhibited a tetracycline decomposition rate of ~95 % within 7 h, which is much higher than the degradation rate of 56.7 % observed with pure BaTiO₃. Many of the piezo-induced electrons escaped to the Pd-doped BaTiO₃ interface because of Pd's excellent conductivity. Single-atom Pd clusters help promote the separation of the piezo-induced electrons, thereby achieving synergistic catalysis. This work demonstrates the feasibility of combining ultrasonic technology with the piezoelectric effect and provides a promising strategy for the development of ultrasonic and piezoelectric materials.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.353-360
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• 2007

Rapid urbanization and population increasing are making a high-rise residential building and high-density residential area. According to spacial concentration of population is occurred road traffic noise problem. Now we are popularly using almost only noise barrier installation, but it makes many disfunctions such as poor landscape, low noise barrier performance and crimes. The purpose of this research is to figure out which is best method one the traffic noise management. Alternative are composed to building layout type ($30^{\circ},\;90^{\circ},\;180^{\circ}$), separation between road and residential building, noise barrier types(noise barrier only, noise barrier and forests and etc). The noise barrier are shown to reduce barrier and building layout angle $30^{\circ}$ position is the best comparing with horizontal and vertical layouts. The gab distance is decreased approximately noise level 5dB(A). We figured out there are noise important method except noise barrier wall and it was analyzed how much decreased. This can be very useful before making a road planning and residential building design.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2024

Background: Although an understanding of the proliferation and differentiation of fish female germline stem cells (GSCs) is very important, an appropriate threedimensional (3D) research model to study them is not well established. As a part of the development of stable 3D culture system for fish female GSCs, we conducted this study to establish a 3D aggregate culture system of ovarian cells in marine medaka, Oryzias dancena. Methods: Ovarian cells were separated by Percoll density gradient centrifugation and two different cell populations were cultured in suspension to form ovarian cell aggregates to find suitable cell populations for its formation. Ovarian cell aggregates formed from different cell populations were evaluated by histology and gene expression analyses. To evaluate the media supplements, ovarian cell aggregate culture was performed under different media conditions, and the morphology, viability, size, gene expression, histology, and E2 secretion of ovarian cell aggregates were analyzed. Results: Ovarian cell aggregates were able to be formed well under specific culture conditions that used ultra-low attachment 96 well plate, complete mESM2, and the cell populations from top to 50% layers after separation of ovarian cells. Moreover, they were able to maintain minimal ovarian function such as germ cell maintenance and E2 synthesis for a short period. Conclusions: We established basic conditions for the culture of O. dancena ovarian cell aggregates. Additional efforts will be required to further optimize the culture conditions so that the ovarian cell aggregates can retain the improved ovarian functions for a longer period of time.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.1580-1591
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• 2024

Menopause is induced by spontaneous ovarian failure and leads to life quality deterioration with various irritating symptoms. Hormonal treatment can alleviate these symptoms, but long-term treatment is closely associated with breast and uterine cancer, and stroke. Therefore, developing alternative therapies with novel anti-menopausal substances and improved safety is needed. In our study, heat-killed Bifidobacterium breve HDB7040 significantly promoted MCF-7 cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner under estrogen-free conditions, similar to 17β-estradiol. This strain also triggered ESR2 expression, but not ESR1, in MCF-7 cells. Moreover, administrating HDB7040 to ovariectomized (OVX) Sprague-Dawley (SD) female rats reduced estrogen deficiency-induced weight gain, fat mass, blood triglyceride, and total cholesterol levels. It also recovered collapsed trabecular microstructure by improving trabecular morphometric parameters (bone mineral density, bone volume per tissue volume, trabecular number, and trabecular separation) and decreasing blood alkaline phosphatase levels with no significant changes in uterine size and blood estradiol. HDB7040 also significantly regulated the expression of Tff1, Pgr, and Esr2, but not Esr1 in uteri of OVX rats. Heat-killed B. breve HDB7040 exerts an anti-menopausal effect via the specific regulation of ERβ in vitro and in vivo, suggesting its potential as a novel substance for improving and treating menopausal syndrome.