• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.53-63
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• 2024

Alnus japonica is indigenous to korea and usually grows in wet lowlands and damp regions in the mountains. Oregonin, is known as a representative compound of the diarylheptanoid mainly found in Alnus species and has been reported to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. In this experiment, we conducted a study on the presence of orogonin in the native Alnus japonica from the Baekdudaegan mountain range in Korea. We collected a total of 30 samples from Chuncheon, Yangyang, and Jeongseon and conducted experiments. In the HPLC analysis, we confirmed that oregonin was detected in all samples. After the quantitative analysis, samples with the highest content from each region were selected and LC-MS/MS experiments were performed. As a result, the same molecular weight as oregonin, 477.2 m/z, was confirmed in all samples.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.757-766
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• 2012

In this study, we have examined concentration distribution and patterns of PCBs in waters, sediments and soils in an agricultural area of South Korea to investigate the relationship between PCBs sources and concentration levels. The concentration of PCBs in water samples were ranged from lower values below detection limit to 8.25 ug/L and the concentration of PCBs in sediment samples were ranged from lower values below detection limit to 76.67 ug/Kg. The concentration of PCBs in soil samples were ranged from lower values below detection limit to 23.51 ug/Kg. These contamination levels were far below the guideline values suggested for environmental quality assessment. The homologue patterns in samples varied from sample to sample, but isomer patterns were very similar with each other. PCB-138 and PCB-153 were predominant congeners in the soil and sediment, which were similar to the results obtained from previous studies. With these results, the assessment of potential sources of PCBs contamination in the sediments of the Nakdong river basin was performed. The principal components were extracted by Principal Component Analysis(PCA). As the result of PCA, it could be expected that PCBs in samples of this study were more affected by PCB products than combustion processes and mostly affected by already-known sources. The PCBs in the soil and sediment samples were related with commercial PCB products.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.629-637
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• 2005

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) were investigated in soil and pine needle samples taken from 16 sites of industrial and residential areas in Changwon, Korea to assess their distribution levels and to suggest the influence of industrial activities, PCDDs/DFs levels in the soil samples ranged from 0.57 to 20.79 pg I-TEQ/g dry weight with a mean value of 4.20 pg I-TEQ/g dry weight. PCDDs/DFs levels in the pine needle samples ranged from 0.39 to 8.75 pg I-TEQ/g dry weight with a mean value of 4.09 pg I-TEQ/g dry weight. In both soil and pine needle samples, the PCDDs/DFs concentrations in the industrial area sites were higher than those in the residential area sites. Homologue profiles in pine needle samples showed different patterns compared with soil samples. Based on the results of principal component analysis (PCA), it was confirmed that pine needles reflected a direct influence from local potential sources of PCDDs/DFs, showing a much higher degree of reflection than in soils. Pine needles are very useful as an indicator for monitoring or estimating the contamination of PCDDs/DFs in other areas which have been impacted by point pollution sources.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.294-305
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• 2005

The effectiveness of fly ash-, quicklime-, and quicklime-fly ash-based stabilization/solidification(S/S) in chromium(Cr) contaminated soils was investigated using modified semi-dynamic leaching tests. Artificial soil samples composed of kaolinite or montmorillonite contaminated with chromium nitrate(4000 mg $Cr^{3+}\;kg^{-1}$ of solid) were prepared and then subjected to S/S treatment using quicklime, fly ash, or quick lime-fly ash. The effectiveness of the treatment was evaluated by assessing the cumulative fraction of leached $Cr^{3+}$ as well as, by computing the effective diffusivity ($D_e$) and the leachability index (LX) of the treated samples. The reduction in $Cr^{3+}$ release for the untreated samples was more pronounced in the presence of montmorillonite, which was attributed to sorption. Treatment with quicklime, fly ash, or quick lime-fly ash was significantly effective in reducing $Cr^{3+}$ release most probably due to the formation of pozzolanic reaction products and $Cr(OH)_3$ precipitation. The most effective treatment was observed in montmorillonite-sand soil samples treated with quicklime-fly ash (99.8% removal). The mean $D_e$ decreased significantly and the mean LX was greater than 9 for all treated samples, indicating that the treated soils were acceptable for "controlled utilization". The mechanism controlling $Cr^{3+}$ leaching from all treated samples during the first 5 days appeared to be diffusion.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.345-351
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• 2018

An efficient, quick and low-cost extraction and clean up method for the determination of 14 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the agricultural water samples was optimized using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The extraction of the target compounds in water sample was carried out with acetonitrile, followed by partitioning promoted by the addition of salt. As a clean-up procedure, dispersive solid phase extraction was employed to purify the analytes of interest for GC-MS/MS analysis. This method was successfully applied for the quantification of PAHs in real water samples collected for the purpose of monitoring from the waterways located in Chungbuk (15 sites) and Gyeongbuk (6 sites), S. Korea. Phenanthrene (0.54 to $2.53{\mu}gL^{-1}$) was detected in all the water samples collected from both the sites. Fluoranthene was detected in the water samples collected from the two sites in Gyeongbuk province, but other PAHs were not determined in these water sampling sites. Based on these results, the determined PAHs were conducted using an environmental risk assessment. The risk characterization ratios (RCRs) for phenanthrene ranged from 0.37 to 3.21. These RCR values referred to as risk was not controlled because RCR values of some sites were greater than 1. In conclusion, it is proposed that the optimized method in combination with GC-MS/MS could be successfully employed for the determination of PAHs in any environmental samples including water samples.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.531-539
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• 2023

Self-absorption is the most important factor affecting the accuracy of gamma spectroscopy measurements in environmental samples. In particular, it is affected by other factors such as the chemical composition of the sample, geometric shape, thickness, density, atomic number, distance between the sample and detector, energy of the emitted gamma photon, and humidity coefficient or percentage in the sample. To test the calibration method, a 450 ml CRM standard source (9 nuclide) Marinelli beaker was used. Five soil samples among environmental samples were measured by density by applying the corrected values. Therefore, it can be seen that the self-absorption value is more effective for somewhat large and low photon energy. In the case of environmental samples, it was confirmed that the overall energy peak efficiency through self-absorption of the source greatly depends on the density of the sample.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.113-118
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• 2003

An investigation has been carried out on collision-induced dissociation (CID) in the development of an analytical protocol for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PARs) by ion trap tandem mass spectrometry. Two different considerations were used to choose the optimal CID conditions for complex matrix environmental samples, namely, to determine the highest signal-to-noise (SIN) ratio and the other to eliminate the background interferences originated from complex matrix samples. The PAR content of agricultural soil was measured to estimate overall distribution of PAR in throughout the country, we collected and analyzed 226 soil samples from paddy and upland soil. The average content of total PAR in all samples was 236 ${\mu}g$ $kg^{-1}$, and the range was from 23.3 to 2, 834 ${\mu}g$ $kg^{-1}$. The overall distribution of PAR was found to be closely related to the pollution sources, the size of city and the type of industry.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.24 no.E1
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• pp.54-62
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• 2008

Microbeam PIXE, often called micro-PIXE, is one of powerful tools for analyzing a wide range of elements for various samples. Moreover, it has important applications of interest to the atmospheric science. In the present study, a qualitative elemental imagination for various atmospheric environmental species was attempted using micro-PIXE. Especially, in combination with a novel individual droplet collection method and the micro-PIXE analytical technique, the chemical specification of various individual atmospheric samples could be carried out. Here, we briefly introduce the results of an application of micro-PIXE to the study of atmospheric environment. The detailed spatial resolution of multiple elements for various samples like individual ambient particles, individual raindrops, individual fog droplets, and individual snow crystals could be successfully achieved by scanning 2.6 MeV $H^+$ micro beam ($1{\sim}2{\mu}m$) accelerated by 3 MeV single-end accelerator.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2010

The biodiversity of eukaryotic plankton has commonly been used to evaluate the status of aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, an accurate and rapid method for species identification is needed to reveal the biodiversity of environmental water samples. To date, molecular methods have provided a great deal of information that has enabled identification of the hidden biodiversity in environmental samples. In this study, we utilized environmental polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and constructed the 18S nuclear ribosomal RNA clone library from environmental water samples in order to develop more efficient methods for species identification. For the molecular analysis, water samples were collected from the Seonakdong River (Gimhae Bridge) and the coast of Namhae，(Namhaedo). Colony PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism of PCR (PCR-RFLP) were then adopted to isolate unique clones from the 18S rDNA clone library. Restriction fragment length polymorphism pattern analysis of the Gimhae Bridge sample revealed 44 unique clones from a total of 60 randomly selected clones, while analysis of the Namhae sample revealed 27 unique clones from 150 clones selected at random. A BLAST search and subsequent phylogenetic analysis conducted using the sequences of these clones revealed hidden biodiversity containing a wide range of taxonomic groups (Heterokontophyta (7), Ciliophora (23), Dinophyta (1), Chytridiomycota (1), Rotifera (1) and Arthropoda (11) in the Gimhae Bridge samples Ciliophora (4), Dinophyta (3), Cryptophyta (1), Arthropoda (19) in the Namhae samples). Therefore, the molecular monitoring method developed here can provide additional information regarding the biodiversity and community structure of eukaryotic plankton in environmental samples and helps construct a useful database of biodiversity for aquatic ecosystems.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.134-142
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• 2018

The uranium isotopic ratio in environmental samples around nuclear facilities is important because it reveals information regarding illegal activities or anthropogenic pollution. Determination of uranium isotopes, however, is a challenging task requiring much labor and time because of the complex separation procedures and lengthy process. In this study, a rapid determination method for uranium isotopes in environmental samples was developed using. The sample was completely decomposed using the alkali fusion method. The separation procedure using extraction chromatography (UTEVA) was simplified in a single step without any further removal process for Si and major matrix elements. The established method can be completed within 3 h from sample dissolution to ICP-MS measurement. Most matrix elements and uranium isotopes in the soil samples were well separated and purified. Five types of were used to assess the method's accuracy and precision for a rapid uranium analysis method. The analytical accuracy for all CRM samples ranged from 95.1 % to 97.8 %, and the relative standard deviation was below 3.9 %. From the analytical results, one may draw conclusions that the evaluated method for uranium isotopes using alkali-fusion, the extraction chromatography process, and ICP-MS measurements is fast and fairly reliable owing to its recovering efficiencies. Thus, it is expected that the evaluated method can contribute to the improvement of environmental monitoring ability.