• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.179-186
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• 2019

This work investigated the effects of different conductive agents on the electrochemical properties of anodes. SiOx possesses high theoretical capacity and shows excellent cycle performance; however, the low initial coulombic efficiency and poor electrical conductivity limit its applications in real batteries. In this study, electrodes were fabricated using two different conductive agents, and the resulting physical and electrochemical properties were analyzed. SEM observations confirmed the formation of a CNT conductive network throughout the electrodes, while the electrical conductivity contributed to the electrode was confirmed by impedance measurements. Thus, the electrode fabricated with the CNT conductive agent showed greater capacity and superior cycle performance than did the electrode fabricated using the DB conductive agent.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1003-1019
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• 2019

Threshold ring signature scheme enables any t entities from N ring members to spontaneously generate a publicly verifiable t-out-of-N signature anonymously. The verifier is convinced that the signature is indeed generated by at least t users from the claimed group, but he cannot tell them apart. Threshold ring signatures are significant for ad-hoc groups such as mobile ad-hoc networks. Based on the lattice-based ring signature proposed by Melchor et al. at AFRICRYPT'13, this work presents a lattice-based threshold ring signature scheme, employing the technique of message block sharing proposed by Choi and Kim. Besides, in order to avoid the system parameter setup problems, we proposed a message processing technique called "pad-then-permute", to pre-process the message before blocking the message, thus making the threshold ring signature scheme more flexible. Our threshold ring signature scheme has several advantages: inherits the quantum immunity from the lattice structure; has considerably short signature and almost no signature size increase with the threshold value; provable to be correct, efficient, indistinguishable source hiding, and unforgeable.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.214-222
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• 2017

Objectives: A hospital is a complex building that serves many different purposes. The indoor environment in a hospital plays a major role in patient well-being and the work efficiency of the hospital staff. This study was conducted to evaluate overall comfort in two major hospitals over the course of one year. Methods: Various indoor environmental conditions were measured in two general hospitals for one year (April 2014 to April 2015). Monitoring alternated between the hospitals at one month per respective monitoring session. The indoor air temperature, relative humidity (RH), mean radiant temperature and air velocity were measured in order to calculate the predicted mean vote (PMV). Carbon dioxide concentration, noise level and illumination level were concurrently measured and applied to the overall IEQ acceptance model for the hospitals (IEQh). Results: The IEQh at the two general hospitals was different at five spaces within a building. The IEQh for summer and winter were significantly different. Real-time IEQh demonstrated that indoor comfort was affected by the hospital's operating hours due to operation of the HVAC system. The percentage of indoor comfort in the hospitals was higher using PMV than IEQh. Conclusion: IEQh in the hospitals was different at locations with different purposes. Indoor comfort assessment using IEQh was stricter than with PMV. Additional research is needed in order to optimize the IEQh model.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2002

Essential hypertension is complex disorder influenced by multiple genetic and environmental factors. Alterations of lipid metabolism in plasma have been reported to be related to an increased risk of essential hypertension. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between two SNPs of the human LDL receptor and CETP gene and hypertension in Korean population. There were no significant differences in allele and genotype frequencies of two SNPs in normotensives and hypertensives. With respect to Hinc II RFLP in the LDL receptor gene, pooled odds ratio value indicated the significant heterogeneity among populations studied by meta-analysis (Breslow-Day test df = 2, P<0.05). In the case of Bam HI RFLP in the CETP gene,. our study is the first report of an association between the SNP of the CETP gene and hypertension, although our result failed to demonstrate the significant association between the Bam HI RFLP of the CETP gene and hypertension in Korean population. Further work, using larger sample sizes and various ethnic groups, is required to establish the precise role of these two candidate gene polymorphisms on hypertension.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.139-145
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• 2015

Capacitive deionization (CDI) process is a novel approach for desalination of an aqueous salt solution. In the present study, an activated carbon cloth (ACC) is proposed as effective electrode material. Initially the carbon cloth was activated in 1 M and 8 M HNO₃ for 9 hours at room temperature. The untreated and chemically activated carbon cloth (ACC) electrode materials were subjected to BET surface area measurements in order to get information about their specific surface area, average pore size, total pore volume and micropore area. The above materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) also. The electrochemical studies for the electrodes were done using cyclic voltammetry (CV) in 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ medium. From the studies, it was found that resistivity of the activated carbon cloth electrodes (treated in 1 M and 8 M HNO₃) was decreased significantly by the chemical oxidation in nitric acid at room temperature and its capacitance was found to be 90 F/g (1 M HNO₃) and 154 F/g (8 M HNO₃) respectively in 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ solution. The capacitive deionization behavior of a single cell CDI with activated carbon cloth electrodes was also studied and reported in this work.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1433-1441
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• 2015

Pollution resulting from the discharge of textile dyes into water systems has become a major global concern. Because peroxidases are known for their ability to decolorize and detoxify textile dyes, the peroxidase activity of Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) has recently been studied. It is found that VHb and variants of this enzyme show great promise for enzymatic decolorization of dyes and may play a role in achieving their successful removal from industrial wastewater. The level of VHb peroxidase activity correlates with two amino acid residues present within the conserved distal pocket, at positions 53 and 54. In this work, sitedirected mutagenesis of these residues was performed and resulted in improved VHb peroxidase activity. The double mutant, Q53H/P54C, shows the highest dye decolorization and removal efficiency, with 70% removal efficiency within 5 min. UV spectral studies of Q53H/P54C reveals a more compact structure and an altered porphyrin environment (λ_Soret = 413 nm) relative to that of wild-type VHb (λ_Soret = 406), and differential scanning calorimetry data indicate that the VHb variant protein structure is more stable. In addition, circular dichroism spectroscopic studies indicate that this variant's increased protein structural stability is due to an increase in helical structure, as deduced from the melting temperature, which is higher than 90℃. Therefore, the VHb variant Q53H/P54C shows promise as an excellent peroxidase, with excellent dye decolorization activity and a more stable structure than wild-type VHb under high-temperature conditions.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.1976-1980
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• 2006

We have calculated the reaction probability and the reaction cross-section of the $N(^4S)+O_2(X^3\sum_{g}^{-})\;\rightarrow\;NO(X^2\Pi)+O(^3P)$ reaction by the quasiclassical trajectory method with the 6th-order explicit symplectic algorithm, based on a new ground potential energy surface. The advantage of the 6th-order explicit symplectic algorithm, conserving both the total energy and the total angular momentum of the reaction system during the numerical integration of canonical equations, has firstly analyzed in this work, which make the calculation of the reaction probability more reliable. The variation of the reaction probability with the impact parameter and the influence of the relative translational energy on the reaction cross-section of the reaction have been discussed in detail. And the fact is found by the comparison that the reaction probability and the reaction cross-section of the reaction estimated in this work are more reasonable than the theoretical ones determined by Gilibert et al.

• Fibers and Polymers
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.27-31
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• 2003

A major concern in solvent extraction process is the loss of extractant into the aqueous phase due to its slight solubility in the aqueous phase. Similarly, in membrane extraction processes, extractant loss through extractant leakage from the membrane into the aqueous phase is also a concern. Several published membrane extraction studies using Aliquat 336 ai the extractant, have expressed this concern, but none has studied extractant leakage quantitatively. It is the authors' opinion that the extractant leakage should be considered at a technical parameter of a membrane. In our laboratory active progress has been made in using Aliquat 336 ‘entangled’ into the polymer membranes to remove heavy metal ions from wastewater samples. In this work, we studied the loss of Aliquat 336 from the point of view of its solubility in aqueous solutions. The results showed that the solubilities or Aliquat 3,36 in an aqueous phase acidified with 2 M HCI it about 0.1 g/100 m/ of the solution. This figure provides a useful guideline for evaluating the leakage of the Aliquatoat 336 extractant from the membranes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1838-1854
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• 2023

This paper presents a hybrid algorithm to solve the multi-objective path planning (MOPP) problem for mobile robots in a static nuclear accident environment. The proposed algorithm mimics a real nuclear accident site by modeling the environment with a two-layer cost grid map based on geometric modeling and Monte Carlo calculations. The proposed algorithm consists of two steps. The first step optimizes a path by the hybridization of improved ant colony optimization algorithm-modified A^* (IACO-A^*) that minimizes path length, cumulative radiation dose and energy consumption. The second module is the high radiation dose rate avoidance strategy integrated with the IACO-A^* algorithm, which will work when the mobile robots sense the lethal radiation dose rate, avoiding radioactive sources with high dose levels. Simulations have been performed under environments of different complexity to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, and the results show that IACO-A^* has better path quality than ACO and IACO. In addition, a study comparing the proposed IACO-A^* algorithm and recent path planning (PP) methods in three scenarios has been performed. The simulation results show that the proposed IACO-A^* IACO-A^* algorithm is obviously superior in terms of stability and minimization the total cost of MOPP.

• Metals and materials international
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1193-1201
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• 2018

Dilatometry is a useful technique to obtain experimental data concerning transformation. In this paper, a dilation conversional model was established to calculate carbides fraction in AISI H13 hot-work tool steel based on the measured length changes. After carbides precipitation, the alloy contents in the matrix changed. In the usual models, the content of carbon atoms after precipitation is considered as the only element that affects the lattice constant and the content of the alloy elements such as Cr, Mo, Mn, V are often ignored. In the model introduced in this paper, the alloying elements (Cr, Mo, Mn, V) changes caused by carbides precipitation are incorporated. The carbides were identified using scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope. The relationship between lattice constant of carbides and temperature are measured by high-temperature X-ray diffraction. The results indicate that the carbides observed in all specimens cooled at different rates are V-rich MC and Cr-rich $M_{23}C_6$, and most of them are V-rich MC, only very few are Cr-rich $M_{23}C_6$. The model including the effects of substitutional alloying elements shows a good improvement on carbides fraction predictions. In addition, lower cooling rate advances the carbides precipitation for AISI H13 specimens. The results between experiments and mathematical model agree well.