• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.355-367
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• 2016

Soil salinization refers to the buildup of salts in soil to a level toxic to plants. The major factors that contribute to soil salinity are the quality, the amount and the type of irrigation water used. The presented review discusses the different sources and causes of soil salinity. The effect of soil salinity on biological processes of plants is also discussed in detail. This is followed by a debate on the influence of salt on the nutrient uptake and growth of plants. Salinity decreases the soil osmotic potential and hinders water uptake by the plants. Soil salinity affects the plants K uptake, which plays a critical role in plant metabolism due to the high concentration of soluble sodium ($Na^+$) ions. Visual symptoms that appear in the plants as a result of salinity include stunted plant growth, marginal leaf necrosis and fruit distortions. Different strategies to ameliorate salt stress globally include breeding of salt tolerant cultivars, irrigation to leach excessive salt to improve soil physical and chemical properties. As part of an ecofriendly means to alleviate salt stress and an increasing considerable attention on this area, the review then focuses on the different plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) mediated mechanisms with a special emphasis on ACC deaminase producing bacteria. The various strategies adopted by PGPB to alleviate various stresses in plants include the production of different osmolytes, stress related phytohormones and production of molecules related to stress signaling such as bacterial 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) derivatives. The use of PGPB with ACC deaminase producing trait could be effective in promoting plant growth in agricultural areas affected by different stresses including salt stress. Finally, the review ends with a discussion on the various PGPB activities and the potentiality of facultative halophilic/halotolerant PGPB in alleviating salt stress.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1540-1554
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• 2023

To use nuclear energy sustainably, spent nuclear fuel, classified as high-level radioactive waste and inevitably discharged after electricity generation by nuclear power plants, must be managed safely and isolated from the human environment. In Korea, the land area is limited and the amount of high-level radioactive waste, including spent nuclear fuels to be disposed, is relatively large. Thus, it is particularly necessary to maximize disposal efficiency. In this study, a high-efficiency deep geological repository concept was developed to enhance disposal efficiency. To this end, design strategies and requirements for a high-efficiency deep geological repository system were established, and engineered barrier modules with a disposal canister for pressurized water reactor (PWR)-type and pressurized heavy water reactor type Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) plants were developed. Thermal and structural stability assessments were conducted for the repository system; it was confirmed that the system was suitable for the established strategies and requirements. In addition, the results of the nuclear safety assessment showed that the radiological safety of the new system met the Korean safety standards for disposal of high-level radioactive waste in terms of radiological dose. To evaluate disposal efficiency in terms of the disposal area, the layout of the developed disposal areas was assessed in terms of thermal limits. The estimated disposal areas were 2.51 km² and 1.82 km² (existing repository system: 4.57 km²) and the excavated host rock volumes were 2.7 Mm³ and 2.0 Mm³ (existing repository system: 4.5 Mm³) for thermal limits of 100 ℃ and 130 ℃, respectively. These results indicated that the area and the excavated volume of the new repository system were reduced by 40-60% compared to the existing repository system. In addition, methods to further improve the efficiency were derived for the disposal area for deep geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The results of this study are expected to be useful in establishing a national high-level radioactive waste management policy, and for the design of a commercial deep geological repository system for spent nuclear fuels.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.541-551
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• 2012

The effects of dietary additives and holding time on resistance and resilience of broiler chickens to Clostridium perfringens challenge were investigated by offering four dietary treatments. These were a negative control (basal), a positive control (Zn-bacitracin) and two dietary additives, mannanoligosaccharides (MOS), and acidifier. Two holding times included (a) immediate access to feed and water post hatch (FED) and (b) access to both feed and water 48 h post hatch (HELD). Chicks fed Zn-bacitracin had no intestinal lesions attributed to necrotic enteritis (NE), whereas chicks fed both MOS or acidifier showed signs of NE related lesions. All dietary treatments were effective in reducing the numbers of C. perfringens in the ileum post challenge. The FED chicks had heavier body weight and numerically lower mortality. The FED chicks also showed stronger immune responses to NE challenge, showing enhanced (p<0.05) proliferation of T-cells. Early feeding of the MOS supplemented diet increased (p<0.05) IL-6 production. The relative bursa weight of the FED chicks was heavier at d 21 (p<0.05). All the additives increased the relative spleen weight of the HELD chicks at d 14 (p<0.05). The FED chicks had increased villus height and reduced crypt depth, and hence an increased villus/crypt ratio, especially in the jejunum at d 14 (p<0.05). The same was true for the HELD chicks given dietary additives (p<0.05). It may be concluded that the chicks with early access to dietary additives showed enhanced immune response and gut development, under C. perfringens challenge. The findings of this study shed light on managerial and nutritional strategies that could be used to prevent NE in the broiler industry without the use of in-feed antibiotics.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.99-109
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• 2013

Increasing complexity of the basin environments makes it difficult for single decision maker to consider all relevant aspects of problem, and thus the uncertainty of decision making grows. This study attempts to develop an approach to quantify the spatial flood vulnerability of South Korea. Fuzzy TOPSIS is used to calculate individual preference by each group and then three GDM techniques (Borda count method, Condorcet method, and Copeland method) are used to integrate the individual preference. Finally, rankings from Fuzzy TOPSIS, TOPSIS, and GDM are compared with Spearman rank correlation, Kendall rank correlation, and Emond & Mason rank correlation. As a result, the rankings of some areas are dramatically changed by the use of GDM techniques. Because GDM technique in regional vulnerability assessment may cause a significant change in priorities, the model presented in this study should be considered for objective flood vulnerability assessment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1540-1553
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• 2019

A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a highly complex system-of-systems as manifested through its internal systems interdependence. The negative impact of such interdependence was demonstrated through the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. As such, there is a critical need for new strategies to overcome the limitations of current risk assessment techniques (e.g. the use of static event and fault tree schemes), particularly through simulation of the nonlinear dynamic feedback mechanisms between the different NPP systems/components. As the first and key step towards developing an integrated NPP dynamic probabilistic risk assessment platform that can account for such feedback mechanisms, the current study adopts a system dynamics simulation approach to model the thermal dynamic processes in: the reactor core; the secondary coolant system; and the pressurized water reactor. The reactor core and secondary coolant system parameters used to develop system dynamics models are based on those of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. These three system dynamics models are subsequently validated, using results from published work, under different system perturbations including the change in reactivity, the steam valve coefficient, the primary coolant flow, and others. Moving forward, the developed system dynamics models can be integrated with other interacting processes within a NPP to form the basis of a dynamic system-level (systemic) risk assessment tool.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.164-164
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• 2023

This study investigates the importance of flood-influencing factors on the accuracy of flood risk mapping using the integration of remote sensing-based and machine learning techniques. Here, the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and Random Forest (RF) algorithms integrated with GIS-based techniques were considered to develop and generate flood risk maps. For the study area of NAPA County in the United States, rainfall data from the 12 stations, Sentinel-1 SAR, and Sentinel-2 optical images were applied to extract 13 flood-influencing factors including altitude, aspect, slope, topographic wetness index, normalized difference vegetation index, stream power index, sediment transport index, land use/land cover, terrain roughness index, distance from the river, soil, rainfall, and geology. These 13 raster maps were used as input data for the XGBoost and RF algorithms for modeling flood-prone areas using ArcGIS, Python, and R. As results, it indicates that XGBoost showed better performance than RF in modeling flood-prone areas with an ROC of 97.45%, Kappa of 93.65%, and accuracy score of 96.83% compared to RF's 82.21%, 70.54%, and 88%, respectively. In conclusion, XGBoost is more efficient than RF for flood risk mapping and can be potentially utilized for flood mitigation strategies. It should be noted that all flood influencing factors had a positive effect, but altitude, slope, and rainfall were the most influential features in modeling flood risk maps using XGBoost.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.395-408
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• 2023

This study presents a novel method for addressing the issue of high-concentration contaminants (ammonium, phosphate, antibiotics) in leachate arising from decomposing livestock carcasses. Antibiotics, developed to eliminate microorganisms, often have low biodegradability and can persist in the ecosystem. This research proposes design elements to prevent contamination spread from carcass burial sites. The adsorbents used were low-grade charcoal (an industrial by-product), Alum-based Adsorbent (ABA), and Zeolite, a natural substance. These effectively removed the main leachate contaminants: low-grade charcoal for antibiotics (initial concentration 1.05 mg/L, removal rate 73.4%), ABA for phosphate (initial concentration 2.53 mg/L, removal rate 99.9%), and zeolite for ammonium (initial concentration 38.92 mg/L, removal rate 100.0%). The optimal mix ratio for purifying leachate is 1:1:10 of low-grade charcoal, ABA, and zeolite. The average adsorbent usage per burial site was 1,800 kg, costing KRW 2,000,000 per ton. The cost for the minimum leachate volume (about 12.4 m³) per site is KRW 2,880,000, and for the maximum volume (about 19.7 m³) is KRW 4,620,000. These findings contribute to resolving issues related to livestock carcass burial sites and suggest post-management strategies by advocating for the effective use of adsorbents in leachate purification.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.7-7
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• 2017

Unfavorable weather and soil conditions reduce rice yield and land and water productivity, aggravating existing encounters of poverty and food insecurity. These conditions are foreseen to worsen with climate change and with the unceasing irrational human practices that progressively debilitate productivity despite global appeals for more food. Our understanding of plant responses to abiotic stresses is advancing and is complex, involving numerous critical processes - each controlled by several genetic factors. Knowledge of the physiological and molecular mechanisms involved in signaling, response and adaptation, and in some cases the genes involved, is advancing. Moreover, the genetic diversity being unveiled within cultivated rice and its wild relatives is providing ample resources for trait and gene discovery, and this is being scouted for rice improvement using modern genomics and molecular tools. Development of stress tolerant varieties is now being fast-tracked through the use of DNA markers and advanced breeding strategies. Large numbers of drought, submergence and salt tolerant varieties were commercialized over recent years in South and Southeast Asia and more recently in Africa. These varieties are making significant changes in less favorable areas, transforming lives of smallholder farmers - progress considered incredulous in the past. The stress tolerant varieties are providing assurance to farmers to invest in better management of their crops and the ability to adjust their cropping systems for even higher productivity and more income, sparking changes analogous to that of the first green revolution, which previously benefited only favorable irrigated and rainfed areas. New breeding tools using markers for multiple stresses made it possible to develop more resilient, higher yielding varieties to replace the aging and obsolete varieties still dominating these areas. Varieties with multiple stress tolerances are now becoming available, providing even better security for farmers and lessening their production risks even in areas affected by complex and overlapping stresses. The progress made in these less favorable areas triggered numerous favorable changes at the national and regional levels in several countries in Asia, including adjusting breeding and dissemination strategies to accelerate outreach and enabling changes at higher policy levels, creating a positive environment for faster progress. Exploiting the potential of these less productive areas for food production is inevitable, to meet the escalating global needs for more food and sustained production systems, at times when national resources are shrinking while demand for food is mounting. However, the success in these areas requires concerted efforts to make use of existing genetic resources for crop improvement and establishing effective evaluation networks, seed production systems, and seed delivery systems to ensure faster outreach and transformation.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.401-408
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• 2007

The study aims to examine consumer awareness of green fashion products and demographic characteristics by subdividing environmentally conscious consumers of such products in the current domestic fashion market. It then compares the result with the characteristics of environmentally conscious consumers studied by 1999 in order to understand the trend of the consumer group in the fashion market and to promote the use of green fashion products. Marketing strategies for green fashion products suggested by the study are as follows: First, fashion firms are required to develop and publicize shops selling recycled or second-hand clothing that environmentally conscious consumers show constant interest. For instance, clothing patterns may be developed to enable consumers to make their kids' clothing easily at home, and various garments made from recycled materials may stimulate environmentally conscious consumers' desire to buy. Particularly, advanced technologies should be developed and publicized to manufacture garments that can excel existing ones made of normal materials in their features in order to satisfy consumers' interest in clothing made from recycled PET bottles. In addition, various natural dyes should be developed to decrease water pollution. Second, it seems imperative to develop clothing made of recycled knitted apparel that attracts consumers' interest more than ever, fashionable multi-purpose clothing, and environmentally friendly materials. As the use of natural fur or leather can cause the endangerment of wild animals and the destruction of the ecosystem, synthetic fur or leather may be used to develop sophisticated products with the same texture as real ones to attract environmentally conscious consumers' interest.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.136-143
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• 2002

Emission of methane and nitrous oxide affected by nitrogen fertilizer materials were measured simultaneously in rice paddy fields under flooding and intermittent irrigation in 2000. Studies focused on mitigating $CH_4$ emission from rice paddy fields are summarized and the possibilities and limits applied to world's rice cultivation are discussed. The mitigation options are water management, soil amendments, organic matter management, different tillage, rotation, and cultivar selection. Altering water management, in particular promoting midseason aeration by short-term drainage, is one of the most promising strategies, although these practices may be limited to the rice paddy fields where the irrigation system is well prepared. The test site was divided into two water managements: a continuously flooded plot which was maintained flooded by constant irrigation from May to September, and an intermittently drained plot in which short-term (20days) draining practices were performed one times during the flooding period. By total emission of GHGs converted by global warming potential (GWP), flooding plots were higher 170$\sim$208% than interimittent irrigation plots. For emission of GHGs in fertilizer materials, it was high in the order of Swine slurry>Urea+Rice straw>Urea>LCU. Basing on GHGs emission of urea fertilization under flooding as baseline GWP of urea fertilization and Latex-coated urea under intermittent irrigation showed lower GHGs emission by 41.4% and 55.8 respectively. In this case fertilizer use efficiency (kg unhulled rice/ of applied N) were 18.2$\sim$20.2 and 18.7$\sim$19.0 and 9.3 and 5.8$\sim$6.6 for Swine slurry and LCU and Urea+Rice straw and Urea in the continuously flooded and intermittently drained plot.