• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.847-870
• /
• 2023

The safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste requires accurate predictions of the long-term geochemical behavior of radionuclides. To achieve this, the present study was conducted to model geochemical behaviors of uranium (U), plutonium (Pu), and palladium (Pd) under different hydrogeochemical conditions that represent deep groundwater in Korea. Geochemical modeling was performed for five types of South Korean deep groundwater environment: high-TDS saline groundwater (G1), low-pH CO₂-rich groundwater (G2), high-pH alkaline groundwater (G3), sulfate-rich groundwater (G4), and dilute (fresh) groundwater (G5). Under the pH and Eh (redox potential) ranges of 3 to 12 and ±0.2 V, respectively, the solubility and speciation of U, Pu, and Pd in deep groundwater were predicted. The result reveals that U(IV) exhibits high solubility within the neutral to alkaline pH range, even in reducing environment with Eh down to -0.2 V. Such high solubility of U is primarily attributed to the formation of Ca-U-CO₃ complexes, which is important in both G2 located along fault zones and G3 occurring in granitic bedrocks. On the other hand, the solubility of Pu is found to be highly dependent on pH, with the lowest solubility in neutral to alkaline conditions. The predominant species are Pu(IV) and Pu(III) and their removal is predicted to occur by sorption. Considering the migration by colloids, however, the role of colloid formation and migration are expected to promote the Pu mobility, especially in deep groundwater of G3 and G5 which have low ionic strengths. Palladium (Pd) exhibits the low solubility due to the precipitation as sulfides in reducing conditions. In oxidizing condition, anionic complexes such as Pd(OH)₃^-, PdCl₃(OH)₂^-, PdCl₄^2-, and Pd(CO₃)₂^2- would be removed by sorption onto metal (hydro)oxides. This study will improve the understanding of the fate and transport of radionuclides in deep groundwater conditions of South Korea and therefore contributes to develop strategies for safe high-level radioactive waste disposal.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.647-659
• /
• 2023

This study is to analyze the lithological similarities between railing stones of Gwanghwamun Woldae and stone blocks stored in Donggureung Royal Tombs, Guri, to interpret the provenance of the stones, and to suggest the most suitable quarry for a new stones supply among the rocks in the Seoul-Pocheon area in order to select stones for the restoration of the Gwanghwamun Woldae. The railing stones in Donggureung are medium to coarse-grained pink biotite granite, and their lithological characteristics, magnetic susceptibility(Average 5.20 ×10^-3 SI unit), and gamma spectrometer data(K 5.00~6.38%, U 4.92~8.56 ppm, Th 27.60~36.44 ppm) show similarities with the remaining railing stones in Gwanghwamun Woldae(Average 5.38). Therefore, the railing stones in Donggureung can be reused for the restoration of Gwanghwamun Woldae. They have similar lithological and geochemical charateristics to the pink biotite granite found the Suraksan Mt. and Buramsan Mr. areas in Seoul, suggesting that these areas are the source of the stone. However, since the Suraksan Mt. and Buramsan Mt. areas are currently unavailable for quarrying, lithological and geochemical analyses on granite from the Yangju and Pocheon areas are conducted to determine the suitability of the new stone for restoration. As a result, a pink biotite granite similar to the Woldae stones was identified in the Pocheon area, and it is suggested that the stones similar in grain size and colour to the railing stones of Gwanghwamun Woldae should be selected and used for the restoration of Gwanghwamun Woldae.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.661-674
• /
• 2023

From the seafloor of Taean, Chungcheongnamdo Province, a ship of the Joseon Dynasty was discovered for the first time in the history of underwater excavations in Korea in 2014 and was named Mado Shipwreck No. 4. A total of 27 unused whetstones loaded as tribute were discovered on the hull of Mado No. 4, which revealed that Mado Shipwreck No. 4 was a Grain transport ship that sank while carrying tribute from Naju to Hanyang between 1417 and 1425 (King Taejong to King Sejong). All of the 27 whetstones are in the shape of narrow and long sticks. The average values of length, width, thickness, and weight are 161.5 mm, 36.1 mm, 22.7 mm, and 253.2 g, respectively. The result of X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the constituent minerals are quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase, which is similar to that of the high-resolution digital stereomicroscope analysis. The average porosity of Mado-2672 and 2673 is 2.69% and 1.78%, respectively, and the average surface hardness is 807.2HLD and 834.5HLD, respectively. It is interpreted that if the porosity increases beyond a certain level, it affects the decrease in surface hardness. All of these are made of feldspathic sandstones with an average SiO₂ content of 74.51% and were confirmed to be suitable as grindstones. They are all medium whetstones when classified based on the SiO₂ content. These whetstones are small in size and weight and are convenient to carry, so they are presumed to be a type of non-stationary whetstone, and are estimated to have been mainly used in the fields such as weapon polishing and craft production during the Joseon Dynasty.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.15-32
• /
• 2023

There are some difficulties such as safety problem and need of manpower in measuring discharge by submerging the instruments because of many floating debris and very fast flow in the river during the flood season. As an alternative, microwave water surface current meters have been increasingly used these days, which are easy to measure the discharge in the field without contacting the water surface directly. But it is also hard to apply the method in the sudden and rapidly changing field conditions. Therefore, the estimation of the discharge using the surface velocity in flood conditions requires a theoretical and economical approach. In this study, the measurements from microwave water surface current meter and rating curve were collected and then analyzed by the discharge estimation method using the surface velocity. Generally, the measured and converted discharge are analyzed to be similar in all methods at a hydraulic radius of 3 m or over or a mean velocity of 2 ㎧ or more. Besides, the study computed the discharge by the index velocity method and the velocity profile method with the maximum surface velocity in the section where the maximum velocity occurs at the high water level range of the rating curve among the target locations. As a result, the mean relative error with the converted discharge was within 10%. That is, in flood season, the discharge estimation method using one maximum surface velocity measurement, index velocity method, and velocity profile method can be applied to develop high-level extrapolation, therefore, it is judged that the reliability for the range of extrapolation estimation could be improved. Therefore, the discharge estimation method using the surface velocity is expected to become a fast and efficient discharge measurement method during the flood season.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.39 no.5_1
• /
• pp.655-667
• /
• 2023

Algal bloom outbreaks are frequently reported around the world, and serious water pollution problems arise every year in Korea. It is necessary to protect the aquatic ecosystem through continuous management and rapid response. Many studies using satellite images are being conducted to estimate the concentration of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), an indicator of algal bloom occurrence. However, machine learning models have recently been used because it is difficult to accurately calculate Chl-a due to the spectral characteristics and atmospheric correction errors that change depending on the water system. It is necessary to consider the factors affecting algal bloom as well as the satellite spectral index. Therefore, this study constructed a dataset by considering water quality, hydrological and meteorological factors, and sentinel-2 images in combination. Representative ensemble models random forest and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) were used to predict the concentration of Chl-a in eight weirs located on the Nakdong river over the past five years. R-squared score (R²), root mean square errors (RMSE), and mean absolute errors (MAE) were used as model evaluation indicators, and it was confirmed that R² of XGBoost was 0.80, RMSE was 6.612, and MAE was 4.457. Shapley additive expansion analysis showed that water quality factors, suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, and the band ratio using red edge bands were of high importance in both models. Various input data were confirmed to help improve model performance, and it seems that it can be applied to domestic and international algal bloom detection.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.39 no.5_1
• /
• pp.521-535
• /
• 2023

When converting rice fields into fields,sorghum (sorghum bicolor L. Moench) has excellent moisture resistance, enabling stable production along with soybeans. Therefore, it is a crop that is expected to improve the self-sufficiency rate of domestic food crops and solve the rice supply-demand imbalance problem. However, there is a lack of fundamental statistics,such as cultivation fields required for estimating yields, due to the traditional survey method, which takes a long time even with a large manpower. In this study, U-Net was applied to RGB images based on unmanned aerial vehicle to confirm the possibility of non-destructive segmentation of sorghum cultivation fields. RGB images were acquired on July 28, August 13, and August 25, 2022. On each image acquisition date, datasets were divided into 6,000 training datasets and 1,000 validation datasets with a size of 512 × 512 images. Classification models were developed based on three classes consisting of Sorghum fields(sorghum), rice and soybean fields(others), and non-agricultural fields(background), and two classes consisting of sorghum and non-sorghum (others+background). The classification accuracy of sorghum cultivation fields was higher than 0.91 in the three class-based models at all acquisition dates, but learning confusion occurred in the other classes in the August dataset. In contrast, the two-class-based model showed an accuracy of 0.95 or better in all classes, with stable learning on the August dataset. As a result, two class-based models in August will be advantageous for calculating the cultivation fields of sorghum.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.39 no.5_1
• /
• pp.695-713
• /
• 2023

In coastal waters, phytoplankton,suspended particulate matter, and dissolved organic matter intricately and nonlinearly alter the reflectivity of seawater. Neural network technology, which has been rapidly advancing recently, offers the advantage of effectively representing complex nonlinear relationships. In previous studies, a three-stage neural network was constructed to extract the inherent optical properties of each component. However, this study proposes an algorithm that directly employs a deep neural network. The dataset used in this study consists of synthetic data provided by the International Ocean Color Coordination Group, with the input data comprising above-surface remote-sensing reflectance at nine different wavelengths. We derived inherent optical properties using this dataset based on a deep neural network. To evaluate performance, we compared it with a quasi-analytical algorithm and analyzed the impact of log transformation on the performance of the deep neural network algorithm in relation to data distribution. As a result, we found that the deep neural network algorithm accurately estimated the inherent optical properties except for the absorption coefficient of suspended particulate matter (R² greater than or equal to 0.9) and successfully separated the sum of the absorption coefficient of suspended particulate matter and dissolved organic matter into the absorption coefficient of suspended particulate matter and dissolved organic matter, respectively. We also observed that the algorithm, when directly applied without log transformation of the data, showed little difference in performance. To effectively apply the findings of this study to ocean color data processing, further research is needed to perform learning using field data and additional datasets from various marine regions, compare and analyze empirical and semi-analytical methods, and appropriately assess the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.133-141
• /
• 2023

We conducted a 5 × 5 diallel cross-combination test using 1,060 chickens from pure lines of Korean Rhode-C, -D, Korean Leghorn-F, -K, and Korean Native Yellowish-brown chicken (KNC-Y) to develop a new Korean native chicken layer breeder. The laying performance and combining ability, including livability, body weight, age of first egg-laying, hen-day egg production, and egg weight, were analyzed. The livability from birth to 48 weeks was 72.1±24.0%, with the highest observed in the YC and the lowest in the DK combination (P<0.01). The YC combination exhibited the highest general combining ability (GCA), while the YD combination showed the highest specific combining ability (SCA). Regarding body weight, combinations involving Leghorn showed lighter weights compared to combinations with Rhode and KNC-Y (P<0.01). Additionally, the offspring from the KNC-Y combination reached sexual maturity earlier than those from the Rhode combination. The hen-day egg production was 70.7±12.0%, with the highest seen in the CK combination at 86% (P<0.01). The effects of GCA and SCA on hen-day egg production were similar, with the SCA being highest in the YD combination and the GCA being highest in the Rhode-C. Significant differences in egg weight were observed among the combinations, with the eggs from Rhode and Leghorn combinations being heavier than those from combinations with KNC-Y (P<0.01). In conclusion, the YC and YD combinations, characterized by excellent livability, are highly desirable paternal strains, while the CF and CK combinations, with excellent laying performance and moderate egg weight, are preferred maternal strains for Korean native chicken layer breeders.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.33 no.11
• /
• pp.897-904
• /
• 2023

This study was done to develope genetic markers with the unique characteristics of genes according to the genomic information of Bacillus velezensis K10. B. velezensis K10 maintained a total of 4,159,835 bps, which was found to encode 5,136 open reading frames (orfs). B. velezensis K10 was found to have much more gene migration due to external factors overall compared to standard strain B. velezensis JS25R. In order to discover genetic selection markers, orfs on the genome to be easily induced to gene mutation were surveyed such as recombinase, integrase, transposase, and phage-related genes. As a result of the investigation, 9 candidate markers were isolated with high possibility as genetic selection markers. Although a part in the various origin's areas showed specificities in comparison with homology, the selected markers were all existed in phage-related areas because they were relatively lower homologies in phage-related genes. PCR analysis was done on B. licheniformis K12, B. velezensis K10, B. subtilis, and B. cereus to establish them as inter-species candidate selection markers. As a result, it was confirmed that B. velezensis K10-specific PCR products were formed in a total of 6 primer sets such as BV3 and BV5 to 9. On the other hand, analysis at the subspecies level observed the formation of B. velezensis K10-specific PCR products in 4 primer sets such as BV3, 5, 8, and 9. Among them, since BV5 and BV8 were detected by very specific results, we suggest that BV5 and 8 can be used as B. velezensis K10 gene selection markers at the species and sub-species level.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.33 no.11
• /
• pp.915-922
• /
• 2023

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widespread in a variety of environments including fermented dairy products, gastroinstetinal and urogenital tracts of human and animals, plant, soil and water. Leuconostoc mesenteroides DB3 was detected by the strongest antibacterial activities among 24 Leuconostoc strains isolated from Camellia japonica flowers. Acid tolerance of L. mesenteroides DB3 existed up to pH 2.5, but the resistance did not show at pH 2.0, which relatively excellent acid resistance existed. Bile acid tolerance was very stable within the test range to 1.2%. L. mesenteroides DB3 exhibited the optimal growth at 30℃, and showed a slight slow growth when compared with L. mesenteroides KCTC3505, which reached a stationary phase at 18 hr. The pH was changed along with the growth curve, but was maintained above pH 3.98. L. mesenteroides DB3 had higher initial antibacterial activities when compared to L. mesenteroides KCTC3505, but it showed similar activities with the standard strain after the latter part of the logarithmic growth phase. Although lactic acid production in L. mesenteroides DB3 was induced by lower amount in the initial part to the standard strain, it was exhibited by similar amounts after the late logarithmic growth phase. Muicin adhesion of L. mesenteroides DB-3 maintained superior to L. mesenteroides KCTC3505. Both strains showed excellent emulsification ability for kerosene. In summary, we evaluate that L. mesenteroides DB-3 has a high potential for application as probiotics owing to its excellent antibacterial activity, acid resistance, bile acid resistance, and muicin adhesion.