• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2019

In this study, $L-{\alpha}-amino$ acid, which is a constituent of natural moisturizing factor, was applied to skin in periodic cycle to improve skin tone and texture roughness. Based on the polarity of the alkyl group (R) of the $L-{\alpha}-amino$ acid, the acid was categorized into two groups and their efficacy was studied. As a result, it was found that the improvement rate of $L-{\alpha}-amino$ acid complex with polar alkyl group ($L-{\alpha}-AAC-1$) is 21% higher than that of $L-{\alpha}-amino$ acid complex with non-polar alkyl group ($L-{\alpha}-AAC-2$). For clinical trials, emulsions containing $L-{\alpha}-amino$ acid complex ($L-{\alpha}-AAC-1$) were applied to the randomly selected 20 to 40 year old female participants, as an experimental group, on the right facial cheek once per day for 8 weeks, and emulsions without $L-{\alpha}-amino$ acid complex, as a control group, were applied to the left facial cheek in the same way. Improvements in skin tone were measured using $JANUS^{(R)}$ equipment and analyzed using image analysis software. Skin texture improvement was measured and analyzed mechanically using the phaseshift rapid in-vivo measurement of the skin (PRIMOS) equipment. As a result, improvements of skin tone and skin texture were 11.7% and 6.7%, respectively. In addition, a questionnaire survey was conducted to the participants on the aesthetic improvement and the degree of the feeling of skin improvement. The results suggest that $L-{\alpha}-amino$ acid can be used as a cosmetic substance that can provide aesthetic satisfaction through physiological skin tone and texture roughness.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.293-301
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• 2019

The experiment was conducted to determine the performance of DME combustion gas when used as a fuel for DME burner for raising temperature and $CO_2$ concentration in greenhouse and also to examine its effects on chlorophyll content, and fresh and dry weight of lettuce and Chinese cabbage. DME-1 and DME-2 treatments consisted of average DME flow quantity in duct were $17.4m^3min^{-1}$ and $10.2m^3min^{-1}$ respectively to greenhouse-1 and greenhouse-2 and no DME gas was supplied to greenhouse-3 which was left as control (DME-3). DME supply times were $0.5hr\;day^{-1}$, $1hr\;day^{-1}$, $1:30hrs\;day^{-1}$ and $2hrs\;day^{-1}$ on week 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. Chlorophyll content and fresh and dry weight of lettuce and Chinese cabbage were measured for each treatment and analyzed through analysis of variance with a significance level of P<0.05. The result of the study showed that $CO_2$ concentration increased up to 265% and 174% and the level of temperature elevated $4.8^{\circ}C$ and $3.1^{\circ}C$ in greenhouse-1 and 2, respectively as compared to greenhouse-3 due to application of DME combustion gas. Although, the same crop management practices were provided in greenhouse-1, 2 and 3 at a same rate, the highest change (p<0.05) of chlorophyll content, fresh weight and dry weight were found from the DME-1 treatment, followed by DME-2. As a result, DME combustion gas that raised the level of temperature and $CO_2$ concentration in the greenhouse-1 and greenhouse-2, might have an effect on growth of lettuce and Chinese cabbage. At end of experiment, the highest fresh and dry weight of lettuce and Chinese cabbage were measured in greenhouse-1 and followed by greenhouse-2. Similarly chlorophyll content of greenhouse-1 and greenhouse-2 were more compared to greenhouse-3. In general, DME was not producing any harmful gas during its combustion period, therefore it can be used as an alternative to conventional fuel such as diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for both heating and $CO_2$ supply in winter season. Moreover, endorsed quantify of DME combustion gas for a specified crop can be applied to greenhouse to improve the plant growth and enhance yield.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.264-271
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• 2020

We have developed a simultaneous diagnostic method that can identify both the species of thrips and tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) that are problematic in chrysanthemum plants. This is a method of amplifying DNA by performing reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction by simultaneously adding primers specific to TSWV coat protein (N) gene and primers specific to the internal transcribed spacer 2 region of Frankliniella occidentalis and F. intonsa using total nucleic acid extracted from one thrips. The sizes of DNA fragments for TSWV, F. occidentalis, and F. intonsa were 777, 287, and 367 bp, respectively. These results showed species identification of thrips and whether thrips carrying TSWV can be simultaneously confirmed. Further usefulness of the simultaneous diagnostic method was made from greenhouse survey at chrysanthemum greenhouses in Taean (Chungcheongnam-do) and Changwon (Gyeongsangnam-do) to investigate the identification of thrips species and the rate of thrips carrying TSWV. Of thrips collected from the greenhouses, 83.7% thrips was F. occidentalis and 72.9% F. occidentalis carried TSWV in Taean. Similarly, the diagnostic method showed that 92.2% thrips was F. occidentalis and 84.0% F. occidentalis carried TSWV in Changwon. These results confirm that F. occidentalis is a dominant thrips species and the thrips species plays a crucial role in the transmission of TSWV in chrysanthemum plants in the greenhouses. Taken together, this study showed a simple diagnostic method for thrips identification and epidemiological studies of the timing and spread of TSWV through thrips in chrysanthemum greenhouses in South Korea.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.56-65
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• 2022

Copper is one of the non-ferrous metals used in the electrical/electronic manufacturing industries due to its superior properties particularly the high conductivity and less resistivity. The effluent generated from the surface finishing process of these industries contains higher copper content which gets discharged in to water bodies directly or indirectly. This causes severe environmental pollution and also results in loss of an important valuable metal. To overcome this issue, continuous R & D activities are going on across the globe in adsorption area with the purpose of finding an efficient, low cost and ecofriendly adsorbent. In view of the above, present investigation was made to compare the performance of a plant root (Datura root powder) as a bio-adsorbent to that of the synthetic one (Tulsion T-42) for copper adsorption from such effluent. Experiments were carried out in batch studies to optimize parameters such as adsorbent dose, contact time, pH, feed concentration, etc. Results of the batch experiments indicate that 0.2 g of Datura root powder and 0.1 g of Tulsion T-42 showed 95% copper adsorption from an initial feed/solution of 100 ppm Cu at pH 4 in contact time of 15 and 30 min, respectively. Adsorption data for both the adsorbents were fitted well to the Freundlich isotherm. Experimental results were also validated with the kinetic model, which showed that the adsorption of copper followed pseudo-second order rate expression for the both adsorbents. Overall result demonstrates that the bio-adsorbent tested has a potential applicability for metal recovery from the waste solutions/effluents of metal finishing units. In view of the requirements of commercial viability and minimal environmental damage there from, Datura root powder being an effective material for metal uptake, may prove to be a feasible adsorbent for copper recovery after the necessary scale-up studies.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.723-736
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• 2022

In this study, monthly precipitation forecasting models that can predict up to 12 months in advance were constructed for the Geum River basin, and two statistical techniques, multiple linear regression (MLR) and artificial neural network (ANN), were applied to the model construction. As predictor candidates, a total of 47 climate indices were used, including 39 global climate patterns provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and 8 meteorological factors for the basin. Forecast models were constructed by using climate indices with high correlation by analyzing the teleconnection between the monthly precipitation and each climate index for the past 40 years based on the forecast month. In the goodness-of-fit test results for the average value of forecasts of each month for 1991 to 2021, the MLR models showed -3.3 to -0.1% for the percent bias (PBIAS), 0.45 to 0.50 for the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), and 0.69 to 0.70 for the Pearson correlation coefficient (r), whereas, the ANN models showed PBIAS -5.0~+0.5%, NSE 0.35~0.47, and r 0.64~0.70. The mean values predicted by the MLR models were found to be closer to the observation than the ANN models. The probability of including observations within the forecast range for each month was 57.5 to 83.6% (average 72.9%) for the MLR models, and 71.5 to 88.7% (average 81.1%) for the ANN models, indicating that the ANN models showed better results. The tercile probability by month was 25.9 to 41.9% (average 34.6%) for the MLR models, and 30.3 to 39.1% (average 34.7%) for the ANN models. Both models showed long-term predictability of monthly precipitation with an average of 33.3% or more in tercile probability. In conclusion, the difference in predictability between the two models was found to be relatively small. However, when judging from the hit rate for the prediction range or the tercile probability, the monthly deviation for predictability was found to be relatively small for the ANN models.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.69-80
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• 2021

This study tried to suggest improvement measures by discovering problems or matters requiring improvement among the annual regional safety evaluation systems. Briefly introducing the structure and contents of the study, which is the introduction, describes the regional safety evaluation method newly applied by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security in 2020. Utilization plans were also introduced according to the local safety level that was finally evaluated by the local government. In this paper, various views of previous researchers related to regional safety are summarized and described. In addition, problems were drawn in the composition of the index of local safety, the method of calculating the index, and the application of the current index. Next, the problems of specific regional safety evaluation indicators were analyzed and solutions were presented. First, "Number of semi-basement households" is replaced with "Number of households receiving basic livelihood" of 「Social Vulnerability Index」 in the field of disaster risk factors is replaced with "the number of households receiving basic livelihood". In addition, the "Vinyl House Area" is evaluated by replacing "the number of households living in a Vinyl House, the number of container households, and the number of households in Jjok-bang villages" with data. Second, in the management and evaluation of habitual drought disaster areas, local governments with a water supply rate of 95% or higher in Counties, Cities, and Districts are treated as "missing". This is because drought disasters rarely occur in the metropolitan area and local governments that have undergone urbanization. Third, the activities of safety sheriffs, safety monitor volunteers, and disaster safety silver monitoring groups along with the local autonomous prevention foundation are added to the evaluation of the evaluation index of 「Regional Autonomous Prevention Foundation Activation」 in the field of response to disaster prevention measures. However, since the name of the local autonomous disaster prevention organization may be different for each local government, if it is an autonomous disaster prevention organization organized and active for disaster prevention, it would be appropriate to evaluate the results by summing up all of its activities. Fourth, among the Scorecard evaluation items, which is a safe city evaluation tool used by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction(UNDRR), the item "preservation of natural buffers to strengthen the protection functions provided by natural ecosystems" is borrowed, which is closely related to natural disasters. The Scorecard evaluation is an assessment index that focuses on improving the disaster resilience of local governments while carrying out the campaign "Creating cities resilient to climate crises and disasters" emphasized by UNDRR. Finally, the names of "regional safety level" and "local safety index" are similar, so the term of local safety level is changed to "natural disaster safety level" or "natural calamity safety level". This is because only the general public can distinguish the local safety level from the local safety index.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.163-169
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• 2022

This study was conducted to examine an alternative cultivating method that uses coir substrates in a hydroponically cultured system. Three treatment conditions were applied with one-layer substrate (10 cm height) with a coir chip and dust ratio of 5:5 (Treatment A), two-layer coir substrate (20 cm height) with a coir chip and dust ratio of 5:5 (Treatment B), one-layer coir substrate (15 cm height) with a coir chip and dust ratio of 7:3 (Treatment C). The control condition was a plastic container filled with a coir chip and dust ratio of 5:5. Various criteria were measured and compared between the treatments and the control. The yield of strawberry was smaller in the control than in the treatments. No significant difference in growth characteristic was found in the height treatments of the coir substrates. The net photosynthetic rate of the treatments was 14.68-15.76 µmol CO₂·m^-2·s^-1. This does not show a statistically significant difference. The root activity was better in treatment B and C than in treatment A and the control. The length and width of leaves were measured as 4.04-4.13 cm and 3.26-3.34 cm. These results are not statistically significant. The leaf length and width ratio was 1.27 in the control and 1.24 in the treatments. The findings show that no statistically significant benefit was found when utilizing coir substrates with different height treatments in the hydroponic culture system. However, the harvested fruit per plant weights 72.38 g in treatment A and 48.69 g in treatment C. The number of harvested fruit was least in treatment C in which a coir chip and dust ratio of 7:3 was applied. Therefore, further research is needed to examine how the chip and dust ratio in coir substrate affects growth characteristics.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.485-496
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• 2022

Modern agriculture is being transformed into smart agriculture to maximize production efficiency along with changes in the 4th industrial revolution. However, rural areas in Korea are facing challenges of aging, low fertility, and population outflow, making it difficult to transition to smart agriculture. Among ICT technologies, simulation allows users to observe or experience the results of their choices through imitation or reproduction of reality. The combination of the three-dimension (3D) model and the greenhouse simulator enable a 3D experience by virtual greenhouse for fruits and vegetable cultivation. At the same time, it is possible to visualize the greenhouse under various cultivation or climate conditions. The objective of this study is to apply the greenhouse climate management model for simulation development that can visually see the state of the greenhouse environment under various micrometeorological properties. The numerical solution with the mathematical model provided a dynamic change in the greenhouse environment for a particular greenhouse design. Light intensity, crop transpiration, heating load, ventilation rate, the optimal amount of CO₂ enrichment, and daily light integral were calculated with the simulation. The results of this study are being built so that users can be linked through a web page, and software will be designed to reflect the characteristics of cladding materials and greenhouses, cultivation types, and the condition of environmental control facilities for customized environmental control. In addition, environmental information obtained from external meteorological data, as well as recommended standards and set points for each growth stage based on experiments and research, will be provided as optimal environmental factors. This simulation can help growers, students, and researchers to understand the ICT technologies and the changes in the greenhouse microclimate according to the growing conditions.

• Clean Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2023

Due to water shortages caused by water pollution and climate change, total organic carbon (TOC) standards have been implemented for wastewater discharged from public sewage treatment facilities. Furthermore, there is a growing interest and body of research pertaining to the reuse of sewage treatment water as a secure alternative water resource. The membrane bio-reactor (MBR) method is commonly used for advanced wastewater treatment because it can remove organic and inorganic ions and it does not require or emit any chemicals. However, the MBR process uses a separation membrane (MF), which requires frequent film cleaning due to fouling caused by a high concentration of mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS). In this study, process improvement and microbubble cleaning efficiency were evaluated to improve the differential pressure, water flow, and MF fouling, which are the biggest disadvantages of operating the MF. The existing MBR method was improved by installing a precipitation tank between the air tank and the MBR tank in which raw water was introduced. Microbubbles were injected into a separation membrane tank into which the supernatant water from the precipitation tank was introduced. The microbubble generator was operated with a 15 day on, 15 day off cycle for 5 months to collect discharged water samples (4L) and measure TOC. As the supernatant water from the precipitation tank flowed into the separation membrane tank, about 95% of the supernatant water MLSS was removed so the MF fouling from biological contamination was prevented. Due to the application of microbubbles to supernatant water from the precipitation tank, the differential pressure of the separation membrane tank decreased by 1.6 to 2.3 times and the water flow increased by 1.4 times. Applying microbubbles increased the TOC removal rate by more than 58%. This study showed that separately operating the air tank and the separation membrane tank can reduce fouling, and suggested that applying additional microbubbles could improve the differential pressure, water flow, and fouling to provide a more efficient advanced treatment method.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.297-303
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• 2023

Pediatric Computed Tomography (CT) examinations can often result in exam failures or the need for frequent retests due to the difficulty of cooperation from young patients. Deep Learning Image Reconstruction (DLIR) methods offer the potential to obtain diagnostically valuable images while reducing the retest rate in CT examinations of pediatric patients with high radiation sensitivity. In this study, we investigated the possibility of applying DLIR to reduce artifacts caused by respiration or motion and obtain clinically useful images in pediatric chest CT examinations. Retrospective analysis was conducted on chest CT examination data of 43 children under the age of 7 from P Hospital in Gyeongsangnam-do. The images reconstructed using Filtered Back Projection (FBP), Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASIR-50), and the deep learning algorithm TrueFidelity-Middle (TF-M) were compared. Regions of interest (ROI) were drawn on the right ascending aorta (AA) and back muscle (BM) in contrast-enhanced chest images, and noise (standard deviation, SD) was measured using Hounsfield units (HU) in each image. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (ver. 22.0), analyzing the mean values of the three measurements with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that the SD values for AA were FBP=25.65±3.75, ASIR-50=19.08±3.93, and TF-M=17.05±4.45 (F=66.72, p=0.00), while the SD values for BM were FBP=26.64±3.81, ASIR-50=19.19±3.37, and TF-M=19.87±4.25 (F=49.54, p=0.00). Post-hoc tests revealed significant differences among the three groups. DLIR using TF-M demonstrated significantly lower noise values compared to conventional reconstruction methods. Therefore, the application of the deep learning algorithm TrueFidelity-Middle (TF-M) is expected to be clinically valuable in pediatric chest CT examinations by reducing the degradation of image quality caused by respiration or motion.