• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.214-220
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• 2005

Errors may occur due to analysis methods and water quality during the application of the on-line particle counter In water treatment process. Errors caused by analysis methods include particle destruction by shear force due to inflow speed and tube friction, as well as interruption by screening, bubbles and contaminants. Since errors happen frequently because of these factors, it is necessary to examine and evaluate such errors during the application of a particle counter. Errors can be large due to screening and bubbles. Measurement values are effective for water analysis after filtration process. However, because of screening, only measurement values for particles above $7{\mu}m$ are valid for water with a turbidity between 3-10NTU. As particle numbers around $10{\mu}m$ increase a lot after ozone treatment, sufficient pretreatment process is necessary. Physical conditions should keep stable for inflow to decrease errors caused by shear force.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2006

Many of endocrine disrupting chemicals induce effects via interaction with hormone receptors and responsive elements in target cells. We investigated endocrine disrupting effects of some food additives and contaminants including BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, propionic acid, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, CPM, aflatoxin B1, cadmium chloride, genistein, TCDD and PCBs in yeast transformants expressing human steroid hormone receptors along with steroid responsive elements. The response limit of genetically recombinant yeast to $17{\beta}$-estradiol, testosterone and progesterone was $1{\times}10^{-16},\;1{\times}10^{-12}\;and\;1{\times}10^{-13}M$, respectively. BHT induced weak transcriptional activity in estrogen sensitive yeast, while BHA and sorbic acid interacted weakly with androgen receptor/responsive element. CPM induced transcriptional activities in all types of yeasts sensitive to steroid hormones. Zearalenone and genistein induced high transcriptional activation in estrogen sensitive yeast with relative potencies almost $10^8$ folds lower than $17{\beta}$-estradiol. TCDD induced transcriptional activation weakly in estrogen- and progesterone- sensitive yeasts. This study elucidated that recombinant yeast is a sensitive and high-throughput system and can be used for the direct assessment on chemical interactions with steroid receptors and responsive elements. Also, the present study raises the requirement of evaluation on the endocrine disrupting effects of BHT, BHA, sorbic acid, CPM and TCDD for their transcription activity in yeast screening system though weak in intensity.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.39-43
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• 2017

Development of vision system as a nondestructive evaluation system can be very useful in screening the defective mechanical parts before they are assembled into the final product. Since the tens of thousands of the mechanical parts are used in an automobile carefully inspecting the quality of the mechanical parts is very important to maximize the performance of the automobile. To sort out the defective mechanical parts before they are assembled, auto parts fabrication companies employ various inspection systems. Nondestructive evaluation systems are getting rapidly popular among various inspection systems. In this study, we have developed a vision system to inspect the inside of the brake caliper, a part that is used to compose a brake which is the most important to the safety of the drivers and the passengers. In a brake caliper, a piston is pushed against the brake disk by oil pressure, causing a friction to damp the rotation of the wheel. Inside the caliper, a groove is positioned to adopt an oil seal to prevent the oil leaks. Inspecting the groove with our vision system, we could examine the existence of the contaminants which are normally the residual tiny pieces from the machining process. We used a high resolution GigE camera, 360 degree lens to look in the inside view of the caliper at once, and a special illumination system in this vision system. We used the edge detection technique to successfully detect the contaminants which were in the form of small metal chips. Labview graphical program was used to process the digital data from the camera and to display the vision and the statistics of the contaminants. We were very successful in detecting the contaminants from the various size calipers. We think we are ready to employ this vision system to the caliper production factories.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.12-29
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• 2011

Risk-based screening levels (RBSLs) of some pollutants for residential adults were derived with risk assessment tools developed by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), and Korea Ministry of Environment (KMOE) and compared each other. To make the comparison simple, ingestion of soil, dermal contact with soil, outdoor inhalation of vapors, indoor inhalation of vapors, and inhalation of soil particulates were chosen as exposure pathways. The results showed that the derived RBSLs varied for every exposure pathway. For direct exposure pathways (i.e., ingestion of soil and dermal contact with soil), the derived RBSLs varied mainly due to the different default values for exposure factors and toxicity data. When identical default values for the parameters were used, the same RBSLs could be derived regardless of the assessment tools used. For inhalation of vapors and inhalation of soil particulates, however, different analysis methods for cross-media transfer rates were used and different assumptions were established for each tool, identical RBSLs could not be obtained even if the same default values for exposure factors were used. Especially for inhalation of soil particulates pathway, screening level derived using KMOE approach (most conservative) was approximately 5000~10000 times lower than the screening level derived using ASTM approach (least conservative). Our results suggest that, when deriving RBSL using a specific tool, it is a prerequisite to technically review the analysis methods for cross-media transfer rates as well as to understand how the assessment tool derives the default values for exposure factors.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.339-344
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• 1998

Since the leaf inoculation procedures are time-consuming and require considerable growth chamber space, a rapid dioassay method for screening of pathogenicity of Didymella bryoniae, a casual agent of gummy stem blight in watermelon, was established in this paper. The method produced reliable results within 8 days ( 5 days for growing seedlings and 3 days for rapid disease response in the seedlings). After contaminants in the root of 4~5 day-old seedlings had been washed using sterilized water, 5 seedlings were dipped into a vial containing 12 ml of conidial suspension (106 cells/ml). After the vials were placed in a growth chamber (22$^{\circ}C$, RH 50%, 14hr light/10hr darkness) for 3 days, susceptibility and resistance of cultivars were determined by the degree of disease response on cotyledon. The result of obtained by the dip-inoculation method was well coincided with the results by the leaf inoculation procedures and the result that had been observed for several years in the field. Screening of collected watermelon cultivars by the dip-inoculation method revealed that all the 21 domestic cultivars collected were susceptible and only 3 foreign cultivars (PI 189225, PI 482322 and IT 188207) were resistant among 18 cultivars A cucumber cultivar (Marketer) and bitter cucumber were proven to be resistant against the D. bryoniae among 8 other different cucurbits tested. The SDS-PAGE patterns of total proteins from a susceptible (Keumcheon) and a resistant (PI 189225) watermelon cultivars were compared 0, 12, 24 and 36 hrs after inoculation. The amounts of two distinct protein bands (24 kDa and 70 kDa) were gradually increased after inoculation in both cultivars.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.505-512
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• 2021

Background: The occurrence of environmental disease is known to be associated with chronic exposure to toxic chemicals, including waterborne contaminants, air/indoor pollutants, asbestos, ingredients in humidifier disinfectants, etc. Objectives: In this study, we reviewed toxicological studies related to environmental disease as defined by the Environmental Health Act in Korea and toxic chemicals. We also suggested a direction for future toxicological research necessary for the prevention and management of environmental disease. Methods: Trends in previous studies related to environmental disease were investigated through PubMed and Web of Science. A detailed review was provided on toxicological studies related to the humidifier disinfectants. We identified adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) that can be linked to the induction of environmental diseases, and proposed a chemical screening system that uses AOP, chemical toxicity big data, and deep learning models to select chemicals that induce environmental disease. Results: Research on chemical toxicity is increasing every year, but there is a limitation to revealing a clear causal relationship between exposure to chemicals and the occurrence of environmental disease. It is necessary to develop various exposure- and effect-biomarkers related to disease occurrence and to conduct toxicokinetic studies. A novel chemical screening system that uses AOP and chemical toxicity big data could be useful for selecting chemicals that cause environmental diseases. Conclusions: From a toxicological point of view, developing AOP related to environmental diseases and a deep learning-based chemical screening system will contribute to the prevention of environmental diseases in advance.

• CELLMED
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.3.1-3.4
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• 2016

Consumption of herbal products from the medicinal plants contaminated with heavy metals can cause serious consequences on human health. This is a major concern for traditional and herbal medicine. The present study was carried out to analyze and quantify the levels of six potentially toxic heavy metals namely arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and nickel in ten important Indian medicinal herbs. The air dried raw herbs were processed by microwave assisted wet digestion and analyzed by using atomic absorption spectrophotometer equipped with graphite tube atomizer. Except the chromium content in three plants, all the levels of six heavy metals analyzed were found to be quite below the permissible limits in all the ten raw medicinal herbs analyzed. The present work implies that, regular and systematic screening of raw medicinal herbs is necessary to check the levels of the heavy metal contaminants before using them for consumption or preparation of herbal formulations so that the possible contamination cannot cumulate up to the finished products.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.317-317
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• 2011

Water dissociation on oxide surface has been researched in many fields because of its importance as fundamental phenomenas. MgO(001) is a good model system to understand heterogeneous catalysis, gas sensors, ground-water contaminants, and atmosphere chemistry. Over decades, ultrathin film of MgO on Ag(100) have attracted research activities thanks to its enhanced catalytic property. Correlation of the oxide and the metal, potential screening, charge fluctuation from interface reconstruction makes different energetics of hydroxylation of waters on film. We calculate the water-spliting energetics under the vacuum system.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.126-128
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• 2003

As a systematic approach to waste disposal site screening for groundwater pollution protection, the DRASTIC system developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) was introduced at Younggwang County in Korea. Hydrogeologic spatial databases for the system include info rmation on depth to water, net recharge, aquifer media, soil media, topographic slope, hydraulic conductivity and lineament. Using the databases, the DRASTIC system and a GIS, the regional groundwater pollution vulnerability of the study area was assessed. The fracture density extracted from lineament maps was added to the DRASTIC system to take into account the preferential migration of contaminants through fractures. From the results of the study, a degree of groundwater pollution vulnerability through the study area was easily interpreted, and waste disposal sites could be screened for groundwater protection.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.86-91
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• 2022

Chryseobacterium mulctrae KACC 21234^T is a novel species isolated from raw bovine milk. Psychrotrophic bacteria are considered contaminants and are hypothesized to originate from the environment. In this investigation, the C. mulctrae KACC 21234^T genome was determined to be 4,868,651 bp long and assembled into four contigs with a G+C ratio of 33.8%. In silico genomic analyses revealed the presence of genes encoding proteases (endopeptidase Clp, oligopeptidase b, carboxypeptidase) and lipases (phospholipase A(2), phospholipase C, acylglycerol lipase) that can catalyze the degradation of the proteins and lipids in milk, causing its quality to deteriorate. Additionally, antimicrobial resistance and putative bacteriocin genes were detected, potentially intensifying the pathogenicity of the strain. The genomic evidence presented highlights the need for improved screening protocols to minimize the potential contamination of milk by proteolytic and lipolytic psychrotrophic bacteria.