• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.679-687
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• 2007

Nanoscale zero valent ion (nZVI) technology is emerging as an innovative method to treat contaminated groundwater. The activity of nZVI is very high due to their high specific surface area, and supporting this material can help to preserve its chemical nature by inhibiting oxidation. In this study, nZVI particles were attached to granular ion-exchange resin through borohydride reduction of ferrous ions, and chemical reduction of nitrate by this material was investigated as a potential technology to remove nitrate from groundwater. The pore structure and physical characteristics were measured and the change by the adsorption of nZVI was discussed. Batch tests were conducted to characterize the activity of the supported nZVI and the results indicated that the degradation of nitrate appeared to be a pseudo first-order reaction with the observed reaction rate constant of $0.425h^{-1}$ without pH control. The reduction process continued but at a much lower rate with a rate constant of $0.044h^{-1}$, which is likely limited by mass transfer. To assess the effects of other ions commonly found in groundwater, the same experiments were conducted in simulated groundwater with the same level of nitrate. In simulated groundwater, the rate constant was $0.078h^{-1}$ and it also reduced to $0.0021h^{-1}$ in later phase. The major limitation in application of ZVI for nitrate reduction is ammonium production. By using a support material with ion exchange capacity, the problem of ammonium release can be solved. The ammonium was not detected in the batch test, even when other competitive ions such as calcium and potassium existed.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.415-419
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• 2008

Detecting and correcting defects on LCD glasses early in the manufacturing process becomes important for panel makers to reduce the manufacturing costs and to improve productivity. Many attempts have been made and were successfully applied to detect and identify simple defects such as scratches, dents, and foreign objects on glasses. However, it is still difficult to robustly detect low-contrast defect region, called Mura or blemish area on glasses. Typically, these defect areas are roughly defined as relatively large, several millimeters of diameter, and relatively dark and/or bright region of low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) against background of low-frequency signal. The aim of this article is to present a robust algorithm to segment these blemish defects. Early 90's, a highly robust estimator, known as the Model-Fitting (MF) estimator was developed by X. Zhuang et. al. and have been successfully used in many computer vision application. Compared to the conventional Least-Square (LS) estimator the MF estimator can successfully estimate model parameters from a dataset of contaminated Gaussian mixture. Such a noise model is defined as a regular white Gaussian noise model with probability $1-\varepsilon$ plus an outlier process with probability $varepsilon$. In the sense of robust estimation, the blemish defect in images can be considered as being a group of outliers in the process of estimating image background model parameters. The algorithm developed in this paper uses a modified MF estimator to robustly estimate the background model and as a by-product to segment the blemish defects, the outliers.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.145-156
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• 2014

Macrobenthic biodiversity in the rocky intertidal areas of the Tae-an region, Republic of Korea, has decreased since the Hebei Spirit oil spill in December 2007. We aimed to investigate ecological roles of Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) because recruitment and growth of oysters are critical to the recovery of damaged rocky shore ecosystem. We surveyed two sites monthly: natural rocky substrate and farming substrate, from July 2012 to January 2013 to identify and compare the changes in macrobenthic fauna. The abundance of young oysters was higher at the natural site. On the other hand, the mean height of oyster on the farming substrate was more than twice as great. The abundance of oyster at the natural site increased until October and then continuously decreased until end of study period. However, the abundance of oyster at the farming site constantly decreased from the beginning of study period. These different growth patterns might be attributable to spatial competition between oyster and a barnacle species (Balanus albicostatus) and environmental factors. At the natural site, physical stress factors including dramatic temperature changes and desiccation a few of the major factors limiting growth during aerial exposure. In addition, motile macrobenthos could be detrimental to oysters because they interrupt filter-feeding activities and hence hamper the growth of oysters. We show the higher recruitment of oysters at the natural site and healthy growth in the farming substrate are due to complicated differences in physical and biological stress factors.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.445-453
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• 2012

This study examined microbial contamination during seasoned and dried squid Dosidicus gigas processing, including the apparatus, machines, and employee's gloves at each step in processing at two companies. The numbers of bacteria floating in air in each processing area were also examined. The numbers of Staphylococcus aureus (3.6-6.0 log CFU/g) and Escherichia coli (1.3-1.4 log MPN/100 g) in domestic and imported daruma (a semi-processed product of seasoned and dried squid) at companies A and B exceeded the regulatory limits of the Food Sanitary Law of Korea (S. aureus, ${\leq}2.0$ log CFU/g; E. coli, negative). S. aureus in both daruma was reduced to below the detection limit or 3.6 log CFU/g after the roasting step, but increased again to 3.3 and 5.5 log CFU/g after the mechanical tearing step at companies A and B, respectively. E. coli showed similar tendencies at both companies. The surfaces of the apparatus, machines, and employee's gloves that contacted daruma were also contaminated with S. aureus (1.0-5.5 log CFU/$m^2$) and E. coli (negative-to 3.5 log MPN/$m^2$). The numbers of bacteria floating in air were high (1.7-5.1 log CFU/$m^3$) at both companies. These results suggest that sanitation standard operating procedures (SSOP) must be developed to control of microbial cintamination in seasoned and dried squid.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.177-187
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• 1999

Gravity, magnetic and VLF surveys were conducted to investigat the structural stability and hazards associated with the Ubong landfill in Pohang City, which has been built to dump industrial wastes. In 1994, the collapse of a bank happened in the 6th landfill site due to sudden heavy rain, and a large quantity of waste materials flowed out to the nearby landfill sites, factories and roads. We used $10{\times}10m$ resolution DEM data for gravity reductions. The maximum variation of the terrain effect in the survey area is about 0.5 mgal and the terrain effect is large in the vicinity of bank boundary. The Bouguer gravity anomaly map shows the effect due to the variatino of thickness and type of waste materials. The small negative gravity anomaly increases from the 9th site to the 6th site. The small negative gravity anomaly of the 9th site reflects the relatively shallow dumping depth of average 14.5 m in this site and increased density of waste materials by the repeated stabilization process of soil overlaying. The 6th site is located at the center of the former valley and rainfall and groundwater are expected to flow from south-east to north-west. Therefore, considering the previous accident of mixing waste and bank materials at the north-west boundary of the landfill, there may be some environmental problems of leakage of contaminated water and bank stability. The complex inversion technique using Simulated annealing and Marquardt-Levenberg methods was applied to calculate three-dimensional density distribution from gravity data. In the case of 6th site, it is apparent that the landfill had been dumped in four sectors. However, most part of the 9th site and showed that high magnetic industrial wastes were concentrated in the 6th site. The result of magnetic survey showing low magnetic anomalies along the boundaries of two sites is similar to that of gravity data. The VLF data also reveals four divided sectors in the 6th site, and overall anomaly trend indicates the directio of former valley.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.87-103
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• 1996

The purposes of this research are to investigate the pollution level of heavy metals due to the urbanization and industrialization in the satellite cities of Seoul, and to assess the chemical species and the sources of heavy metals in highly contaminated soils and dusts. Soil and dust samples were collected from the Uijeongbu and the Koyang cities, which are northern and the northwestern satellite cities of Seoul metropolitan city, respectively. Relatively high pH values($6.3{\sim}9.9$) were found in roadside soils compared with agricultural and forest soils. Difference in pH values of soils was not identified between before and after rainy seasons. In spite of no specific pollution sources in the above cities, the contents of Cu, Pb, and Zn in soils and dusts were much higher than the world average contents. The metal levels in dusts were higher than those in soils, but the metal concentration in dusts was significantly decreased after rainy season. Pollution index was high(> 1.0) in the areas of heavy traffic, industrial complex, and city centres. There is an appreciable proportion of total Zn in exchangeable/water-acid soluble fraction. Copper is predominantly associated with reducible and oxidizable phases, whereas Pb is largely in reducible association. It is concluded that the mobility and bioavailability of metals are high in the order of Zn >> Cu > Pb, on the basis of characteristic particle morphology and chemical composition, Pb-containing particles are originated probably from the automobile exhaust, particularly in heavy traffic areas. The metallic forms and iron-oxide associated forms of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb can be assessed as industrial origin.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.172-188
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• 2000

This paper presents the state of art and the role of geophysical exploration techniques with evaluating the trend of domestic and worldwide seawater intrusion research, and illustrates advanced techniques obtained through the project of 'Development of the techniques for estimation, prediction, and prevention of seawater intrusion' funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea. The advanced geophysical interpretation was achieved by adding the digital geophysical logging data. DC resistivity and TEM monitorings were applied to determine whether or not the seawater intrusion was in progress. Induced Polarization technique using electric current monitoring channel was introduced to discriminate seawater contaminated zone from highly conductive layer caused by clay minerals. A conceptual model was suggested with spatial visualization of the study area to predict the diffusion of seawater contamination. Finally, the future work of the development of geophysical techniques was suggested with the base of the present level of them.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.158-164
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• 2017

Objectives: To identify bacterial contamination rates of laryngoscope blades and handles stored in emergency crash carts by hospital and area according to the frequency of intubation attempts. Methods: One hundred forty-eight handles and 71 blades deemed ready for patient use from two tertiary hospitals were sampled with sterile swabs using a standardized rolling technique. Samples were considered negative (not contaminated) if no colonies were present on the blood agar plate after an 18-hour incubation period. Samples were stratified by hospital and according to the frequency of intubation attempts (10 attempts per year) using the ${\chi}^2-test$ and Fisher exact test. Results: One or more species of bacteria were isolated from 4 (5.6%) handle tops, 20 (28.2%) handles with knurled surfaces, and 27 (18.2%) blades. No significant differences were found in microbial contamination levels on the handle tops and blades between the two hospitals and two areas according to the frequency of intubation attempts. However, significant differences were found between the two hospitals and two areas in the level of microbial contamination on the handles with knurled surfaces (p<0.05). Conclusions: Protocols and policies must be reviewed to standardize procedures to clean and disinfect laryngoscope blades and handles; handles should be re-designed to eliminate points of contact with the blade; and single-use, one-piece laryngoscopes should be introduced.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.223-226
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• 2013

To evaluate the potential risk associated with zoonotic ascarid eggs in educational facilities and public playground in Seoul city, the sand samples collected from April to December in 2011 were examined with a fecal flotation method. Of 5,066 sand samples from 1,367 playgrounds tested, 12 sands from 12 places (0.88%) had ascarid eggs. Sand samples in educational facilities were more contaminated (10/870, 1.15%) with the parasite eggs than those of public playground area (2/497, 0.4%). Fisher's exact tests were used to make pairwise comparisons between which locations were more or less similar with regard to levels of contamination. We didn't find significantly different from one another. Most ascarid eggs detected were found in the Spring. Through this study, we hope to raise awareness of contamination of playgrounds by potentially infectious ascarid ova.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.391-395
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• 2007

This study investigated the feasibility of enhanced electrokinetic (EK) remediation of soil contaminated with approximately 20000 Pb-mg/kg. Enhanced EK remediation was evaluated by using mixed solution (0.3 M acetic acid and 0.03 M EDTA, EK-M) and by exchanging electrodes for preventing precipitation of metal hydrate. For the EK-M, the lead removal efficiency was only 2% lower than the case where 0.03 M EDTA was solely used (EK-Blank, EK-B). Considering the costly expense of EDTA, the application of EK-M would be economically viable. The efficiency of of EK-E was higher by 2% than the EK-B method. More impertantly, the pH values of entire soil packed column presented to be neutral (7~8) in the EK-E process. Unlike to EK-B and EK-M, the deposition of heavy metals to any specific area was avoided in the EK-E process.