• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2014

Objectives: The purposes of this study are to investigate workers' exposures to respirable particles generated in taconite mines and to compare two metric methods for mass concentrations using direct-reading instruments. Methods: Air monitorings were conducted at six mines where subjects have been exposed primarily to particulate matters in crushing, concentrating, and pelletizing processes. Air samples were collected during 4 hours of the entire work shift for similarly exposure groups(SEGs) of nine jobs(N=37). Following instruments were employed to evaluate the workplace: a nanoparticle aerosol monitor(particle size range; 10-1000 nm, unit: ${\mu}m^2/cc$, Model 9000, TSI Inc.); DustTrak air monitors($PM_{10}$, $PM_{2.5}$, unit: $mg/m^3$, Model 8520, TSI Inc.); a condensation particle counter(size range; 20-1000 nm, unit: #/cc, P-Trak 8525, TSI Inc.); and an optical particle counter(particle number by size range $0.3-25{\mu}m$, unit: #/cc, Aerotrak 9306, TSI Inc.). Results: The highest airborne concentration among SEGs was for furnace operator followed by pelletizing maintenance workers in number of particle and surface area, but not in mass concentrations. The geometric means of $PM_{2.5}$ by the DustTrak and the Ptrak/Aerotrak were $0.04{\mu}m$(GSD 2.52) and $0.07{\mu}m$(GSD 2.60), respectively. Also, the geometric means of RPM by the DustTrak and the Ptrak/Aerotrak were $0.16{\mu}m$(GSD 2.24) and $0.32{\mu}m$(GSD 3.24), respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient for DustTrak $PM_{2.5}$ and Ptrak/Aerotrak $PM_{2.5}$ was 0.56, and that of DustTrak RPM and Ptrak/Aerotrak RPM was 0.65, indicating a moderate positive association between the two sampling methods. Surface area and number concentration were highly correlated($R^2$ = 0.80), while $PM_{2.5}$ and RPM were also statistically correlated each other($R^2$ = 0.79). Conclusions: The results suggest that it is possible to measure airborne particulates by mass concentrations or particle number concentrations using real-time instruments instead of using the DustTrak Aerosol monitor that monitor mass concentrations only.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 2020

The rapid development in modern industrialization pollutant the water and atmospheric air across the globe that have a major impact on the human and livings health. In worldwide, every country government increasing the importance to improve the outdoor air pollution monitoring and control to provide quality of life and prevent the citizens and livings life from hazard disease. We proposed the environmental dust level detection method for outdoor facilities using sensor fusion technology to measure precise micro-dust level and monitor in realtime. In this proposed approach use the camera sensor and commercial dust level sensor data to predict the micro-dust level with data fusion method. The camera sensor based dust level detection uses the optical flow based machine learning method to detect the dust level and then fused with commercial dust level sensor data to predict the precise micro-dust level of the outdoor facilities and send the dust level informations to the outdoor air pollution monitoring system. The proposed method implemented on raspberry pi based open-source hardware with Internet-of-Things (IoT) framework and evaluated the performance of the system in realtime. The experimental results confirm that the proposed micro-dust level detection is precise and reliable in sensing the air dust and pollution, which helps to indicate the change in the air pollution more precisely than the commercial sensor based method in some extent.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.282-293
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• 2012

This study aimed to show the chemical characteristics of $PM_{10}$ and $PM_{2.5}$ during Asian dust (AD) events and high PM episodes observed in Seoul. Time-resolved chemical composition of $PM_{10}$ or $PM_{2.5}$ was monitored in 1 hour interval using ambient ion monitor, semi-continuous carbon monitor, and on-line XRF spectrometer at Seoul intensive monitoring site in 2009. Considering that AD events were classified into three different cases according to the source area and pathway, the concentrations of ammonium-sulfate and trace metal components were relatively high when the AD were occurred in Gobi and inner-mongolia and transported across the Bohai bay. In addition, the influence of alkaline dust, which carried from saline land located in the northeastern China, was observed when the AD was originated from Gobi, inner-mongolia, and Manchuria. Except AD events, the high PM episodes observed in Seoul were impacted by various anthropogenic sources such as biomass burning, motor vehicle, oil combustion and road dust.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.63.3-63.3
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• 2019

Active asteroids are celestial bodies that distinctively have asteroid-like orbital elements but show comet-like activity. They exhibit the activities due to the sublimation of volatile ices, impacts with small objects or break-up by rapid rotations. As of 2019 February, 30 active asteroids are detected in the outer main belt (i.e., the semimajor axes a>2.5 au) while only 3 of them in the inner main belt (a<2.5 au), suggesting that sublimation of remaining icy volatiles can be one of the most fundamental mechanisms for the activities. A sudden activity of (6478) Gault was reported in early 2019. The asteroid was discovered in 1988 and has exhibited its inactive appearance until the end of last year. Soon after the report, we have conducted imaging observations using the Seoul National University Observatory 1.0-m telescope and the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) to monitor the activity. The observed images showed a primary dust tail that consists of dust grains ejected early November in 2018. Later, another tail developed, indicating further dust ejection occurred around late December 2018. Our model simulation to reproduce the morphology of the dust cloud suggests that the slightly-curved primary dust tail results from a continuous dust ejection over weeks. The total mass of ejecta was estimated to XX kg (XX% of the asteroid mass). Such continuous dust ejection for the inner active asteroids was unexpected because ice might have already sublimated from subsurfaces of inner main belt. Based on our observational evidence, we will discuss how inner asteroids are activated and eject dust continuously.

• Proceedings of the Optical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.02a
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• pp.313-314
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• 2007

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.367-375
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• 2008

To characterize atmospheric particles in Cheonan area, 5 monitoring sites representing highway area, commercial area, residential area, and industrial areas were selected, and the mass concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 were monitored for 14 days at each site during 2007. The daily average PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations were in the range from 18.5 to $140.9{\mu}g/m^3$ and 8.2 to $116.6{\mu}g/m^3$, respectively, showing the highest mean concentrations at the commercial area site and the lowest concentration at the residential area site. The daily average PM 10 concentrations at Shinan (Commercial area) and Bakseok (Industrial area) sites were exceeded the current National Standard for 1 and 2 days during the monitoring periods. The fractions of PM2.5 in PM10 were above 70% for all sites, indicating fine particles are the major constituent of atmospheric particles in Cheonan. The results indicate that PM10 concentrations in Cheonan are at the concerning level, and the control strategy for fine particles is necessary to address this issue.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.513-517
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• 2014

In this study, we implemented and designed an RF monitoring system to manage a dust collector wirelessly, which is manually operated. The dust collector prevents the emission of air pollutants and improves air condition. It is possible to implement a high-value monitoring system of a dust collector, the system will wirelessly monitor many important data such as the operating time, the amount of electricity consumption, and the differential pressure value of a large number of the dust collectors in an industrial site, the system also displays and saves these data on a manager's PC, and when an error occurs, the system sends the error message to a manager's mobile phone. Therefore, through the RF monitoring system implemented in this paper, it is possible to reduce unnecessary loss for recording information of each dust collector to stack emission management system (SEMS).

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to assess respirable crystalline silica (RCS) exposure levels in workers who collect and dispose used coal briquette ash (CBA) in sanitation companies that are subcontracted by one medium-sized local government on the collection of municipal household waste (MHW), and to analyze the quartz content in CBA. When the CBA powder that undergone specialized pretreatment in several steps were subjected to mineral identification and quantitative analysis using X-ray diffraction (XRD), it was found that quartz represented 18%, and in addition, mullite, and plagioclase were included. For two CBA collectors, samples were collected by the personal sampling evaluation method. After respirable dust was collected in accordance with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 7500 method, the concentration of quartz was analyzed using XRD. Meanwhile, a portable real-time dust monitor (Sidepak AM520, TSI Inc., USA) was also used to observe the dust exposure level for each time zone and job task. The RCS exposure level of one worker was as high as 0.024 mg/㎥, which was the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLV) level. The other worker also exhibited a concentration of 0.013 mg/㎥, which was more than half of TLV. The Sidepak results revealed that the work of collecting CBA and loading it onto a vehicle was hardly exposed to the dust of a significant level. It was found, however, that the work of transferring the collected CBA to a container through a conveyor belt was exposed to a very high average respirable dust concentration of 2.238 mg/㎥. The results of this study confirmed that quartz, which is crystalline silica and a carcinogen, is contained in CBA, one of municipal household waste (MHW), in high concentration. It was also confirmed that workers are exposed to high RCS concentrations while transferring collected CBA into a container. Although each local government in South Korea handles CBA in different ways, it is imperative to investigate the CBA exposure level of sanitation workers and improve their working conditions.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.92-99
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• 2021

Light-scattering fine particulate matter monitors can measure particulate matter (PM) concentrations in every second and can be designed in a portable size. They can measure the concentrations of various PM sizes (PM_1.0, PM_2.5, PM_4.0 and PM₁₀) with a single sensor. They measure the number and size of particulate matters and convert them to weight per volume (concentration). These devices show a large error for asian dust. This paper proposes a scheme that compensates the PM_2.5 concenstration error for asian dust by multiple linear regression machine learning in light-scattering PM monitors. This scheme can be effective with only two or three types of PM sizes. The experimental results compare a beta-ray PM monitor of national institute of environmental research and a light-scattering PM monitor during a month. The correlation coefficient (R²) of theses two devices was 0.927 without asian dust, but it was 0.763 due to asian dust during the entire experimental period and improved to 0.944 by the proposed machine learning.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK), a tobacco specific nitrosamine found only in tobacco products. The ability to monitor biomarker concentrations is very important in understanding environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). In this study, an efficient and sensitive method for the analysis of NNK in dust was developed and validated using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Dust was collected with filter paper soaked in methanol. The standard solution and dust sample were diluted with 100 mM ammonium acetate and extracted using dichloromethane. Our calibration curves ranged from 25 to $10^4pg/mL$. Excellent linearity was obtained with correlation coefficient values between 0.9996 and 1.0000. The limit of detection (LOD) was 5 pg/mL ($S/N{\geq}3$) and the retention time was 10 min. The limit of quantification (LOQ) was 25 pg/mL, and the acceptance criteria was the rate of 98-103% (80-120% at levels up to $3{\times}LOQ$). The coefficient of variations (CV) was 2.8%. Accuracies determined from dust samples spiked with four different levels of NNK racurves ranged that from 25 to 104 pg/mL. Excellent linearity was obtained between 92.1% and 114%. The precision of the method was acceptable (5% of CV). The recovery rates of the whole analytical procedure at low, medium, and high levels were 105.7-116.5% for NNK. The carry-over effects during LC-MS/MS analysis were not observed for NNK. This manuscript summarizes the scientific evidence on the use of markers to measure ETS.