• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.382-387
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• 2020

Hydrogen (H₂) is considered as a new clean energy resource for replacing petroleum because it produces only H₂O after the combustion process. However, owing to its explosive nature, it is extremely important to detect H₂ gas in the ambient atmosphere. This has triggered the development of H₂ gas sensors. 2-dimensional (2D) graphene has emerged as one of the most promising candidates for chemical sensors in various industries. In particular, graphene exhibits outstanding potential in chemoresistive gas sensors for the detection of diverse harmful gases and the control of indoor air quality. Graphene-based chemoresistive gas sensors have attracted tremendous attention owing to their promising properties such as room temperature operation, effective gas adsorption, and high flexibility and transparency. Pristine graphene exhibits good sensitivity to NO₂ gas at room temperature and relatively low sensitivity to H₂ gas. Thus, research to control the selectivity of graphene gas sensors and improve the sensitivity to H₂ gas has been performed. Noble metal decoration and metal oxide decoration on the surface of graphene are the most favored approaches for effectively controlling the selectivity of graphene gas sensors. Herein, we introduce several strategies that enhance the sensitivity of graphene gas sensors to H₂ gas.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.433-446
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• 2022

Despite efforts to reduce unexpected accidents at confined construction sites, choking accidents continue to occur. Because of the poorly ventilated atmosphere, particularly in long, confined underground spaces, workers are subject to dangerous working conditions despite the use of artificial ventilation. Moreover, the traditional monitoring methods of using portable gas detectors place safety inspectors in direct contact with hazardous conditions. In this study, a long-range (LoRa)-based wireless safety monitoring system that features the network organization, fault-tolerant, power management, and a graphical user interface (GUI) was developed for underground construction sites. The LoRa wireless data communication system was adopted to detect hazardous gases and oxygen deficiency within a confined underground space with adjustable communication range and low power consumption. Fault tolerance based on the mapping information of the entire wireless sensor network was particularly implemented to ensure the reliable operation of the monitoring system. Moreover, a sleep mode was implemented for the efficient power management. The GUI was also developed to control the entire safety-monitoring system and to manage the measured data. The developed safety-monitoring system was validated in an indoor testing and at two full-scale water pipeline construction sites.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.191-196
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• 2007

Indoor air differs from outdoor atmosphere since it contains chemical and physical contaminants from building materials. This study deals with the biological effects of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from synthetic fiber carpet materials. One group of Tradescantia inflorescence was exposed to VOCs from the carpet sample in the environmental test chamber, while the other inflorescence group was exposed to a TO-14 standard gas mixture (1 ppm) for comparison. After the exposure, VOCs from the carpet were analysed by the desorber/GC/MS method, and micronuclei in the pollen mother cells of Tradescantia were scored under a microscope $({\times}400)$ to evaluate the genotocixicity induced by the exposure to VOCs. The chemical analysis confirmed that a total of 12 VOCs were released from the carpet materials, among which stylene $(71.9{\mu}g\;m^{-3})$ and toluene $(49.6{\mu}g\;m^{-3})$ were in the highest concentration. Twenty four hours of exposure to VOCs from the carpet in the environmental test chamber resulted in a micronucleus frequency as high as $7.73{\pm}0.75MCN$ per 100 tetrads, which was similar to that induced after exposure to the TO-14 standard gas mixture (1 ppm) for 4 hours. Meanwhile, two hours of exposure to the standard gas mixture did not cause a significant increase in the genotoxicity compared to the spontaneous micronucleus frequency. This result indicates that exposure for a long time to the air contaminated with VOCs from the carpet materials causes a genotoxic effect. The biological-chemical combination analyses in the study proved to be an effective tool for monitoring the indoor air contaminants.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.247-257
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• 2019

Objectives: The Korea Ministry of Environment regulates concentrations of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) through Atmosphere Environmental Standards to protect public health from HAPs. However, simply determining the exceedance of HAP concentrations has several limitations and more comprehensive assessment is required. In addition, integrated risk assessment is needed considering exposure in all microenvironments, including outdoor as well as indoor environments. The purpose of this study was to assess the differences in risk by sub-population groups according to time-activity patterns and reported concentrations, as well as the lifetime risk for Koreans. Methods: In this study, we calculated time-weighted average exposure concentrations for benzene and $PM_{10}$ among preschool-age children, students, housewifes, workers, and the elderly using residential time and concentrations for indoor (house, school or workplace, other), outdoor, and transport by the meta-analysis method. The risk assessments were conducted by excess cancer risk and disease death risk using 1,000,000 Monte-Carlo simulations for probabilistic analysis. Results: Preschool-age children, students, housewifes, workers, and the elderly spent 91.9, 86.0, 79.8, 82.2, and 77.3% of their day in their house, workplace, or school, respectively. The more than 99% excess cancer risk for benzene exceed 1.0E-06 in all sub-populations and lifetime. The acute disease death risk for $PM_{10}$ for housewifes and workers for lifetime were 3.35E-04 and 3.18E-04, and chronic disease death risks were 2.84E-03 and 2.70E-03, respectively. Conclusions: The risk of benzene and $PM_{10}$ by sub-population group and for the lifetime of housewifes and workers were assessed. Benzene showed risky results for this study. All disease death risks of $PM_{10}$ were higher than 1.0E-04 and showed different risks by sub-population. This study can be used as a basis for lifetime exposure and risk assessment to benzene and $PM_{10}$.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.368-376
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• 2022

Spontaneous ignition occurs in industrial sites or anywhere in our lives, and is a phenomenon in which a substance ignites itself without an ignition source in the atmosphere. As the rate of chemical reaction increases, the heat generated increases, and the risk of spontaneous ignition increases. In this study, safe raw materials used for food and cosmetics were mixed to prepare coal spontaneous ignition prevention agents specifically among various spontaneous ignition phenomena. The effect of suppressing spontaneous combustion of coal was confirmed through lab and field tests with low-calorie, low-grade coal from Indonesia. As a result of the outdoor field test, the ignition prevention agent manufactured in this study compared with the control group(Fire after 90 days) showed excellent ignition inhibitors for more than 120 days. In addition, CO concentration control was confirmed by comparing the concentration of carbon monoxide for 50 days at the indoor coal yard. It was confirmed that the results were better than the comparative group coal and the existing anti-firing method. In addition, the possibility of coal fire prevention agents for indoor coal farms will be applied from 2024 was confirmed by studying the environment and safety of workers' working environments through official test such as soil and water quality test, MSDS of coal fire prevention agents in consideration of working workers, water quality, and eye irritation tests.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.71-81
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• 2018

$CO_2$ concentration has a significant effect on quality of cold-stored apples. High indoor $CO_2$ concentrations above 10,000 ppm cause the browning of apples and result in economic loss for farmers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate $CO_2$ concentrations and their distribution in a controlled atmosphere (CA) storage and provide better structural designs to improve the $CO_2$ environment using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The CFD model was developed for a real CA storage for apples and applied to investigate the effect of changing the inlet and outlet locations and the aspect ratio of the floor of the CA storage on the spatial distributions of $CO_2$ concentration and the browning of the apples. The lowest $CO_2$ concentrations in existing CA storage with a high aspect ratio of the floor were achieved from the combination of the inlet located at the top of the right side and the outlet located at the bottom of the left side. In modified CA storage with a low aspect ratio, the combination of the inlet and outlet located at top and bottom of left side respectively achieved the lowest $CO_2$ concentrations. The proposed case enhanced the storage performance by reducing total browned apples by 3.6% in storage duration of 210 days. This study is expected to reduce the browning damages of apples in CA storage, and thus greatly prevent economic losses.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a health education program to improve knowledge about environmental health and allergy symptoms among elementary school students. Methods: This study has nonequivalent control group pre-post test design. Participants of this study were 60 elementary students (30 experimental and 30 control) who agreed to participate in the study. The education program consisted of information on environmental health and allergies, the atmosphere, indoor environments, food and allergies, and activities with parents. The program was carried out one time (50 minutes) per week during 6 weeks. Knowledge and symptoms of allergies were recorded before and after the program among both groups. The collected data were analyzed by ANCOVA and t-test using SAS program. Results: There was a significant increase in knowledge about allergies in the experimental group compared to the control group, but allergic symptoms were similar in the two groups. Conclusion: These findings suggest that environmental health education programs are effective in the area of school health nursing for increasing knowledge about environmental health and allergies. Further research is needed to develop programs for reducing allergic symptoms as an environment health problem among children.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.20 no.2 s.49
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• pp.167-178
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• 2005

This study was carried out to evaluate the temporal, spatial, and seasonal variations of VOC, and to characterize the VOC concentrations in two large industrial complexes located in Pohang and Gumi cities. Twenty -four hours continuous sampling of selected VOC was made with STS 25 sequential tube samplers and double-bed adsorbent tubes. Air samples were collected every three hour interval for 7 consecutive days in each site during summer and winter. VOC were determined by thermal desorption coupled with GC/MS. A total of 27 VOCs of environmental concern were determined, including aliphatic, aromatic and halides. Generally. concentrations of toxic VOC were higher in Gumi than Pohang, and VOC levels in industrial areas were typically several-fold higher than those in residential areas. The most abundant VOC appeared to be toluene for both cities. However, chlorinated VOC were higher in Gumi than Pohang, while aromatic VOC were more abundant in Pohang than in Gumi. Two cities showed relatively different variations of VOC concentrations within a day. It is likely that traffic related sources are major factors affecting the VOC in Pohang, and industrial solvents usages are important sources in Gumi. These results imply that the occurrence and levels of atmospheric VOC are strongly dependent on the type of industries in each city. Therefore, in order to develop any control strategies or to establish the priority rankings for VOC in large industrial complexes, the type of industries and the occurrence of VOC in the atmosphere should be taken into consideration.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.9-13
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• 2006

Diesel exhausted particles (DEP), a kind of fine particles with aerodynamic diameters less than $2.5{\mu}m$ (PM2.5), is of great concern to human health because they remain in atmosphere for long periods, invade an indoor air environment, and can be breathed most deeply into lung and reached the alveoli because of their small size ($0.1{\sim}0.4\;{\mu}m$ in diameter). Epidemiological and experimental studies suggested that DEP may play an active role in the increased respiratory mortality and morbidity. In addition to their physical characteristics, the chemical components including polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) are regarded as a carcinogen causing pulmonary tumors. PLD plays an important role in cell proliferation with various physiological phenomena and affects other enzymes by activating signal transduction pathway. We investigated the cytotoxic mechanism of DEP on RAW 264.7 cells focusing on the role in activation of PLD. Our results suggested DEP induced PLD activity through a specific signaling pathway involving phospholipase $A_2$, PLC, PKC and $Ca^{2+}$ mobilization.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.189-205
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to describe the trends and contents of literature in green library and to suggest the research direction on green library. Earlier studies focus on the green library architecture and necessity, after then green library management studies have proliferated. Green library architecture studies have emphasized on 'energy and atmosphere' and 'indoor environmental quality' based upon 5 categories of LEED evaluation system. Green library management studies have focused on library resources recycling and utilizing energy through effective management of library collection. Based on the analysis of literature, five research directions are suggested, such as the number of libraries in an area, library shelf position and space, library space program, collection ratio for library storage, and user studies.