• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.133-143
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• 1993

The aim of this study was to establish reproducible method for measurements of radiopacity and to investigate the level of radiopacity of root canal sealers. The experiments were performed in two parts. In the first part, densitometric readings were performed using an aluminum step wedge as a reference at variable voltages and exposure times. Then standard curves for the aluminum step wedge were compared to comprehend the effect of voltage and exposure time. In the second part, on the basis of these results, appropriate conditions for exposure were adopted for standardized measurements of radiopacity. Under standardized set of conditions, densitometric measurements of ten root canal sealers and one gutta-percha point were performed and the levels of radiopacity referable to an equivalent thickness of aluminum were compared. The following results were obtained : 1. At 50 and 60 kVp, increasing the exposure time caused a decrease in the slope of the standard curve for the aluminum step wedge. However, at 70 kVp increasing the exposure time causing a parallel shift of the standard curve to the right. 2. At constant exposure time, increasing the voltage caused a decrease in the slope of the standard curve. 3. The radiopacity of root canal sealers and a gutta-percha point varied between 2.43 mm Al and 9.20 mm Al equivalent. 4. All the root canal sealers had radiopacities more than dentin, and the radiopacity of the gutta-percha point was approximately 5 times as much as that of dentin in terms of equivalent thickness of aluminum. 5. The AH26 had radiopacity more than the gutta-percha point, and the radiopacities of ZOE, Vitapex, Canals, Kerr PCS, Nogenol were similar to that of the gutta-percha point, and Tubliseal, Apatite II, Apatite III, Silapex were less radiopaque than the gutta-percha point.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.267-271
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• 2020

Cerium oxide (ceria, CeO₂) is one of the most wide-spread oxide supporting materials for the precious metal nanoparticle class of heterogeneous catalysts. Because ceria can store and release oxygen ions, it is an essential catalytic component for various oxidation reactions such as CO oxidation (2CO + O₂ 2CO₂). Moreover, reduced ceria is known to be reactive for water activation, which is a critical step for activation of water-gas shift reaction (CO + H₂O → H₂ + CO₂). Here, we apply van der Waals-corrected density functional theory (DFT) calculations combined with U correction to study the mechanism of water chemisorption on CeO₂(111) surfaces. A stoichiometric CeO₂(111) and a defected CeO₂(111) surface showed different water adsorption chemistry, suggesting that defected CeO₂ surfaces with oxygen vacancies are responsible for water binding and activation. An appropriate level of water-ceria chemisorption energy is deduced by vdW-corrected non-local correlation coupled with the optB86b exchange functional, whereas the conventional PBE functional describes weaker water-ceria interactions, which are insufficient to stabilize (chemisorb) water on the ceria surfaces.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.252-256
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• 1997

The white rot fungus Coriolus hiysutus decolorized several recalcitrant dyes. Four different types of dyes, including azo, triphenyl methane, heterocyclic, and polymeric dye, were treated by the mycelial preparation. Triphenyl methane dye, bromophenol blue lost over 95% of its color. Congo red and Poly R-478 were decolorized less than bromophenol blue, 57 and 55%, respectively. However, heterocyclic dye, methylene blue was not decolorized significantly and only red shift was observed. Extracellular laccase and peroxidase activities were appeared maximally in high level of dye decolorization media. In electrophoretic experiments, common active bands of laccase and peroxidase were found in all dye decolorized medium. These results indicated that the culture conditions which yield high levels of laccase and peroxidase activity lead to high levels of dye decolorization, and these two enzymes might be play an important roles in dye decolorization.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.18-34
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• 2018

Objectives: This study aims to identify and solve problems in the consistency, procedural justification, effectiveness, and other matters concerning approaches to occupational safety and health legislation, administrative rules, and administrative guidelines. Methods: In this study of policy on the industrial safety and health law of Korea, problems were raised based on important information on the approach to occupational safety and health legislation and administrative guidelines such as notices, ordinances, and instructions, as well as on their interpretation and operation standards. Secondly, based on the identified problems in the occupational safety and health law policy, core practical methods to present improvement directions for occupational safety health policy in Korea were sought. Results: It is absolutely necessary to actively promote the infrastructure for occupational safety and health by developing and disseminating notices, guidelines, and manuals that act as contact points between laws and the field in various ways at the administrative institution level. In addition to sanctions, efforts to systematically guide and promote complex professional matters must be supported. Efforts should be made to strengthen administrative expertise so that administrative authorities can secure professional authority and fully enforce legal policies according to the purpose of legislation. In order to ensure the effectiveness of occupational safety and health law policies, it is necessary to shift the focus of the legal policy toward confirming and guiding substantial compliance with legal standards. Conclusions: As a result of the above efforts, when reliable occupational safety and health law policy is implemented, the understanding and acceptance of the legal policy for the administrative object will be increased, and the safety and health management of the enterprise will be maximized to its full extent.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.63-75
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• 2006

The 5′-region of Potato virus X (PVX) RNA, which contains an AC-rich, single-stranded region and stem-loop structure 1 (SL1), affects RNA replication and assembly. Using Systemic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) and the electrophoretic mobility shift assay, we demonstrate that SL1 interacts specifically with tobacco protoplast protein extracts (S100). The 36 nucleotides that correspond to the top region of SL1, which comprises stem C, loop C, stem D, and the tetra loop (TL), were randomized and bound to the S100. Remarkably, the wild-type (wt) sequence was selected in the second round, and the number of wt sequences increased as selection proceeded. All of the selected clones from the fifth round contained the wt sequence. Secondary structure predictions (mFOLD) of the recovered sequences revealed relatively stable stem-loop structures that resembled SL1, although the nucleotide sequences therein were different. Moreover, many of the clones selected in the fourth round conserved the TL and C-C mismatch, which suggests the importance of these elements in host protein binding. The SELEX clone that closely resembled the wt SL1 structure with the TL and C-C mismatch was able to replicate and cause systemic symptoms in plants, while most of the other winners replicated poorly only on inoculated leaves. The RNA replication level on protoplasts was also similarly affected. Taken together, these results indicate that the SL1 of PVX interacts with host protein(s) that play important roles related to virus replication.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.870-876
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• 1999

The relationship between exercise intensity, oxidative stress and antioxidant status has been studied in sixteen trained male athletes aged 20-25years. Subjects performed 30-40minutes of treadmill running at 65% of VO2 max(high intensity exercise). Blood samples were taken before and immediately after two exercise bouts for measurement of blood antioxidants, indices of lipid peroxidation and susceptibility of crythrocyte to peroxidation. Plasma concentrations of cholesterol(7.3%), vitamin C(7.5%) and uric acid(2.1%) were elevated a little after exercise at 65% of VO2 max(13.7%)were significantly high than before exercise(p<0.05). However, these exercise-induced changes could be partly due to significant decreases in plasma volume which occurred after both exercise bouts(p<0.05). Plasma volume decreased 5.85$\pm$2.06% and 11.25$\pm$2.87% with exercise at 65% and 85% of VO2 max, respectively. The erythrocyte susceptibility to peroxidation after exercise at 65% of VO2 max was unchanged compared with the value before exercise, whereas after exercise at 85% of VO2 max, it was significantly higher than after exercise at 65% and 85% of VO2 max as well as before exercise(p<0.05). A significant increase at 85% of VO2 max, it was significantly high than after exercise at 85% of VO2 max (29.10$\pm$4.76ug/g Hb)when compared with the level before exercise (24.61$\pm$3.45ug/g Hb)(p<0.05). The results suggest that exercise-induced changes in plasma levels of lipid peroxide and antioxidant need to be evaluated, taking the shift in plasma volume into consideration. Also, exercise at high intensity corresponding to 85% of VO2 max alters the erythrocyte antioxidant status in relation to exercise-induced of oxidative stress.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.74-82
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• 1998

The grain boundary etching method as a technique for assessing degradation of structural materials used at elevated temperature has received much attention since it is simple, inexpensive and easy to apply to real plant components. In this study, the technique is applied to some aged petroleum and chemical plant components such as reactors and drums. As a degradation parameter, intersection number ratio ($N_i/N_o$), is employed. The intersection number ratio ($N_i/N_o$) is defined as the ratio of intersection number ($N_i$) obtained from 5-minute picric acid etched surface to the number ($N_o$) obtained from Nital etched surface. In order to study degradation level, several relationships were measured such as the correlation between shift in ductile brittle transition temperature, $({\Delta}DBTT)_{sp}$ and intersection number ratio, ($N_i/N_o$) and the correlation between the measured ($N_i/N_o$) values and Larson-Miller Parameter values.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.107-113
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• 2016

Visual discomfort is a common problem in three-dimensional videos. Among the methods to overcome visual discomfort presented in current research, disparity adjustment methods provide little guidance in determining the condition for disparity control. We propose a diaprity adjustment based on the characteristics of disparity distribution on visual comfort, where the visual comfort level is used as the adjustment paramter, in parallax barrier type auto-stereoscopic 3D display. In this paper, we use the horizontal image shift method for disparity adjustment to enhance visual comfort. The speeded-up robust feature is used to estimate the disparity distribution of 3D sequences, and the required amount for disparity control is chosen based on the pre-defined characteristics of disparity distribution on visual comfort. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, we used a 3D equipment. Subjective tests were conducted at the fixed optimal viewing distance. The results show that comfortable videos were generated based on the proposed disparity adjustment method.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2019

Fish shows great difference in growth rate between individuals during larval development and early growth. This difference seriously reduces the production efficiency in fish culture. Growth hormone (GH)/Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) system is said to play some pivotal roles in fish growth. In this study, we investigated differences of GH, IGF1 and GHR gene expressions in juvenile red spotted grouper (Epinephelus akaara) with different growth performance. Red spotted groupers were reared under the same environmental condition (water temperature $24{\pm}1^{\circ}C$, natural light) for 96 days after hatching. They were divided into 3 groups by size (fast growing, middle growing and slow growing groups: FGG, MGG, and SGG, respectively). RNA was extracted from the brain, liver and muscle tissues from each group, and target gene expression was examined by real-time PCR. In the brain with pituitary gland, expression of GH gene in FGG was significantly higher than the expression in SGG, but the expression of IGF1 and GHR genes in the muscle was highest in SGG. Difference of GHR and IGF1 mRNA in the liver between groups with different growth performance was less clear than that in other tissues, although level of IGF1 mRNA was higher in SGG than in MGG. These results suggest that hormonal governing of growth is not the same in fast growing and slow growing fish, and size grading could cause a shift of hormonal state and growth pattern in this species.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.227-233
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• 2014

Background: The aims of this study were to determine hippuric acid levels in urine samples, airborne toluene levels, acute and chronic neurological symptoms, and to describe any correlation between urinary hippuric acid and airborne toluene. Methods: The hippuric acid concentration in the urine of 87 paint workers exposed to toluene at work (exposed group), and 87 nonexposed people (control group) was studied. Study participants were selected from similar factories in the same region. Urine samples were collected at the end of a shift and analyzed for hippuric acid by high performance liquid chromatography. Air samples for the estimation of toluene exposure were collected with diffusive personal samplers and the toluene quantified using gas-liquid chromatography. The two groups were also interviewed and observed about their work practices and health. Results: The median of the 87 airborne toluene levels was 55 ppm (range, 12-198 ppm). The median urinary hippuric acid level was 800 mg/g creatinine (range, 90-2547 mg/g creatinine). A statistically significant positive correlation was found between airborne toluene exposure and urine hippuric acid levels (r = 0.548, p < 0.01). Workers with acute symptoms had significantly higher hippuric acid levels than those who did not (p < 0.05). It was concluded that there was a significant correlation between toluene exposure, hippuric acid levels, and health (p < 0.001). Conclusion: There appears to be a significant correlation between workers exposure to toluene at work, their urine hippuric acid levels, and resulting symptoms of poor health. Improvements in working conditions and occupational health education are required at these workplaces. There was good correlation between urinary hippuric acid and airborne toluene levels.