• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.481-487
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• 2023

Concerning the apprehensions about naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) residues, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its member nations have acknowledged the imperative to ensure the radiation safety of NORM industries. Residues with elevated radioactivity concentrations are predominantly produced during NORM processing, in the form of scale and sludge, referred to as technically enhanced NORM (TENORM). Substantial quantities of TENORM residues have been released externally due to the dismantling of NORM processing factories. These residues become concentrated and fixed in scale inside scrap pipes. To assess the radioactivity of scales in pipes of various shapes, a Monte Carlo simulation was employed to determine dose rates corresponding to the action level in TENORM regulations for different pipe diameters and thicknesses. Onsite gamma spectrometry was conducted on a scrap iron pipe from the titanium dioxide manufacturing factory. The measured dose rate on the pipe enabled the estimation of NORM concentration in the pipe scale onsite. The derived action level in dose rate can be applied in the NORM regulation procedure for on-site judgments.

• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.215-220
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• 1996

A general procedure to quantitate the reaction of carbodiimides with carboxy groups of proteins is described. Pyridoxamine reacts with the o-acylisourea intermediate generated during the reaction of carboxyl residues with carbodiimides. The extent of the reaction is determined by measuring the spectroscopic properties, absorption and emission, of pyridoxyl residues covalently attached to the proteins. Resolved pig brain aspartate aminotransferase (apoenzyme), inactivated by 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylamino propyl) carbodiimide, reacts with $[^{3}H]pyridoxamine$. After trypsin digestion, one peptide labeled with radioactive pyridoxyl was separated by reverse phase HPLC.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1757-1762
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• 2023

Radiological hazards from external exposure of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) scales residues, generated during the extraction process of oil and gas production in southern Algeria, are evaluated. The activity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K were measured using high-purity gamma-ray spectrometry (GeHP). Mean activity concentration of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K, found in scale samples are 4082 ± 41, 1060 ± 38 and 568 ± 36 Bq kg^-1, respectively. Radiological hazard parameters, such as radium equivalent (Ra_eq), external and internal hazard indices (H_ex, H_in), and gamma index (I_γ) are also evaluated. All hazard parameter values were greater than the permissible and recommended limits and the average annual effective dose value exceeded the dose constraint (0.3 mSv y^-1). However, for occasionally exposed workers, the dose rate of 0.65 ± 0.02 mSv y^-1 is lower than recommended limit of 1 mSv y^-1 for public.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.450-458
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of risk perception characteristics for food risk elements using a psychometric paradigm from 298 university students in Yeungnam region, Korea, by a self-administered questionnaire. The respondents showed the highest level of risk concern about radioactive contaminated foods and the lowest level about GM (genetically modified) foods. In the risk perception characteristics for food risk elements, they perceived radioactive contaminated foods as a catastrophic, worried, new, and uncontrollable risk. In addition, they regarded food additives and foodborne illness as a chronic, controllable, old, and scientifically and individually known risk. According to the results of the factor analysis for risk perception characteristics, dread and unknown were categorized. In the risk perception map, mad cow disease, heavy metal contaminated foods, and radioactive contaminated foods were considered as a dreaded and unknown risk, whereas pesticide residues and GM foods were perceived as a less dreaded and unknown risk. Additionally, food additives and foodborne illness were regarded as a less dreaded and known risk and endocrine disruptors and avian influenza as a dreaded and known risk. These results imply that risk perception characteristics of consumers should be considered to establish strategies for risk communication in food science.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.264-269
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• 2001

Large amounts of orange juice are produced in Japan every yea.. Accompanied by the production of orange juice, large amount of juice residues are also generated in nearly the same amounts with juice. Although, at present, some of these residues are marketed as a feed for cattle after drying and mixing with lime, the marketing price is lower than its production cost and the difference is paid by the consumers as a part of the price of orange juice. In the present work, we developed new innovative use of orange juice residue, a biomass waste, as adsorption gel for removing toxic heavy metals such as lead. arsenic, selenium and so on as well as radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium from environments. The major components of orange juice residue are cellulose. hemicellulose and pectin, which are converted into pectic. acid, an acidic polysaccharide, by means of saponification with concentrated sodium hydroxide solution. In the previous work, we found that crosslinked pectic acid gel strongly an selectively adsorbs lead over other metals such as zinc an copper. On the other hand. it is well known that polysaccharides such as cellulose can be easily phosphorylated and that phosphorylated polysaccharides have high affinity to uranium and thorium as well as some trivalent metals such as ferric iron and aluminum. Taking account of the noticeable characteristics of these polysaccharides, 2 types of adsorption gels were prepared from orange juice residue: one is the gel which was prepared by saponificating the residue followed by crosslinking with epichlorohydrin and another is that prepared by crosslinking the residue followed by phosphorylation. The former gel exhibited excellent adsorptive separation behavior for lead away from zinc owing to high content of pectic acid while the latter gel exhibited that for uranium and thorium. Both types of adsorption gels exhibited high affinity to ferric iron, which enables selective and strong adsorption for some toxic oxo-anions of arsenic (V and III), . selenium and so on via iron loaded on these gels. These results demonstrate that biomass wastes such as orange juice residue can be effectively utilized fer the purpose of removing toxic heavy or radioactive metals existing in trace or small amounts in environments.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.2926-2936
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• 2021

Rare-earth (RE) industries generate a massive amount of radioactive residue containing high thorium concentrations. Due to the fact that thorium is considered a non-economic element, large volume of these RE processed residues are commonly disposed of without treatment. It is essential to study an appropriate treatment that could reduce the volume of waste for final disposition. To this end, this research investigates the applicability of carbon-based adsorbent in separating thorium from aqueous phase sulphate is obtained from the cracking and leaching process of solid rare-earth by-product residue. Adsorption of thorium from the aqueous phase sulphate by carbon-based electrodes was investigated through electrosorption experiments conducted at a duration of 180 minutes with a positive potential variable range of +0.2V to +0.6V (vs. Ag/AgCl). Through this research, the specific capacity obtained was equivalent to 1.0 to 5.14 mg-Th/g-Carbon. Furthermore, electrosorption of thorium ions from aqueous phase sulphate is found to be most favorable at a higher positive potential of +0.6V (vs. Ag/AgCl). This study's findings elucidate the removal of thorium from the rare-earth residue by carbon-based electrodes and simultaneously its potential to reduce disposal waste of untreated residue.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.691-702
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• 2015

This study examined the levels of risk perception of food risk elements by adopting a psychometric paradigm and analyzed factors affecting concerns about food risk elements to obtain basic materials for food safety policy. The data were collected from 296 housewives in Daegu, Korea, by a self-administered questionnaire. Frequency distributions, Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis, factor analysis, Cronbach's ${alpha}$, and multiple regression analyses were conducted by SPSS 21.0. The mean level of concern for food safety was 3.75/5.00 points, and the mean percentage of correct answers about heavy metal contamination was highest among food risk elements. The respondents perceived radioactive contaminated foods, GM foods, and endocrine disruptors as a new, delayed, scientifically unknown, involuntary, serious, and uncontrollable risk in risk perception. According to the result of factor analysis for risk perception, two factors such as non-controllability and dread were categorized. In the risk perception map, radioactive contaminated foods and GM foods were considered as an uncontrollable and dreaded risk, heavy metal contamination, endocrine disruptors, and pesticide residues as a controllable and dreaded risk, and foodborne illness and food additives as a controllable and less dreaded risk. On the other hand, the levels of concerns about food risk elements were higher in order of radioactive contaminated foods, GM foods, and endocrine disruptors. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that age, concern for food safety, percentage of correct answers about food risk elements, non-controllability, and dread influenced the concerns about food risk elements. These results imply that food safety policies should consider differences in consumer's risk perception of food risk elements.

• BMB Reports
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.421-425
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• 2003

The serine/threonine protein kinase family is a large and diverse group of enzymes that are involved in the regulation of multiple cellular pathways. Elevated kinase activity has been implicated in many diseases and frequently targeted for the development of pharmacological inhibitors. Therefore, non-radioactive antibody-based kinase assays that allow high throughput screening of compound libraries have been developed. However, they require a generation of antibodies against the phosphorylated form of a specific substrate. We report here a time-resolved fluorescence assay platform that utilizes a commercially-available generic anti-phosphothreonine antibody and permits assaying kinases that are able to phosporylate threonin residues on protein substrates. Using this approach, we developed an assay for Cdc7/Dbf4 kinase activity, determined the $K_m$ for ATP, and identified rottlerin as a non-ATP competitive inhibitor of this enzyme.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.428-432
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• 1997

The dephosphorylation specificity of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), calcineurin (PP2B) and protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) were studied in vitro using myelin basic protein (MBP) as a model substrate which was fully phosphorylated at multiple sites by protein kinase C (PKC) or cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). In order to determine the site specificity of phosphates in myelin basic protein, the protein was digested with trypsin and the radioactive phosphopeptide fragments were isolated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on reversed-phase column. Subsequent analysis and/or sequential manual Edman degradation of the purified phosphopeptides revealed that Thr-65 and Ser-115 were most extensively phophorylated by PKA and Ser-55 by PKC. For the dephosphorylation kinetics, the phosphorylated MBP was treated with calcineurin or PP2C with various time intervals and the reaction was terminated by direct tryptic digest. Both Thr-65 and Ser-115 residues were dephosphorylated more rapidly than any other ones by phosphatases. However it can be differentiated further by first-order kinetics that the PP2B dephosphorylated both Thr-65 and Ser-115 with almost same manner, whereas PP2C dephosphorylated somewhat preferentially the Ser-115.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.453-461
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• 2009

Killifish (Oryzias latipes) were exposed to an organophosphate pesticide, pirimiphos-methyl, in a flow-through system to determine the bioconcentration factor (BCF) following GLP (Good Laboratory Practice). This study was conducted at two different concentrations (1 and $10\;{\mu}$g/L) of $^{14}C$-labeled pirimiphos-methyl for 28 days uptake and 14 days depuration according to the OECD 305 test guideline. The $BCF_{ss}$ for total radioactive residues in whole fish were 1,251 and 1,277 for low and high concentrations, respectively. The $BCF_k$ based on the uptake and depuration rate constants were 1,200 for both low and high concentrations. During the depuration phase, the accumulated test substance was rapidly depurated from fish. Greater than 95% of the residue at steady-state was depurated after 2 days. Although the measured BCF values were high, pirimiphos-methyl could be evaluated as a low risk from bioaccumulation by aquatic organisms due to the short depuration period and low amount of bound residue (1.5%). We suggest that in evaluating bioaccumulation, not only the BCF should be considered, but also depuration time and bound residue in aquatic organisms give an indication of the potential environmental risks.