• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.145-145
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• 2008

High-k materials have been paid much more attention for their characteristics with high permittivity to reduce the leakage current through the scaled gate oxide. Among the high-k materials, $ZrO_2$ is one of the most attractive ones combing such favorable properties as a high dielectric constant (k= 20 ~ 25), wide band gap (5 ~ 7 eV) as well as a close thermal expansion coefficient with Si that results in good thermal stability of the $ZrO_2$/Si structure. During the etching process, plasma etching has been widely used to define fine-line patterns, selectively remove materials over topography, planarize surfaces, and trip photoresist. About the high-k materials etching, the relation between the etch characteristics of high-k dielectric materials and plasma properties is required to be studied more to match standard processing procedure with low damaged removal process. Among several etching techniques, we chose the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for high-density plasma, easy control of ion energy and flux, low ownership and simple structure. And the $BCl_3$ was included in the gas due to the effective extraction of oxygen in the form of $BCl_xO_y$ compounds. During the etching process, the wafer surface temperature is an important parameter, until now, there is less study on temperature parameter. In this study, the etch mechanism of $ZrO_2$ thin film was investigated in function of $Cl_2$ addition to $BCl_3$/Ar gas mixture ratio, RF power and DC-bias power based on substrate temperature increased from $10^{\circ}C$ to $80^{\circ}C$. The variations of relative volume densities for the particles were measured with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The surface imagination was measured by scanning emission spectroscope (SEM). The chemical state of film was investigated using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX).

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3917-3925
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• 2012

Background: The relationship between postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) and invasive breast cancer has been extensively investigated, but that with breast carcinoma in situ (BCIS) has received relatively little attention. The aim of our present study was to review and summarize the evidence provided by longitudinal studies on the association between postmenopausal HT use and BCIS risk. Methods: A comprehensive literature search for articles published up to May 2012 was performed. Prior to performing a meta-analysis, the studies were evaluated for publication bias and heterogeneity. Relative risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR) values were calculated using 14 reports (8 case-control studies and 6 cohort studies), published between 1986 and 2012. Results: There was evidence of an association between ever postmenopausal estrogen use and BCIS based on a random-effects model (RR = 1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01, 1.55). However, we found no strong evidence of an association between ever postmenopausal estrogen combined with progesterone use and BCIS using a randomeffects model (RR = 1.55, 95% CI = 0.95, 2.51). Furthermore, our analysis showed a strong association between "> 5 years duration" of estrogen or estrogen combined with progesterone use and BCIS. Furthermore, current use of any HT is associated with increased risk of BCIS in cohort studies. Additional well-designed large studies are now required to validate this association in different populations.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.117-123
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• 2010

Plutonium is by far the most important of the transuranic elements which have been released into the environment due to radio-toxicity and long term radiation effects on humans. And Pu isotope ratio ($^{240}Pu/^{239}Pu$) is of great interest because this ratio is used as a fingerprint for different sources. Mass spectrometry has been used as an useful atom counting technique with several advantages over decay counting techniques for the determination of Pu isotopes. It enables a determination of Pu isotope ratio in the environmental samples with a low detection limit and a short determination time. An ICP-MS is the representative mass spectrometry for Pu determination. In this study, the precision of $^{240}Pu/^{239}Pu$ isotope ratio was improved by using 4 multiple ion counters of MC-ICP-MS. The detection limit of $^{239}Pu$ and $^{240}Pu$ were $0.10\;fg\;ml^{-1}$ ($0.24\;{\mu}Bq\;ml^{-1}$), $0.12\;fg\;ml^{-1}$ ($0.97\;{\mu}Bq\;ml^{-1}$), respectively. The relative standard deviation of $^{240}Pu/^{239}Pu$ isotope ratio was less than 1 % in trace level. The various reference materials (seawater, soil and sediment) were analyzed to verify this method and their analytical results were in good agreement with the certified (or recommended value) value.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.639-657
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• 2015

There is an increasing need to improve the air quality over South Korea to protect public health from local and remote anthropogenic pollutant emissions that are in an increasing trend. Here, we evaluate the performance of the WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecasting-Chemistry) model in simulating near-surface air quality of major Korean cities, and investigate the impacts of time-varying chemical initial and lateral boundary conditions (IC/BCs) on the air quality simulation using a chemical downscaling technique. The model domain was configured over the East Asian region and anthropogenic MICS-Asia 2010 emissions and biogenic MEGAN-2 emissions were applied with RACM gaseous chemistry and MADE/SORGAM aerosol mechanism. Two simulations were conducted for a 30-days period on April 2010 with chemical IC/BCs from the WRF-Chem default chemical species profiles ('WRF experiment') and the MOZART-4 (Model for OZone And Related chemical Tracers version 4) ('WRF_MOZART experiment'), respectively. The WRF_MOZART experiment has showed a better performance to predict near-surface CO, $NO_2$, $SO_2$, and $O_3$ mixing ratios at 7 major Korean cities than the WRF experiment, showing lower mean bias error (MBE) and higher index of agreement (IOA). The quantitative impacts of the chemical IC/BCs have depended on atmospheric residence time of the pollutants as well as the relative difference of chemical mixing ratios between the WRF and WRF_MOZART experiments at the lateral boundaries. Specifically, the WRF_MOZART experiment has reduced MBE in CO and O3 mixing ratios by 60~80 ppb and 5~10 ppb over South Korea than those in the WRF-Chem default simulation, while it has a marginal impact on $NO_2$ and $SO_2$ mixing ratios. Without using MOZART-4 chemical IC, the WRF simulation has required approximately 6-days chemical spin-up time for the East Asian model domain. Overall, the results indicate that realistic chemical IC/BCs are prerequisite in the WRF-Chem simulation to improve a forecast skill of local air quality over South Korea, even in case the model domain is sufficiently large to represent anthropogenic emissions from China, Japan, and South Korea.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.320-328
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• 2005

The most common five chlorophenols (4-chloro-3-methylphenol, 2,4,5-trichlorophenol, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, 2,3,4,6-tetrachlorophenol, pentachlorophenol) were determined from the industrial wastewater by GC/MS. The samples were collected from the petrochemical company, textile company and leather making company. The developed analytical method was modified by USEPA Method 3510. The samples were extracted with dichloromethane under pH 2 and pH 5-6, and determined by the GC/MS with SIM mode. There were good linearities (above $R^2=0.9943$) on e ranges of the 0.1 ng/mL~10 ng/mL and 0.5 ng/mL~10 ng/mL, and the limit of detection were between 0.1 ng/mL and 0.5 ng/mL. The absolute recoveries were measured at the concentration of 1, 5, and 10 ng/mL, and the recovery was 71.6~98.9% except for PCP. The relative standard deviation (RSD) was 1.2~14.3% and it gave a good reproducibility for the assay. The bias, which shows the accuracy, was a good although it was a little high values (11.3~22.1%) at the low concentration (1 ng/mL).

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.177-183
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• 1999

The determination method of free acid in spent U-Al nuclear fuel solutions by Gran plot titration was described. Effect of U(VI) and Al(III) on the alkalimetric titration of nitric acid was investigated in oxalate complexing media as well as in noncomplexing media. Positive biases were observed in both titration media when the end-point was estimated by the Gran plot method. It was found that the cause of the bias was U(VI) in the oxalate complexing media, but Al(III) in the noncomplexing media. The relative error was less than 1% in the titration of 0.1 M $HNO_3$ at a U(VI) : Al(III) : $H^+$ mole ratio of up to 2:12:1 as long as the pH of the oxalate titration media was sustained to be below 5.0 at the beginning of titration. The method was successfully applied to the determination of nitric acid in a solution of HANARO reactor fuel with U:Al mole ratio of 1:6.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.169-169
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• 2008

To keep pace with scaling trends of CMOS technologies, high-k metal oxides are to be introduced. Due to their high permittivity, high-k materials can achieve the required capacitance with stacks of higher physical thickness to reduce the leakage current through the scaled gate oxide, which make it become much more promising materials to instead of $SiO_2$. As further studying on high-k, an understanding of the relation between the etch characteristics of high-k dielectric materials and plasma properties is required for the low damaged removal process to match standard processing procedure. There are some reports on the dry etching of different high-k materials in ICP and ECR plasma with various plasma parameters, such as different gas combinations ($Cl_2$, $Cl_2/BCl_3$, $Cl_2$/Ar, $SF_6$/Ar, and $CH_4/H_2$/Ar etc). Understanding of the complex behavior of particles at surfaces requires detailed knowledge of both macroscopic and microscopic processes that take place; also certain processes depend critically on temperature and gas pressure. The choice of $BCl_3$ as the chemically active gas results from the fact that it is widely used for the etching o the materials covered by the native oxides due to the effective extraction of oxygen in the form of $BCl_xO_y$ compounds. In this study, the surface reactions and the etch rate of $Al_2O_3$ films in $BCl_3/Cl_2$/Ar plasma were investigated in an inductively coupled plasma(ICP) reactor in terms of the gas mixing ratio, RF power, DC bias and chamber pressure. The variations of relative volume densities for the particles were measured with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The surface imagination was measured by AFM and SEM. The chemical states of film was investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which confirmed the existence of nonvolatile etch byproducts.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2013

An analytical methodology based on solid-space extraction (SPE) with with Bond Elut Certify cartridge (Varian, 130 mg) has been developed for the qualification and quantitation of strychnine in blood. After the elution layer was evaporated, the residue was reconstituted with methanol for GC/MS. Internal standard was used 10 mg/l dextromethorphan. Strychnine is a potent central nervous stimulant and convulsant, and an alkaloid found in seeds of Strychnos nux-vomica. It was used therapeutically to improve circulation and muscle tone in oral or intramuscular doses of 0.05~8 mg. The fatal dose of strychnine for humans is 50~100 mg. A man was found dead lying curled up the corner of the large room in a roof house after the fire fighter opened a locked door inside to put out the fire. The postmortem blood and gastric contents were analyzed for toxicological testing. Strychnine and brucine were detected using GC/MS first in gastric contents extracts. The contents of strychnine was 0.083 mg/l in heart blood, 0.088 mg/l in peripheral blood and 4.0 mg/kg in gastric contents, respectively. Method validation was carried out in terms of linearity, accuracy, precision (intraday, interday) in blood. The assay is linear over 0.05~10 mg/l ($r^2$=0.999). Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) in blood were determined 0.02 mg/l (S/N=3) and 0.07 mg/l (S/N=10), respectively. Accuracy (bias%) of strychnine with 0.1, 1 and 10 mg/l was 12.0% (n=6), 9.3% (n=6) and 6.9% (n=6), respectively. Intraday precision (CV%) of strychnine with, 0.1, 1 and 10 mg/l were 6.4%, 10.4%, 1.2% (n=6), respectively. Interday precision (CV%) of strychnine with 0.1, 1 and 10 mg/l over three days were 24.0%, 18.5%, 13.8% (n=18), respectively. Relative recovery with 0.1, 1 and 10 mg/l (in blood) were 114.9%, 99.3% and 87.4% (n=6), respectively. The described method can be applied in forensic toxicology to determine strychnine in blood samples.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to determine potential contributing factors associated with biosecurity level of farrow-to-finish pig farms and to develop a classification tree model to explore how these factors related to each other based on prediction model. To this end, the author analyzed data (n = 193) extracted from a cross-sectional study of 344 farrow-to-finish farms which was conducted between March and September 2014 aimed to explore swine disease status at farm level. Standardized questionnaires with information about basic demographical data and management practices were collected in each farm by on-site visit of trained veterinarians. For the classification of the data sets regarding biosecurity level as a dependent variable and predictor variables, Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) algorithm was applied for modeling classification tree. The statistics of misclassification risk was used to evaluate the fitness of the model in terms of prediction results. Categorical multivariate input data (40 variables) was used to construct a classification tree, and the target variable was biosecurity level dichotomized into low versus high. In general, the level of biosecurity was lower in the majority of farms studied, mainly due to the limited implementation of on-farm basic biosecurity measures aimed at controlling the potential introduction and transmission of swine diseases. The CHAID model illustrated the relative importance of significant predictors in explaining the level of biosecurity; maintenance of medical records of treatment and vaccination, use of dedicated clothing to enter the farm, installing fence surrounding the farm perimeter, and periodic monitoring of the herd using written biosecurity plan in place. The misclassification risk estimate of the prediction model was 0.145 with the standard error of 0.025, indicating that 85.5% of the cases could be classified correctly by using the decision rule based on the current tree. Although CHAID approach could provide detailed information and insight about interactions among factors associated with biosecurity level, further evaluation of potential bias intervened in the course of data collection should be included in future studies. In addition, there is still need to validate findings through the external dataset with larger sample size to improve the external validity of the current model.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.274-284
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• 2020

This study described the analytical method for simultaneous determination of 89Sr and 90Sr in liquid sample using automated separation system. Radiostrontium in 0.5 kg of liquid sample was concentrated as SrCO3 to reduce the volume of sample, and purified from the sample using Sr-resin 2 mL (BV, Bed volume). The behavior of Sr and interferences such as Ba, Ca and Y were estimated with various flow rate ranging from 1 to 4 mL min-1. The detailed procedure for the purification of Sr on Sr-resin was presented. The purified radiostronitum was measured in Cerenkov mode and then measured in Scintillation mode by mixing scintillation cocktail. The measured value in both modes were used to calculate the activity of 89Sr and 90Sr. The performance tests were carried out the lab-control-sample having various activity ratio of between 89Sr and 90Sr. The recovery of Sr was ranged from 68 to 94 %. The relative bias of 89Sr activity was ranged from -5 to 20 %, and it was ranged from -10 to 10 % for 90Sr.