• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2018.06a
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• pp.62-62
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• 2018

Pt is still considered as one of the most active electrocatalysts for ORR in alkaline fuel cells. However, the high cost and scarcity of Pt hamper the widespread commercialization of fuel cells. As a strong candidate for the replacement of Pt catalyst, silver (Ag) has been extensively studied due to its high activity, abundance, and low cost. Ag is more stable than Pt in the pH range of 8~14 as the equilibrium potential of Ag/Ag+ being ${\approx}200mV$ higher than that of Pt/PtO. However, Ag is the overall catalytic activity of Ag for oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) is still not comparable to Pt catalyst since the surface Ag atoms are approximately 10 times less active than Pt atoms. Therefore, further enhancement in the ORR activity of Ag catalysts is necessary to be competitive with current cutting-edge Pt-based catalysts. We demonstrate the architectural design of Ag catalysts, synthesized using plasma discharge in liquid phase, for enhanced ORR kinetics in alkaline media. An attractive feature of this work is that the plasma status controlled via electric-field could form the Ag nanowires or dendrites without any chemical agents. The plasma reactor was made of a Teflon vessel with an inner diameter of 80 mm and a height of 80 mm, where a pair of tungsten(W) electrodes with a diameter of 2 mm was placed horizontally. The stock solutions were made by dissolving the 5-mM AgNO3 in DI water. For the synthesis of Agnanowires, the electricfield of 3.6kVcm-1 in a 200-ml AgNO3 aqueous solution was applied across the electrodes using a bipolar pulsed power supply(Kurita, Seisakusyo Co. Ltd). The repetition rate and pulse width were fixed at 30kHz and 2.0 us, respectively. The plasma discharge was carried out for a fixed reaction time of 60 min. In case of Ag nanodendrites, the electric field of 32kVcm-1 in a 200-ml AgNO3 aqueous solution was applied and other conditions were identical to the plasma discharge in water in terms of electrode configuration, repetition rate and discharge time. Using SEM and STEM, morphology of Ag nanowires and dendrites were investigated. With 3.6 kV/cm, Ag nanowire was obtained, while Ag dendrite was constructed with 32 kV/cm. The average diameter and legth of Ag nanowireses were 50 nm and 3.5 um, and thoes values of Ag dendrites were 40 nm and 3.0 um. As a results of XPS analysis, the surface defects in the Ag nanowires facilitated O2 incorporation into the surface region via the interaction between the oxygen and the electron cloud of the adjacent Ag atoms. The catalytic activity of Ag for oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) showed that the catalytic ORR activity of Ag nanowires are much better than Ag nanodendrites, and electron transfer number of Ag nanowires is similar to that of Pt (${\approx}4$).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.342-349
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• 2017

Polylactic acid (PLA) has been highlighted as an alternative renewable polymer for the replacement of petroleum-based plastic materials, and is considered to be biodegradable. On the other hand, the biodegradation of PLA by terminal degraders, such as microorganisms, requires a lengthy period in the natural environment, and its mechanism is not completely understood. PLA biodegradation studies have been conducted using mainly undefined mixed cultures, but only a few bacterial strains have been isolated and examined. For further characterization of PLA biodegradation, in this study, the PLA-degrading bacteria from digester sludge were isolated and identified using a polymer film-based screening method. The enrichment of sludge on PLA granules was conducted with the serial transference of a subculture into fresh media for 40 days, and the attached biofilm was inoculated on a PLA film on an agar plate. 3D optical microscopy showed that the isolates physically degraded the PLA film due to bacterial degradation. 16S rRNA gene sequencing identified the microbial colonies to be Pseudomonas sp. MYK1 and Bacillus sp. MYK2. The two isolates exhibited significantly higher specific gas production rates from PLA biodegradation compared with that of the initial sludge inoculum.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.24.1-24.12
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• 2018

Objectives: The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the biocompatibility of newly proposed root-end filling materials, Biodentine, Micro-Mega mineral trioxide aggregate (MM-MTA), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) bone cement, and Smart Dentin Replacement (SDR), in comparison with contemporary root-end filling materials, intermediate restorative material (IRM), Dyract compomer, ProRoot MTA (PMTA), and Vitrebond, using human periodontal ligament (hPDL) fibroblasts. Materials and Methods: Ten discs from each material were fabricated in sterile Teflon molds and 24-hour eluates were obtained from each root-end filling material in cell culture media after 1- or 3-day setting. hPDL fibroblasts were plated at a density of $5{\times}10^3/well$, and were incubated for 24 hours with 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, and 1:8 dilutions of eluates. Cell viability was evaluated by XTT assay. Data was statistically analysed. Apoptotic/necrotic activity of PDL cells exposed to material eluates was established by flow cytometry. Results: The Vitrebond and IRM were significantly more cytotoxic than the other root-end filling materials (p < 0.05). Those cells exposed to the Biodentine and Dyract compomer eluates showed the highest survival rates (p < 0.05), while the PMTA, MM-MTA, SDR, and PMMA groups exhibited similar cell viabilities. Three-day samples were more cytotoxic than 1-day samples (p < 0.05). Eluates from the cements at 1:1 dilution were significantly more cytotoxic (p < 0.05). Vitrebond induced cell necrosis as indicated by flow cytometry. Conclusions: This in vitro study demonstrated that Biodentine and Compomer were more biocompatible than the other root-end filling materials. Vitrebond eluate caused necrotic cell death.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1191-1196
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• 2009

The production of Streptomyces griseus trypsin (SGT) by S. griseus IFO13350 transformed with the expression vector pWHM3-TR1R2, containing sprT encoding SGT and the two positive regulatory genes sgtR1 and sgtR2, was investigated in various media. Cultivation in Ferm-0 gave 1.4 times more trypsin activity than in C5/L medium. In addition, replacement of 2% glucose and 1% skim milk in Ferm-0 with 2% dextrin and 1% tryptone (designated Ferm-II) enhanced trypsin activity 4.1-fold. To simplify the purification process, the supernatant from the S. griseus transformant cultured in Ferm-II medium was fractionated with ammonium sulfate (25-55%), then subjected to Hitrap Benzamidine FF affinity column chromatography. The specific activity of SGT purified by one-step chromatography was 69,550 unit/mg protein and the overall purification yield was above 8%, indicating that this method is more effective than those previously reported. Purified SGT was most active at pH 8.0 and $50^{\circ}C$, and it maintained activity between pH 7.0 and 9.0 and at temperatures up to $70^{\circ}C$. These enzymatic properties are very similar to those of authentic eukaryotic trypsin purified from bovine pancreas.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.128-136
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• 2021

It is generally known that a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) consumes immense energy even if it can produce energy. With an aim to increase the energy independence rate of WWTP from 3.5% in 2010 to 50% in 2030, the Korean government has invested enormous research funds. In this study, cost-effective operating alternatives were investigated by analyzing the energy efficiency and economic feasibility for biogas and power generation using new and renewable energy. Based on the US EPA Energy Conservation Measures and Korea ESCO projects, energy production and independence rate were also analyzed. The main energy consumption equipment in WWTP is the blower for aeration, discharge pump for effluent, and pump for influent. Considering the processes of WWTP, the specific energy consumption rate of the process using media and MBR was the lowest (0.549 kWh/㎥) and the highest (1.427 kWh/㎥), respectively. Energy-saving by enhancing anaerobic digester efficiency was turned out to be efficient when in conjunction with stable wastewater treatment. The result of economic analysis (B/C ratio) was 2.5 for digestive gas power generation, 0.86 for small hydropower, 0.49 for solar energy, and 0.15 for wind energy, respectively. Furthermore, it was observed that the energy independence rate could be enhanced by installing energy production facilities such as solar and small hydropower and reducing energy consumption via the replacement of high-efficiency operating.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.63-71
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• 2020

K-Pop is powerful. Once considered to be at the periphery of global music scene, it is now reaching the whole world. Not surprisingly, the media, domestic and foreign, have scrambled to unlock the secrets of K-Pop's phenomenal growth. In doing so, they have not failed to highlight the underside of its success, such as cut-throat competition among idol-group members and the programmed member replacement by their agencies. One of the most notable characteristics in this process is called, in their business jargon, 'the graduation system'. This paper attempts to explicate this management practice unique to K-pop industry. To do so, this paper draws on Rene Girard's work on desires, particularly his notion of mimesis, violence and the scapegoat mechanism. Based on a documentary film, interactive online sites and a monograph that have chronicled how the K-pop girl group <9 Muses> have 'graduated' during their debut process, this paper applies, as its main analytical tool, the scapegoat mechanism and attempts to explore on its basis what 'the system' entails for the K-pop industry in general and the actors working within it in particular.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.349-355
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• 2020

Social robots are attracting attention as an alternative to social problems in modern society, and the need for modularization has been raised to efficiently manage various robots. The study aims to reestablish the concept of 'Personal social service robot' and propose a new modularization method to apply it. For this study, literature research about the definition of social robots and service robots is conducted. In addition, we investigated the modularization of robots and analyzed the modularization cases of service robots. Based on this, we have deducted considerations for applying social service robot modularization and proposed a new modularization. This study divided the module into active module and passive module according to whether it is electric or electronic component of the module, and the active module was again classified into basic module and additional module according to the basic and replacement type of the robot. The modularization was verified by making the prototype of the actual robot.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.313-320
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• 2005

The increasing popularity of multimedia streaming services introduces new challenges in content distribution. Especially, it is important to provide the QoS guarantees as they are increasingly expected to support the multimedia applications. Multimedia streams typically experience the high start-up delay due to the large protocol overhead, the delay, and the loss properties of the wireless networks. The service providers can improve the performance of multimedia streaming by caching the initial segment (prefix) of the popular streams at proxies near the requesting clients. The proxy can initiate transmission to the client while requesting the remainder of the stream from the server. In this paper, we propose the traffic based caching algorithm (TSLRU) to improve the performance of caching proxy. TSLRU classifies the traffic into three types, and improve the performance of caching proxy by reflecting the several elements such as traffic types, recency, frequency, object size when performing the replacement decision. In simulation, TSLRU performs better than the existing schemes in terms of byte hit rate, hit rate, startup latency, and throughput.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.689-699
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• 2003

This study was to examine characteristics of treating toluene vapor, which gets to be problematic due to its harmful carcinogenicity and mass generation from various sources, through a biological treatment facility which is environment-friendly and adopts a high-efficient and low-cost clean technology. In order to identify whether Alnus Firma Fruit (AFF) can be used as a media for a bioreactor, its utility and basic operating factors, a study was conducted on pressure drop, supply of nutrient substances and retention time which are operating factors of a biofilter, and eliminating characteristics were compared between AFF and the conventional biological activatedcarbon (BAC) widely used as filter media. In the case of AFF, the initial microbial deposits was 2.3${\times}$10$^{7}$ CFU/g dry AFF, which represents the initial microbial density higher than the case of BAC showing 5.5${\times}$10$^{6}$ CFU/g dry BAC And it took about 2 weeks to acclimate until its eliminating rate got to be increased over 90%. As a result of comparing pressure loss taking place with the lapse of time between BAC and AFF, after 130 days passed at SV 25h$^{-1}$ , BAC showed that its eliminating efficiency had a tendency to drop greatly due to a great pressure loss (0.53\longrightarrow54.7 mm$H_2O$/m) caused by an excess of biomass as accumulated. On the other hand. AFF showed that the pressure drop was 0.53 mm$H_2O$/m, about 2 times as much as the initial pressure loss of 0.4 mm$H_2O$/m, which represents no great change in the pressure loss, and its eliminating efficiency was also shown to be continuously high. Therefore, when AFF was used as a filler for a biological treatment facility, a biological filter enabling improvement of the purifying efficiency to be promoted could be provided, and moreover, the pressure loss was so small that the filler replacement cycle or the back flushing cycle could be extended. So, even in terms of the operating cost, it was identified to be an economical filler When an inorganic material was used as a filler, the biofilters performance acted sensitively on whether nutrient substances were supplied or not. In the case of AFF with low adsorptivity, addition of ethyl-alcohol increased the solubility of toluene, and consequently, biodegradation got to be actively made by microbes, and thus, its eliminating rate could be increased. As the flow velocity and the inflow concentration got to be more increased, its eliminating rate got to be lower, and particularly, an increase in the flow velocity made its eliminating rate drop more greatly than an increase in the concentration.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2020

This study is a descriptive study conducted to investigate the effect of smoking cigarette sign sold in Korea on the smoking cessation effects and to use it as a basis for future smoking cessation and health related health data. To this end, we surveyed 500 men and women over 20 years of age on the Internet Naver web using Naver form questionnaire for 10 days from October 1, 2018 using blogs and cafes. The analyzed data were analyzed by factor analysis, T-test and correlation using SPSS WIN20.0. The main findings were as follows: First, the cigarette warning picture harmful to human body had the biggest influence on the smoking cessation effect. Second, the smoking cessation effect had the highest correlation with the pre-question consciousness about the cigarette warning picture. This indicates that the cigarette pack warning is considered the most sensitive part of smokers. Based on the results of this paper, diversification of cigarette warning picture and regular replacement of warning picture are expected to provide useful basic data for suggesting practical measures to prevent smoking. do. Therefore, the smoking warning picture is widely promoted through the media and the media, which has a positive effect on the practice of quitting smoking to the public, and is also used as a basic data for the health policy for the health promotion of the public.