• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.67-75
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to present an appropriate management plan as a supplement to the scientific evidence of the currently operated distancing system for preventing COVID-19. The currently being used mathematical models are expressed as simultaneous ordinary differential equations, there is a problem in that it is difficult to use them for the management of entry and exit of small business owners. In order to supplement this point, in this paper, a method for quantitatively expressing the risk of infection by people who gather is presented in consideration of the allowable risk given to the gathering space, the basic infection reproduction index, and the risk reduction rate due to vaccination. A simple quantitative model was developed that manages the probability of infection in a probabilistic level according to a set of visitors by considering both the degree of infection risk according to the vaccination status (non-vaccinated, primary inoculation, and complete vaccination) and the epidemic status of the virus. In a given example using the model, the risk was reduced to 55% when 20% of non-vaccinated people were converted to full vaccination. It was suggested that management in terms of quarantine can obtain a greater effect than medical treatment. Based on this, a generalized model that can be applied to various situations in consideration of the type of vaccination and the degree of occurrence of confirmed cases was also presented. This model can be used to manage the total risk of people gathered at a certain space in a real time, by calculating individual risk according to the type of vaccine, the degree of inoculation, and the lapse of time after inoculation.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.331-340
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• 2022

Early afterdepolarization (EAD), a significant cause of fatal ventricular arrhythmias including Torsade de Pointes (TdP) in long QT syndromes, is a depolarizing afterpotential at the plateau or repolarization phase in action potential (AP) profile early before completing one pace. AP duration prolongation is related to EAD but is not necessarily accounted for EAD. Several computational studies suggested EAD can form from an abnormality in the late plateau and/or repolarization phase of AP shape. In this sense, we hypothesized the slope during repolarization has the characteristics to predict TdP risk, mainly focusing on the maximum slope during repolarization (dVm/dt_{max_repol}). This study aimed to predict the sensitivity of dVm/dt_{max_repol} to ion channel conductances as a TdP risk metric through a population simulation considering multiple effects of simultaneous reduction in six ion channel conductances of g_NaL, g_Kr, g_Ks, g_to, g_K1, and g_CaL. Additionally, we verified the availability of dVm/dt_{max_repol} for TdP risk prediction through the correlation analysis with qNet, the representative TdP metric. We performed the population simulations based on the methodology of Gemmel et al. using the human ventricular myocyte model of Dutta et al. Among the sixion channel conductances, dVm/dt_{max_repol} and qNet responded most sensitively to the change in g_Kr, followed by g_NaL. Furthermore, dVm/dt_{max_repol} showed a statistically significant high negative correlation with qNet. The dVm/dt_{max_repol} values were significantly different according to three TdP risk levels of high, intermediate, and low by qNet (p<0.001). In conclusion, we suggested dVm/dt_{max_repol} as a new biomarker metric for TdP risk assessment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.1
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• pp.162-172
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• 2021

Purpose We retrospectively evaluated the technical success rate and long-term efficacy of fluoroscopy-guided synovial cyst rupture followed by an intra-articular steroid injection at the post-laminectomy lumbar facet. Materials and Methods We selected subjects who had undergone a fluoroscopy-guided synovial cyst rupture with simultaneous intra-articular steroid injection within 6 months of MRI and demonstrated a symptomatic facet joint synovial cyst at the level of a previous lumbar laminectomy. Fourteen patients were enrolled, and we determined whether cyst rupture and symptom improvement were achieved after each procedure. The degrees of symptom improvement were categorized into 4: 1) symptoms improved (30% or more reduction, based on pre-procedural and post-procedural Numerical Pain Rating Scale scores), 2) symptoms not improved, 3) patient underwent surgery after injection, and 4) loss of follow-up. Results The success rate of percutaneous synovial cyst rupture decreased with repeated procedures (62.5% for the first procedure and 0% to 33.3% for additional procedures). However, 80% of the patients had symptom improvement with the procedures, overall. The surgery rate was 14.3% in 14 patients. Conclusion For patients with post-laminectomy symptomatic lumbar facet joint synovial cysts, fluoroscopy-guided synovial cyst rupture with intra-articular steroid injection may be an effective and less invasive treatment before considering a surgical approach.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.394-403
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• 2016

$H_2$ production by chemical looping is an efficient method to convert hydrocarbon fuel into hydrogen with the simultaneous capture of concentrated $CO_2$. This process involves the use of an iron based oxygen carrier that transfers pure oxygen from oxidizing gases to fuels by alternating reduction and oxidation (redox) reactions. The enhanced reactivities of copper oxide doped iron-based oxygen carrier were reported, however, the fundamental understandings on the interaction between $Fe_2O_3$ and CuO are still lacking. In this study, we studied the effect of dopant of CuO to $Fe_2O_3/ZrO_2$ particle on the morphological changes and the associated reactivity using various methods such as SEM/EDX, XRD, BET, TPR, XPS, and TGA. It was found that copper oxide acted as a chemical promoter that change chemical environment in the iron based oxygen carrier as well as a structural promoter which inhibit the agglomeration. The enhanced reduction reactivity was mainly ascribed to the increase in concentration of $Fe^{2+}$ on the surface, resulting in formation of charge imbalance and oxygen vacancies. The CuO doped $Fe_2O_3/ZrO_2$ particle also showed the improved reactivity in the steam oxidation compared to $Fe_2O_3/ZrO_2$ particle probably due to acting as a structural promoter inhibiting the agglomeration of iron species.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.270-287
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• 2015

Objectives To evaluate the neuroprotective effects of modified Yuldahanso-tang (MYH) in a Parkinson's disease mouse model. Methods 1) Four groups (each of 8 rats per group) were used in this study. 2) The neuroprotective effect of MYH was examined in a Parkinson's disease mouse model. C57BL/6 mice treated with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP, 30 mg/kg/day), intraperitoneal (i.p.) for 5 days. 3) The brains of 2 mice per group were removed and frozen at $-20^{\circ}C$, and the striatum-substantia nigra part was seperated. The protein volume was measured by Bradford method following Bio-Rad protein analyzing kit. Using mouse/Rat Dopamine ELISA Assay Kit. 4) The brains of 2 mice per group were separated and removed. TH-immunohistochemical was examined in the MPTP-induced Parkinson's disease mice to evaluate the neuroprotective effects of MYH on ST and SNpc. 5) Two mice out of each group were anesthetized and skulls were opened from occipital to frontal direction to take out the brains. The brains added TTC solution for 20 minutes for staining. 6) The water tank used for morris water maze test was filled with $28^{\circ}C$ water, and a round platform of 10cm in diameter was installed for mice to step on. The study was carried out once a day within 30 seconds, keep exercising to step on the platform in the pool. 7) The brains of two mice out of each group were fixed in 10% formaldehyde solution and paraphillin substance was infiltrated. They were fragmented by microtome, and observed under an optical microscope after Hematoxylin & Eosin staining. 8) A round acrylic cylinder with its upper side open was filled with clean water and depressive mouse models were forced to swim for 15 minutes. After 24 hours the animals were put in the same equipment for 5 minutes and were forced to swim. 9) The convenient, simple, and accurate high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was established for simultaneous determination of Neurotransmitters in MPTP-MYH group. Results 1) MYH possess Dopamine cell protective effect on MPTP-induced injury in striatum and substantia nigra pars compacta. 2) MYH inhibits the loss of tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreacitive (TH-IR) cells in the striatum and substantia nigra pars compacta on MPTP-induced injury in C57BL/6 mice. 3) MYH possesses improvement effect on MPTP-induced memory deterioration in C57BL/6 mice through the reduction of prolongated Sort of lost time by MPTP injection using the Morris water maze test. 4) MYH possesses hippocampal neuron protective effect on MPTP-induced injury in C57BL/6 mice. 5) MYH possesses improvement effect on MPTP-induced motor behaviour deficits and depression in C57BL/6 mice through the reduction of prolongated losing motion by MPTP injection using the Forced swimming test. 6) MYH increases serotonin product amount on MPTP-induced injury in C57BL/6 mice. Conclusions This experiment suggests that the neuroprotective effect of MYH is mediated by the increase in Dopamin, TH-ir cell, Hippocampus and Serotonin. Furthermore, MYH essential oil may serve as a potential preventive or therapeutic agent regarding Parkinson's disease.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.327-340
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• 2017

This article reviews the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering during 2016. It is intended to understand the status of current research in the areas of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation, and indoor environments of buildings and plant facilities. Conclusions are as follows. (1) The research works on the thermal and fluid engineering have been reviewed as groups of flow, heat and mass transfer, the reduction of pollutant exhaust gas, cooling and heating, the renewable energy system and the flow around buildings. CFD schemes were used more for all research areas. (2) Research works on heat transfer area have been reviewed in the categories of heat transfer characteristics, pool boiling and condensing heat transfer and industrial heat exchangers. Researches on heat transfer characteristics included the results of the long-term performance variation of the plate-type enthalpy exchange element made of paper, design optimization of an extruded-type cooling structure for reducing the weight of LED street lights, and hot plate welding of thermoplastic elastomer packing. In the area of pool boiling and condensing, the heat transfer characteristics of a finned-tube heat exchanger in a PCM (phase change material) thermal energy storage system, influence of flow boiling heat transfer on fouling phenomenon in nanofluids, and PCM at the simultaneous charging and discharging condition were studied. In the area of industrial heat exchangers, one-dimensional flow network model and porous-media model, and R245fa in a plate-shell heat exchanger were studied. (3) Various studies were published in the categories of refrigeration cycle, alternative refrigeration/energy system, system control. In the refrigeration cycle category, subjects include mobile cold storage heat exchanger, compressor reliability, indirect refrigeration system with $CO_2$ as secondary fluid, heat pump for fuel-cell vehicle, heat recovery from hybrid drier and heat exchangers with two-port and flat tubes. In the alternative refrigeration/energy system category, subjects include membrane module for dehumidification refrigeration, desiccant-assisted low-temperature drying, regenerative evaporative cooler and ejector-assisted multi-stage evaporation. In the system control category, subjects include multi-refrigeration system control, emergency cooling of data center and variable-speed compressor control. (4) In building mechanical system research fields, fifteenth studies were reported for achieving effective design of the mechanical systems, and also for maximizing the energy efficiency of buildings. The topics of the studies included energy performance, HVAC system, ventilation, renewable energies, etc. Proposed designs, performance tests using numerical methods and experiments provide useful information and key data which could be help for improving the energy efficiency of the buildings. (5) The field of architectural environment was mostly focused on indoor environment and building energy. The main researches of indoor environment were related to the analyses of indoor thermal environments controlled by portable cooler, the effects of outdoor wind pressure in airflow at high-rise buildings, window air tightness related to the filling piece shapes, stack effect in core type's office building and the development of a movable drawer-type light shelf with adjustable depth of the reflector. The subjects of building energy were worked on the energy consumption analysis in office building, the prediction of exit air temperature of horizontal geothermal heat exchanger, LS-SVM based modeling of hot water supply load for district heating system, the energy saving effect of ERV system using night purge control method and the effect of strengthened insulation level to the building heating and cooling load.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.217-232
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• 2018

Drought is a major obstacle to high agricultural productivity, worldwide. In drought, it is usually presented by the simultaneous action of high temperature and drying. Also there are negative effects of plant growth under drying conditions. In this study, the effect of Bacillus velezensis YP2 on plant growth-promotion and soil drying stress tolerance of kale plants, Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra Bailey, were investigated under two different conditions; greenhouse and field environments. Root colonization ability of B. velezensis YP2 was also analysed by using plating culture method. As a result of the greenhouse test, the YP2 strain significantly promoted the growth of kale seedlings in increasement of 26.7% of plant height and 142.2% of shoot fresh weight compared to control. B. velezensis YP2 have the mitigation effect of drying injury of kale by decreasing of 39.4% compared to control. In the field test, B. velezensis YP2 strain was also found to be effective for plant growth-promotion and mitigation of drying stress injury on kale plants. Especially, relative water contents (RWC; %) were higher in B. velezensis YP2 treated kales than in control at 7, 10, 14 day after non-watering. The root colonization ability of YP2 strain was continued at least for 21 days after soil drenching treatment of B. velezensis YP2. Our result suggested that enhancement of plant growth and drying injury reduction of kale plants were involved in kale root colonization by B. velezensis YP2, which might be contributed to increasing water availability of plants. Consequentially, the use of B. velezensis YP2 might be a beneficial influence for improving productivity of kale plants under drying stress conditions.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.25-39
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• 2015

$CO_2$ geological storage plays an important role in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but there is a lack of research for CCS demonstration. To achieve the goal of CCS, storing $CO_2$ safely and permanently in underground geological formations, it is essential to understand the characteristics of them, such as total storage capacity, stability, etc. and establish an injection strategy. We perform the impedance inversion for the seismic data acquired from the Ulleung Basin in 2012. To review the possibility of $CO_2$ storage, we also construct porosity models and extract attributes of the prospects from the seismic data. To improve the quality of seismic data, amplitude preserved processing methods, SWD(Shallow Water Demultiple), SRME(Surface Related Multiple Elimination) and Radon Demultiple, are applied. Three well log data are also analysed, and the log correlations of each well are 0.648, 0.574 and 0.342, respectively. All wells are used in building the low-frequency model to generate more robust initial model. Simultaneous pre-stack inversion is performed on all of the 2D profiles and inverted P-impedance, S-impedance and Vp/Vs ratio are generated from the inversion process. With the porosity profiles generated from the seismic inversion process, the porous and non-porous zones can be identified for the purpose of the $CO_2$ sequestration initiative. More detailed characterization of the geological storage and the simulation of $CO_2$ migration might be an essential for the CCS demonstration.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.85-97
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• 2012

To investigate the usefulness of freshwater alga Water-net (Hydrodictyon reticulatum, HR) as resources for production of fermentable sugars, the easiness of enzymatic saccharification was evaluated at first. When 6 plant materials (HR, Spirulina, Chlorella, Scenedesmus, Cladophora, Corn stover) were enzymatically hydrolyzed with 2% solid loading at the same condition, HR showed the highest ratio of saccharification based on glucose production. No milled HR was also completely saccharified at the amounts of optimal enzyme mixture. Glucose yield was not changed though the citrate buffer strength for saccharification was decreased from 0.1 M to 0.1 mM. Only about 10% yield reduction was observed compared to that of $120^{\circ}C$ treatment when HR was enzymatically hydrolyzed at room temperature. The saccharification was normally occurred at $37^{\circ}C$ and pH 6.5 which is general growth condition of fermentable microrganisms, suggesting that HR have a biomass characteristics applicable for the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. The saccharification was occurred by more than 70~80% of one of the best condition although the supplied enzyme amounts was reduced to 1/10 volume. And the glucose yield by enzymatic hydrolysis was not decreased by 10% HR solid loading and began to decrease at more than 15% solid contents. Above these results show that HR is an interesting algal biomass which is relatively easy to be saccharified by hydrolyzing enzymes. In addition, HR is a flilamentous alga and very easy to be collected. Therefore, HR seems to be an useful and valuable resources in the economical production of fermentable sugars for manufacture of bio-chemical products.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.129-135
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• 1970

From the previous studies, F-P-4 formula was found to be comparable to full fat dry milk in its nutritive value and feeding performance. However, an attempt was made in order to make sure whether or not any possibility might exist, by which further improvement of nutritive quality and simultaneous reduction of product costs may be achieved. Using F-P-4 as a control, modifications were made in new formulas, F-P-5, F-P-6 and F-P-7 by reducing FPC, eliminating yeast from the mixture, and by enriching with methionine as needed. In particular, F-P-7 is completely free of FPC, hydrogenated oil and yeast. Yet, levels of total protein and fat were kept equal to those of F-P-4 in all formulas. An animal feeding test for all formulas using 10 female rats per group for 8 weeks and an infant feeding trial for F-P-5 and F-P-6 with 5 of each female infants under age of one for one month were conducted along with F-P-4 as a control. Almost the same results were obtained with F-P-4, 5 and 6, but F-P-7 showed the lowest body weight gain. FER of F-P-5 and 6 was 0.20 as was with F-P-4, while that of F-P-7 was 0.16. Acceptability to infants was excellent; growth, appearance and biochemical data were normal. As an example F-P-4 packed in 0.04mm polyethylene bags was used for storage study at $25^{\circ}C$ and relative humidity of $65{\sim}85%$ for 8 months. Although viable bacterial counts and vitamin C contents were reduced, peroxide and TBA values were increased gradually during such storage. Since there are also significant changes in color and organoleptic quality, the expected shelf life under the given conditions is considered to be about 2 months and thus further works are needed both on the product and packaging in order to improve the storage stability. Either elimination of yeast form F-P-4, that is F-P-5, or partial replacement of FPC with methionine, that is F-P-6 may well reduce material costs about 10%. Considering blending process of ingredients, F-P-5 is thus found to be the best formula developed. While F-P-7 free of FPC is inferior in its nutritive quality than that of others, but significantly superior than of rice. Furthermore, the material cost of the product can be reduced about 20% from that of F-P-4. And thus this vegetable blend is considered to be useful as a low cost supplementary food mixture for growing children.