• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.707-716
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• 2023

The influence of waste technological waters of thermal and fast reactors of Beloyarsk NPP (Russia) on the accumulation of ⁶⁰Co, ⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁷Cs in macrophytes and ichthyofauna of the cooling pond has been studied. Critical radionuclides, routes of their entry into the ecosystem and periods of maximum discharge of radioisotopes into the cooling pond have been determined. It is shown that the technology of electricity generation at the Beloyarsk NPP, based on fast reactors, has a much smaller effect on the release of artificial radionuclides into the environment. Therefore, during the entire period of monitoring studies (1976-2019), the decrease in the specific activity of radionuclides of NPP origin in macrophytes was 13-25800 times, in ichthyofauna 1.5-44.5 times. The maximum discharge of artificial radionuclides into the Beloyarsk reservoir was noted during the period of restoration and decontamination work aimed at eliminating the emergencies at the AMB reactors of NPP. The factors influencing the accumulation of artificial radionuclides in the components of the freshwater ecosystem of the Beloyarsk cooling pond have been determined, including: the physicochemical nature of radioisotopes, their concentration in surface water, the temperature of the aquatic environment, the trophicity of the reservoir, the species of hydrobionts.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.345-348
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• 2002

A rapid spectrophotometric method for detecting the mucinase complex was developed. Bovine submaxillary mucin is cleaved by commercial mucinase between the oligosaccharide chain and the side chain of peptide linkage, thereby liberating the N-acetyl neuraminic acid (NANA). The release of NANA resulted in an increase of absorbance at 280 nm. The susceptibility to NANA by the new method was found to be at least 10-fold more sensitive than the thiobarbituric acid method. Moreover, the quantification of NANA released from mucin by commercial neuraminidase and partially purified Vibrio parahaemolyticus mucinase showed a good linear correlation in proportion to the concentration of the enzyme used. These results demonstrate that the rapid identification of mucin degradation can be determined by a spectrophotometric assay, thereby providing a new, fast, and sensitive method for assaying the bacterial mucinase complex.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.252-252
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• 2006

Utilizing the existence of the induction period in photo-polymerization, we propose a new injection method of photo-polymerizable, thermocrosslinking hydrogels made of di-acrylated Pluronic F127 (DA-PF127). This method can solve the problem of fast dissolution of thermal gelation as a scaffold and the disadvantages of the existing injection method that photo-polymerize di-acrylated Pluronic polymer after injection using optical fiber. Injectable gelation of DA-PF127 by the proposed method was demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. The enhanced stability by this novel photo-polymerization strategy was confirmed by the more sustained release of loaded protein as well as the prolonged degradation time of the hydrogels.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.49-53
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• 2004

In this study, reduced-scale experiments were conducted to analyze an effect of tunnel slope on critical velocity. The 1/20 scale experiments were carried out under the Froude scaling using ethanol pool fire. Square pools ranging from 2.47 to 12.30㎾ were used experiments. Critical velocity varied with one-fourth power of the heat release rate. As the slope of the tunnel increases the critical velocity comes to be fast due to the increase of the chimney effect.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2007

The preservation of biological activity of protein drugs in formulation is still a major challenge for successful drug delivery. Lipase was encapsulated in poly (D,L-lactide- co-glycolide) PLGA nano-particles using a w/o/w solvent evaporation technique. The lipase-containing PLGA/poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanoparticles were characterized with regard to morphology, size, size distribution, lipase-loading efficiency, in vitro lipase release, and stability of lipase activity. The size of nanoparticles increased as polymer concentration was increased. The size of particles was not significantly affected by the PVA concentration; on the other hand, the particle size distribution was the narrowest when 4% of PVA was used. In optimum conditions, we possessed nanoparticles that characterized 72.5% of encapsulation efficiency, $198.3{\pm}13.8 nm$ size diameter. During the initial burst phase, the in vitro release rate was very fast, reaching 83% within 12 days. Until days 6, enzyme activity increased as the amount of lipase released was increased.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.1025-1031
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• 2009

Several kinds of biodegradable hydrogels were prepared via in situ photopolymerization of Pluronic F127/poly($\varepsilon$-caprolactone) macromer and acrylic acid (AA) comonomer in aqueous medium. The swelling kinetics measurements showed that the resultant hydrogels exhibited both thermo- and pH-sensitive behaviors, and that this stimuli-responsiveness underwent a fast reversible process. With increasing pH of the local buffer solutions, the pH sensitivity of the hydrogels was increased, while the temperature sensitivity was decreased. In vitro hydrolytic degradation in the buffer solution (pH 7.4, $37^{\circ}C$), the degradation rate of the hydrogels was greatly improved due to the introduction of the AA comonomer. The in vitro release profiles of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in-situ embedded into the hydrogels were also investigated: the release mechanism of BSA based on the Peppas equation was followed Case II diffusion. Such biodegradable dual-sensitive hydrogel materials may have more advantages as a potentially interesting platform for smart drug delivery carriers and tissue engineering scaffolds.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.651-654
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• 2016

A number of accidents relating to highly toxic hydrogen fluoride (HF) or hydrofluoric acid (HA) release have occurred over fast few decades in Korea. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the fluoride (F) concentrations in paddy soil and brown rice from 2 different areas where the soils were exposed to HF and HA. In the first case, the HF leakage accident that occurred in 2012 affected the surrounding soils and crops and consequently, crops (rice) affected by HF were unavailable for forage even though F did not accumulate in the soil. For example, at the time of accident, F concentrations in brown rice samples were $33.0-1,395mg\;kg^{-1}$, while F concentrations in soil samples were $155-295mg\;kg^{-1}$ which were less than the Korean standard guideline values of $400mg\;kg^{-1}$. However, after a year, F concentrations in brown rice were observed below the detection limit ($1mg\;kg^{-1}$), although F concentrations in soils were similar with those in 2012. Also, large amounts of wastewater discharges containing HA occurred in 2013 and some agricultural soils exceeded the Korean standard guideline values for F ($400mg\;kg^{-1}$), but soil-plant F transfer was not observed. In conclusion, it was observed that soil to plant transfer of F is unlikely although HF and HA as gas or liquid form can cause direct damage to plants.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.44-50
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• 2003

This study aimed to develop the methods of growing Enteromorpha prolifera natural seedlings in its natural habitat and artificial indoor seedlings by inducing spore release. Likewise, the study examined the possibility of mass production by developing cultivation techniques with cultivating examination. The natural seedling of E.prolifera thrived in a sea area composed of sand and mud, which Is its natural habitat. Growing of this alga on the seedling frame 20 cm high from the bottom at the intertidal zone in summer and 40 cm high in fall was found to be very effective. However, enabling the best attachment rate for artificial indoor seedling requires inducing spore release after drying the mature thalli in a dark place fur about 12∼24 hours and setting seedling nets in a dark water tank (spore solution) for 24 hours. Breeding E.prolifera in a pole-system farm is best done in shallow sea areas with mud or mud and sand geological feature. However, floating-system lam is better for deep-sea areas with fast current. Ideal farming places are sea areas with plenty of nutritional salt and safe places that protect the lam facilities against billows. Furthermore, an exposure method on seawater surface to produce larger output should be used.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2014

Glass discs functionalized with alkynyl (GDA) terminated monolayers were prepared and incubated in $AgNO_3$ solution (GDA-Ag). The modified functional glass surfaces were characterized by X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS). The potential of GDA and GDA-Ag as antimicrobial surfaces was investigated. Anti-microbial efficacies of GDA against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and Candida albicans was relatively low ranging from 4.67 to 17.00%. However, the GDA-Ag was very effective and its antimicrobial efficacy ranged from 99.90 to 99.99% against the same set of microbial strains except for C. albicans where it was 95.50%. The durability of the Ag bonded to the terminal alkynyl groups was studied by placing the GDA-Ag in PBS buffer solution (pH 7.4) for two weeks. Initially, the silver release was relatively fast, with 40.05 ppb of silver released in first 24 h followed by a very slow and constant release. To study the potential of GDA-Ag for medical applications, in vitro cytotoxicity of GDA-Ag against Human Embryonic Kidney 293 (HEK293) cell lines was studied using WST-assay. The cytotoxicity of the GDA-Ag was very low (5%) and was almost comparable to the control (blank glass disc) indicating that GDA-Ag has a promising potential for medical applications.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.72-81
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• 2022

Numerous studies have investigated the occurrence and fate of microplastics in the environment; however, only limited effort has been devoted to exploring the characteristics of dissolved organic matter (DOM) leached from microplastics. In microplastic (MP)-contaminated environment, MPs are typically mixed with naturally-occurring particles, which interferes with their detection in the environment. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between the DOM leached from MPs and those leached from natural particles and also to characterize their properties. This study investigated DOM leaching behavior from MPs (polystyrene: PS, polyvinylchloride: PVC) and natural particulates (forest soil: FS, litter leaves: LL) under light, which is considered one of the main weathering processes that affect MPs in the environment. The leached DOM concentrations and fluorescence characteristics were compared under dark versus light conditions. Regardless of the origins, UV light promoted DOM release from all the particulates. More DOM was released from natural particles than from MPs under both conditions. However, the effect of promoting DOM release by UV was more pronounced for MPs than for natural particles. It was observed from fluorescence spectra that the intensity of the humic-like region was substantially reduced when MP-derived DOM was exposed to UV light, whereas the change of intensity was very little for natural particles. Under light conditions, the ratio of protein-like to humic-like fluorescence of MP-derived DOM was higher than that of DOM from natural particles. This study implies that a substantial amount of DOM could be leached from MPs even in MP-polluted environment under UV irradiation. Protein/humic fluorescence ratio could be utilized as a fast probing indicator to separate the two sources of particles under light.