• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.55-63
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• 2014

Pyrolysis oil (PO), also known as Bio crude oil (BCO), has the potential to displace significant amounts of fuels that are currently derived from petroleum sources. PO has been regarded as an alternative fuel for petroleum fuels to be used in diesel engine. However, the use of PO in a diesel engine requires modifications due to low energy density, high water contents, low acidity, and high viscosity of the PO. One of the easiest way to adopt PO to diesel engine without modifications is emulsification of PO with the fuels that has higher cetane number. However, PO that has high amount of polar chemicals is immiscible with non polar hydrocarbons of diesel. Thus, to stabilize a homogeneous phase of diesel-PO blends, a proper surfactant should be used. In this study, a DI diesel engine operated with diesel and diesel-PO emulsions was experimentally investigated. Performance and gaseous & particle emission characteristics of a diesel engine fuelled by diesel-PO emulsions were examined. Results showed that stable engine operation was possible with the emulsions and engine output power was comparable to diesel operation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.60.2-60.2
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• 2015

Since its detection in 1980, the $8-{\mu}m$ north-polar brightening of $CH_4$ on Juptier has not moved from $180^{\circ}$ (SysIII) longitude. The $8-{\mu}m$ $CH_4$ brightening is mostly thermal and very similar to that of $13-{\mu}m$ $C_2H_2$ emissions, but the morphology of these hydrocarbon north-polar brightenings are very different from that of the $3-{\mu}m$ $H_3{^+}$ auroral oval suggesting a significantly different excitation process yet unknown heating mechanism. Recently, Kim et al. (submitted to Icarus, 2015) found that that the center of the $3-{\mu}m$ $CH_4$ northern bright spot is located at ${\sim}200^{\circ}$ (SysIII) longitude, which is ${\sim}20^{\circ}$ west from the center of the $8-{\mu}m$ north-polar bright spot, and it does not coincide with the $3-{\mu}m$ $H_3{^+}$ bright spot. They found significantly high temperatures (500 ~ 850K) from $CH_4$ rotational lines on the $3-{\mu}m$ bright spot above the $1-{\mu}bar$ pressure level, while we find cooler temperatures (<350K) over the the $8-{\mu}m$ spot. They also found that the upper states of the $3-{\mu}m$ $CH_4$ bands are mostly populated by non-thermal excitations, such as auroral particle precipitations and/or Joule heatings in contrast to the $8-{\mu}m$ thermal emission. This finding indicates that the $10-{\mu}m$ hydrocarbon brightening is confined to low altitudes below the $1-{\mu}bar$ level eliminating the long-suggested possibility of direct auroral bombardments while opening a new possibility of dynamical origin for the $10-{\mu}m$ brightening.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.107-117
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• 2006

Freshwater algal studies in North polar environments are relatively few. This study presented the algal-flora, -biomass and genetic features of dominant cells collected from temporary ponds around the Polar Research Station (PRS), Norway. Water samples were collected from 4 stations around PRS, and analyzed for their environmental and biological variables. Water temperature, salinity and conductivity ranged from 5 to $10^{\circ}C$, 0.1 to $0.3%_{\circ}$ and 0.21 to $0.36{\mu}S/cm$, respectively. Chlorophyll a concentration ranged from 1.8 to $11.1{\mu}g/l$, and that of the size-fractionated cells was recorded from 0.7 to $1.1{\mu}g/l$ in picoplankton 0.3 to $6.5{\mu}g/l$ in nanoplankton, and 0.4 to $3.9{\mu}g/l$ in microplankton respectively. Algal flora in the present study was recorded as 10 genera, in which Chlamydomonas, particularly, was dominant in all studied sites. By comparison of Chlamydomonas 18S rDNA sequences, including two isolates from PRS, they formed a distinct clade against others: sequence similarity was significantly low (<97.2%) with C. noctigama, being the highest score by BLAST search in GenBank. This study was valuable for basic knowledge regarding the freshwater algae around PRS and their genetic information.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.274-288
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• 2018

Quantitative data of 50 non-polar organic compounds constituting $PM_{2.5}$ were continuously collected and analyzed from June 2016 to October 2017 (approximately 17 months) at Ichihara, one of the largest industrial areas in Japan. Target non-polar organic compounds including 21 species of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 24 species of n-alkanes and 5 species of phthalate esters(PAEs) were simultaneously measured by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Basically, the average concentrations of the total PAHs, n-alkanes and PAEs in each season remained nearly level, and seasonal variations were little throughout the study period. These results suggest that the emission sources, which are not influenced by the seasons, are the dominant inputs for the target organic compounds. Diagnostic ratios of PAHs, assessment of n-alkane homologue distributions, carbon preference index, and the contribution of wax n-alkanes from plants were used to estimate source apportionments. These results indicate that anthropogenic sources were the main contributor for most PAHs and n-alkanes throughout the study period. The concentrations of PAEs selected in this study were low because emission amounts of these chemicals were little within the source areas of the sampling site. To our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to simultaneously measure a high number of non-polar organic compounds in $PM_{2.5}$ collected from the ambient air of Japan, and the resultant data will provide valuable data and information for environmental researchers.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.523-529
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• 2004

The seismic monitoring at Syowa Station$(69^{\circ}S,\;39^{\circ}E: SYO)$, located on the continental margin of the Eastern Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, began in 1959. Phase readings of the earthquakes have been reported since 1967 and have been annually published as part of the Data Report Series of the National Institute of Polar Research since 1968. An observation of a tripartite seismic network was carried out at SYO for a period of three years from 1987 to 1990. Epicenters of local earthquakes were determined for the first time by using the array network for the three-year period. Many different types of earthquakes, such as the mainshock-aftershock type, twin earthquake, earthquake swarms, etc., were detected during the period. After this, local events around SYO have been detected empirically from their waveforms recorded on seismograms. The seismic activity for the period of 1987-1990 was higher than that of the following decade. Earthquake epicenters, occurring during that period, were highly localized along the coast and in the central part of the $L\"{u}tzow-Holm$ Bay (LHB). Nine local earthquakes, recorded during the period of 1990-1996, showed many different types of events. The seismicity for the period of 1990-1996 was very low and the magnitudes ranged from 0.1 to 1.4. The locations of some events were determined by using the single station method for SYO, i.e., using the particle motions of the initial phase and S-P time. Two local events were detected in 1998 and one event in 2001. It would be estimated that the stress concentration was related to the glacial rebound around the LHB. Afterwards, we will be able to eventually examine the relationship between the seismicity around Antarctica and deglacial phenomena such as crustal uplift, and sea level change within the earth environmental system.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.321-334
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• 2021

'Marine mammals-based observations' refers to data acquisition activities from marine mammals by instrumenting CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) sensors on them for recording vertical profiles of ocean variables such as temperature and salinity during animal diving. It is a novel data collecting platform that significantly improves our abilities in observing extreme environments such as the Southern Ocean with low cost compared to the other conventional methods. Furthermore, the system continues to create valuable information until sensors are detached, expanding data coverage in both space and time. Owing to these practical advantages, the marine mammals-based observations become popular to investigate ocean circulation changes in the Southern Ocean. Although these merits may bring us more opportunities to understand ocean changes, the data should be carefully qualified before we interpret it incorporating shipboard/autonomous vehicles/moored CTD data. In particular, we need to pay more attention to salinity correction due to the usage of an unpumped-CTD sensor tagged on marine mammals. In this article, we introduce quality control methods for the marine mammals-based CTD profiles that have been developed in recent studies. In addition, we discuss strategies of quality control specifically for the seal-tagging CTD profiles, successfully having been obtained near Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea, Antarctica since February 2021. It is the Korea Polar Research Institute's research initiative of animal-borne instruments monitoring in the region. We anticipate that this initiative would facilitate collaborative efforts among Polar physical oceanographers and even marine mammal behavior researchers to understand better rapid changes in marine environments in the warming world.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.387-397
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• 2023

Cytochrome P450 (CYP) is a heme-containing enzyme that catalyzes hydroxylation reactions with various substrate molecules. Steroid hydroxylases are particularly useful for effectively introducing hydroxyl groups into a wide range of steroids in the pharmaceutical industry. This study reports a newly identified CYP steroid hydroxylase (BaCYP106A6) from the bacterium Bacillus sp. and characterizes it using an in vitro enzyme assay and structural investigation. Bioconversion assays indicated that BaCYP106A1 catalyzes the hydroxylation of progesterone and androstenedione, whereas no or low conversion was observed with 11β-hydroxysteroids such as cortisol, corticosterone, dexamethasone, and prednisolone. In addition, the crystal structure of BaCYP106A6 was determined at a resolution of 2.8 Å to investigate the configuration of the substrate-binding site and understand substrate preference. This structural characterization and comparison with other bacterial steroid hydroxylase CYPs allowed us to identify a unique Arg295 residue that may serve as the key residue for substrate specificity and regioselectivity in BaCYP106A6. This observation provides valuable background for further protein engineering to design commercially useful CYP steroid hydroxylases with different substrate specificities.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.285-289
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• 2015

We prepared silver Schottky contacts to O-polar and nonpolar m-plane bulk ZnO wafers. Then, by considering various transport models, we performed a comparative analysis of the current transport properties of Ag/bulk ZnO Schottky diodes, which were measured at 300, 200, and 100 K. The fitting of the forward bias current-voltage (I-V) characteristics revealed that the tunneling current is dominant as the transport component in both the samples. Compared to thermionic emission (TE), a stronger contribution of tunneling current was observed at low temperature. The reverse bias I-V characteristics were well fitted with the thermionic field emission (TFE) in both the samples. The presence of acceptor-like adsorbates, such as O₂ and H₂O, modulated the surface conductive state of ZnO, thereby affecting the tunneling effect. The degree of activation/passivation of acceptor-like adsorbates might be different in both the samples owing to their different surface morphologies and surface defects (e.g., oxygen vacancies).

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.33 no.1-2
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• pp.1-7
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• 1998

In the western Weddell Sea, winter mixed layer is characterized by near-freezing temperature and higher salinity due to brine injection through sea-ice formation. This layer becomes Winter Water being capped by warmer and less saline Antarctic Surface Water during the sea-ice melt-ing season. In this study, Winter Water was preliminarily identified by the oxygen isotopic com-positions. The ${\delta}^{18}$O values of Winter Water show the progressively increasing trend from south to north in the study area. It presumably reflects the enhanced mixing with Antarctic Surface Water due to the extent of influence by low S'"0 value of sea-ice/glacier meltwater. Correlations between salinity and 6'"0 values of seawater can be used to more generally characterize Winter Water with a view to identification. However, the prediction on the degree of mixing from these relationships needs more detailed isotope data, although this study allows the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater as a tracer to identify the water mass.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.119-125
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• 2015

Because of their low surface free energy and absence of polar groups at the surface, polyolefins are substrates whose wetting and adhesion are very difficult. Free radical grafting of monomers to backbone polymer is one of the most attractive ways for the chemical modification of polymers. Synthesis of graft copolymer through graft polymerizations of PE and/or PP with phthalic anhydride (PhAn) was made and FTIR spectra of the graft polymer were the examined. And also the effects of phthalic anhydride content on the grafting ratio, thermal properties and contact angle of the graft polymer were examined.