• Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association
• /
• v.55 no.1
• /
• pp.71-77
• /
• 2020

Purpose: To determine if sparing the interspinous and supraspinous ligaments during posterior decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis is significant in preventing postoperative spinal instability. Materials and Methods: A total of 83 patients who underwent posterior decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis between March 2014 and March 2017 with a minimum one-year follow-up period, were studied retrospectively. The subjects were divided into two groups according to the type of surgery. Fifty-six patients who underwent posterior decompression by the port-hole technique were grouped as A, while 27 patients who underwent posterior decompression by a subtotal laminectomy grouped as B. To evaluate the clinical results, the Oswestry disability index (ODI), visual analogue scale (VAS) for both back pain (VAS-B) and radiating pain (VAS-R), and the walking distance of neurogenic intermittent claudication (NIC) were checked pre- and postoperatively, while simple radiographs of the lateral and flexion-extension view in the standing position were taken preoperatively and then every six months after to measure anteroposterior slippage (slip percentage), the difference in anteroposterior slippage between flexion and extension (dynamic slip percentage), angular displacement, and the difference in angular displacement between flexion and extension (dynamic angular displacement) to evaluate the radiological results. Results: The ODI (from 28.1 to 12.8 in group A, from 27.3 to 12.3 in group B), VAS-B (from 7.0 to 2.6 in group A, from 7.7 to 3.2 in group B), VAS-R (from 8.5 to 2.8 in group A, from 8.7 to 2.9 in group B), and walking distance of NIC (from 118.4 m to 1,496.2 m in group A, from 127.6 m to 1,481.6 m in group B) were improved in both groups. On the other hand, while the other radiologic results showed no differences, the dynamic angular displacement between both groups showed a significant difference postoperatively (group A from 6.2° to 6.7°, group B from 6.5° to 8.4°, p-value=0.019). Conclusion: Removal of the posterior ligaments, including the interspinous and supraspinous ligaments, during posterior decompression of lumbar spinal stenosis can cause a postoperative increase in dynamic angular displacement, which can be prevented by the port-hole technique, which spares these posterior ligaments.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.56 no.2
• /
• pp.125-138
• /
• 2023

Most of previous cesium (Cs) sorbents have limitations on the treatment in the large-scale water system having low Cs concentration and high ion strength. In this study, the new Cs sorbent that is eco-friendly and has a high Cs removal efficiency was developed by improving the coal mine drainage treated sludge (hereafter 'CMDS') with the addition of Na and S. The sludge produced through the treatment process for the mine drainage originating from the abandoned coal mine was used as the primary material for developing the new Cs sorbent because of its high Ca and Fe contents. The CMDS was improved by adding Na and S during the heat treatment process (hereafter 'Na-S-CMDS' for the developed sorbent in this study). Laboratory experiments and the sorption model studies were performed to evaluate the Cs sorption capacity and to understand the Cs sorption mechanisms of the Na-S-CMDS. The physicochemical and mineralogical properties of the Na-S-CMDS were also investigated through various analyses, such as XRF, XRD, SEM/EDS, XPS, etc. From results of batch sorption experiments, the Na-S-CMDS showed the fast sorption rate (in equilibrium within few hours) and the very high Cs removal efficiency (> 90.0%) even at the low Cs concentration in solution (< 0.5 mg/L). The experimental results were well fitted to the Langmuir isotherm model, suggesting the mostly monolayer coverage sorption of the Cs on the Na-S-CMDS. The Cs sorption kinetic model studies supported that the Cs sorption tendency of the Na-S-CMDS was similar to the pseudo-second-order model curve and more complicated chemical sorption process could occur rather than the simple physical adsorption. Results of XRF and XRD analyses for the Na-S-CMDS after the Cs sorption showed that the Na content clearly decreased in the Na-S-CMDS and the erdite (NaFeS₂·2(H₂O)) was disappeared, suggesting that the active ion exchange between Na⁺ and Cs⁺ occurred on the Na-S-CMDS during the Cs sorption process. From results of the XPS analysis, the strong interaction between Cs and S in Na-S-CMDS was investigated and the high Cs sorption capacity was resulted from the binding between Cs and S (or S-complex). Results from this study supported that the Na-S-CMDS has an outstanding potential to remove the Cs from radioactive contaminated water systems such as seawater and groundwater, which have high ion strength but low Cs concentration.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.75-86
• /
• 2003

In the near future, the capacity of conventional anaerobic digester is thought to be insufficient because of the increase of the total solids from expansion of intercepting sewer, sewage quantity and direct input of night soil from near apartment districts. The objectives of this study was to investigate the improvement of digestion efficiency using microbial agent(Bio-dh). The system was a pilot-scale, two-staged, anaerobic sludge digestion system. The first-stage digester was heated and mixed. The agitation velocity of the first-stage digester was 120rpm. The second-stage digester was neither heated nor mixed. The Digestion temperature was kept at $35{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ The detention time of digester was 19 days. The dosage of sewage sludge and microbial agent were $0.65m^3/day$ and $0.5{\ell}/day$, respectively. The experiments was run for 25days. Three times a week, $COD_{Mn}$ and SS of effluent, TS, VS, and biogas production rate were measured. Temperature, pH, and alkalinity were measured daily. The results were as follows ; Without microbial agent, digestion efficiencies ranged 46.0%~50.9%(mean=48.6%), with microbial agent(Bio-dh), digestion efficiencies ranged 52.8%~57.3%(mean=54.2%). Consequently, microbial agent(Bio-dh) increased the sludge digestion efficiency about 12%. Also, Without microbial agent, the mean concentration of $COD_{Mn}$ and SS of second-stage digester effluent were 1,639mg/L, 4,888mg/L respectively. With microbial agent, the mean concentration of $COD_{Mn}$ and SS of second-stage digester effluent were 859mg/L, 2,405mg/L respectively. Consequently, microbial agent(Bio-dh) increased the removal efficiency of $COD_{Mn}$ and SS about 47.6% and 50.8%, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.8
• /
• pp.831-838
• /
• 2008

This study investigated the characteristics of nitrogen removal and microbial community in a lab-scale A$_2$O activated sludge process filled with the fluidized media at an aerebic basin. The change of microbial community was monitored based on quinone profiles of activated sludge according to feeding sewage with/without external carbon source. Low C/N ratio(COD$_{Cr}$/T-N of 1.24) sewage was fed. The obtained results from this study were as follows; Ubiquinone(UQ) in the influent was in the descending order of UQ-8, UQ-10 and UQ-9. Menaquinone(MK) was simpler and much less than UQ. The ratio of UQ/MK was less than 0.41 and the dissimilarity was below 0.26. Without an external carbon source, MK-8 was the dominant species and there were 3 kinds of quinone species and low DQ and EQ values in an anaerobic basin. The ratio of UQ/MK increased to 2.3 in an anoxic basin. In an oxic basin, UQ-7 and UQ-8 were the dominant species. UQ-7 was dominating in suspended microorganisms, while UQ-8 was in attached microorganisms. With an external carbon source addition, MK-8 decreased but UQ-8 increased in an anaerobic basin. So did quinone species, DQ and EQ values. There was also a change in an anoxic basin with the improvement of denitrification. UQ-8 decreased instead, MK-7 and MK-8 increased. UQ/MK ratio decreased 2.3 to 1.4. It means that the dominant species change from Pseudomonas sp. to Bacillus and Micrococcus species. etc. In an oxic basin, UQ-8 replaced UQ-7 in suspended microorganisms and UQ-10 replaced UQ-8 in attached microbials. This seemed related with the growth of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobactor species.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.457-462
• /
• 2008

Background: Emergency airway access is essential when a patient has dyspnea that's due to tracheal or bronchial obstruction. Such methods as laser therapy and PDT are now being used for the treatment of tracheal obstruction that's due to benign diseases or nonsurgical malignant diseases. Cryotherapy is a method that uses extreme hypothermia for freezing a tumor to cause necrosis. In this study, we have evaluated the clinical effectiveness of performing endobronchial cryoablation through a flexible bronchoscope. Material and Method: 10 patients with tracheal obstruction that was due to endotracheal tumors were evaluated between May 2005 and May 2007. Eight were male and the mean age of the 10 patients was $59.4{\pm}18.4$ years. Three cases of tracheal obstruction were due to benign tumors and 7 were due to malignant tumors. The obstruction sites were 3 at the trachea, 3 at the carina and 4 at the bronchus. A flexible bronchoscope was inserted and the tumor was eliminated using a flexible cryoprobe. Follow up bronchoscopy was performed at 1 week and 1 month after cryoablation, and then we evaluated the decrease of dyspnea, the improvement of the performance and the complications of the procedures. Result: Complete remission was achieved in 4 patients and partial remission was achieved in 6 patients. Complications such as hemoptysis (100%), and cough (50%) were noted. Hemoptysis was spontaneously resolved in 3 to 8 days (mean: 4.9 days). A decrease in dyspnea and improvement in the performance was noted in all patients. Conclusion: Endobronchial stenosis plays a detrimental role in the life quality of a terminal cancer patient. Due to its simplicity and effectiveness for controlling bleeding, endobronchial cryoablation is considered to be a safe method that is clinically applicable to a wide range of tumors, including the removal of large tumors. We concluded that endobronchial cryoablation through a flexible bronchoscope is a safe, effective method for treating tracheobroncheal obstructions.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.271-282
• /
• 2012

We explore the effect of removal of organic ligand on the atomic configurations around oxygen in hydroxyl groups in amorphous silica gel (synthesized through hydrolysis of $SiCl_4$ in diethyl-ether) using high resolution $^{17}O$ solid state NMR spectroscopy. $^1H$ and $^{29}Si$ MAS NMR spectra for amorphous silica gel showed diverse hydrogen environments including water, hydroxyl groups (e.g., hydrogen bonded silanol, isolated silanol), and organic ligands (e.g., alkyl chain) that may interact with surface hydroxyls in the amorphous silica gel, for instance, forming silica-organic ligand complex (e.g., Si-$O{\cdots}R$). These physically and chemically adsorbed organic ligands were partly removed by ultrasonic cleaning under ethanol and distilled water for 1 hour. Whereas $^{17}O$ MAS NMR spectra with short pulse length ($0.175{\mu}s$) at 9.4 T and 14.1 T for as-synthesized amorphous silica gel showed the unresolved peak for Si-O-Si and Si-OH structures, the $^{17}O$ MAS NMR spectra with long pulse length ($2{\mu}s$) showed the additional peak at ~0 ppm. The peak at ~0 ppm may be due to Si-OH structure with very fast relaxation rate as coupled to liquid water molecules or organic ligands on the surface of amorphous silica gel. The observation of the peak at ~0 ppm in $^{17}O$ MAS NMR spectra for amorphous silica gel became more significant as the organic ligands were removed. These results indicate that the organic ligands on the surface of amorphous silica gel interact with oxygen atoms in Si-OH and provide the information about atomic structure of silanol and siloxane in amorphous silica gel. The current results could enhance the understanding of dehydration mechanism of diverse silicates, which is known as atomic scale origins of intermediate depth (approximately, 70~300 km) earthquakes in subduction zone.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.90-95
• /
• 2008

In this study, a combined process of sequential anaerobic-aerobic digestion (SAAD), fluidized-bed bioreactor (FBBR), and ultrafiltration (UF) for the treatment of small scale food waste leachate was developed and evaluated. The SAAD process was tested for performance and stability by subjecting leachate from food waste to a two-phase anaerobic digestion. The main process used FBBR composed of aerators for oxygen supply and fluidization, three 5 ton reaction chambers containing an aerobic mesophilic microorganism immobilized in PE (polyethylene), and a sedimentation chamber. The HRTs (hydraulic retention time) of the combined SAAD-FBBR-UF process were 30, 7, and 1 day, and the operation temperature was set to the optimal one for microbial growth. The pilot process maintained its performance even when the CODcr of input leachate fluctuated largely. During the operation, average CODcr, TKN, TP, and salt of the effluent were 1,207mg/L, 100mg/L, 50 mg/L, and 0.01 %, which corresponded to the removal efficiencies of 99.4%, 98.6%, 89.6%, and 98.5%, respectively. These results show that the developed process is able to manage high concentration leachate from food waste and remove CODcr, TKN, TP, and salt effectively.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.13-20
• /
• 2007

Sawdust biofiltration is an emerging bio-technology for control of ammonia emissions including compost odors from composting of biological wastes. Although sawdust is widely used as a medium for bulking agent in composting system and for microbial attachment in biofiltration systems, the performance of agitated bed composting and sawdust biofiltration are not well established. A pilot-scale composting of hog manure amended with sawdust and sawdust biofiltration systems for practical operation were investigated using aerated and agitated rectangular reactor with compost turner and sawdust biofilter operated under controlled conditions, each with a working capacity of approximately $40m^3\;and\;4.5m^3$ respectively. These were used to investigate the effect of compost temperature, seed germination rate and the C/N ratio of the compost on ammonia emissions, compost maturity and sawdust biofiltration performance. Temperature profiles showed that the material in three runs had been reached to temperature of 55 to $65^{\circ}C$ and above. The ammonia concentration in the exhaust gas of the sawdust biofilter media was below the maximum average value as 45 ppm. Seed germination rate levels of final compost was maintained from 70 to 93% and EC values of the finished compost varied between 2.8 and 4.8 ds/m, providing adequate conditions for plant growth.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.42-50
• /
• 2014

In this study, the $Mg(OH)_2$ slurry was made form ferro-nickel slag and then used for $CO_2$ sequestration. The experiments were in the order as leaching step, precipitation, carbonation experiments. According to the leaching results, the optimal leaching conditions were $H_2SO_4$ concentration of 1 M and the temperature of 333 K. In the $Mg(OH)_2$ manufacturing step, NaOH was added to increase the pH upto 8, the first precipitation was confirmed as $Fe_2O_3$. After removal the first precipitation, the pH was upto 11, the $Mg(OH)_2$ was generated by XRD analysis. The $Mg(OH)_2$ slurry was used for $CO_2$ sequestration. The pseudo-second-order carbonation model was used to apply for $CO_2$ sequestration. The $CO_2$ sequestration rate was increased by the $CO_2$ partial pressure and temperature. However, $CO_2$ sequestration rate was decreased when temperature upto 323 K. After $CO_2$ sequestrated by $Mg(OH)_2$, the $CO_2$ can be sequestrated stable as $MgCO_3$. This study also presented optimal sequestration condition was the pH upto 8.38, the maximum $MgCO_3$ can be generated. This study can be used as the basic material for $CO_2$ sequestration by ferro-nickel slag at pilot scale in the future.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2007

In this research, we found out that bridging nodes have great effect on the robustness of protein-protein interaction networks. Until now, many researchers have focused on node's degree as node's essentiality. Hub nodes in the scale-free network are very essential in the network robustness. Some researchers have tried to relate node's essentiality with node's betweenness centrality. These approaches with betweenness centrality are reasonable but there is a positive relation between node's degree and betweenness centrality value. So, there are no differences between two approaches. We first define a bridging node as the node with low connectivity and high betweenness value, we then verify that such a bridging node is a primary factor in the network robustness. For a biological network database from Internet, we demonstrate that the removal of bridging nodes defragment an entire network severally and the importance of the bridging nodes in the network robustness.