The design and fabrication of suitable waste forms with high thermal and structural stability are essential for the safe management and disposal of radioactive wastes. In particular, the thermal properties and temperature distribution of waste form containing high heat-generating nuclides such as Cs and Sr can be used to evaluate its thermal stability, but also provide useful information for the design of canisters, storage systems, and repositories. In this study, a new program code-based thermal analysis framework has been developed to facilitate the characterization, design, and optimization of the waste form. Matlab was used as a software development platform because it provides powerful mathematical computation and visualization components such as the partial differential equation (PDE) toolbox for solving heat transfer problems using finite element method, the App Designer for graphical user interface (GUI), and the MATLAB Compiler for sharing MATLAB programs as standalone applications and web applications. The thermal analysis results such as temperature distribution, heat flux, maximum/ minimum temperature, and centerline/surface temperature profile are visualized with graphs and tables. To evaluate the effectiveness of the developed program, several design and optimization studies were carried out for the SrTiO3 waste form, selected as a stable form of strontium nuclide.

As an initial part of Kori-1 & Wolsung-1 Unit decommissioning planning, a characterization plan is developed to define the nature, extent and location of contaminants, determine sampling locations and protocols, determine quality assurance objectives for characterization, and define documentation requirements. The actual characterization of a facility is an iterative process that involves initial sampling according to the characterization plan, field management (such as labeling, packaging, storing, and transport) of the samples, laboratory analysis, conformance to the data quality objectives (DQOs), and then identifying any additional sampling required, refining the DQOs, and modifying the characterization plan accordingly. The final product of the facility characterization is a document that describes the type, amount, and location of contaminants that will require consideration and removal during the decommissioning operations sufficient to prepare a decommissioning plan. In this study, implementing a characterization plan, developed in accordance with this standard, will result in obtaining or deriving the above information.

Kori Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1, which began operating in 1978, is Korea’s oldest commercial nuclear reactor. The reactor was permanently shut down in June 2017, and now the decommissioning process has begun. The decommissioning process will generate a significant amount of waste that requires appropriate management to minimize the impact on the environment and human health. And the waste routing, i.e. the activities and logistics for managing the material generated, is a key point in a decommissioning project. It determines the routes from the material inventory to the envisaged material end states. In this study, we review on several factors for the selection of the waste routes in a decommissioning project. In terms of sustainability, the ‘waste hierarchy’ should be applied to routing materials from nuclear facilities. According to the waste hierarchy, the preferred end state is reuse or recycling of the waste as material or, more preferably, the avoidance of waste generation. In addition, treatments (such as decontamination and thermal treatment) that can reduce the volumes requiring disposal as radioactive waste should be considered. Another important parameter is the need to secure availability and capacity of waste routes. Short-term bottlenecks or any delay in the removal of the waste from the site often has an impact on other site activities. If possible, at least two alternative waste routes should be identified for the main categories of waste and kept available throughout the decommissioning project. All routes should be direct to the material end state if possible, but it is more important that waste is removed from the site so that other site operations are not impeded.

The fabrication of waste forms with high thermal and structural stability is an essential technology for the safe management and disposal of radioactive wastes. In particular, the thermal characteristics of waste forms containing high heat-generating nuclides such as Cs and Sr can be used for the optimized design of the waste form to secure its thermal safety, and they also provide basic design data for the safe management of canisters, storage systems, and repositories. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute is actively developing processes and equipment for fabricating various types of high-level wastes into a stable glass or ceramic waste form. In previous research related to the thermal analysis of the waste form, a relatively simple analysis was performed by using the analytic solution of the one-dimensional steady-state heat conduction equation considering the decay heat properties of the waste. As a specific application study, the optimized diameter of the cylindrical glass waste form was proposed by evaluating the centerline temperature of the waste form. In this study, we extended previous research by introducing a more complicated model, and the main results are summarized as follows. First, an analytical solution was derived by applying the temperaturedependent thermal conductivity expressed in the general form of polynomial function to the onedimensional heat conduction problem previously studied. Second, the two-dimensional axisymmetric steady-state heat conduction problem with a more realistic cylinder model with finite length was modeled and solved by using the finite element method via Matlab’s PDE (partial differential equation) toolbox. Third, thermal analysis was performed on the SrTiO3 waste form, selected as a stable form of strontium nuclide, using the developed analytical and numerical methods. The differences in the temperature distribution and computation time were evaluated through a comparative study of both solutions. Although the problem considered in this study could easily be solved by using commercial CFD software such as ANSYS or SolidWorks, a code-based program was developed to facilitate parametric design study in conjunction with optimization algorithms. The analysis results could be used to evaluate the thermal stability of waste form and to optimize the shape and size of the waste form in consideration of the design constraints of storage systems or repositories.

Background: A hip fracture may occur spontaneously prior to the hip impact, due to the muscle pulling force exceeding the strength of the femur. Objects: We conducted falling experiments with humans to measure the activity of the hip muscles, and to examine how this was affected by the fall type. Methods: Eighteen individuals fell and landed sideways on a mat, by mimicking video-captured real-life older adults’ falls. Falling trials were acquired with three fall directions: forward, backward, or sideways, and with three knee positions at the time of hip impact, where the landing side knee was free of constraint, or contacted the mat or the contralateral knee. During falls, the activities of the iliopsoas (Ilio), gluteus medius (Gmed), gluteus maximus (Gmax) and adductor longus (ADDL) muscles were recorded. Outcome variables included the time to onset, activity at the time of hip impact, and timing of the peak activity with respect to the time of hip impact. Results: For Ilio, Gmed, Gmax, and ADDL, respectively, EMG onset averaged 292, 304, 350, and 248 ms after fall initiation. Timing of the peak activity averaged 106, 96, 84, and 180 ms prior to the hip impact, and activity at the time of hip impact averaged 72.3, 45.2, 64.3, and 63.4% of the peak activity. Furthermore, the outcome variables were associated with fall direction and/or knee position in all but the iliopsoas muscle. Conclusion: Our results provide insights on the hip muscle activation during a fall, which may help to understand the potential injury mechanism of the spontaneous hip fracture.

Bee venom, which serves as a weapon to defend the colony from predator attacks, induces an immediate local inflammatory response that causes acute redness and swelling at the site of the sting. This venom-induced inflammation is a rapid anti-predatory defense strategy of the bee against vertebrate predators. Although acute inflammation by venom from venomous arthropods, including bees, is a typical response, how venom acutely elicits inflammatory responses remains unknown. Here, we identify a novel mechanism underlying acute inflammation and provide a rationale for the presence of superoxide dismutase (SOD3) in bee venom. In mouse models, paradoxically, SOD3 in bee venom (bvSOD3) acts as a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-based harm-inducing system to promote acute inflammation. Exogenous bvSOD3 rapidly induced overproduction of H2O2 through endogenously produced superoxide by venom components, such as melittin and phospholipase A2 (PLA2), which then upregulated the expression of proinflammatory genes and promoted the acute inflammatory response. Furthermore, a more severe noxious effect by bvSOD3 elevated a type 2 immune response, and bvSOD3 immunization protected against bvSOD3-mediated toxicity. Our findings that bvSOD3 promotes an acute inflammatory response and induces a protective immune response against inflammation may offer a new approach in venom therapy/immunotherapy.

Bee venom contains a variety of peptide constituents, including low-molecular-weight protease inhibitors. While the putativelow-molecular-weight serine protease inhibitor Api m 6 containing a trypsin inhibitor-like cysteine-rich domain was identifiedfrom honeybee (Apis mellifera) venom, no anti-fibrinolytic or anti-microbial roles for this inhibitor have been elucidated.In this study, we identified an Asiatic honeybee (A. cerana) venom serine protease inhibitor (AcVSPI) that was shownto act as a microbial serine protease inhibitor and plasmin inhibitor. AcVSPI was found to consist of a trypsin inhibitor-likedomain that displays ten cysteine residues. Interestingly, the AcVSPI peptide sequence exhibited high similarity to the putativelow-molecular-weight serine protease inhibitor Api m 6, which suggests that AcVSPI is an allergen Api m 6-like peptide.Recombinant AcVSPI was expressed in baculovirus-infected insect cells, and it demonstrated inhibitory activity against trypsin,but not chymotrypsin. Additionally, AcVSPI has inhibitory effects against plasmin and microbial serine proteases; however,it does not have any detectable inhibitory effects on thrombin or elastase. Consistent with these inhibitory effects, AcVSPIinhibited the plasmin-mediated degradation of fibrin to fibrin degradation products. AcVSPI also bound to bacterial andfungal surfaces and exhibited anti-microbial activity against fungi as well as gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Thesefindings demonstrate the anti-fibrinolytic and anti-microbial roles of AcVSPI as a serine protease inhibitor.

Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) are important protein components of bee royal jelly (RJ) and exhibit various biologicaland pharmacological activities. The antimicrobial activities of royalisins and the jelleines contained within MRJP 1 andMRJP 2 in RJ have been elucidated. However, the antimicrobial effects of other bee RJ MRJPs remain largely unknown.In this study, we demonstrated that the Asiatic honeybee (Apis cerana) MRJP 4 (AcMRJP4) exhibits antimicrobial activitiesagainst bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Recombinant AcMRJP4 was expressed as a 63-kDa protein in baculovirus-infected insectcells. However, some of the recombinant AcMRJP4 proteins were cleaved into two fragments (i.e., 48-kDa (AcMRJP4-48)and 15-kDa (AcMRJP4-15) proteins) by the proteolytic cleavage of the C-terminus of the recombinant AcMRJP4. Interestingly,AcMRJP4, AcMRJP4-48, and AcMRJP4-15 exhibited antimicrobial activities, with AcMRJP4-15 exhibiting the highestantimicrobial activity, followed by AcMRJP4. AcMRJP4-15, which is a hydrophilic peptide with 88 amino acid residuesthat contains a high content of Asn and positively charged amino acids, induced structural damage in the cell walls ofthe assayed bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Altogether, our data demonstrated that AcMRJP4 functions as an antimicrobial agent.

Bee venom is a complex mixture of toxic components that induces immediate local inflammatory and allergic responses. However, the presence and role of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in bee venom have not been previously investigated. Here, we provide the first demonstration that bee venom contains Cu,Zn SOD (SOD3), a novel extracellular component that promotes local inflammation. Bee venom SOD3 was shown to be an oxidant, rather than an antioxidant, that induces the inflammation-signaling molecule H2O2 in vivo. H2O2 plays a pathological role by triggering an immediate local inflammatory response. Furthermore, bee venom SOD3 significantly induced the activation of proinflammatory mediators (TNF-α and COX-2) and cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6) via the overproduction of H2O2 in mice. Our data demonstrate that bee venom SOD3 induced H2O2, which drives an immediate local inflammatory response, indicating a novel mechanism underlying bee venom-induced local inflammation.

Insect cuticular melanization is regulated by the prophenoloxidase (proPO)- activating system, which is also involved in the innate immune reaction. Here, we demonstrate how the differentiation of the proPO-activating system is regulated toward a cuticular melanization or innate immunity function in silkworm (Bombyx mori) pupae. Our results indicate that the differential and spatial regulation of key components, such as the proPO-activating factor, tyrosine hydroxylase, and porPOs, primes the proPO-activating system for either cuticular melanization or innate immunity. This dual strategy for cuticular melanization in development and innate immunity upon infection demonstrates a two-pronged defense mechanism that is mediated by the priming of the proPO system.

Cleanroom could be largely classified into industrial cleanroom that can be contaminated by particles and bio-cleanroom that can be contaminated by biological particles. Electrical manufacturing companies producing precision machines and electrical parts essentially have industrial cleanroom facilities and clean technologies to produce defects free products due to particles. Industrial cleanroom should be controlled in respect of 4M1E to prevent from foreign materials of sub-micro unit and to keep out contamination sources from outside. In this paper, a concept for a quantitative methodology to measure the particles from running components was suggested by combining both newly making clean booth such as wear tester and laser particle counter.

Bee venom contains serine proteases and serine protease inhibitors. In this study, we identified a bumblebee (Bombus ignitus) venom Kunitz-type serine protease inhibitor (Bi-KTI) that acts as a plasmin inhibitor. Bi-KTI showed no detectable inhibitory effect on factor Xa, thrombin, or tissue plasminogen activator. In contrast, Bi-KTI strongly inhibited plasmin, indicating that it acts as an antifibrinolytic agent. The fibrin(ogen)olytic activities of B. ignitus venom serine protease (Bi-VSP) and plasmin in the presence of Bi-KTI indicate that Bi-KTI targets plasmin more specifically than Bi-VSP. These findings demonstrate a novel mechanism by which bumblebee venom affects the hemostatic system through the antifibrinolytic activity of Bi-KTI and through Bi-VSP-mediated fibrin(ogen) olytic activities, raising interest in Bi-KTI and Bi-VSP as potential clinical agents.