The urban expressway is widely used to avoid traffic jams in highly-populated urban areas. However, vehicle exhaust can be easily transported to the neighboring area including residential buildings. In this study, we investigated the transport and penetration of vehicle exhaust into the nearby high-story residential building. Black carbon (BC) and lung deposited surface area (LDSA) concentrations were monitored every 1 min using an aethalometer (AE51, Magee) and a nanoparticle aerosol monitor (AeroTrak 9000, TSI), respectively. For comparison, the measurement was carried out in both the living room and balcony of the apartment from January 18 to January 25, 2016. The CO2 concentration indicated the presence of residents in the living room and transport of vehicle exhaust from the roadway in the balcony. Its diurnal variation showed a significant difference between weekdays and the weekend, implying the different time activity of residents and traffic volume. BC and LDSA concentrations were 1.4±1.5 μg/m3 and 53.9±45.0 μm2/cm3 indoors, and 1.9±1.0 μg/m3, 76.2±34.5 μm2/cm3 outdoors, respectively. The indoor to outdoor concentration ratios range from 0.6 to 0.8, indicating the significant influence of outdoor vehicle exhaust. The highest concentrations of BC and LDSA were observed in the morning rush hours, except for those indoors during the weekend. In particular, the outdoor effect is significant during the morning rush hours. Indoor air quality management is urgently needed for residents living near the urban expressway.

Many air purifiers have been developed and released with increasing PM. In generally, the performance of air purifiers has been evaluated in the environment chamber by relevant standards. However, as there is a lack of information about air cleaning performance of air purifier in the living area, consumers have difficulty with product selection. In this study, five air purifiers were tested in apartments with different structures. In order to examine the effect of air purifiers, we assumed 3 cases such as inflow of pollutants from outdoors by ventilation, smoking patterns of residents, and cooking methods (e.g., frying fish). The evaluation results showed that the efficiency of air purifier products D and B of the 3-stage configuration (pre-filter + HEPA filter + activity carbon) was the best in most experiments. In the case of the ionizer type E product, the efficiency was very low and, at times, had increased the particulate matter indoors. Considering the cost-performance ratio, it is most reasonable to use an air purifier comprising a pre-filter and a HEPA filter without an additional configuration.

While the air quality of public facilities such as daycare centers is managed by law, the management of air quality in residential buildings is not mandatory. For this reason, air quality in an apartments has not been well surveyed. In this study, we investigated the influence of cooking and ventilation on the indoor air quality in an apartment. Continuous measurements were performed using real-time monitoring instruments from June 9 to 17, 2014 in Seoul, Korea. A CO2 meter was used to measure CO2 concentration and temperature. A portable aerosol spectrometer (0.25-32 μm), a nanoparticle aerosol monitor (10-1,000 nm), and an aethalometer (total suspended particulate, black carbon) were also used. During the measurement period, ventilation and cooking activities were observed 8 and 10 times, respectively. In 5 of the observed cases, both activities were done simultaneously. During the ventilation, CO2 concentration and temperature were decreased; however, particle concentrations were increased. When cooking was done, particle concentration was increased in some cases; however, CO2 concentration and temperature were unchanged. Combined cased CO2 concentration and temperature were decreased and particle concentrations were increased.

The number of children who use day-care centers is increasing. Most indoor air quality (IAQ) management has been based on daily average pollutant concentrations measured once a year. A more comprehensive management of IAQ is needed to protect children’s health from air pollutants in day-care centers. In this study, we investigated the weekly variation of air pollutant concentrations in a nursing room of a day-care center located at the roadside for a week in June of 2014. Average concentrations of CO2, PM10, black carbon, and total surface area of lungdeposited particles during nursing time of the day-care center were 510 ppm, 27.8 μg/m3, 1.87 μg/m3, and 30.6 μm2/cm3, respectively, with a similar diurnal pattern shown on weekdays.

It is well known that smoking generates harmful air pollutants. With smoking in buildings as well as in the streets prohibited, the need for smoking rooms has emerged. In this study, particle and CO contamination in a 63.6 m3 smoking room was experimentally investigated using Korean tobacco. Tobacco smoking was artificially simulated using a smoking machine. The number and size distribution of particles ranging from 10-420 nm and 0.25-32 μm were measured using a Nanoscan (TSI model 3910) and a portable aerosol spectrometer (Grimm model 1.109), respectively. CO concentration was also monitored using an IAQ monitor (Graywolf IAQ-Xtra 610). Four tobaccos were simultaneously smoked in each experiment, and the experiment was repeated four times. Maximum CO concentrations of 7-10 ppm were observed and high concentrations of particles (176,000-1,115,000 particles/cm3 for 10-420 nm, 3,700-5,200 particles/cm3 for 0.25-32 μm) were also monitored. The dominant size of tobacco particles was about 100 nm in diameter.

With the development of nanotechnology, nanomaterials are used in various fields. Therefore, the interest regarding the safety of nanomaterial use is increasing and much effort is diverted toward establishment of exposure assessment and management methods. Occupational exposure limits (OELs) are effectively used to protect the health of workers in various industrial workplaces. This study aimed to propose an OEL for domestic multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) based on animal inhalation toxicity test. Basic procedure for development of OELs was examined. For OEL estimation, epidemiological study and quantitative risk assessment are generally performed based on toxicity data. In addition, inhalation toxicity data-based no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) and benchmark dose (BMD) are estimated to obtain the OEL. Three different estimation processes (NEDO in Japan, NIOSH in USA, and Baytubes in Germany) of OELs for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were intensively reviewed. From the rat inhalation toxicity test for MWCNTs manufactured in Korea, a NOAEL of 0.98 mg/㎥ was derived. Using the simple equation for estimation of OEL suggested by NEDO, the OEL of 142 μg/㎥ was estimated for the MWCNT manufacturing workplace. Here, we used test rat and Korean human data and adopted 36 as an uncertainty factor. The OEL for MWCNT estimated in this work is higher than those (2-80 μg/㎥) suggested by previous investigators. It may be greatly caused by different physicochemical properties of MWCNT and their dispersion method and test rat data. For setting of regulatory OELs in CNT workplaces, further epidemiological studies in addition to animal studies are needed. More advanced technical methods such as CNT dispersion in air and liquid should be also developed.

Research on salinity stress has strongly increased over the last decade, as salinity stress is a main key factor limiting the global crop production in many regions of the world. In recent years, it is possible to obtain a large amount of genotypic data in a short time due to a reduction in genotyping costs. This wave of genomic information has effected the development of new strategies for the integration of molecular information in breeding programs. However, phenotyping is still a manual activity, and different from each species, environment, and trait. It often generates high labor costs, and can be sensitive to environmental changes, and sometimes includes the individual biased assessments from different people. There is a strong demand for phenotypic data of high quality. The current objective of phenomics is phenotyping a large number of individuals for many traits in a nondestructive manner and with good accuracy. Here we described the image-based technology as applied to alleviate the bottleneck for the development of high-throughput phenotyping platforms. Several trials to measure stress responses of rice plantlets based on image data under the salinity condition are underway to develop automation for the next-level of phenotyping.

This study was carried out to investigate the best explant source and combination of media and growth regulators for the regeneration of multiple shoots in soybean (Glycine max. L. Merr.) cv. ‘Iksannamulkong’. Multiple shoots could well be directly induce

A new soybean variety “Geomjeongkong 3” was released by the National Crop Experiment Station, RDA, in 2001. This variety was derived from the cross between Shinano-kuro and SNU78010, the elite breeding line with large seed, in the summer season, 1990. The