The decommissioning of nuclear power plant (NPP) generates large amount of waste. Since the most of the concretes are slightly surface contaminated, the accurate characterization and regionspecific surface decontamination are important for the efficient waste management. After the effective surface decontamination and separation, most of the concrete waste from decommissioning of NPP can be classified as a clearance waste. Various surface characterization and decontamination technologies are suggested. The mechanical technologies are simple and offers direct application. The laser-based technologies offer efficient separation and surface contamination. The high price, however, hesitates the application of the process. The nitro-jet technology, which is based on the evaporation of liquid nitrogen, allows the effective decontamination. However, the high price and uncertainty of large are application hinders the practical application in NPP decommissioning. In this paper, various technologies for characterization, handling, treatment, etc., will be discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of the technologies will be discussed, in terms of practical applications.

Myrosinases (thioglucosidases) catalyze the hydrolysis of a class of compounds called glucosinolates, of which the aglycones show various biological functions. It is often necessary to minimize the loss of myrosinase activity during thermal processing of cruciferous vegetables. Myrosinase was isolated from a popular spice, white mustard (Sinapis alba), and its thermal inactivation kinetics was investigated. The enzyme was extracted from white mustard seeds and purified by a sequential processes of ammonium sulfate fractionation, Concanavalin A-Sepharose column chromatography, and gel permeation chromatography. At least three isozymes were revealed by Concanavalin A-Sepharose column chromatography. The purity of the major myrosinase was examined by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and on-gel activity staining with methyl red. The molecular weight of the major enzyme was estimated to be 171 kDa. When the consecutive step model was used for the thermal inactivation of the major myrosinase, its inactivation energy was 44.388 kJ/mol for the early stage of destruction and 32.019 kJ/mol for the late stage of destruction. When the distinct two enzymes model was used, the inactivation energy was 77.772 kJ/mol for the labile enzyme and 95.145 kJ/mol for the stable enzyme. The thermal inactivation energies lie within energy range causing nutrient destruction on heating.

To identify and compare the venom components and expression patterns of some bees/wasps, venom gland-specific transcriptome analyses were conducted for 14 Aculeate bees/wasps. Most of the allergens and pain-producing factors showed extremely high expression levels in social wasps, implying that social wasps have evolved to use venom to defend the colony against intruders. Acid phosphatase and tachykinin, which are known as allergens and neurotoxic peptides, were found with high frequencies in the venom glands of solitary wasps. This suggests that solitary wasps might use their venom for catching and preserving prey. In the venom glands of bumblebees, little or no transcripts of major allergens or pain producing factors were identified, implying that bumblebees venoms are relatively less toxic than those of social or solitary wasps. Taken together, the differential expression patterns of venom genes in some Aculeate bees/wasps implies that bees/wasps have unique groups of highly expressed venom components, which appear to have evolved in response to both ecological and behavioral influences.

To identify the venom components and their expression patterns of some Aculeata bees/wasps, venom gland-specific transcriptome analysis was conducted. FPKM values were normalized with the average of the transcription level of reference gene (a-tubulin). Common components in both solitary and social wasp venoms include hyaluronidase, phospholipase A2, metalloendopeptidase, etc. Although it has been expected that more diverse bioactive components with the functions of prey inactivation and physiology manipulation are present in solitary wasps, the information on venom compositions of solitary wasps obtained in this study was not sufficient to generalizae this notion. Nevertheless, some neurotoxic peptides (e.g., pompilidotoxin and dendrotoxin-like peptide) and proteins (e.g., insuline-like peptide binding protein) appear to be specific to solitary wasp venom. In contrast, several proteins, such as venom allergen 5 protein, venom acid phosphatase, and various phospholipases, appear to be relatively more abundant in social wasp venom. In the venom gland trancsriptome of bumblebees, major allergens or pain producing factors were barely identified, implying that bumblebee venoms are relatively less toxic than those of social or solitary wasps.

범용유한요소프로그램인 Abaqus의 확장유한요소법(XFEM)의 사용성 검증을 위하여 2차원 모델에 적용하여 수치해석을 수행하였다. 기존의 연구에 많이 사용되었던 응집요소(cohesive element) 모델은 균열 경로를 예측하고 요소를 삽입하여야 하는 단점 때문에 실제 균열을 모사하는데 한계가 있다. 이러한 이유로 응력의 방향성 및 특이성을 바탕으로 균열의 경로를 예측하는 확장유한요소법(XFEM)이 균열 해석에 있어서 더 발전된 방법으로 이용되어 왔다. 이번 연구에서는 균열의 경로가 자명한 2차원 모델에 사용하여 응집요소해석과 XFEM에 응집요소의 물성을 적용한 해석을 비교하고 XFEM 적용의 타당성을 확인하였다. 수치해석으로 균열 발생 직전의 응력분포 및 응력 특이성을 확인하고 실제 균열 발생경로와의 비교를 한다. 본 연구를 바탕으로 몇 가지의 한계를 극복하면 실제 복잡한 모델의 실제 균열진전해석을 수행하여 균열을 모사할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) has been widely used for construction of pavements [1]. The strength of RCCP can be obtained from not only hydration of binder but also the aggregate interlock resulted from roller-compaction [2]. For this reason, RCCP normally achieves higher strength compared to conventional concrete pavement with similar cement content. Even though RCCP can be provided a good structural performance, it has been difficult to verify the long-term performance though actual field construction. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the fatigue characteristics and crack development in RCCP based on full-scale fatigue test and accelerated pavement test. In case of full-scale fatigue tests, fatigue behavior was evaluated by using 1 m × 1 m dimensional RCC slab specimens obtained from the field in order to consider the field variability. Fatigue equation derived from this study shows that the number of load repetitions which causes fatigue failure at the same stress level is slightly larger than that of PCA fatigue equation. In order to evaluate the performance of RCCP, two phases of accelerated pavement test (APT) were conducted. In phase one, the performance of RCCP at two different strengths (35.6 and 30.4 MPa) was evaluated. In phase two, the performance of RCCP with different thickness (5, 7.5 and 10 cm) was investigated. The number of load repetition of fatigue crack occurrence in each section was compared to the estimated fatigue failure determined from fatigue equation of RCCP. The crack development in each section was compared to the AASHTO crack model for JPCP. Overall, it was confirmed that RCCP has equal or better performance compared to JPCP the estimation in term of fatigue cracking. The fatigue equation from PCA and cracking model from AAHTO can be used on RCCP at certain design thickness range.

Bombolitin is a venom peptide originally isolated from bumblebees and possesses various biological activities, including hemolytic activity. Bombolitins exhibit amphipathic α-helical structure in lipid-membrane-mimicking environments. To investigate their pharmacological and toxicological properties, anti-tumor, anti-microbial and cytotoxic activities of bombolitins from Bombus ardens and Bombus ussurensis were evaluated. Bombolitins of the two species exhibited extremely high anti-tumor activity against ovarian tumor cells SK-OV-3 and NIH; OVCAR-3 at 25-50 μM, which is 2-fold more potent than other wasp venom peptides studied to date (Yoon et al., 2015; Yoon et al., 2016). The two bombolitins showed significantly high antimicrobial activity. However, bombolotin of B. ussurensis showed no antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli. In addition to their high levels of anti-tumor activity, bombolitins showed considerable levels of hemolytic activity. Thus, to utilize bombolitins as a potential candidate for anti-tumor peptide drugs, further studies for reducing cytotoxic properties of bombolitns is essential.

Mitis-salivarius sucrose bacitracin(MSB) medium is widely used in the selective isolation of mutans streptococci(MS), a designation for a group of oral cariogenic species. Recently, we have isolated three bacterial strains grown on MSB agar from human dental plaques. The three strains exhibited biochemical characteristics similar to those of the biotype IV of MS, with the exception that they manifested a positive reaction for arginine deaminase. The objective of this study was to identify and characterize these three clinical isolates. The bacteria were identified with biochemical tests as well as by 16S rDNA cloning and sequencing. In order to compare the antibiotics susceptibility of the clinical isolates with that of type strain, the minimum inhibitory concentrations of 9 antibiotics were determined using broth dilution assays. The results identified all of our three clinical isolates as Enterococcus faecalis. All E. faecalis strains were found to be susceptible to penicillin G, amoxicillin, augmentin, and vancomycin, but were resistant to ciprofloxacin, cefuroxim axetil, and clindamycin. Our findings indicate that E. faecalis is capable of growing on MSB agar, and suggest that the MSB medium be improved so that only MS should be recoverable on the medium, as originally devised for their selection.