Health risk assessment of uranium intake from private residential drinking groundwater facilities based on geological characteristics across the Republic of Korea.

Groundwater contributes to an average of 8 % of the total water source capacity in the Republic of Korea. Hence, private residential households in rural areas in Korea are still using groundwater for drinking without any regular water quality inspection. This can increase the risk of exposure to natural radionuclides like uranium through drinking groundwater.

Prediction of groundwater quality index to assess suitability for drinking purpose using averaged neural network and geospatial analysis.

Groundwater quality management is pivotal for ensuring public health and ecological resilience. However, the conventional water quality indices often face challenges related to parameter selection, geographic coverage, and scalability. The integration of machine learning and spatial analysis represents a promising methodological shift, allowing for high accuracy and adaptive management strategies.

Characterization of seasonal behaviors of naturally occurring radioactive materials in a groundwater borehole using an in situ monitoring system.

Understanding the temporal behaviors of naturally occurring radioactive materials is important for safeguarding groundwater as a secure water resource for drinking, agriculture, and industry usage. This study reports the vertical profiles of U concentration and Rn activity and the management of in situ monitoring systems during intensive field sampling of a national groundwater-monitoring borehole for seven years (2015-2021). The aim was to capture the seasonal characteristics of the U concentrations and Rn activity.

Uranium Concentrations in Private Wells of Potable Groundwater, Korea.

Uranium (U) is one of the typical naturally occurring radioactive elements enriched in groundwater through geological mechanisms, thereby bringing about adverse effects on human health. For this reason, some countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) regulate U with drinking water standards and monitor its status in groundwater. In Korea, there have been continuous investigations to monitor and manage U in groundwater, but they have targeted only public groundwater wells.

NiFe Hydroxide Incorporated with Oxalate for Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

As the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) imposes a high energy barrier during electrochemical water splitting, designing highly efficient, stable, and cost-effective electrocatalysts for OERs is an ongoing challenge. In this study, we present a facile approach to prepare villi-shaped Ni-Fe hydroxides incorporated with oxalate derived from Ni-Fe oxalate through the precipitation growth and subsequent immersion in an alkaline solution. The electrode with an optimized Ni-Fe ratio improves the OER kinetics, on which the electronic structure of the active site is adjusted based on a mutual effect between the adjacent nickel and iron atoms.

Characterizing land use effect on shallow groundwater contamination by using self-organizing map and buffer zone.

Nitrate-nitrogen (NO-N) contamination in groundwater is a major problem of drinking and domestic waters in rural areas. This study revealed the influence of land use type on shallow alluvial groundwaters in a typical rural area in South Korea by applying a self-organizing map (SOM), principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). The uncertainty of spatial information on land use was improved by using a buffer zone of the average influence radius of 32.

Contribution of nitrate-nitrogen concentration in groundwater to stream water in an agricultural head watershed.

This study characterized nitrate-nitrogen (NO-N) concentrations in groundwater and stream water in an agricultural head watershed in South Korea and identified the pollution load of NO-N as a result of the groundwater entering streams using field surveys, analyses of chemical constituents, and numerical modeling. The mean NO-N concentration in groundwater was 7.373 mg/L, which is approximately 1.

Efficacy of in situ well-based denitrification bio-barrier (WDB) remediating high nitrate flux in groundwater near a stock-raising complex.

This study assessed the feasibility of an in situ well-based denitrification bio-barrier (WDB) for managing groundwater contaminated with high-strength nitrate. To evaluate the efficacy of WDB using fumarate as a carbon source and/or electron donor, three sequential single-well push-pull tests (SWPPTs) were conducted at six test sites. The values of the isotope enrichment factor (ɛ) ranging from -6.

Air-Stable Aerophobic Polydimethylsiloxane Tube with Efficient Self-Removal of Air Bubbles.

The adherence of underwater air bubbles to surfaces is a serious cause of malfunction in applications such as microfluidics, transport, and space devices. However, realizing spontaneous and additional unpowered transport of underwater air bubbles inside tubes remains challenging. Although superhydrophilic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) tubes are attracting attention as air bubble repellents, superhydrophilic PDMS, which is fabricated via oxygen plasma treatment, has a disadvantage in that it is weak against aging.

Occurrence and distribution of pharmaceutical and personal care products, artificial sweeteners, and pesticides in groundwater from an agricultural area in Korea.

This study investigated the occurrence and distribution of 33 pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), five artificial sweeteners (ASs), and six pesticides in groundwater in rural agricultural and rural non-agricultural area in South Korea. A total of 31 target compounds (15 antibiotics, four anthelmintics, seven other PPCPs, four ASs, and one pesticide) were detected in agricultural groundwater at concentrations from not detected (ND) to 49.3 ng/L for PPCPs, ND to 1340 ng/L for ASs, and ND to 116 ng/L for pesticides.

The Application of REDOR NMR to Understand the Conformation of Epothilone B.

The structural information of small therapeutic compounds complexed in biological matrices is important for drug developments. However, structural studies on ligands bound to such a large and dynamic system as microtubules are still challenging. This article reports an application of the solid-state NMR technique to investigating the bioactive conformation of epothilone B, a microtubule stabilizing agent, whose analog ixabepilone was approved by the U.