• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.137-146
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• 2020

Calcium is one of the important secondary signaling molecules in plant cells. Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPK)-the sensor proteins of Ca²⁺ and phosphorylating enzymes-are the most abundant serine/threonine kinases in plant cells. They convert and transmit signals in response to various stimuli, resulting in specific responses in plants. In rice, 31 CDPK gene families have been identified, which are mainly involved in plant growth and development and are known to play roles in response to various stress conditions. However, little is known about the biochemical characteristics of CDPK proteins. In this study, OsCPK11-a CDPK in rice-was partially purified, and its biochemical characteristics were found. Partially purified OsCPK11 from rice seedlings was obtained by three-step column chromatography that involved anion exchange chromatography consisting of DEAE, hydrophobic interaction chromatography consisting of phenyl-Sepharose, and gel filtration chromatography consisting of Sephacryl-200HR. An in vitro kinase assay using partially purified OsCPK11 was also performed. This partially purified OsCPK11 had a molecular weight of 54 kDa and showed a strong hydrophobic interaction with the hydrophobic resin. In vitro kinase assay showed that the OsCPK11 also had Ca²⁺-dependent autophosphorylation activity. The OsCPK11 phosphorylated histone III-S, and the optimum pH for its kinase activity was found to be 7.5~8.0. The native OsCPK11 shared several biochemical characteristics with recombinant OsCPK11 studied previously, and both had Ca²⁺-dependent autophosphorylation activity and favored histone III-S as a substrate for kinase activity, which also had a Ca²⁺-dependence.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.145-159
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• 2014

This study is to evaluate the future climate change impact on turbidity water and eutrophication for Chungju Lake by using CE-QUAL-W2 reservoir water quality model coupled with SWAT watershed model. The SWAT was calibrated and validated using 11 years (2000~2010) daily streamflow data at three locations and monthly stream water quality data at two locations. The CE-QUAL-W2 was calibrated and validated for 2 years (2008 and 2010) water temperature, suspended solid, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and Chl-a. For the future assessment, the SWAT results were used as boundary conditions for CE-QUAL-W2 model run. To evaluate the future water quality variation in reservoir, the climate data predicted by MM5 RCM(Regional Climate Model) of Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A1B for three periods (2013~2040, 2041~2070 and 2071~2100) were downscaled by Artificial Neural Networks method to consider Typhoon effect. The RCM temperature and precipitation outputs and historical records were used to generate pollutants loading from the watershed. By the future temperature increase, the lake water temperature showed $0.5^{\circ}C$ increase in shallow depth while $-0.9^{\circ}C$ in deep depth. The future annual maximum sediment concentration into the lake from the watershed showed 17% increase in wet years. The future lake residence time above 10 mg/L suspended solids (SS) showed increases of 6 and 17 days in wet and dry years respectively comparing with normal year. The SS occupying rate of the lake also showed increases of 24% and 26% in both wet and dry year respectively. In summary, the future lake turbidity showed longer lasting with high concentration comparing with present behavior. Under the future lake environment by the watershed and within lake, the future maximum Chl-a concentration showed increases of 19 % in wet year and 3% in dry year respectively.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.270-279
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• 2005

It is important to understand and evaluate the environmental impacts of rice cultivation for developing environmentally-friendly agriculture because rice is main crop in Korea and rice cultivation have both functions of water pollution and purification with environmental and cultivation conditions. This paper presents the evaluation of nitrogen impact by rice cultivation on water system. A simple protocol was proposed to assess the potential amount of nitrogen outflow from paddy field and most of parameters affect on the nitrogen outflow from paddy field such as the amount of fertilizer application, water balance, the quality and quantity of irrigation water, soil properties, nitrogen turnover in the soil and cultivation method were considered. To develop the protocol, coefficients for parameters affected nitrogen turnover and outflow were gotten and summarized by comparison and analysis of all possible references related, and by additional experiments at field and laboratory. And potential amount of nitrogen input and output by water in paddy field were estimated with the protocol at the conditions of the nitrogen contents of irrigation water, amount of fertilizer application, and irrigation methods. Where irrigation water was clean, below 1.0 mg $L^{-1}$ of nitrogen concentration, rice cultivation polluted nearby watershed. At the conditions of 2.0 mg $L^{-1}$ of nitrogen concentration, 110 kg $ha^{-1}$ of nitrogen fertilizer application and flooding irrigation, rice cultivation had water pollution function, but it had water purification function with intermittent irrigation. At the conditions of 3.0 mg $L^{-1}$ of nitrogen concentration and 110 kg $ha^{-1}$ of nitrogen fertilizer application, rice cultivation had water purification function, but that had water pollution function with 120 kg $ha^{-1}$ of nitrogen application. Where irrigation water was polluted over 6.0 mg $L^{-1}$ of nitrogen, it was evaluated that rice cultivation had water purifying effect, even though the amount of nitrogen application was 120 kg $ha^{-1}$.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.1008-1012
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• 2008

Nanoscale zero-valent iron(nZVI) is famous for its high reactivity originated from its high surface area and it has received considerable attentions as one of the latest innovative technologies for treating contaminated groundwater. Due to its fine powdery form, nZVI has limited filed applications. The efforts to overcome this shortcoming by immobilizing nZVI on a supporting material have been made. This study investigated the differences of resin-supported nZVI's characteristics by changing the preparation methods and evaluated its reactivity. The borohydride reduction of an iron salt was proceeded in ethanol/water solvent containing a dispersant and the synthesis was conducted in the presence of ion-exchange resin. The resulting material was compared to that prepared in a conventional way of using de-ionized water by measuring the phyrical and chemical characteristics. BET surface area and Fe content of nZVI-attached resin was increased from $31.63m^2/g$ and 18.19 mg Fe/g to $38.10m^2/g$ and 22.44 mg Fe/g, respectively, by switching the solution medium from water to ethanol/water with a dispersant. The reactivity of each material was tested using nitrate solution without pH control. The pseudo first-order constant of $0.462h^{-1}$ suggested the reactivity of resin-supported nZVI prepared in ethanol/water was increased 61 % compared to that of the conventional type of supported nZVI. The specific reaction rate constant based on surface area was also increased. The results suggest that this new supported nZVI can be used successfully in on-site remediation for contaminated groundwater.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.505-516
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• 2009

The effects of wood species, particle size of wood flours and coupling treatment on the mechanical properties of wood plastic composites (WPC) are investigated in this study. Chemical components of wood flour from 3 different wood species were analyzed by the chemical analysis. Wood flours of 40~60 mesh and 80~100 mesh were manufactured from Larix (Larix kaempferi Lamb.), Quercus (Quercus accutisima Carr.), and Maackia (Maackia amuresis Rupr. et Maxim). The wood flours were reinforced into polypropylene (PP) by melt compounding and injection molding, then tensile, flexural, and impact strength properties were analyzed. The order of alpha-cellulose content in wood is Quercus (43.6%), Maackia (41.3%) and Larix (36.2%). The order of lignin content in wood is Larix (31.6%), Maackia (24.7%), and Quercus accutisima (24.4%). The content of extractives in wood is in the order of Larix (8.5%), Maackia (4.4%), and Quercus accutisima (3.9%). As the content of alpha-cellulose increases and the lignin and extractives decreases, tensile and flexural strengths of the WPC increase. At the same loading level of wood flours, the smaller particle size (80~100 mesh) of wood flours showed highly improved tensile and flexural strengths, compared to the larger one (40~60 mesh). The impact strength of the WPC was not significantly affected by the wood species, but the wood flours of larger particle size showed better impact strengths. The addition of maleated polypropylene (MAPP) provided the highly improved tensile, flexural and impact strengths. Morphological analysis shows improved interfacial bonding with MAPP treatment for the composites.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.111-121
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• 2019

Evapotranspiration (ET) of vegetation is one of the major components of the hydrologic cycle, and its accurate estimation is important for hydrologic water balance, irrigation management, crop yield simulation, and water resources planning and management. For agricultural crops, ET is often calculated in terms of a short or tall crop reference, such as well-watered, clipped grass (reference crop evapotranspiration, $ET_o$). The Penman-Monteith equation recommended by FAO (FAO 56-PM) has been accepted by researchers and practitioners, as the sole $ET_o$ method. However, its accuracy is contingent on high quality measurements of four meteorological variables, and its use has been limited by incomplete and/or inaccurate input data. Therefore, this study evaluated the applicability of Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN) model for estimating $ET_o$ from less meteorological data than required by the FAO 56-PM. A total of six meteorological inputs, minimum temperature, average temperature, maximum temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation, were divided into a series of input groups (a combination of one, two, three, four, five and six variables) and each combination of different meteorological dataset was evaluated for its level of accuracy in estimating $ET_o$. The overall findings of this study indicated that $ET_o$ could be reasonably estimated using less than all six meteorological data using BPNN. In addition, it was shown that the proper choice of neural network architecture could not only minimize the computational error, but also maximize the relationship between dependent and independent variables. The findings of this study would be of use in instances where data availability and/or accuracy are limited.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.327-339
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• 2020

Transpiration is the movement of water into the atmosphere through leaf stomata of plant, and it accounts for more than half of evapotranspiration from the land surface. The measurements of transpiration could be conducted in various ways including eddy covariance and water balance method etc. However, the transpiration measurements of individual trees are necessary to quantify and compare the water use of each species and individual component within stands. For the measurement of the transpiration by individual tree, the thermometric methods such as heat dissipation and heat pulse methods are widely used. However, it is difficult and labor consuming to maintain the transpiration measurements of individual trees in a wide range area and especially for long-term experiment. Therefore, the sharing of sapflow data through database should be useful to promote the studies on transpiration and water balance for large spatial scale. In this paper, we present sap flow database, which have Granier type sap flux data from 18 Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) since 2011 and 16 (Quercus aliena) since 2013 in Mt.Taehwa Seoul National University forest and 18 needle fir (Abies holophylla), seven (Quercus serrata), three (Carpinus laxiflora and C. cordata each since 2013 in Gwangneung. In addition, the database includes the sapling transpiration of nine species (Prunus sargentii, Larix kaempferii, Quercus accutisima, Pinus densiflora, Fraxinus rhynchophylla, Chamecypans obtuse, P. koraiensis, Betulla platyphylla, A. holophylla, Pinus thunbergii), which were measured using heat pulse method since 2018. We believe this is the first database to share the sapflux data in Rep. of Korea, and we wish our database to be used by other researchers and contribute a variety of researches in this field.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1028-1036
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• 2021

Firefly luciferase (FLuc) can function as an efficient marker in the gene and viral therapies. Nonetheless, its clinical translation has been unaccomplished with the concerns on its exogenous nature and the similarity with human fatty acyl-CoA synthetase. In this study, we aimed to show safety of FLuc by conducting a set of preclinical experiments and a human use. Initially, FLuc permeability across the plasma membrane was investigated by delivering the FLuc-carrying viral vector, OTS-412, or the FLuc recombinant protein. After in vitro infection of OTS-412 into different cancer cell lines, FLuc activity was detected only in the cell lysates, but not in culture media. In addition, recombinant FLuc protein further showed the impermeability against the plasma membrane. Similar result was also observed in the in vivo experiment. After being injected into the VX2 tumor-bearing rabbit, the FLuc exclusively resided within the tumor tissue without being detected in the blood plasma or other organs. Human cancer cell lines originated from various organs were lysed and treated to the FLuc, and none of the human substrates was reactive against the FLuc. As a final step, FLuc recombinant protein was intravenously injected into a human. The luciferase was degraded with the half-life of 20 to 30 minutes in blood, and was untraceable from 1.5 hr after the injection. In addition, the blood plasma was nonresponsive against the fatty acids. Hematological analysis was also comparable between the pre- and post-injection. Altogether, our study collectively demonstrates the safety of the firefly luciferase.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.174-182
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• 2020

The permissible limit of ammonia concentration in drinking water recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 1.5 mg/L. However, in the case of groundwater in Kathmandu, Nepal, the concentration of ammonia fluctuates dramatically from 0 to 120 mg/L at different locations and groundwater depths (Chapagain et al., 2010). Such a high concentration of ammonia causes aesthetic problems in drinking water, such as bad taste and odor; hence, prior treatment is required. In Kathmandu, half of the population utilizes groundwater, which is also employed for drinking water, but owing to a lack of knowledge of household water filters, residents of Kathmandu tend to depend greatly on commercially available jar water than on the installation of a proper household filtration method. Thus, in our study, we employed adsorption and reverse osmosis (RO) as two of the most viable decentralized/household treatment options to address the issue of high contamination of ammonia in drinking water. We evaluated their performances from technical and the economic perspectives using synthetically prepared groundwater at varying ammonia concentrations (50 mg/L and 15 mg/L). Consequently, it was found that adsorption via ion exchange (IE) resin was a comparatively better ammonia removal technology than RO, with 100% ammonia removal even after regeneration; the removal by RO was limited to up to 90%. Furthermore, our study suggests that IE is the most suitable ammonia removal technology for places with lower water consumption (< 50 L/day), whereas RO seemed to be a cost-effective technology for places with higher water consumption, where the daily water demand exceeds 50 L/day. Lastly, these assessments suggest that installing a suitable household treatment system would be more efficient and sustainable from both technical and economic points of view than purchasing commercially bottled water.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.435-445
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• 2023

A delta is a depositional landform that is formed when sediment transported by a river is deposited in a relatively low-energy environment, such as a lake, sea, or a main channel. Among these, a delta formed at the confluence of rivers has a great importance in river management and research because it has a significant impact on the hydraulic and sedimentological characteristics of the river. Recently, the equilibrium state of the confluence area has been disrupted by large-scale dredging and construction of levees in the Nakdong River. However, due to the natural recovery of the river, the confluence area is returning to its pre-dredging natural state through ongoing sedimentation. The time-series data show that the confluence delta has been steadily growing since the dredging, but once it reaches a certain size, it repeats growth and retreat, and the overall size does not change significantly. In this study, we developed a model to explain the sedimentation-erosion processes in the confluence area based on the assumption that the confluence delta reaches a dynamic equilibrium. The model is based on two fundamental principles: sedimentation due to supply from the tributary and erosion due to the main channel. The erosion coefficient that represents the Nakdong River confluence areas, was obtained using data from the tributaries of the Nakdong River. Sensitivity analyses were conducted using the developed model to understand how the confluence delta responds to changes in the sediment and water discharges of the tributary and the main channel, respectively. We then used annual average discharge of the Nakdong River's tributaries to predict the dynamic equilibrium positions of the confluence deltas. Finally, we conducted a simulation experiment on the development of the Gamcheon-Nakdong River delta using recorded daily discharge. The results showed that even though it is a simple model, it accurately predicted the dynamic equilibrium positions of the confluence deltas in the Nakdong River, including the areas where the delta had not formed, and those where the delta had already formed and predicted the trend of the response of the Gamcheon-Nakdong River delta. However, the actual retreat in the Gamcheon-Nakdong River delta was not captured fully due to errors and limitations in the simplification process. The insights through this study provide basic information on the sediment supply of the Nakdong River through the confluence areas, which can be implemented as a basic model for river maintenance and management.