• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.116-125
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• 2016

Background: Microfluidics is of considerable importance in food and agricultural industries. Microfluidics processes low volumes of fluids in channels with extremely small dimensions of tens of micrometers. It enables the miniaturization of analytical devices and reductions in cost and turnaround times. This allows automation, high-throughput analysis, and processing in food and agricultural applications. Purpose: This review aims to provide information on the applications of microfluidics in the agro-food sector to overcome limitations posed by conventional technologies. Results: Microfluidics contributes to medical diagnosis, biological analysis, drug discovery, chemical synthesis, biotechnology, gene sequencing, and ecology. Recently, the applications of microfluidics in food and agricultural industries have increased. A few examples of these applications include food safety analysis, food processing, and animal production. This study examines the fundamentals of microfluidics including fabrication, control, applications, and future trends of microfluidics in the agro-food sector. Conclusions: Future research efforts should focus on developing a small portable platform with modules for fluid handling, sample preparation, and signal detection electronics.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.13-23
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• 2014

The world is in the process of a structural change related to ICT convergence knowledge industries. ICT is leading to the creation of new products and services, and is making our lives more convenient, safer, and more efficient. In advanced countries, many studies have been conducted with the goal of developing new business models converged with ICT, and this is also the case in the food industry. Korea possesses world-leading ICT, and if this ICT is applied to the food industry, a world-class new business model can be developed. The u-Food System, which is in the process of development in Korea, is a next-generation food system that can allow food providers, consumers, and distributors to access various types of information about food products, including traceability, distribution, safety, quality, and freshness, and manage this information. It is a future food system that converges ICT, biotechnology and sensing technology with food. Based on the u-Food System, this paper will introduce the status of current smart quality distribution technologies that converge ICT (such as sensor tag, sensor network, LBS, GIS, and CDMA) with food technologies (such as traceability, quality, distribution management) to manage the safety and quality of fresh food in the distribution process.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2018

Development, availability and users' participation in the information service of agricultural food sector is slower than that of other sectors in Korea. This phenomenon comes from the lack of development strategies and comparative analyses with other sectors, as well as the agricultural food industry's own characteristics which is developed based on the offline market. In this research, we will discuss about how to improve the public information service of agricultural food sector based on the example of establishing service improvement strategy by the most representative Okdab. In this research, we have drawn the following implications for development strategy of Okdab service based on three core keywords derived from benchmarking KOSIS. Three core subjects for upgrading public information service are 'analysis information with expertise and differentiation,' 'user cooperation-oriented platform,' and 'intuitive nd effective UX,' and to strength B.I. as an integrated information service of agricultural food sector, we need to identify the users' satisfaction and needs for the existing service, establish an optimized operating strategy on a short-term, mid-term and long term bases, and implement them in a positive way. Based on this positive action, it can become a trustworthy information service for the users, and we can expect the improvement of the users' recognition for its consistent usability and efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.34-34
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• 2022

Capacity building for bioinformatics could be achieved with the systematic training of research staff and higher degree students in the current best practices for analysis of data from 'omic-type experiments. It is anticipated that the KOICA-University of the Philippines Los Baños - International Rice Research Insitute Agricultural Genomics Research Center activities will focus on the use of next generation sequencing technology for genome sequencing and annotation, genome variant discovery for use in GWAS and QTL mapping, and transcriptome analysis of organisms important to agriculture and food security. Such activities require that researchers have high levels of knowledge and skills in bioinformatics in order to gain insights from the results of the experiments performed. In this talk the bioinformatic tools/solutions and online training materials already available will be presented, as well the upcoming resources under development in support of the project.

• 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.119-126
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• 2009

In recent years, research at the Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory (EMFSL), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has focused on the development of novel image-based sensing technologies to address agro-food safety concerns, and transformation of these novel technologies into practical instrumentation for industrial implementations. The line-scan-based hyperspectral imaging techniques have often served as a research tool to develop rapid multispectral methods based on only a few spectral bands for rapid online applications. We developed a newer line-scan hyperspectral imaging platform for high-speed inspection on high-throughput processing lines, capable of simultaneous multiple inspection algorithms for different agro-food safety problems such as poultry carcass inspection for wholesomeness and apple inspection for fecal contamination and defect detection. In addition, portable imaging devices were developed for in situ identification of contamination sites and for use by agrofood producer and processor operations for cleaning and sanitation inspection of food processing surfaces. The aim of this presentation is to illustrate recent advances in the above agro.food safety sensing technologies.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.613-618
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• 2012

This study was performed to optimize the basic platform of a lateral flow immunoassay. Improvement of the limit of detection (LOD) was evaluated according to the width of a nitrocellulose membrane with varying concentrations of analyte. The analyte, neutravidin was detected based on the avidin-biotin interaction. The antibody-Au nanoparticle conjugation was mostly stabled in a PBS buffer of pH 7.3. The optimal widths of a nitrocellulose membrane were 4 and 6 mm considering the sample flow rate and signal strength of the test line on the membrane. The LOD of neutravidin was 0.001 mg/ml in the optimum conditions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.551-560
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• 2018

Bellflower root (Platycodon grandiflorum), which belongs to the Campanulaceae family, is a perennial grass that grows naturally in Korea, northeastern China, and Japan. Bellflower is widely consumed as both food and medicine owing to its high nutritional value and potential therapeutic effects. Since foodborne disease outbreaks often come from vegetables, understanding the public health risk of microorganisms on fresh vegetables is pivotal to predict and prevent foodborne disease outbreaks. We investigated the microbial communities on the bellflower root (n = 10). 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing targeting the V6-V9 regions of 16S rRNA genes was conducted via the 454-Titanium platform. The sequence quality was checked and phylogenetic assessments were performed using the RDP classifier implemented in QIIME with a bootstrap cutoff of 80%. Principal coordinate analysis was performed using the weighted Fast UniFrac distance. The average number of sequence reads generated per sample was 67,192 sequences. At the phylum level, bacterial communities from the bellflower root were composed primarily of Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria in March and September samples. Genera Serratia, Pseudomonas, and Pantoea comprised more than 54% of the total bellflower root bacteria. Principal coordinate analysis plots demonstrated that the microbial community of bellflower root in March samples was different from those in September samples. Potential pathogenic genera, such as Pantoea, were detected in bellflower root samples. Even though further studies will be required to determine if these species are associated with foodborne illness, our results indicate that the 16S rRNA gene-based sequencing approach can be used to detect pathogenic bacteria on fresh vegetables.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2017.04a
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• pp.27-27
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• 2017

Biocompatible capsules have recently been highlighted as novel delivery platforms of any "materials" (e.g., drug, food, agriculture pesticide) to address current problems of living systems such as humans, animals, and plats in academia and industry for agriculture, biological, biomedical, environmental, food applications. For example, biocompatible alginate capsules were proposed as a delivery platform of biocontrol agents (e.g., bacterial antagonists) for an alternative to antibiotics, which will be a potential strategy in future agriculture. Here, we proposed a new platform based on biocompatible alginate capsules that can control the movements as an active target delivery strategy for various applications including agriculture and biological engineering. We designed and fabricated large scale biocompatible capsules using alginates and custom-made nozzles as well as gelling solutions. To develop the active target delivery platforms, we incorporated the iron oxide nanoparticles in the large scale alginate capsules. It was found that the sizes of large scale alginate capsules could be controlled via various working conditions such as concentrations of alginate solutions and iron oxide nanoparticles. As a proof of concept work, we showed that the iron oxide particles-incorporated large scale alginate capsules could be moved actively by the magnetic fields, which would be a strategy as active target delivery platforms for agriculture and biological engineering (e.g., controlled delivery of agriculture pesticides and biocontrol agents).

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.87-106
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• 2009

Web2.0 refers to a new service models based by a community oriented philosophy. This creates new opportunities for technology providers and service. The agricultural technology information service in the base of open source technology provide opportunities for increased distribution and visibility to farmer and general user. We would like to find out vest service models and platform that will find new ways of agriculture technology information service. This study suggests that these new agriculture information service strategy in new paradigm of web 2.0. should be revised and adapted to Open API and new applied strategy in agriculture should be developed considering the impact of web 2.0.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.323-329
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• 2017

Purpose: Biocompatible capsules have recently been highlighted as a novel platform for delivering various components, such as drug, food, and agriculture pesticides, to overcome the current limitations of living systems, such as those in agriculture, biology, the environment, and foods. However, few active targeting systems using biocompatible capsules and physical forces simultaneously have been developed in the agricultural engineering field. Methods: Here, we developed an active targeting delivery platform that uses biocompatible alginate capsules and controls movements by magnetic forces for agricultural and biological engineering applications. We designed and fabricated large-scale biocompatible capsules, using custom-made nozzles ejecting alginate solutions for encapsulation. Results: To develop the active target delivery platforms, we incorporated iron oxide nanoparticles in the large-scale alginate capsules. The sizes of alginate capsules were controlled by regulating the working conditions, such as concentrations of alginate solutions and iron oxide nanoparticles. Conclusions: We confirmed that the iron oxide particle-incorporated large-scale alginate capsules moved actively in response to magnetic fields, which will be a good strategy for active targeted delivery platforms for agriculture and biological engineering applications, such as for the controlled delivery of agriculture pesticides and biocontrol agents.