• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.51-60
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• 2015

In Korea, 69.4 % of duck farms had utilized conventional plastic greenhouses. In this facilities, there are difficulties in controlling indoor environments for raising duck. High rearing density in duct farms also made the environmental control difficult resulting in getting more stressed making their immune system weaker. Therefore, a facility is needed to having structurally enough solidity and high efficiency on the environmental control. So, new design plans of duck house have recently been conducted by National Institute of Animal Science in Korea. As a study in advance to establish standard, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to estimate the aerodynamic problems according to the designs by means of overall and regional ventilation efficiencies quantitatively and qualitatively. Tracer gas decay (TGD) method was used to calculate ventilation rate according to the structural characteristics of duck houses including installation of indoor circulation fan. The results showed that natural ventilation rate was averagely 164 % higher than typically designed ventilation rate, 1 AER ($min^{-1}$). Meanwhile, mechanically ventilated duck houses made 81.2 % of summer ventilation rate requirement. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a new duck house considering more structural safety as well as higher efficiency of environmental control.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.177-185
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• 2017

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens LM11 was isolated from the feces of larvae of the rhino beetle and showed strong antifungal activities against various phytopathogenic fungi by producing biosurfactants. In this study, our overall goal was to determine relationship between biosurfactants produced from the LM11 strain and its role in growth inhibition of phytopathogenic fungi. Production and expression levels of B. amyloliquefaciens LM11 biosurfactants were significantly differed depending on growth phases. Transcriptional and biochemical analysis indicated that the biosurfactants of the LM11 strain were greatly enhanced in late log-phase to stationary phase. Inhibitions of phytopathogenic mycelial growth and spore germination were directly correlated (P<0.001, R=0.761) with concentrations of the LM11 cell-free culture filtrates. The minimum inhibitory surface tension of the culture filtrate of the B. amyloliquefaciens LM11 grown in stationary phase to inhibit mycelial growth of the phytopathogenic fungi was 38.5 mN/m (P<0.001, R=0.951-0.977). Our results indicated that the biosurfactants of B. amyloliquefaciens LM11 act as key antifungal metabolites in biocontrol of plant diseases, and measuring surface tension of the cell-free culture fluids can be used as an easy indicator for optimal usage of the biocontrol agents.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.473-490
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• 2015

There are diverse sea areas within the coverage of GOCI which is observed around the Korea at one-hour intervals. It includes not only very clear ocean of East Sea, but also extremely turbid waters of the Yangtze River estuary. In this study, we analyzed the different optical characteristics of various sea areas using absorption coefficients of phytoplankton, Suspended Particulate Matter(SPM), Dissolved Organic Matter(DOM). Totally 959 sets of bio-optical and marine environmental data were obtained from 2009 to 2014 around the sea area of Korea. The East Sea, South Sea, East China Sea and offshore part of Yellow Sea showed similar pattern having high levels of contribution of phytoplankton and DOM. On the other hands, the coastal part of Mokpo and Gyeonggi Bay showed opposite pattern having high levels of contribution of SPM and DOM. As a result of the algorithm performance for chlorophyll-a(Chl-a) and SPM, Chl-a is mostly overestimated and SPM is mainly tended to be underestimated. Large amount of errors are induced by the SPM rather than the chl-a and DOM. These errors are primarily founded in the coastal waters having relatively high levels of $a_{SPM}$ contribution of more than 60%.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.387-391
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• 2007

Recently, much attention has been paid to developing various kinds of fermented herbal extracts, a new type of traditional herbal medicine, in the field of Korean traditional medicine. The fermentation of medicinal herbs is intended to exert a favorable influence on digestability, bioavailavility and pharmacological activity of herbal extract in the gastrointestinal tract. It also produces a number of fermentation products that intensify the nutritional and pharmacological aspects of the medicinal herbs. In order to develop a functional beverage of alleviating the aftereffects of the previous drinks, the extracts (HP-1) of fermented herbal mixture, including Artemisia capillaris Thunb., Lonicera japonica Thunberg, and Hovenia dulcis Thunb., were prepared and the medicinal effect as a hangover cure was evaluated in ethanol-loaded rats. The enzyme activities of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase-2 (ALDH2) were analyzed by measuring the concentration of blood ethanol and acetaldehyde. The mRNA expression of ADH and ALDH2 was also investigated through RT-PCR analysis. In the HP-1-treated group, the concentration of blood ethanol was significantly reduced at one hour after loading of ethanol, as compared to that in the saline-treated group. The reduced ethanol was converted to acetaldehyde, which resulted in rapid increase in acetaldehyde concentration in an hour. Acetaldehyde was started to decrease at 5 hours after ethanol loading. It implies that HP-1 is highly effective to stimulate the activities of ADH and ALDH2. The HP-1 treatment also activated the mRNA expression of ADH and ALDH. This study suggests that fermented herbal extract, HP-1 can be used as a functional beverage of alleviating the alcohol-induced hangover symptoms by stimulating the activities and gene expression of hepatic alcohol metabolizing enzymes.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2013

The selective targeting of an integrin ${\alpha}_v{\beta}_3$ receptor using radioligands may enable the assessment of angiogenesis and integrin ${\alpha}_v{\beta}_3$ receptor status in tumors. The aim of this research was to label a peptidomimetic integrin ${\alpha}_v{\beta}_3$ antagonist (PIA) with $^{99m}Tc(CO)_3$ and to test its receptor targeting properties in nude mice bearing receptor-positive tumors. PIA was reacted with tris-succinimidyl aminotriacetate (TSAT) (20 mM) as a PIA per TSAT. The product, PIA-aminodiacetic acid (ADA), was radiolabeled with $[^{99m}Tc(CO)_3(H_2O)_3]^{+1}$, and purified sequentially on a Sep-Pak C-18 cartridge followed by a Sep-Pak QMA anion exchange cartridge. Using gradient C-18 reverse-phase HPLC, the radiochemical purity of $^{99m}Tc(CO)_3$-ADA-PIA (retention time, 10.5 min) was confirmed to be > 95%. Biodistribution analysis was performed in nude mice (n = 5 per time point) bearing receptor-positive M21 human melanoma xenografts. The mice were administered $^{99m}Tc(CO)_3$-ADA-PIA intravenously. The animals were euthanized at 0.33, 1, and 2 hr after injection for the biodistribution study. A separate group of mice were also co-injected with 200 ${\mu}g$ of PIA and euthanized at 1 hr to quantify tumor uptake. $^{99m}Tc(CO)_3$-ADA-PIA was stable in phosphate buffer for 21 hr, but at 3 and 6 hr, 7.9 and 11.5% of the radioactivity was lost as histidine, respectively. In tumor bearing mice, $^{99m}Tc(CO)_3$-ADA-PIA accumulated rapidly in a receptor-positive tumor with a peak uptake at 20 min, and rapid clearance from blood occurring primarily through the hepatobiliary system. At 20 min, the tumor-to-blood ratio was 1.8. At 1 hr, the tumor uptake was 0.47% injected dose (ID)/g, but decreased to 0.12% ID/g when co-injected with an excess amount of PIA, indicating that accumulation was receptor mediated. These results demonstrate successful $^{99m}TC$ labeling of a peptidomimetic integrin antagonist that accumulated in a tumor via receptor-specific binding. However, tumor uptake was very low because of low blood concentrations that likely resulted from rapid uptake of the agent into the hepatobiliary system. This study suggests that for $^{99m}Tc(CO)_3$-ADA-PIA to be useful as a tumor detection agent, it will be necessary to improve receptor binding affinity and increase the hydrophilicity of the product to minimize rapid hepatobiliary uptake.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.345-352
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• 2014

Objectives: This study is aimed to describe the current situation about urinary biomarker N-methylformamide(NMF) for workers exposed to N,N-dimethylformamide(DMF) according to industrial classification. Materials: Special health examination records of the workers who had undergone urinary biological monitoring in 2013 were collected. The numbers and percentage of workers, whose urinary NMF values were above the limit of detection(LOD) and above the biological exposure index(BEI) were calculated. Health relatedness with DMF as judged by their doctors was also described. All description was classified according to the $9^{th}$ Korean Standard Industrial Classification(KSIC). Results: It appeared that most workers exposed to DMF belong to manufacturing section(80.7%). The geometric mean(GM) values of urinary NMF were 6.25 mg/L, 3.54, and 3.86 for the manufacturing section, professional, scientific and technical activities section, and for the construction section respectively. In detail, it seemed that division of textiles(except apparel) (GM 7.51 mg/L), division of leather, luggage and footwear(11.59 mg/L), and division of rubber and plastic products(6.89 mg/L) were highly exposed to DMF with a high percentage of workers with urinary NMF values above BEI. This was probably due to the effect of skin absorption that the division of leather, luggage and footwear showed the highest urine NMF GM. Conclusions: It seemed that workers in manufacture industries such as textile, leather, luggage, footwear, rubber and plastic products were highly exposed to DMF. So, efforts should be focused on those industries in order to effectively diminish worker's exposure. Further studies to compare DMF air-monitoring with bio-monitoring according to industrial classification should be considered.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.278-284
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• 2008

The X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) is a member of a novel family of inhibitors of apoptosis and has several BIR domains (BIR1, BIR2, and BIR3) and a carboxy-terminal RING zinc-finger. Since suppressionof apoptosis is fundamentally important for carcinogenesis and tumor growth, we investigated the expression and function of XIAP in DEN-induced carcinogenesis using rat model. Wistar rats were injected intraperitoneally with DEN at a dose of 50 mg/kg in twice a week for 12 weeks (Group II) and 16 weeks (Group III) followed by the recovery periods, respectively. The evaluation of DEN-induced carcinogenesis carried out the blood, RT-PCR, histopathological and western blot analysis. The level of blood chemistry including GOT/GPT, albumin, and total bilirubin were significantly exchanged comparing to control and Group I/Group II. The expression of albumin and collagen mRNA were significantly exchanged (P<0.05) in both groups. In addition, AFP mRNA expression decreased more after recovery periods than Group II. XIAP was expressed constitutively in normal rat liver as well as DEN-induced Groups I and Group II. In addition, XIAP expression increased more in Group I with 4 weeks recovery periods than Group I. However, XIAP expression shown to increase in Group lI, otherwise, it was decreased in Group II with 10 weeks repair periods. Taken together, these results suggest the alteration of XIAP expression could be involved in hepatocellular carcinogenesis.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Biology Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.141-144
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• 2002

Environmental estrogens are natural or synthetic substances present in the aquatic environment, especially in effluent from sewage treatment. However, the adverse effects of these estrogenic substances on fish reproduction are unknown. Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is the most common phthalate, which Ps used as a plasticizer in polyvinylchloride (PVC), and it is widespread in the environment and has been found in aquatic organisms and sediments. Therefore, juvenile common carps (Cyprinus carpio) were exposed to nominal concentrations of 17$\beta$-estradiol (E2) (0.5, 5, 50 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L) and DEHP (10, 100, 500 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L) for 21 days, to determine the adverse reproductive effects of these compounds on plasma vitellogenin (VTG) induction, sex steroid level, and gonad weight. Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) revealed that much of VTG was induced in fish exposed to 5 and 50 E$_2$ $\mu\textrm{g}$/L, but none of DEHP exposure showed induction. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) revealed that VTG was significantly induced in fish exposed to 5 and 50 E$_2$ $\mu\textrm{g}$/L, and combination of 50 E$_2$ $\mu\textrm{g}$/L with 10 and 500 DEHP $\mu\textrm{g}$/L, but none of DEHP exposure showed induction. Analysis of sex steroid levels in some fish revealed that testosterone (T) was detected in both male and female fish of the control and DEHP exposures, but none of fish exposed to 22 concentrations had detectable testosterone level. On the other hand, E$_2$ exposure induced 17$\beta$-estradiol in plasma of male fish, but there was no induction of 17$\beta$-estradiol in plasma of male fish exposed to DEHP. Comparison of gonadosomatic index (GSI) revealed that maximal E$_2$ exposure inhibited ovarian growth, but maximal DEHP exposure stimulated testicular growth. The results indicated that those comparisons can be a useful bio-indicator for determining adverse reproductive effect of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.361-365
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• 1996

Indonesian Lagocephalus wheeleri ("White-milbog") and Chinese Fugu obscurus ("Hwang-bong") puffers were dissected into liver, intestine, ovary or testis, skin and muscle for assay of toxicity, Also, the toxins from the puffer liver were partially purified and analyzed. The frequency of toxic specimens for Lagocephalus wheeleri was 20, 40, 0 and 10%, in terms of liver, intestine, skin and muscle, respectively; and average toxicity was 5.5$\pm$0.9(Mean$\pm$S.E.), 11.8$\pm$4.2, 2.2$\pm$0.1 and 3.0$\pm$0.8 MU/g, respectively. All of Fugu obscurus specimens had toxicity ranging between 2 and 210 MU/g. The frequency of toxicity in intestine and ovary, both 100% was to be higher percentage tan that of other tissues. The toxinsgave two spots tetrodotoxin(TTX) and anhydro-tetrodotoxin(anh-TTX) on TLC. Also, the toxin of each puffer species showed two spots in electrophoresis. In HPLC analysis of Fugu obscurus, the toxins showed TTX, 4-epi-TTX and anh-TTX.epi-TTX and anh-TTX.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 2011

This study was conducted to verify the applicability of robot milking system through acquisition and analysis of model teat's position information using scanning range finder (SRF). Model teats, same size and shape as real teats, were designed to analyze the properties according to the material, distance error and angle error of the sensor. In addition, 2-dimensional distance information of each teats was obtained at same time with 4 teat models and the result were as follows. 1. In the case of the fingers on the experiment for selection of materials for teat model, the distance error was from 4.3 mm to 1.3 mm, average was 2.8 mm as a minimum record. In the case of rubber material, average distance error was 4.3 mm. So, this material was considered to be a most suitable model. 2. The distance error was maximum at 100 mm distance. The more distance increased, the less error increased up to 300 mm. Then the error increased after 300 mm and decreased again. 3. The maximum angle error of 10.1 mm was measured at $170^{\circ}$, in case of $70^{\circ}$ the error was 0.2 mm as a minimum value. There was no specific tendency to error of angle. 4. In the 2-dimensional location error for 4 teat models, distance error was 3.8 mm as minimum and 7.2 mm as maximum. The angle error was $1.2^{\circ}$ as maximum. All of errors were included within the accuracy of sensor, the robot milking system was considered to be applicable to measure the distance of teats due to the measuring velocity of SRF and the hole size of teat-cup.