• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2014

BACKGROUND: Run off from agricultural sites contaminates water bodies with nitrogen which is toxic and causes eutrophication when excessively accumulated. Hence, the interest in monitoring nitrogen toxicity in aquatic environment has been continuously increasing. METHODS AND RESULTS: To detect a real time toxicity of various nitrogen compounds, we applied biomonitoring method (biosensor) based on sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB). The toxicity biomonitoring test was conducted in semi-continuous mode in a reactor filled with sulfur particles (2~4 mm diameter) under aerobic condition. Relative toxicity was simply determined by measuring the change in electrical conductivity (EC). Various nitrogenous compounds at different concentrations were evaluated as a potential toxic substance. Nitrite was found to be very toxic to SOB with a 90% inhibition even when the concentration as low as 3 mg/L. However, nitrate and ammonia have any inhibitory effect on SOB's activity. CONCLUSION: The biosensor based on SOB responded sensitively to nitrite even at substantially low concentrations. Therefore, it can be used as a reliable biological alarm system for rapid detection of contaminants due to its simplicity and sensitive nature.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.333-339
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• 2009

In this study, we investigated the biological toxicity of nano-scale Zn (0.1, 0.5, and 1 mol%)-doped $TiO_2$ and pure $TiO_2$ nanoparticles using zebrafish embryogenesis as our model organism. Zn-doped $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were prepared using a conventional hydrothermal method for the insertion of zinc into the $TiO_2$ framework. The characters of Zn-doped $TiO_2$ (0.1%, 0.5%, 1%Zn) and pure $TiO_2$ were about 7~8 nm. These sizes were smaller than 100~200 nm of $TiO_2$ was prepared using the sol-gel method. Particularly, in this study, we found no significant biological toxicity in the hatching rate and abnormal rate under expose pure $TiO_2$ and Zn-doped $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were prepared using a conventional hydrothermal method of zebrafish. It was different from the biological damage under $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were prepared using sol-gel method. We assessed that the damage was not linked to the particle's nanometer size, but rather due to the prepare method. Moreover, $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were prepared using a hydrothermal method were not shown to cause cytotoxic effects, like apoptosis and necrosis, that are the major markers of toxicity in organisms exposed to nanomaterials. Therefore, there is some relationship with biological toxicity of nanoparticles and the prepare method of nanometer size particles.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.376-383
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• 2006

Noise induced hearing loss (NIHS), the well-known occupational disease, is caused by continuous excessive noise. The prevention of NIHS is very important, because it is unrecoverable. There are some kinds of hearing protection device (HPD), and those are effective in preventing NIHS. But workers in noisy environment often resist to wearing them. Because they are ready - made products, so workers feel uncomfortable to wear. Also, they didn't maintain the conversation frequency range, so workers are hard to communicate in wearing them. To prevent hearing loss effectively, it is important that workers keep wearing HPD. Therefore, a HPD is needed to be comfortable to wear and be effective not only in hearing protection but also in preserving communication ability. So we proposed a custom - made hearing protection device in which a small acoustic filter is inserted. We designed several kinds of small acoustic filters and carried out some acoustic experiments for measuring characteristics of filters. We confirmed that acoustic transmission characteristic can be adjusted from experimental results using designed small acoustic filters. And we researched for the actual efficiency of a new developed custom - made hearing protection device using a small size acoustic filter. Also, we found out that workers are more satisfied with the new development than a former protection device from a workers' response.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.139-145
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• 1984

For the ultimate manufacture of vinegar with watermelon juice, we examined the preliminarily alcoholic fermentation of watermelon juice using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus and Kluyveromyces fragilis. The juice contained 3.2% total reducing sugar by the Somogyi-Nelson method. Strains of yeast culture, pH, temperature and concentration of sugar in the juice were important factors affecting alcoholic fermentation. Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus produced 5.3% alcohol from the juice fortified with 12% glucose under the conditions of pH 5.73 and $27^{\circ}C$ for 8 days. Generally, small quantities of various salts and N-sources affected little the alcoholic fermentation of the juice. The sterilization of the juice by autoclaving improved efficiency of fermentation than that by $SO_2$ sterilization. Determination of alcohol was carried out by the gas chromatographic method using Chromosorb W: Carbowax as packing material.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5535-5538
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• 2014

Background: To determine the amount of co-expression of IDO and EGFR in breast cancer patients. Materials and Methods:In order to obtain the distribution of co-expression of IDO and EGFR in breast cancer, we tested 110 breast cancer paraffin tissue blocks with immunohistochemical methods. Then we investigated the relationship between the diagnostic and pathologic characteristics (tumor size, lymph node status, histologic grade, the gene expression of ER, PR, HER2, p53, Ki67 and PCNA) with the situation of co-expression of IDO and EGFR by reviewing the medical records of 32 breast cancer patients. Results: Among 110 breast cancers, 32 cases demonstrated IDO and EGFR co-expression (29.1%), IDO and EGFR synchronous co-expression being found in 19.1% and asynchronous in 10.0%. Conclusions: IDO and EGFR were co-expressed in breast cancer, including synchronous and asynchronous co-expression. The results suggest that considering IDO and EGFR as two indicators for breast cancer treatment or prognosis analysis provides a potential option of individual treatment for the portion of breast cancer patients with co-expression of IDO and EGFR.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.221-226
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• 2010

A rare isoflavone, 7, 8, 4'-trihydroxyisoflavone, was isolated from a 10-year-old fermented soybean food. 7, 8, 4'-trihydroxyisoflavone was isolated for the first time from a Korean fermented soybean food. Evaluation tests of biological activity showed significantly inhibition activity for free radical scavenging on both non-enzymatic (DPPH system) and enzymatic method (xanthine oxidase system). DPPH radical scavenging effect of 7, 8, 4'-trihydroxyisoflavone was similar with vitamin C in a dose-dependent manner. In xanthine oxidase (XO) system 7, 8, 4'-trihydroxyisoflavone showed superoxide radical inhibition activity of 50 % at a concentration of $6.6{\pm}0.4\;{\mu}M$. Also, the compound significantly suppressed cellular MMP-1 formation. These results suggest that 7, 8, 4'-trihydroxyisoflavone could be developed as a potential preventive or therapeutic agent against skin aging.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.1242-1248
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• 2017

Several medicinal plants are ethnomedically used in Korea as agents for treating infection, anti-inflammation, and pain relief. However, beyond typical inhibitory effects on cell growth, little is known about the potential anti-biofilm activity of these herbs, which may help to prevent cavities and maintain good oral health. This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activities of the methanol extracts of 37 Korean medicinal plants against dental pathogens Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans, which synergize their virulence so as to induce the formation of plaque biofilms in the oral cavity. The antimicrobial activities were investigated by broth dilution and disk diffusion assay. The anti-biofilm and antioxidant activities were evaluated based on the inhibitory effect against glucosyltransferase (GTase) and the DPPH assay, respectively. Among 37 herbs, eight plant extracts presented growth and biofilm inhibitory activities against both etiologic bacteria. Among them, the methanol extracts (1.0 mg/ml) from Camellia japonica and Thuja orientalis significantly inhibited the growth of both bacteria by over 76% and over 83% in liquid media, respectively. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of these methanol extracts were determined to be 0.5 mg/ml using a disk diffusion assay on solid agar media. Biofilm formation was inhibited by more than 92.4% and 98.0%, respectively, using the same concentration of each extract. The present results demonstrate that the medicinal plants C. japonica and T. orientalis are potentially useful as antimicrobial and anti-biofilm agents in preventing dental diseases.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.396-406
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• 2004

Current physical and chemical methodologies, conventionally used to clean up metal contaminated soils, are generally too expensive to apply in large hazardous waste sites including agricultural lands adjacent to closed or abandoned metal mines. Phytoremediation using plants to extract, sequester and detoxify environmental pollutants is one of the cost-effective and aesthetically-pleasing alternatives, compared with environmentally destructive remedial methods currently being practiced. But, phytoremediation has some limitations such as time consuming and low performance: in general, it is seasonally dependent and slower in removing metals than other methods, and metal accumulating plants are slow growers. Improvement of plants for metal tolerance, accumulation, and translocation using genetic engineering techniques recently opened up new possibilities for phytoremediation. In this paper, we have discussed about recent developments in conventional and genetically engineered phytoremediation. For the conventional phytoremediation, focuses are on the natural hyperaccumulator and the chemically assisted phytoremediation. Some pros and cons on the phytoremediation using transgenic plants, coupled with focusing on the mechanistic view points, are also discussed. It might be concluded that the transgenic plants will be effective tools in the practical application of phytoremediation especially for the highly contaminated soils but mechanisms involved should be deeply understood in advance.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.433-438
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• 2021

Polyethylene is widely used as an agricultural film, but eco-friendly technology is lacking for its decomposition. Thus, recently, much attention has been paid to develop a technology for biological polyethylene decomposition. It has been expected that several oxidation steps will be required in the biological degradation of polyethylene. First, secondary alcohol is formed on the polyethylene chain, and then the alcohol is oxidized to a carbonyl group. In the subsequent process, the carbonyl group is converted to an ester by Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase (BVMO), and this ester bond is expected to be cleaved by lipase and esterase in the final step. In this work, we reviewed BVMO as one of the promising enzymes for polyethylene decomposition, in terms of its reaction mechanism, classification, and engineering. In addition, we also give a brief perspective on polyethylene decomposition using BVMO.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.220-230
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• 2023

Imidacloprid is a neonicotinoid insecticide widely used for insect control in a variety of crops. The evaluation of imidacloprid total residues in animal feeds derived from crop by-products is required to ensure the safety of livestock products. We performed simultaneous LC/MS/MS analyses of imidacloprid and its metabolites in five different livestock products including beef, pork, chicken, milk and egg from domestic markets. The methods for sample preparation and instrumental analysis were established by modifying QuEChERS method to meet the Codex guidelines. The methods generated 0.0035 mg/kg of the limit of determination (LOD), 0.01 mg/kg of the limit of quantitation (LOQ) and standard calibration linearity with >0.983 of the coefficients of determination (R²). The methods exhibited the recovery values of imidacloprid and its metabolites ranging from 65.66 to 119.27% without any interference between matrices. Imidacloprid total residues in the livestock products were found as values lower than the LOQ and maximum residue limits (MRLs). This study suggests that the methods are successfully applicable for the safety evaluation of imidacloprid total residues in livestock products from domestic markets.