• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.1056-1063
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• 2012

Recent rapidly growth in nanotechnolgies is promised novel benefits through the exploitation of their unique industrial and biomedical applications. With increasing utilization of nanomaterials in consumer products, the potential release of nanomaterials into the environment and their impacts on the ecosystem and human health have been the issues of concern. Nanomaterials that was exposed unintentionally in environment might be accumulated in various environmental media, and finally it will be influenced to human and ecosystems. Therefore, it is important to understand the fate and behavior of nanoparticles for understanding effects on environmental media (air, water, and soil phase). Therefore, in this work, we investigated the several cases for environmental exposure of nanomaterials and suggested the direction of further research. In workplace, exposure to air media is dominant, but finally waste and wastewater was moved to the water and soil phase. In addition, we found the existing sewage treatment plant was not suitable to remove completely nanomaterials in wastewater flow. To deeper study, environmental monitoring tool must be developed additionally and we suggested the several analyzing method for aged and pristine physicochemical properties of nanomaterials exposed into environmental media. This review for nanomaterials' exposure to environmental media will be helpful to investigate the environmental fate of nanomaterials and define the suitable treatment method for nano-waste.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.365-372
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• 2018

The Wintering Waterbird Census of Korea was started in 1999 and monitors 200 major migratory sites in South Korea. Waterfowl counts have been undertaken for more than 20 years since; however, a limited number of studies have analyzed the temporal patterns of waterfowl population. In this study, we analyzed population size changes of wintering whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) at 112 monitoring sites from 2001 to 2018. The average number of whooper swans was $4,296{\pm}42.66$ and there was a trend for an increase in population size across the survey period. We found that the population in the Nakdong River Estuary, one of the major wintering sites over 18 years (26.22% of the national population), had rapidly decreased (-0.77% per year). Conversely, the whooper swan population in the Junam Reservoir and Sihwa Lake increased (+1.64%, +0.54% per year, respectively). Estuaries showed the highest dominance of whooper swans among the five different habitat types, accounting for 32.13% of the population. Reservoir/lakes had 30.60% of the total population and reclaimed lakes(18.24%), river (13.11%), and coast (5.93%) followed. The annual distribution of the whooper swan population in South Korea has been affected by various habitat conditions resulting from human activities and urbanization. To better understand the complex factors that can cause rapid changes in wintering waterfowl populations, it is necessary to integrate the data from the bird census program with environmental conditions to conduct in-depth pattern analyses over longer time periods.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2014

In Korea, over 4,700 animal carcass disposal sites were installed until 2011 due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Due to the putrefaction of buried animals, the leachate containing veterinary antibiotics may release into surrounding environments. Antibiotic residues in the environment cause the formation of antibiotic resistance bacteria threatening human and ecosystem health. This study reports the concentrations of five antibiotics, including tetracycline (TC), chlortetracycline (CTC), oxytetracycline (OTC), sulfamethazine (SMZ), and sulfamethoxazole (SMX), in soils from animal carcass disposal site and adjacent agricultural field. Concentrations of antibiotics at animal carcass disposal sites (TC: $144.26-350.73{\mu}g/kg$, SMZ: $17.72-44.94{\mu}g/kg$) were higher than those at agricultural field (TC: $134.16-320.73{\mu}g/kg$, SMZ: $6.48-8.85{\mu}g/kg$) whereas the concentrations of CTC, OTC, and SMX were below detection limit in both sites. Results showed that the antibiotics in animal carcass site might leach to the soil and possibly contaminating the groundwater. Future studies will focus on the transfer of antibiotics residues into food crops.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.spc1
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• pp.1053-1060
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• 2021

Current water quality monitoring systems in Korea carried based on in-situ grab sample analysis. It is difficult to improve the current water quality monitoring system, i.e. shorter sampling period or increasing sampling points, because the current systems are both cost- and labor-intensive. One possible way to improve the current water quality monitoring system is to adopt a modeling approach. In this study, a modeling technique was introduced to support the current water quality monitoring system, and an artificial neural network model, the computational tool which mimics the biological processes of human brain, was applied to predict water quality of the river. The approach tried to predict concentrations of Total coliform at the outlet of the river and this showed, somewhat, poor estimations since concentrations of Total coliform were rapidly fluctuated. The approach, however, could forecast whether concentrations of Total coliform would exceed the water quality standard or not. As results, modeling approaches is expected to assist the current water quality monitoring system if the approach is applied to judge whether water quality factors could exceed the water quality standards or not and this would help proper water resource managements.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.142-148
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• 2002

Although ionizing radiation (IR) has been used to treat the various human cancers, IR is cytotoxic not only to cancer cells but to the adjacent normal tissue. Since normal tissue complications are the limiting factor of cancer radiotherapy, one of the major concerns of IR therapy is to maximize the cancer cell killing and to minimize the toxic side effects on the adjacent normal tissue. As an attempt to develop a method to monitor the degree of radiation exposure to normal tissues during radiotherapy, we investigated the transcriptional responses of human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) following IR using cDNA microarray chip containing 1,221 (1.2 K) known genes. Since conventional radiotherapy is delivered at about 24 h intervals at 180 to 300 cGy/day, we analyzed the transcriptional responses ex-vivo irradiated human PBL at 200 cGy for 24 h-period. We observed and report on 1) a group of genes transiently induced early after IR at 2 h, 2) of genes induced after IR at 6 h, 3) of genes induced after IR at 24 h and on 4) a group of genes whose expression patters were not changed after IR. Since Biological consequences of IR involve generation of various reactive oxygen species (ROS) and thus oxidative stress induced by the ROS is known to damage normal tissues during radiotherapy, we further tested the temporal expression profiles of genes involved in ROS modulation by RT-PCR. Specific changes of 6 antioxidant genes were identified in irradiated PBL among 9 genes tested. Our results suggest the potential of monitoring post-radiotherapy changes in temporal expression profiles of a specific set of genes as a measure of radiation effects on normal tissues. This type of approach should yield more useful information when validated in in vivo irradiated PBL from the cancer patients.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Toocicology Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.187-187
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• 2003

Methylmercury (MeHg), one of the heavy metal compounds, can cause severe damage to the central nervous system in humans. Many reports have shown that MeHg is poisonous to human body through contaminated foods and has released into the environment. Despite many studies on the pathogenesis of MeHg-induced central neuropathy, no useful mechanism of toxicity has been established so far. In this study, two methods, cDNA Microarray and SSH, were performed to assess the expression profile against MeHg and to identify differentially expressed genes by MeHg in neuroblastoma cell line. TwinChip Human-8K (Digital Genomics) was used with total RNA from SH-SY5Y (human neuroblastoma cell line) treated with solvent (DMSO) and 6.25 uM (IC50) MeHg. And we performed forward and reverse SSH method on mRNA derived from SH-SY5Y treated with DMSO and MeHg (6.25 uM). Differentially expressed cDNA clones were sequenced and were screened by dot blot and ribonuclease protection assay to confirm that individual clones indeed represent differentially expressed genes. These sequences were identified by BLAST homology search to known genes or expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Analysis of these sequences may provide an insight into the biological effects of MeHg in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease and a possibility to develop more efficient and exact monitoring system of heavy metals as environmental pollutants.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.385-393
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• 2000

A gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC/MS) procedure for the determination of amineptine (dihydro-10, 11-dibenzo[a, d] cycloheptenyl-5-amino-7-heptanoic acid) and its main metabolites in human urine was described. Amineptine has been known to be extensively metabolized by the ${\beta}$-oxidation of the heptanoic side chain with formation of pentanoic side chain metabolite ($C_5$-metabolite), and lactamizarion by internal dehydration of (${\beta}$-oxidized metabolite (${\delta}$-lactam). The detection of these compounds was based on acid hydrolysis, liquid-liquid extraction and trimethylsilylated derivatization of the carboxylic acid group. For the determination of amineptine and its metabolites in biological fluids, selected ions at the m/ 192, molecular ion and one of the characteristic ions were monitored by GC/MS. On the excretion study of amineptine in human urine, 70-90% of amineptine, ${\delta}$-lactam, and $C_5$-metabolite were found to be excreted within 4 hours and their excretion completed within 20 hours.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.112-117
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• 2012

With the development of nanotechnology, nano-consumer products have been popularized. For the past 10 years, potential risk of nanomaterials to human and environment have been raised carefully. Especially, workers, who directly handle nanomaterials in laboratories and manfacturers, will lead to direct exposure of nanomaterials. Therefore, direct exposure assessment and field monitoring of nanomaterials are required to assess and manage the nanomaterial exposure to human and environment. In this work, two nano-manufacturing companies, which had plasma and sol-gel processes, were selected to analyze the main exposure source and process with in-situ SMPS (scanning mobility particle sizer) and ex-situ TEM (transmission electron microscopy). The results showed that the colloidal nanoparticle in liquid phase was easily evaporated and monitored by SMPS. Most serious thing is that the workers does not know about the potential risk of nanomaterials, and thus they are not taking proper protection activities, such as PPE (personal protective equipment). Therefore, exposure assessment for nanomaterial handling facilities should be additionally carried out, and nano-safety management protocols are also provided.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.2725-2729
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• 2015

Background: Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) and prostate cancer are the most frequent cancers in the male genitourinary tract. Measurement of biological biomarkers may facilitate clinical monitoring and aid early diagnosis of TCC. The aim of the present investigation was to detect the mRNA levels of S100A12 and RAGE (receptor for advanced glycation end products) in patients suffering from bladder TCC. Materials and Methods: To explore the involvement of S100A12 and RAGE genes, total RNA was harvested from cancer tissues and samples obtained from normal non-tumorized urothelium of the same patients. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) was subsequently employed to determine the mRNA levels of S100A12 and RAGE. Results: The results showed that mRNA expression of S100A12 and RAGE was significantly up-regulated in the cancer tissue. Conclusions: According to the results presented in the current study, mRNA expression of S100A12 and RAGE might be as a useful biomarker for TCC. Therefore, this ligand-receptor axis possibly plays important roles in the development of TCC and may serve either as an early diagnostic marker or as a key factor in monitoring of response to treatment. More research is required concerning inhibition of the S100A12-RAGE axis in different cancer models.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2017

In this paper, the resonator with a parallel plate capacitor is newly proposed around sub-microwave frequency band and applied to earlobe for non-invasive glucose monitoring the human biological tissue. The capacitor including the earlobe as dielectric material is connected to inductive slot in the ground plane of the microstrip line. Based on the simulation, one port resonator circuit is designed and fabricated as a prototype. Three step glucose concentration levels(0, 250, 500 mg/dL) was tested, and its reflection coefficients($S_{11}$) were measured. Owing to high Q resonator more than 100, resonant frequency shift of about 9 MHz per glucose level of 250 mg/dL has been successfully measured. This proves that the proposed sensor is applicable to a blood glucose sensor.