• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.190-196
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• 2012

The human exposure of lead has usually detected the amount of lead in the whole blood, however, this method has a shortcoming to give the information on the short-term exposure to lead. In that sense, it is desirable to estimates the level of lead in plasma to draw the chronic bio-marker of lead exposure even though it is difficult to measure lead of several ng/L. An inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method was developed for determining lead in plasma as the chronic bio-marker of lead of workers. To minimize the contamination of lead from the environment, we constructed class 1,000 clean room and compared the amount of floating dust before and after the operation of the clean room. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) of lead in fetal bovine serum were 4.3 ng/L and 12.2 ng/L by NIOSH method (statistical calculation method) and 7.0 ng/L and 22.1 ng/L by signal/noise ratio, respectively. The accuracy was in a range of 92.3-101.3%, and the precision of the assay was less than 4% in the samples spiked in the concentration of 20 ng/L and 2,000 ng/L. The method was simple, reproducible and sensitive enough to permit reliable analysis of lead to the ng/L level in plasma and/or serum. The method was also useful for the biological monitoring of chronic exposure to lead.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.94-102
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• 1998

Temporal changes, density, calcimass, mode of occurrence, size-frequency histogram and survivorship curves were studied for the molluscan death assemblages on a macrotidal flat, Inchon, Korea. The living and death assemblages were compared on the basis of the taxonomic compositions and their numerical abundances. A total of 28 species (16 taxa in gastropods and 12 in bivalves) were identified. Most of the dead shells were the species inhabiting that intertidal mud flat. Species diversity was higher in gastropods than in bivalves. Seasonal variation of the calcimass was influenced by the mactrid bivalve, Mactra veneriformis. Shell-boring naticid gastropods preferred selecting the umbo areas of various valves. Size-frequency distribution and size-specific survivorship curves were analyzed for the dominant species. Survivorship curve of the tellinid bivalve, Morella rutila was convex-up in shape, which is congruent with the expected equilibrium condition but indicates higher mortality in winter. Whereas the survivorship curves of Mactra veneriformis and Reticunassa festiva were semi convex-up with dual modes, suggesting a disequilibrium due to the changes in recruitment and seasonal mortality. This study suggests that the dead shell assemblages may be useful in getting population information like live molluscan assemblages, if solved for several problems related to taphonomic processes.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.99-108
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• 1998

The present study was performed to check the viability of eggs, filariform larvae and adults of Strongvloines venezueLensis exposed to various conditions for an in vitro maintenance. The eggs in the feces remained viable for about 25 days at $4^{\circ}C$ and 15 days at room temperature. However, the isolated eggs in sterile saline lost their viability within 24 hr at $4^{\circ}C$. The eggs in morula stage were very sensitive to air drying and rapidly lost their viability (=12 hrs. Filariform larvae survived for a maximum period of 45 days in fecal suspension and 28 days in 0.12% nutrient broth in polyvinyl culture bags maintained at $20^{\circ}C$. On the other hand, those isolated from nutrient broth cultures survived for a maximum period of 32 days in tap water and 22 days in sterile saline at $20^{\circ}C$. The mature adult worms obtained from experimentally infected rats survived maximally for 9 days in serum supplemented (10% rat-serum) 0.12% nutrient broth and 4 days in serum free nutrient broth at $37^{\circ}C$ while the culture media were changed at an alternate day. The adult female worms deposited fertile eggs in serum supplemented and serum free nutrient broth cultures, however, the hatched larvae (Ll) were not able to develop to the filariform stage in the culture media and found to die within 24 hr of maintenance. The present findings on an in vitro maintenance of different stages of 5. uenezueLetis may provide useful information for biological and biochemical studies with Strongyloines species. Key words: Strongvloides venezuelensis. viability in vitro maintenance, free-living filariform larvae (L3), embryonation of eggs

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2020

The Stream/River Ecosystem Survey and Health Assessment has been carried out regarding the ecological health of the streams by the Ministry of Environment (MOE), South Korea. However, the sources of impairment of the stream ecosystem and the interactions between the sources, stressors, and the responses of impaired streams have not been taken into consideration. The purpose of this study is to propose the establishment of diagnosis systems for the impaired stream ecosystem because of the need to incorporate the same in the making of the policy to enable the recovery and improvement of the health of the impaired streams or river ecosystem. First, we define the concept of a diagnosis of the impaired stream or river ecosystem through a literature review. Second, through case studies [e.g., US CADDIS (Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System), AUS. Eco Evidence, EU WFD (Water Framework Directive)], we try to develop the diagnosis system for the making of policy. In this study, the diagnosis system that is proposed consists of eight steps including the basic data collection, detecting or suspecting impairment, defining the impaired stream reach, identifying the biological impaired cases and listing the candidate causes, illustrating the interactive conceptual diagrams between stressors and responses, investigating the stressors-responses in the field, verifying causes and identifying the probable causes of the impaired cases, and summarizing and proposing the restoration of the streams. The results of this study will support and enable efficient decision-making for sustainable stream restoration and management based on the diagnosis of the probable causes for the impaired complex and the diverse stream ecosystem.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2020

Chironomidae widely utilize as a biological indicator that has various types of feeding pattern such as omnivorous, herbivorous and carnivorous. Polypedilum scalaenum is known as omnivorous, it plays an important role in the food chain of freshwater ecosystems in Korea. Nevertheless, detailed information about diet items of P. scalaenum is still lacking. The purpose of this study is to identify the gut and intestine contents of items on P. scalaenum inhabiting the large-scale weirs of the four major river ecosystems(Ipoh Weir, Sejong Weir, Juksan Weir, Gangjeong-Goryeong Weir, and Dalseong Weir). Phytoplankton was dominant diet items among the study sites. However, zooplankton (i.e. appendages, setae) only found in Ipoh Weir. The phytoplankton species composition in the study sites was correspond to the diet items in the gut and intestine contents of P. scalaenum. In summary, analysis of P. scalaenum gut and intestine contents in this study was able to identify the feeding characteristics of omnivorous Chironomidae, and in particular, it was possible to study the species composition of basic producers in the surrounding aquatic environment by analyzing the contents of the digestive tracts.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.115-123
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• 2013

Food safety management should be based on scientific evidences. FAO and WHO presented risk analysis as one of four principles in food safety management. WTO also admits the self safety regulation only when it is made on the basis of risk assessment. Without scientific analysis, tracing and eliminating the cause of food poisoning is impossible. Research and development plays a key role to produce scientific evidences. The Korean government ran over 40 programs in 11 agencies from 2008 to 2010. However, there is no statistics on food safety R&D at present. In this research, food safety projects conducted from 2008 to 2010 are listed up by means of analysing National Science and Technology Information Service (NTIS). The analytical criteria are the name of programs, national standard classification of science and technology, and keywords. As result, Korea Food and Drug Administration, Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Rural Development Administration play major role in the food safety R&D. The portion of more than one year projects should rise up in order to achieve the data for risk assessment, which is strongly required to improve. Besides, the research should be deeper so as to publish more SCI papers. The R&D portfolio should be changed in direction to raise up the portion of biological hazards such as norovirus. In order to do so, a large number of food safety programs should be emerged. The categories of food safety management and the hygiene/quality management of the agricultural and livestock products in the national standard classification of science and technology should be emerged because they are set up reflecting agencies' interests in spite of few differences between them.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.701-706
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• 2004

The objective of this experiment was to compare the dry matter intake, nutrients digestibility and nitrogen and energy utilization of herbages harvested from turf type mixtures {tall fescue(Rebell Jr.) 40%+ perennial ryegrass(Palmer II) 20%+ Kentucky bluegrass(Newport) 10%+ redtop(Banicuda) 10%+ red fescue(Salem) 10%+ creeping bentgrass(Crenshaw) 10%} and tall type mixtures {orchardgrass(Potomac) 40%+ tall fescue(Fawn) 20%+ Festuloium braunii(Paulita) 10%+ perennial ryegrass(Reveille) 10%+ timothy(Climax) 10%+ red clover(Kenblue) 10%+ alfalfa(Vernal) 10%} by Korean native goats. This experiment was conducted by total collection method in laboratory, 2001. The voluntary DM intake per body weight were slightly higher for turf type mixtures(28.9g) than that of tall type mixtures(26.2g), but there was no significant difference. The digestibility of cellular constituents was slightly higher for turf type mixtures than that of tall type mixtures(p<0.05), but digestibility of DM, NDF and ADF did not differ between two mixtures. The retained nitrogen percent(apparently biological value) was slightly higher for turf type mixtures(56.7%) than that of tall type mixtures(56.4%), but there was no significant difference between two mixtures. Apparently retained digestible energy was slightly higher for turf type mixtures(58.3%) than that of tall type mixtures(57.9%), but there was no significant difference between two mixtures. Based on the results, the herbage utilization by Korean native goats did not showed any significant difference between two mixtures, therefore there is a possibility that herbages of turf type mixtures can be used as a roughages by livestock.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 2014

PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) is one of the perflourinated organic compound, which persist as a residual compound in the coastal environments. Intertidal mud crab Macrophthalmus japonicus mainly inhabits in coastal and bay ecosystems in Indo-Pacific region including Korea and reflects to environmental changes. In the present study, M. japonicus were exposed to different concentrations of PFOS and various ecotoxicological end-points such as survival rate, elimination of appendages, changes of the crust and internal organ color changes were investigated. Interestingly, the PFOS exposure showed concentration-dependent decrease of survival rate. High PFOS exposure ($30{\mu}gL^{-1}$) showed a low survival rate of 24% at 168 hours. Further, in comparison with the controls, the rate of elimination of appendages was also considerably increased in a time dependent manner upon PFOS exposure. Notably, with progression of time, an increased exposure to PFOS, test species showed whitening effect in a concentration-dependent manner, whereas the crab crust color was unchanged in the control. In addition, change in internal organs color and their visibility (clarity) observed in PFOS exposed crabs compared to control. Taken together, we suggest, eco-toxicology end-points of M. japonicus exposed to PFOS gave important biological information which could be useful to identify toxic contamination in the marine benthic environments.

• Journal of KIISE:Databases
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.396-408
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• 2007

After the Human Genome Project finished the sequencing of a human DNA sequence, the concerns on protein functions are increasing. Since the structures of proteins are conserved in divergent evolution, their functions are determined by their structures rather than by their amino acid sequences. Therefore, if similarities between two protein structures are observed, we could expect them to have common biological functions. So far, a lot of researches on protein structure alignment have been performed. However, most of them use RMSD(Root Mean Square Deviation) as a similarity measure with which it is hard to judge the similarity level of two protein structures intuitively. In addition, they retrieve only one result having the highest alignment score with which it is hard to satisfy various users of different purpose. To overcome these limitations, we propose a novel protein structure alignment algorithm based on MRPD(Maximum of Residue Pair Distance) and SG (Similarity Graph). MRPD is more intuitive similarity measure by which fast tittering of unpromising pairs of protein pairs is possible, and SG is a compact representation method for multiple alignment results with which users can choose the most plausible one among various users' needs by providing multiple alignment results without compromising the time to align protein structures.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.185-190
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• 2005

The objective of this experiment was to compare the dry matter intake, nutrients digestibility and nitrogen and energy utilization of herbages from mixtures types; conventional mixtures(orchardgrass 50+ tall fescue 20+perennial ryegrass 10+Kentucky bluegrass 10+white clover $10\%$), complex mixtures (orchardgrass 40+ tall fescue 20+perennial ryegrass 10+Kentucky bluegrass 10+redtop 10+alfalfa 5+red clover $5\%$) and simple mixtures(orchardgrass 80+red clover $20\%$) by Korean native goats. This experiment was conducted by total collection method in laboratory, 2000. The voluntary DM intake per body weight was slightly higher f3r complex mixtures (30.2g) than those of other mixtures. but there was no significant difference. The digestibility of dry matter and cellular constituents were slightly higher for complex mixtures than those of other mixtures (p<0.05), but NDF and ADF digestibilities did not differ among mixtures. The retained nitrogen percent (apparently biological value) was slightly higher fer complex mixtures $(55.1\%)$ than those of other mixtures, but there was no significant difference among mixtures. Apparently retained digestible energy was slightly higher for complex mixtures $(60.2\%)$ than those of other mixtures (p<0.05). Based on the results, the nitrogen and energy utilization of herbage by Korean native goats were slightly higher for complex mixtures than those of other mixtures.