• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.442-454
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• 2017

Biological weapon is manipulated and produced from microorganisms such as bacteria, virus, rickettsia, fungi etc. It is classified as one of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) along with chemical weapon and radiological weapon. Biological weapon has a number of operational advantages over the other WMDs including ease of development and production, low cost and possibility of covert dissemination. In this study we analyze the history of biological weapon's development and the existing biological threats. Then, we predict the social impact of biological attack based on the physical properties of biological agent and infection mechanisms. By analyzing the recognition, dispersion pattern of agents, characteristics of the diseases in the biological weapon related historical events such as Sverdlovsk anthrax accident, 2001 anthrax attack, we found out some of the facts that biological attack would not likely to be recognized rapidly, produce large number of the exposed, increase number of paients who suffed from severe respiratory illness. It would lead the public health and medical service providers to be struggled with hugh burden. Base on the facts that we found from this case study, we suggested the main capabilities of public health required to respond to bioterrorism event efficiently. Syndromic surveillance and other reporting system need to be operated effeciently so that any suspicious event should be detected promptly. the pathogen which suspected to be used should be identified through laboratory diagnostic system. It is critical for the public health agency to define potentially exposed population under close cooperation with law enforcement agencies. Lastly, massive prophylaxis should be provided rapidly to the people at need by operating human and material resources effeciently. If those capacities of public health are consistantly fortified we would be able to deal with threat of bioterrorism successfully.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.144-150
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• 2006

The exploitation of metagenome, the access to the natural extant of enormous potential resources, is the way for elucidating the functions of organism in environmental communities, for genomic analyses of uncultured microorganism, and also for the recovery of entirely novel natural products from microbial communities. The major breakthrough in metagenomics is opened by the construction of libraries with total DNAs directly isolated from environmental samples and screening of these libraries by activity and sequence-based approaches. Screening with activity-based approach is presumed as a plausible route for finding new catabolic genes under designed conditions without any prior sequence information. The main limitation of these approaches, however, is the very low positive hits in a single round of screening because transcription, translation and appropriate folding are not always possible in E. coli, a typical surrogate host. Thus, to obtain information about these obstacles, we studied the genetic organization of individual URF's(unidentified open reading frame from metagenome sequenced and deposited in GenBank), especially on the expression factors such as codon usage, promoter region and ribosome binding site(rbs), based on DNA sequence analyses using bioinformatics tools. And then we also investigated the above-mentioned properties for 4100 ORFs(Open Reading Frames) of E. coli K-12 generally used as a host cell for the screening of noble genes from metagenome. Finally, we analyzed the differences between the properties of URFs of metagenome and ORFs of E. coli. Information derived from these comparative metagenomic analyses can provide some specific features or environmental blueprint available to screen a novel biocatalyst efficiently.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.100-100
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Zoological Society Korea Conference
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• 2003.08a
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• pp.21-21
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• 2003

No Abstract, See Full Text

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.04a
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• pp.130-130
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• 2022

• Toxicological Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.205-213
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• 1990

The regulation of neurotoxicants has usually been based upon setting reference doses by dividing a no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) by uncertainty factors that theoretically account for interspecies and intraspecies extraploation of experimental results in animals to humans. Recently, we have proposed a four-step alternative procedure which provides quantitative estimates of risk as a function of dose. The first step is to establish a mathematical relationship between a biological effect or biomarker and the dose of chemical administered. The second step is to determine the distribution (variability) of individual measurements of biological effects or their biomarkers about the dose response curve. The third step is to define an adverse or abnormal level of a biological effect or biomarker in an untreated population. The fourth and final step is to combine the information from the first three steps to estimate the risk (proportion of individuals exceeding on adverse or abnormal level of a biological effect or biomarker) as a function of dose. The primary purpose of this report is to enhance the certainty of the first step of this procedure by improving our understanding of the relationship between a biomarker and dose of administered chemical. Several factors which need to be considered include: 1) the pharmacokinetics of the parent chemical, 2) the target tissue concentrations of the parent chemical or its bioactivated proximate toxicant, 3) the uptake kinetics of the parent chemical or metabolite into the target cell(s) and/or membrane interactions, and 4) the interaction of the chemical or metabolite with presumed receptor site(s). Because these theoretical factors each contain a saturable step due to definitive amounts of required enzyme, reuptake or receptor site(s), a nonlinear, saturable dose-response curve would be predicted. In order to exemplify this process, effects of the neurotoxicant, methlenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), were reviewed and analyzed. Our results and those of others indicate that: 1) peak concentrations of MDMA and metabolites are ochieved in rat brain by 30 min and are negligible by 24 hr, 2) a metabolite of MDMA is probably responsible for its neurotoxic effects, and 3) pretreatment with monoamine uptake blockers prevents MDMA neurotoxicity. When data generated from rats administerde MDMA were plotted as bilolgical effect (decreases in hippocampal serotonin concentrations) versus dose, a saturation curve best described the observed relationship. These results support the hypothesis that at least one saturable step is involved in MDMA neurotoxicity. We conclude that the mathematical relationship between biological effect and dose of MDMA, the first step of our quantitative neurotoxicity risk assessment procedure, should reflect this biological model information generated from the whole of the dose-response curve.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.68-89
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• 2023

This is the second catalog listing unrecorded invertebrates discovered during the research project 'Discovery of Korean Indigenous Species'. The data to compile the catalog were primarily gathered from the final reports of the project, between 2013 and 2021. We present 38 previously undocumented species, belonging to four phyla (Platyhelminthes, Annelida, Rotifera and Arthropoda). Samples were collected from intertidal coastal waters, soil, freshwater ponds, reservoirs and hosts in South Korea. In this study, we provide brief taxonomic information, including collection site (GPS), diagnosis, specimen vouchers, figures of representative individuals and the Korean name newly assigned, for each species. All data were reviewed and updated by experts working on the respective taxonomic group. The aim of the present study is to publish species that have been previously reported through the project. Upon publication, these species will be added to the 'National Species List of Korea', curated by the National Institute of Biological Resources(NIBR).

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2013

Fisheries' biological resources were considered public resources before the 1990s. Every country could access and use these resources without regulation. However, the United Nations adopted the Convention on Biological Diversity and the privileges and rights to these resources were attributed to countries. This research starts with the research background and social and academic value of "The Jasan Eobo (or Report on Marine Organisms in the Coastal Waters near Heuksan Island)" by Jeong Yak-Jeon, who pioneered the new field of Fisheries Science and Marine Biology in Korea in the early 1800s. We also searched for recent results from the Marine Bio-Diversity Research Activities of the Korean National Council for Conservation of Nature (KNCCN) and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MOMAF). KNCCN reported that marine bio-diversity comprised approximately 6,500 species in 1996, and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries reported there were about 10,000 species in 2007. Among these marine species, plankton account for about 25%, seaweeds 11%, invertebrates 52%, and vertebrates 12% in Korean Coastal Areas. The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MIFAFF) enacted a law for Agriculture and Fisheries Resources Management in 2012; this law includes the preservation of marine ecosystems, the conservation of wetlands and the preservation of fisheries resources, and describes the boundary of taxonomy for new species and unknown species that could be identified in the near future. To follow the new regulation for Access to General Resources and Benefit-Sharing, this research suggests (1) the importance of taxonomy for new species and unknown species as a goal of "No Name = No Information", (2) integrated research on bio-diversity, species distributions and the abundance of fisheries resources, both in local areas and in Korean Coastal Areas, and (3) the observance of international regulations or agreements for benefit-sharing without additional damage in the future.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.248-257
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• 2009

In this paper, human exposure and risk of environmental pollutants were predicted using an emission assessment model and multimedia fate model. Eight environmental pollutants, acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, aniline, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, dichloromethane, formaldehyde and vinyl chloride, were selected for the risk assessment in an urban and industrial area in Korea. The emission rate of target pollutants were estimated after considering a variety of point and non-point emission sources including geographical information. A spatially refined multimedia fate model was applied to predict the environmental concentration and fate of pollutants. Hazard data of target materials were obtained from the IRIS(Integrated Risk Information System) database. Using the modeling results with hazard data, the human risks were assessed. Modeling results demonstrate that the considerable risks were observed for several pollutants.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.357-368
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• 2015

People observe lots of events around the environment and we can easily recognize the nature of an event from the resulting optic flow. The questions are how do people recognize events and what is the information in the optic flow that enables observers to recognize events. Motor theorists claim that human observers exhibit special sensitivity when perceiving events like speech or biological motion, because we both produce and perceive those events. However, direct perception theorists suggested that speech or biological motion is not special from the perception of all other kinds of event. The purpose of this review article is to address this controversy to critique the motor theory and to describe a direct realist approach to event perception. It is important to understand the fundamental information of how human perceive event perception for the convergence on robotics.