• Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.194-200
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• 2006

Recently, the population growth, industrial and agricultural development are rapidly undergoing in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) in Texas. The Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) composed of the 4 counties and three of them are interesting for Non-point and point source pollutant modeling: Starr, Cameron, and Hidalgo. Especially, the LRGV is an intensively irrigation region, and Texas A&M University Agriculture Program and the New Mexico State University College of Agriculture applied irrigation district program, projects in GIS and Hydrology based agricultural water management systems and assessment of prioritized protecting stream network, water quality and rehabilitation based on water saving potential in Rio Grande River. In the LRGV region, where point and non-point sources of pollution may be a big concern, because increasing fertilizers and pesticides use and population cause. This project objective seeks to determine the accumulation of non-point and point source and discuss the main impacts of agriculture and environmental concern with water quality related to pesticides, fertilizer, and nutrients within LRGV region. The GIS technique is widely used and developed for the assessment of non-point source pollution in LRGV region. This project shows the losses in $kg/km^2/yr$ of BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand), TN (total Nitrogen) and TP (total phosphorus) in the runoff from the surface of LRGV. Especially, farmers in Cameron County consume a lot of fertilizer and pesticide to improve crop yield net profit. Then, this region can be created as larger nonpoint source area for nutrients and the intensity of runoff by excess irrigation water. And many sediment and used irrigation water with including high nutrients can be discharged into Rio Grade River.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• 제13권3_4호
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• pp.105-115
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• 1998

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are highly reactive molecules due to their unpaired electron. They have been suspected as one of the major tissue damage inducers in biological metabolic systems. Antioxidant enzymes, such as catalase and superoxide dismutase, could not repair all the oxidative damages resulting from those excessive toxic ROS. It is, therefore, urgent to develop effective antioxidants to relieve from the oxidatire damages. In this study antioxidative effects were investigated by using two flavonoids such as quercetin and naringenin and a flavonoid-rich extract, Ginkgo biloba extract in combination with paraquat that is known as a strong generator of oxygen radicals. The results are summeringed as follows: 1. To assess radical scavenging ability reduction concentrations (IC$_{50}$) of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazine (DPPH) within 15 minutes were measured. The values of the IC$_{50}$ of quercetin and Ginkgo biloba extract were 15.4 $\mu$M and 13.2$\mu$g/ml, respectively. Their radical removing activities showed concentration-dependent manners. 2. In the hydrogen peroxide assay by using PMS-NADH system, quercetin, naringenin and Ginkgo biloba extract led to removing hydrogen peroxide in concentrationdependent manner whose removing abilities at 100$\mu$M or 100 $\mu$g/ml were 75.6, 25.8 and 26.0%, respectively. 3. In the hydrogen peroxide-induced rat blood hemolysis assay all three compounds led to similar effects whose hemolysis inhibition ratios at 100$\mu$M or 100$\mu$g/ml were 68.0, 5.14 and 55.8%, respectively. 4. In the xanthinee oxidase assay by measuring degree of NADH oxidation in the presence of hypoxanthine and xanthinee oxidase, both quercetin and Ginkgo biloba extract showed excellent activities showing 42.8 and 24.2% inhibiting xanthine oxidase activity at 100$\mu$M or 100$\mu$g/ml concentrations, respectively.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.161-169
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• 2006

식물대사체학은 식물세포, 조직, 기관, 혹은 개체수준에서 주어진 시간과 조건에서 발견되는 모든 대사물질을 밝히고, 시간의 경과 혹은 조건의 변화에 따른 metabolic profiling의 변화를 연구하는 식물학 분야이다. 식물대사체학은 생물에 대한 전체론적 접근을 위한 가장 최근에 발달된 omics분야의 하나로서 일종의 시스템 생물학이다. 전체론적 접근과 이해를 위해서 대사체학은 metabolic profiling의 계량화학 혹은 다변량분석 방법을 자주 사용한다. 식물학분야에서 대사체학은 애기장대나 벼와 같은 모델식물에 tag를 도입하여 형질전환시킨 돌연변이체에 대해 DNA microarray와 함께 사용하여 유전자의 기능을 밝히는데 유용하게 사용된다. 본 총설에서는 식물대사체학의 기본 개념과 1H NMR 혹은 FTIR으로 얻은 metabolic profiling의 다변량분석에 대한 실용적인 사용법을 소개하고자 하였다.

• 식물분류학회지
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• 제37권3호
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• pp.309-321
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• 2007

산림청 국립수목원과 한국식물분류학회가 공동으로 국내 최초로 전산화된 식물목록 데이터베이스를 구축하였다. 그 결과로 재배종을 포함한 약 7,000 분류군을 대상으로 항상 최신의 자료를 갱신할 수 있는 국가표준식물목록을 온라인상에 구현하였다. 국가표준식물목록은 37명의 국내 전문분류학자가 참여한 우리나라 식물목록과 관련된 최대 규모의 프로젝트이다. 본 연구는 국가표준식물목록 생성과정을 분석하고 이를 통해 관계형 데이터베이스 모델을 수립하였다. 개발된 광릉 데이터베이스 모델은 식물목록과 관련된 문헌과 다양한 분류학 자료를 제공할 수 있도록 설계 되었다. 이 모델은 다양한 분류학적 수준의 학명과 잡종명, 재배명, 이명, 기본명, 국명 및 명명법과 관련된 기타 자료를 함께 제공할 수 있다. 따라서, 국가표준식물목록 데이터베이스는 앞으로 개발될 생물정보시스템들의 개발에 있어 식물의 학명과 관련된 정확하고 일관성이 있는 표준 데이터베이스 기반을 제공하게 되었다.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.177-185
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• 2009

Dryland species and ecosystems have developed unique strategies to cope with low and sporadic rainfall. They are highly resilient and recover quickly from prevailing disturbances such as fires, herbivore pressure and drought. Dryland people have engineered pastoral and farming systems, which are adapted to these conditions and have sustained the livelihoods of dryland people for centuries. In this article, we present the status of potentials and threats to dryland biodiversity and explore options for its conservation and sustainable use. Findings of the research can be summarized as follows: (i) The ecosystem goods and services are highly valued by the community but mechanism for wise use of the resources has disappeared, (ii) forests are under the ownership of the government but the local community is the realistic custodian of the forests through village leaderships and environmental committees; (iii) the immediate major threat to dryland biodiversity held in the forests appears to be the degradation of ecosystems and habitats caused by new and powerful forces of environmental degradation such as large scale irrigation of rice farms, poverty-induced overexploitation of natural resources, and disappearance and ignorance of traditional institutions for management of dryland biodiversity. These new forms of disturbances often overpower the legendary resilience of dryland ecosystems and constitute potentially serious threats to dryland biodiversity. Forests, wetlands and oases all of which are micro hot spots of dryland biodiversity, appear to be particularly vulnerable hence the need to set up some rules and regulations for sustainable utilization of these resources.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.376-395
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• 1996

The neuropeptide substance P(SP) has been recognized to modulate immune systems, with close proximity between peptidergic sensory nerve endings and immune cells. These include the macrophage and neutrophil activation, IL-2 production in T cell, augmentation of Ig synthesis, mast cell degranulation, $PGE_2$ and collagenase secretion in synoviocytes. In this study I examined SP-induced various biological activities such as antimicrobial action, cytokine production, and mast cell degranulation in the presence or absence of other inflammatory cell activators. Antimicrobial studies showed that undifferentiated HL-60 cells were not affected by SP. However, SP significantly enhanced antimicrobial action of TPA-treated or dbcAMP-treated HL-60 cells which had been differentiated into PMN or macrophage/monocyte. I could not find synergistic relationship between SP and LPS in parallel experiments of the above. SP did not induce IL-l production from murine macrophage cell line RAW264.7 whether costimulated with LPS or not. Mast cell degranulation was occured only when stimulated with high dose ($10^{-5}M$) of SP and the degree of this activation was slightly reduced by simultaneous application of $MIP-1{\alpha}$. In addition, CGRP which is known to be a common coexisting neuropeptide with SP within specific fibers did not augment the function of SP on mast cell degranulation. These results suggest that immunoregulatory activities of SP could be mediated through direct upregulation of various functions of immune cells and also upregulation of responsiveness of immune cells to other immune activators.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제31권6호
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• pp.1555-1560
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• 2010

Quantum dots (QDs) are extensively employed for biomedical research as a fluorescence reporter and their use for various labeling applications will continue to increase as they are preferred over conventional labeling methods for various reasons. However, concerns have been raised over the toxicity of these particles in the biological system. Till date no thorough investigation has been carried out to identify the molecular signatures of QD mediated toxicity. In this study we evaluated the toxicity of CdSe, $Cd_{1-x}Zn_xS$/ZnS and CdSe/ZnS quantum dots having different spectral properties (red, blue, green) using human embryonic kidney fibroblast cells (HEK293). Cell viability assay for both short and long duration exposure show concentration material dependent toxicity, in the order of CdSe > $Cd_{1-x}Zn_xS$/ZnS > CdSe/ZnS. Genome wide changes in the expression of genes upon QD exposure was also analyzed by wholegenome microarray. All the three QDs show increase in the expression of genes related to apoptosis, inflammation and response towards stress and wounding. Further comparison of coated versus uncoated CdSe QD-mediated cell death and molecular changes suggests that ZnS coating could reduce QD mediated cytotoxicity to some extent only.

• 한국환경보건학회지
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• 제40권3호
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• pp.187-203
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• 2014

Objectives: As the demand to deal with pathogens in domestic research institutions has expanded and biological accidents have increased, the need for systematic biosafety management in infectious disease laboratories has grown. According to international standards, risk assessment (RA) is required for biosafety management. However, RA criteria have not been clearly established in Korea, so to this end I have attempted to determine RA criteria meeting international levels Methods: In order to provide RA criteria for application, I analyzed the RA criteria in use in the U.S., Europe and at international organizations. In order to ensure the public nature of the RA criteria, I constructed the research model through modified management consulting methodology reflecting the model of Radnor and O'Mahoney. Results: According to the results of the study, existing laboratory biosafety regulations were comparable to domestic laboratory safety laws. Existing laboratory biosafety standards that are designed around risk factors were found to be insufficient. An RA case to be carried out in infectious disease laboratories at the National Institute of Health of KCDC was identified. Conclusion: To establish a systematic risk management system meeting international standards, it was necessary first to harmonize the systems of national and international standards. In addition, in order to provide specific biosafety management on-site, I recognized a need for methodology and planning strategies to discover biosafety management so that it can be carried out as required through the RA of individual laboratories.

• 농업과학연구
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• 제44권1호
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• pp.40-49
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• 2017

Cultural practices for adzuki bean and the distribution of weed species in the south-west regions of Korea were surveyed to provide information on effective weed management. Approximately 27.5% of the farm households were growing adzuki bean in an area larger than 1 ha while the rest grew the crop in an area smaller than 1 ha. Of all adzuki bean growers, 17.1% seeded in early June, 8.6% in mid June, 34.3% in late June, 17.1% in early July, 20.0% in mid July, and 2.9% in late July. The average planting distance was $71.0{\times}29.5cm$. From the 40 surveys in adzuki bean fields, 35 weed species in 17 families were identified. According to the occurrence frequency, the dominant weed species were Digitaria sanguinalis, Acalypha australis, Cyperus amuricus, Echinochloa crus-galli, and Amaranthus nangostanus in decreasing order of dominance. However, based on dry weight, Chenopodium album (34.4%) was the most dominant followed by Acalypha australis (21.9%), Amaranthus nangostanus (19.1%), Digitaria sanguinalis (7.5%), and Portulaca oleracea (6.1%). The exotic weeds found in the field of adzuki were Ipomoea hederacea, Abutilon avicennae, and Celosia argentea. The plant heights of I. hederacea, A. avicennae, and C. argentea were 259 cm, 98 cm, and 76 cm, respectively, while the fresh weights were 850 g, 66 g, and 101 g, respectively. Integrated weed management systems utilizing mechanical, chemical, and biological control techniques need to be developed for effective weed management in adzuki bean production.

• Advances in environmental research
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.15-35
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• 2012

Mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant that has been the cause of many public concerns. One particular concern about Hg in aquatic systems is its trophic transfer and biomagnification in food chains. For example, the Hg concentration increases with the increase of food chain level. Fish at the top of food chain can accumulate high concentrations of Hg (especially the toxic form, methylmercury, MeHg), which is then transferred to humans through seafood consumption. Various biological and physiochemical conditions can significantly affect the bioaccumulation of Hg-including both its inorganic (Hg(II)) and organic (MeHg) forms-in fish. There have been numerous measurements of Hg concentrations in marine and freshwater fish worldwide. Many of these studies have attempted to identify the processes leading to variations of Hg concentrations in fish species from different habitats. The development of a biokinetic model over the past decade has helped improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the bioaccumulation processes of Hg in aquatic animals. In this review, I will discuss how the biokinetic modeling approach can be used to reveal the interesting biodynamics of Hg in fish, such as the trophic transfer and exposure route of Hg(II) and MeHg, as well as growth enrichment (the increases in Hg concentration with fish size) and biomass dilution (the decreases in Hg concentration with increasing phytoplankton biomass). I will also discuss the relevance of studying the subcellular fates of Hg to predict the Hg bioaccessibility and detoxification in fish. Future challenges will be to understand the inter- and intra-species differences in Hg accumulation and the management/mitigation of Hg pollution in both marine and freshwater fish based on our knowledge of Hg biodynamics.