• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.530-539
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• 2021

Background: In South Korea, areas around abandoned metal mines are designated as regions with high arsenic (As) contamination. However, studies assessing urinary As exposure, As metabolism, and relevant genetic polymorphisms in residents of these metal mine areas are lacking. Objectives: To identify factors associated with As exposure and evaluate the effects of MTHFR, As3MT, and GSTO1 genetic polymorphisms on As metabolism in residents of abandoned metal mine areas by measuring urinary As species. Methods: Urinary As species (arsenite [As³⁺], arsenate [As⁵⁺], monomethyl arsonic acid, and dimethylarsinic acid) were isolated using high-performance liquid chromatography in combination with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). Four genetic polymorphisms (MTHFR A222V, MTHFR E429A, GSTO1 A140D, As3MT M287T) were analyzed in 144 residents of four areas around abandoned metal mines. Results: The study sample was comprised of 34.7% men and 65.3% women, with a mean age of 70.7±10.9 years. The urinary inorganic As concentration was higher among those consuming more than half locally produced rice (0.31 ㎍/L) than those consuming less than half such rice (0.18 ㎍/L). The urinary dimethylarsinic acid concentration was higher in the group that had consumed seafood in the past day (31.68 ㎍/L) than in those who had not (22.37 ㎍/L). Furthermore, individuals heterozygous in the MTHFR A222V and GSTO1 A140D polymorphism had higher urinary arsenic species concentrations than did individuals with a wild type or homozygous for the variant allele. Conclusions: Consumption of locally produced rice was associated with inorganic As exposure, whereas seafood consumption was associated with organic As exposure among residents of abandoned metal mine areas. There was no clear association between MTHFR A222V and GSTO1 A140D polymorphisms and As metabolism.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.353-366
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• 2022

Spatial estimation of geoscience data (geo-data) is challenging due to spatial heterogeneity, data scarcity, and high dimensionality. A novel spatial estimation method is needed to consider the characteristics of geo-data. In this study, we proposed the application of Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) among machine learning algorithms with multivariate data for robust spatial predictions. The performance of the proposed approach was tested through soil chemical concentration data from a former smelting area. The concentrations of As and Pb determined by ex-situ ICP-AES were the primary variables to be interpolated, while the other metal concentrations by ICP-AES and all data determined by in-situ portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) were used as auxiliary variables in GMM and ordinary cokriging (OCK). Among the multidimensional auxiliary variables, important variables were selected using a variable selection method based on the random forest. The results of GMM with important multivariate auxiliary data decreased the root mean-squared error (RMSE) down to 0.11 for As and 0.33 for Pb and increased the correlations (r) up to 0.31 for As and 0.46 for Pb compared to those from ordinary kriging and OCK using univariate or bivariate data. The use of GMM improved the performance of spatial interpretation of anthropogenic metals in soil. The multivariate spatial approach can be applied to understand complex and heterogeneous geological and geochemical features.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.338-343
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• 2008

Extraction of DNA from skeletal material is of great importance in the identification of human remains, but is particularly difficult because the high amount of microbial DNA was often co-extracted with human bone DNA. We found that a phenol/chloroform extraction, followed by ultrafiltration, and cleanup by via the $QIAquick^{(R)}$ PCR purification kit yields higher amounts of human genomic DNA compared with extraction by the column affinity $method^{(R)}$ alone. Ultrafiltration extraction of human DNA from ten exhumed bone samples yielded $0.041-1.120ng/{\mu}L$ DNA (mean = $0.498ng/{\mu}L$ DNA), and purification using the column affinity resulted in $0.016-0.064ng/{\mu}L$ DNA (mean = $0.034ng/{\mu}L$ DNA). Although the STR genotyping by the column affinity method was partially successful, all DNA samples by the ultrafiltration method produced full profiles from the multiplex PCR. The efficiency of STR genotyping was in accordance with the amounts of the human DNA extracted.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2023

Recently, water shortages have occurred due to climate change, and the need for water management of agricultural water has increased due to the occurrence of algal blooms in reservoirs. Existing algae prevention is operated by putting many people on site and misses the optimal spraying time due to movement through boats. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to block contamination in advance and move within time to uniformly spray complex microorganisms uniformly. Control drones are used for pesticide spraying and can be applied to algae prevention work by utilizing control drones. In this paper, basic research for the establishment of a marine control system was conducted for application to the reservoir environment, and as one of the results, the characteristics of a drone nozzle, a core technology that can be used for control drones, were calculated. In particular, it was found that the existing agricultural control drones had a disadvantage that the concentration was non-uniform within the suggested spraying interval, and to compensate for this, nozzle positioning and nozzle spraying uniformity were calculated. Based on the experimental results, we develop a core algorithm for establishing an algal bloom monitoring system in the reservoir environment and propose a precision control technology that can be used for marine control work in the future.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.56-67
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• 2006

Trends of variation in groundwater levels, electrical conductivities and water temperatures obtained from the national groundwater monitoring stations (95 shallow and 169 deep wells) of Korea were evaluated. For the analysis, both parametric (linear regression) and non-parametric (Mann-Kendall test, Sen's test) methods were adopted. Results of linear regression analysis indicated that about 50% of the monitoring wells showed increasing trends of groundwater levels, electrical conductivities, and water temperatures and the others showed decreasing trends. However, the non-parametric analyses with monthly median values revealed that $14.8{\sim}20.0%$ of water levels were decreased, $24.2{\sim}36.9%$ of electrical conductivities were increased, and $27.4{\sim}32.5%$ of water temperatures were increased at a confidence level of 99%. Highly proportions of increasing or decreasing trends were unexpected and they resulted from the relatively short term of data collection (maximum 6 years). Meanwhile, the investigation of groundwater around the national groundwater monitoring stations showed that the decreasing or increasing trends of water levels, electrical conductivities, themselves, didn't indicate directly groundwater hazards such as groundwater depletion or groundwater contamination. Both the values and variation rates (slopes) of water level, electrical conductivity and temperature in the longer period are considered simultaneously. This study is the first comprehensive work in analyzing trends of groundwater data obtained from the national groundwater monitoring stations. Based on this study, the periodical and regular analysis of groundwater data is essentially required to grasp the overall variational trend of groundwater resources in the country.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.288-295
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• 2010

Metal exposure experiments using polychaete (Perinereis nuntia) as a bio-indicator of trace metals contamination were conducted to evaluate the bioaccumulation and the biomarkers responses such as metallothionein-like protein (MTLPs) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) which was simultaneously exposed to Cadmium (Cd) and Copper (Cu). Cu and Cd concentrations in polychaete were enhanced with increasing exposure time and their concentrations of aqueous medium. Initial accumulation of Cd was higher than that of Cu. Our results showed that the bioaccumulation of Cu and Cd were prohibited, especially at higher Cu levels, suggesting the different cellular uptake mechanisms when Cu and Cd are co-exist. Net accumulation rate of Cu was declined with exposure time but it did not show any significant change for Cd. Although the highest MTLPs concentration was observed at 6 hr of exposure time, it did not show any significant change related to exposure times and metals concentrations. An increase of GST activity tended to increase as a function of exposure time and metals concentrations. And GST activities in P. nuntia have similar tendency with bioconcentration factors in high concentration of Cu (treatment group IV) at post 24 h of exposure. Our results provide new information of the bioaccumulation and biomarker responses to understand the effects of co-existing contaminants (Cu and Cd) using polychaete. Further studies are required to elucidate the bioaccumulation and biomarkers responses for various contaminants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2011

The environmental impacts of 95% remediation of a total petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil were evaluated using life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA of two remediation systems, soil vapor extraction (SVE) and biopile, were conducted by using imput materials and energy listed in a remedial system standardization report. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results showed that the environmental impacts of SVE were all higher than those of biopile. Prominent four environmental impacts, human toxicity via soil, aquatic ecotoxicity, human toxicity via surface water and human toxicity via air, were apparently found from the LCIA results of the both remedial systems. Human toxicity via soil was the prominent impact of SVE, while aquatic ecotoxicity was the prominent impact of biopile. This study also showed that the operation stage and the activated carbon replacement stage contributed 60% and 36% of the environmental impacts of SVE system, respectively. The major input affecting the environmental impact of SVE was electricity. The operation stage of biopile resulted in the highest contribution to the entire environmental impact. The key input affecting the environmental impact of biopile was also electricity. This study suggested that electricity reduction strategies would be tried in the contaminated-soil remediation sites for archieving less environmental impacts. Remediation of contaminated soil normally takes long time and thus requires a great deal of material and energy. More extensive life cycle researches on remedial systems are required to meet recent national challenges toward carbon dioxide reduction and green growth. Furthermore, systematic information on electricity use of remedial systems should be collected for the reliable assessment of environmental impacts and carbon dioxide emissions during soil remediation.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2641-2647
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• 2012

Quality and sensory characteristics such as microbial count, pH, acidity, flavor, taste, color and overall acceptance of bamboo shoot pickle cured with red pepper paste and bamboo shoot pickle cured with soy sauce paste made of Maengjong bamboo shoots were investigated during a long-term storage at different temperature (at $25^{\circ}C$, $35^{\circ}C$ and $45^{\circ}C$). Microbial contamination was not observed, and water content did not showed significant change in all samples of both pickles during the whole storage period of 30 days, regardless of storage temperature. At $25^{\circ}C$, all sensory characteristics of bamboo shoot-red pepper paste pickle did not show a significant change for 30 d. However, at $35^{\circ}C$ and $45^{\circ}C$, the flavor, taste and color of bamboo shoot-red pepper paste pickle did not change remarkably, but the overall acceptance significantly changed from the beginning of storage. Bamboo shoot-soy sauce pickle did not give a significant change in flavor, taste and overall acceptance at $25^{\circ}C$, $35^{\circ}C$ and $45^{\circ}C$. However a remarkable change in color started to be shown at 25 d in case of storage at $45^{\circ}C$. Overall acceptance and color were selected as indicating parameters for the shelf-life estimation of bamboo shoot-red pepper paste pickle and bamboo shoot-soy sauce pickle, respectively. Based on room temperature storage and delivery at $20^{\circ}C$, the shelf-life of bamboo shoot-red pepper paste pickle and bamboo shoot-soy sauce pickle were determined as 308 d (about 10 month) and 447 d (about 14 month), respectively.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.24-33
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• 2009

This study investigated the microbial contamination levels of raw meats used for short-ripened salami and changes in the microbial and physico-chemical properties of the product during storage at 10 and $25^{\circ}C$ for up to 120 days. The microbial counts of raw meats ranged between 2 and 4 Log CFU/g. Frozen-thawed sow meat showed higher total aerobe and Enterobacteriaceae counts than fresh chilled pork and pork back fat. Staphylococcus aureus was found in all raw materials except fresh chilled pork samples, and Clostridium perfringens was detected in a sample stored for 21 days at $25^{\circ}C$. The counts of total aerobes, lactic acid bacteria and Staphylococcus spp. decreased more rapidly at $25^{\circ}C$ than at $10^{\circ}C$ when the storage time was extended. The growth of Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas spp., Clostridium spp., yeast, and mold were restricted to levels below 2 Log CFU/g during storage. The contents of salt, water, crude protein, crude fat, and ash of salami samples were 3.4, 33.4, 30.8, 32.7, and 4.3%, respectively, which were not affected by storage time or temperature. The pH value of the salami was initially 4.79 and increased to 5.02 and 5.26 after 120 days of storage at 10 and $25^{\circ}C$, respectively, whereas the water activity values decreased from an initial value of 0.91 to 0.90 and 0.88 after 120 days at 10 and $25^{\circ}C$, respectively. The TBA and VBN values increased slowly during storage. The redness value of the salami samples stored at $25^{\circ}C$ decreased more significantly than the samples stored at $10^{\circ}C$. With increased storage time, the values for the rheological characteristics of the salami in terms of hardness, brittleness, elasticity, cohesiveness, gumminess, and adhesiveness tended to decrease more remarkably at $25^{\circ}C$ than at $10^{\circ}C$. Based on sensory evaluation scores, it appears that short-ripened salami is no longer acceptable after 90 days at $10^{\circ}C$ and 30 days at $25^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.270-277
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• 2016

BACKGROUND: Significant amount of bisphenol A has been released from the manufacturing process of plastics, epoxy resins, dental material and flame retardants. Bisphenol A has been detected at trace levels in wastewater, surface water, landfill leachate and drinking water. However, the residual survey of bisphenol A has not been performed in agricultural reservoir beside agricultural environment cultivating crops. This study was conducted to monitor the residual bisphenol A in national agricultural reservoirs and understand a level of contamination of bisphenol A in the agricultural environment in Korea. METHODS AND RESULTS: The water and water sediment were collected at agricultural reservoirs in Chungnam, Chungbuk, Kyunggi, Jeonnam, Jeonbuk, Kyungnam and Kyungbuk province. Bisphenol A was analyzed by the LC-MS/MS with triple quad 4500. The recovery of water and water sediment in the agricultural reservoirs showed the level of 95.7~97.2% and 91.5~100.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Bisphenol A was detected at the level of $0.05{\mu}g/L{\sim}0.18{\mu}g/L$ and $0.1{\mu}g/kg{\sim}34{\mu}g/kg$ in water and water sediment of the reservoirs, respectively. Based on the results, the residue of bisphenol A will be tried in the crops surrounding these agricultural reservoirs where bisphenol A detected above $10{\mu}g/kg$ of bisphenol A.