• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.34-63
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• 2003

Occupational and environmental exposure to manganese continue to represent a realistic public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Increased utility of MMT as a replacement for lead in gasoline creates a new source of environmental exposure to manganese. It is, therefore, imperative that further attention be directed at molecular neurotoxicology of manganese. A Need for a more complete understanding of manganese functions both in health and disease, and for a better defined role of manganese in iron metabolism is well substantiated. The in-depth studies in this area should provide novel information on the potential public health risk associated with manganese exposure. It will also explore novel mechanism(s) of manganese-induced neurotoxicity from the angle of Mn-Fe interaction at both systemic and cellular levels. More importantly, the result of these studies will offer clues to the etiology of IPD and its associated abnormal iron and energy metabolism. To achieve these goals, however, a number of outstanding questions remain to be resolved. First, one must understand what species of manganese in the biological matrices plays critical role in the induction of neurotoxicity, Mn(II) or Mn(III)? In our own studies with aconitase, Cpx-I, and Cpx-II, manganese was added to the buffers as the divalent salt, i.e., $MnCl_2$. While it is quite reasonable to suggest that the effect on aconitase and/or Cpx-I activites was associated with the divalent species of manganese, the experimental design does not preclude the possibility that a manganese species of higher oxidation state, such as Mn(III), is required for the induction of these effects. The ionic radius of Mn(III) is 65 ppm, which is similar to the ionic size to Fe(III) (65 ppm at the high spin state) in aconitase (Nieboer and Fletcher, 1996; Sneed et al., 1953). Thus it is plausible that the higher oxidation state of manganese optimally fits into the geometric space of aconitase, serving as the active species in this enzymatic reaction. In the current literature, most of the studies on manganese toxicity have used Mn(II) as $MnCl_2$ rather than Mn(III). The obvious advantage of Mn(II) is its good water solubility, which allows effortless preparation in either in vivo or in vitro investigation, whereas almost all of the Mn(III) salt products on the comparison between two valent manganese species nearly infeasible. Thus a more intimate collaboration with physiochemists to develop a better way to study Mn(III) species in biological matrices is pressingly needed. Second, In spite of the special affinity of manganese for mitochondria and its similar chemical properties to iron, there is a sound reason to postulate that manganese may act as an iron surrogate in certain iron-requiring enzymes. It is, therefore, imperative to design the physiochemical studies to determine whether manganese can indeed exchange with iron in proteins, and to understand how manganese interacts with tertiary structure of proteins. The studies on binding properties (such as affinity constant, dissociation parameter, etc.) of manganese and iron to key enzymes associated with iron and energy regulation would add additional information to our knowledge of Mn-Fe neurotoxicity. Third, manganese exposure, either in vivo or in vitro, promotes cellular overload of iron. It is still unclear, however, how exactly manganese interacts with cellular iron regulatory processes and what is the mechanism underlying this cellular iron overload. As discussed above, the binding of IRP-I to TfR mRNA leads to the expression of TfR, thereby increasing cellular iron uptake. The sequence encoding TfR mRNA, in particular IRE fragments, has been well-documented in literature. It is therefore possible to use molecular technique to elaborate whether manganese cytotoxicity influences the mRNA expression of iron regulatory proteins and how manganese exposure alters the binding activity of IPRs to TfR mRNA. Finally, the current manganese investigation has largely focused on the issues ranging from disposition/toxicity study to the characterization of clinical symptoms. Much less has been done regarding the risk assessment of environmenta/occupational exposure. One of the unsolved, pressing puzzles is the lack of reliable biomarker(s) for manganese-induced neurologic lesions in long-term, low-level exposure situation. Lack of such a diagnostic means renders it impossible to assess the human health risk and long-term social impact associated with potentially elevated manganese in environment. The biochemical interaction between manganese and iron, particularly the ensuing subtle changes of certain relevant proteins, provides the opportunity to identify and develop such a specific biomarker for manganese-induced neuronal damage. By learning the molecular mechanism of cytotoxicity, one will be able to find a better way for prediction and treatment of manganese-initiated neurodegenerative diseases.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.151-161
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• 2014

Sesame lignan, including sesamin and sesamolin has been reported to have various content according to accessions and environmental factors. The objective of this study were to analyze the lignan variation of 143 sesame accessions from core collection in Korea and to test the effects of growing years and locations on lignan and lipid content of Korea sesame elite lines. The results showed that the core sesame germplasm in Korea has broad variation of lignan content from 2.33 to 12.17 mg/g with an average 8.18 mg/g. Among tested sesame accessions, the IT184615 had the highest lignan content of as 12.17 mg/g. So this accession will be a good genetic resource for developing a high lignan sesame variety. The sesamin and sesamolin content for sesame accessions across origin had significant difference. The average lignan content of accessions collected from Russia (10.0 mg/g) and Nepal (9.08 mg/g) were relatively higher than other countries. The sesamin and sesamolin content for sesame accessions across seed coat color had significant difference. The average lignan content of sesame with white, brown and black seed coat color was 8.61, 7.51, and 5.49 mg/g, respectively. The variation of lignan and lipid content was significantly different across elite lines, locations and growing years. Therefore, it is important to find sesame accessions having high lignan content with environmental stability.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.71-76
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• 2015

Developed countries have set seed industry as a new growth engine, which demands strong support from the government. Multinational seed companies such as Monsanto and DuPont have made huge financial investment to secure their major roles in the global market. To spur domestic seed industry performance, Korean government laid out the foundation for developing seed industry through policy promotion in the late 2000s. In this paper, I look at the current state of the domestic and international seed market to provide information for improving the efficiency of the propulsion of the Golden Seed Project (GSP) along with its vision. The increasing size of global giant companies has been regarded to monopolize the world seed industry wherein ten renowned companies occupy 73% of the overall global market. In effect, this causes a price hike due to limited seed choices. Domestic seed market has been stuck in a range due to a sustained low agricultural production resulting in decreased seed demand and market size. Though breeding technologies for rice and vegetables are world-class, the technologies for top global crops such as cabbage, paprika, and forage are insufficient therefore professionals in this field are not easily employed. Moreover, there is a lack in appropriate infrastructure set up in the universities which adds to ineffective training of professionals. Being a key-supporting industry for agriculture, seed industry should be granted with strong and sustainable investment support from the government. In view thereof, GSP, which started in 2012, ambitions to spur researches outlined by excellent professionals in universities and seed companies aimed to drive seed export volume and quality and attain domestic seed self-sufficiency through adoption of export- and import-substitution seed types (10 varieties each) development strategies. To develop Korea's seed industry excellent achievement of GSP's goals should be drawn successfully and to do this beside development of high quality seeds, support programs for promotion of seed exports are also needed.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.36
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• pp.255-292
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• 2013

Burglary (also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking) is a crime, the essence of which is illegal entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offence. It is one of the most common types of crime and also a serious issue for every society. A house that is left insecure is an accessible and attractive target for burglars and therefore burglary resistance test & certification system for doors and windows has been developed in many countries. This paper explores several advanced foreign burglary resistance test/certifcation cases (the British SBD, the Dutch KOMO SKH/SKG, the Japanese CP mark, the Australian Standard Certification) for security products and domestic test/certification systems for fire safety products as a comparative study so that any improvement points can be gained for South Korea in the field of security product performance. The comparative analysis results show that South Korea is far behind the security product certification system and needs a lot of improvement in the system by benchmarking foreign cases. The domestic test/certification systems for fire safety products also give some insights for burglary-related security products' performance certification system in Korea. Overall, the need for relevant rules and regulations, the establishment of standards regarding testing and certification, including certified security +hardware product in building security certification system, performance testing as well as production testing (i.e. quality management system evaluation), the basic competency of testers, incentive system for certified/high quality security products were suggested in order to make an optimal model for the security production performance testing and certification system in Korea.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 1971

Nutritional anemia is an important nutritional problem affecting large population groups in most developing countries. Nutritional anemia is caused by the absence of any dietary essential involed in hemoglobin formation or by poor absorption of these dietary components. The most likely causes are lack of dietary iron, and folate, vitamin $B_{12}$ and high qualify protein. Anemia is considered to be a late mainfeastation of nutritional deficiencies, and even mild anemia is not the earilest sign of such a deficiency. Therefore, the object of therapy is to correct underlying deficiency rather than merely its manifestation. Iron deficiency anemia is generally much the most common form of anemia. And it is very prevalent particularly in pregnant women and young children, especially under five year of life. According to the rapid growth rate of infants, dietary iron should he provided for infants over three months of age in adequate amounts for the synthesis of hemoglobin required by the increasing blood volume and for the demands of newly formed cells. The principal causes of iron deficiency anemia are an inadequate dietary iron content, interference with absorption of iron from the intestine, excessive losses of iron from the body, disturbance of iron metabolism by infection, and social and cultural environments. The present study is planned to obtain informations concerning nutritional anemia through anthropometric and biochemical determinations for the assessment of nutriture in pre-school children. Determination was taken in 226 pre-school children in ruraI arae in 1968, 122 pre-school children in 1970, and 1526 hospitalized pre-school children in 1970. The results of this study are as follows; (1) According to Iowa Malnutrition Borderline (85 percentile) for weight, the proportions of underweighed pre-school boys and girls in rural area were 47.2% and 46.2% in1968, and were 36.1% and 51.8% in 1970. According to Iowa Malnutrition Borderline for height, the proportions of underheight boys and girls in rural area were 30.5% and 33.7%, and were 26.2% and 21.8% in 1970. Malnutrition scores of underweight for height values of boys and girls in rural area were 19.3 and 17.3 in 1968, and the scores of boys and girls were 15.6 and 15.5 in 1970. (2) The mean hemoglobin values of boys and girls in rural area were $11.2{\pm}1.8g/100ml\;and\;11.4{\pm}1.6g/100ml$ in 1968. In 1970, the mean values of boys and girls in rural area were $11.3{\pm}1.3g/100ml\;and\;11.7{\pm}2.4g/100ml$. The mean hemoglobin values of hospitalized boys and girls were $11.9{\pm}2.2g/100ml\;and\;11.7{\pm}2.4g/100ml$ in 1970. It is found that 92 of 215 children (42.7%) in rural area had concentrations of hemoglobin less than 11.0g/100ml in 1968. In 1970, 55 of 121 children (45.4%) in rural area and 559 of 1526 hospitalized children (36.6%) had concentrations of hemoglobin less than 11.0g/100ml. (3) The mean hematocrit levels of hospitalized boys and girls were $35{\pm}26.8%\;and\;35.4{\pm}6.4%$ in 1970. And 443 of 1334 hospitalized children (33.2%) had hematocrit values below 33%. (4) The average mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration levels of hospitalized boys and girls were $32.4{\pm}2.2\;and\;32.3{\pm}2.2$ in 1970. And 1016 of 1352 hospitalized children (75.1%) had the mean corpuscular hemoglobin values below 34. (5) The mean iron values of young children in rural area and hospitalized children were $62.0{\pm}6.3{\mu}g/100ml\;and\;60.7{\pm}22.8{\mu}g/100ml$. The proportions of anemia cases below $50{\mu}g/100ml$ in rural area was 37.9%, and 34.3% in hospitalized children. (6) The mean total iron binding capacity of young children in rural area was $376{\pm}57.88{\mu}g/100ml,\;and\;342.2{\pm}6.15{\mu}g/100ml$ in hospitalized children. (7) The average transferrin saturation percentage of young children in rural area was $16.9{\pm}4.7%,\;and\;18.0{\pm}8.4%$ in hospitalized children. The proportions of anemia cases below 15% of young chi1dren in rural area and hospitalized children were 48.3% and 41.2%. Therefore, authors wish to recommend that the following further studies should be undertaken: (1) Standardization of simplied laboratory examination of nutritional anemia. (2) The prevalence of nutritional anemia and the requirements of iron, folate, and vitamin $B_{12}$ of pre-school children. (3) The content and absorption of iron in Korean food. (4) The pathogenesis of nutritional anemia and prevention of parasitic disease. (5) Maternal health and nutrition education.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2005

Purpose : Internal tibial torsion is prevalent in East Asian countries such as Korea and Japan, where sitting on the floor is common behavior. Internal tibial torsion or excessive lateral tibial torsion may cause esthetical, functional, or psychological problems and also may induce degenerative arthritis in older age. The purpose of this study is to measure the tibial torsion in children of the Jeju area. Methods : Tibial torsion was measured in 1,042 lower extremities of 521 children from one to 12 years of age. The values of transmalleolar angles were analyzed for each age group divided by 6 months. Quadratic and linear regression models were used to fit patterns of changes in mean values of transmalleolar angles. The age at seven, which provides the highest coefficient of determination for quadratic regression analysis, was used as a cut-off point to fit different statistical models. Results : The mean transmalleolar angle was $0.10{\pm}5.79^{\circ}$ in all children,$ 0.90{\pm}5.49^{\circ}$ in males, and $-0.80{\pm}5.97^{\circ}$ in females. The value was $4.25{\pm}4.04$ in 1 year of age, gradually decreased to the lowest level of $-1.98^{\circ}$ in four years and seven months of age, increased again with age until it reached $0.67{\pm}1.10^{\circ}$ at seven years of age, and stayed at that level thereafter. Conclusion : Internal tibial torsion in infancy is known to correct spontaneously in the normal developing process. But in this study, the mean transmalleolar angle in children of Jeju area annually decreased after one year of age; to the lowest angle at four years and seven months of age; increased again gradually to the age of seven; and persisted in that level, about $10^{\circ}$ less than western children, not correcting further thereafter. These findings suggest tibial torsion might be caused by lifestyle, especially sitting on feet. To prevent abnormalities of joints and gaits, early diagnosis of tibial torsion in childhood and posture correction or early treatment when needed, seems to be necessary.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.12
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• pp.1188-1193
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• 2007

Purpose : The prevalence of rickets in the world is on the rise not only in developing but also in developed countries. In Korea, breastfeeding has increased. There have been few studies on the possible association of rickets with breastfeeding. The purpose of this study was to identify the development and the clinical presentation of subclinical rickets in breastfed infants. Methods : We investigated patients who were breastfed and had hypovitaminosis D in the blood from May 2006 to April 2007, and who were diagnosed with vitamin D deficient rickets from May 2003 to April 2006. We evaluated the results of blood tests, x-rays and other relevant information in the medical record. A questionnaire that included questions on the diet of patients, the mothers activity during pregnancy and place of residence was administered. Results : Twelve patients (66%: male, 34%: female) were enrolled in this study. There were eight in the asymptomatic and four in the symptomatic group. The median age for each group was 8 months (range 4-11 month) and 5.5 months (5-8 month). All patients in the symptomatic group were breastfed until diagnosed. In the asymptomatic group, they were breastfed for four to six months, and then weaned with only thin rice soup and vegetables. Nine patients had a vitamin D concentration below 20 ng/mL and three patients had levels between 20 and 29 ng/mL. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) were elevated in both groups. There were statistically significant $25-OHD_3$ levels in the blood in both groups (P=0.008). Ten of the patients (83%) also had iron deficient anemia. Conclusion : Vitamin D deficiency and subclinical rickets has been identified in Korea. However, the prevalence of this disease has not been determined. The main limitation of this study was the small number of patients and the absence of a control group.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.34-45
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• 2016

Global warming and climate change have been caused by combustion of fossil fuels. The greenhouse gases contributed to the rise of temperature between $0.6^{\circ}C$ and $0.9^{\circ}C$ over the past century. Presently, fossil fuels account for about 88% of the commercial energy sources used. In developing countries, fossil fuels are a very attractive energy source because they are available and relatively inexpensive. The environmental problems with fossil fuels have been aggravating stress from already existing factors including acid deposition, urban air pollution, and climate change. In order to control greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO2, fossil fuels must be replaced by eco-friendly fuels such as biomass. The use of renewable energy sources is becoming increasingly necessary. The biomass resources are the most common form of renewable energy. The conversion of biomass into energy can be achieved in a number of ways. The most common form of converted biomass is pellet fuels as biofuels made from compressed organic matter or biomass. Pellets from lignocellulosic biomass has compared to conventional fuels with a relatively low bulk and energy density and a low degree of homogeneity. Thermal pretreatment technology like torrefaction is applied to improve fuel efficiency of lignocellulosic biomass, i.e., less moisture and oxygen in the product, preferrable grinding properties, storage properties, etc.. During torrefacton, lignocelluosic biomass such as palm kernell shell (PKS) and empty fruit bunch (EFB) was roasted under an oxygen-depleted enviroment at temperature between 200 and $300^{\circ}C$. Low degree of thermal treatment led to the removal of moisture and low molecular volatile matters with low O/C and H/C elemental ratios. The mechanical characteristics of torrefied biomass have also been altered to a brittle and partly hydrophobic materials. Unfortunately, it was much harder to form pellets from torrefied PKS and EFB due to thermal degradation of lignin as a natural binder during torrefaction compared to non-torrefied ones. For easy pelletization of biomass with torrefaction, pellets from PKS and EFB were manufactured before torrefaction, and thereafter they were torrefied at different temperature. Even after torrefaction of pellets from PKS and EFB, their appearance was well preserved with better fuel efficiency than non-torrefied ones. The physical properties of the torrefied pellets largely depended on the torrefaction condition such as reaction time and reaction temperature. Temperature over $250^{\circ}C$ during torrefaction gave a significant impact on the fuel properties of the pellets. In particular, torrefied EFB pellets displayed much faster development of the fuel properties than did torrefied PKS pellets. During torrefaction, extensive carbonization with the increase of fixed carbons, the behavior of thermal degradation of torrefied biomass became significantly different according to the increase of torrefaction temperature. In conclusion, pelletization of PKS and EFB before torrefaction made it much easier to proceed with torrefaction of pellets from PKS and EFB, leading to excellent eco-friendly fuels.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.284-309
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• 2007

Technology transfer (TT) consortium is an affiliation of two or more public research institutions (PRIs) that participate in a common technology transfer activity or pool their resources together, with the objective of facilitating technology transfer. Based on empirical analysis of five regional TT consortia (2002-2006) operating in Korea, this paper suggests their effectiveness by employing a TT performance index (TTPI) and identifies possible characteristics involved, such as motivations, facilitators, barriers, and challenges. TTPI devised in the paper is a new composite TT performance index to measure how much the TT performance of a PH changed in a designated year compared to a base year. All the performance indicators of TTPI are well-structured based on the unique TT process that is prevalent in Korea. Further, TTPI can bring different size and focus of PRIs to the same scale for comparison by double-normalizing. The paper tests the effectiveness of TT consortium for the escalation of TT performances in member PRIs by highlighting the differences of TTPI's between 2005 and 2001. As a result, the paper found that the escalation of TTPI for member PRIs was greater than that for non-member PRIs. As for the characteristics of TT consortia, their respective factors obtained by TT expert survey were computed with proportion tests of differences (Z tests) to compare two perspectives between intramural and extramural groups. One of key findings is that there is general homogeneity in stakeholder perspectives regarding motivations, facilitators, barriers, and challenges. Some notable responses are as follow; the most probable motivation to join TT consortium is to share or exchange TT competences for enhanced performance. Second, the most probable facilitator is professional capability of consortium-hired personnel. Third, the foremost probable barriers to effective TT consortium are frequent change of consortium director and passive participation of member PRIs. Lastly, both publicizing TT consortia and developing performance metrics are the most important for the improvement of TT consortia. The understanding of the characteristics of TT consortia increases the likelihood of accelerated success, because TT consortia path from formation to termination encompasses many concepts, processes, principles, and factors. Finally, an analysis of the survey data combined with expert interview and observation data led the authors to derive five conditions as being critical to viable TT consortia in Korea at early stage of technology transfer systems. These conditions include policy infrastructure, proactive participation, excellent professionals, personal motivation, and teaming mechanisms. It is expected that the Korean evidence is a starting point to develop and refine the theory of TT consortia and for additional studies in other countries.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.29-54
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• 2007

Nuclear Power Sources(NPS) have been used since 1961 for the purpose of generating energy for space objects and have since then been recognized as particularly suited essential to some space operations. In January 1978 a malfuctioning Soviet nuclear powered satellite, Cosmos 954, re-entered the earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over a wide area of the Canadian Northwest Territory. This incident provided some reasons to international legal scholars to make some principles to regulate using NPS in outer space. In 1992 General Assembly adopted "Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space". These NPS Principles set out certain legal and regulatory requirements on the use of nuclear and radioactive power sources for non-propulsive purposes. Although these principles, called 'soft laws', are not legal norms, they have much enfluences on state practices such as 1983 DBS Principles(Principles Governing the Use by States of Artificial Earth Satellites for International Direct Television Broadcasting), 1986 RS Principles(Principles Relating to Remote Sensing of the Earth from Space) and 1996 Declaration on International Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for the Benefit and in the Interests of all States, Taking into Particular Account the Needs of Developing Countries. As far as 1963 Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space is concerned the main points such as free use of outer space, non-appropriation of celestial bodies, application of international law to outer space etc. have become customary international law binding all states. NPS Principles might have similar characters according to states' willingness to respect them.