• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.54-69
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• 2023

Purpose: Proteins are major components of the body and essential nutrients for proper growth and development. However, studies on protein intake in children and adolescents are insufficient. A few previous studies have reported the relationship with growth indicators, but results vary depending on the source of protein. Therefore, the current study investigates the relationship between protein intake and overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Korea. Methods: Based on the 2014-2019 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 5,567 children and adolescents aged 6-18 years, who participated in a 24-hour dietary recall with information on height and weight, were included in this study. Protein intake was estimated as percentage of total energy (% of energy) and was classified into animal and plant protein according to the food source. Overweight and obesity were defined using the 2017 pediatric and adolescent growth chart. Results: Total protein intake of the subjects was estimated as 14.5% of total energy (animal protein 8.3% and plant protein 6.3%). The group with the highest total protein intake had a higher odds ratio (OR) of overweight/obesity than those with the least protein intake (OR, 1.36, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.10-1.67, p for trend = 0.003). When classified by food source, the group with the highest animal protein intake had a significantly higher OR of overweight/obesity than subjects with the lowest intake (OR, 1.30, 95% CI, 1.05-1.61, p for trend = 0.016). However, plant protein was not significantly associated with overweight/obesity. Conclusions: These findings suggest that a high intake of animal protein in children and adolescents increases the risk of being overweight and obese. In order to develop normal growth and prevent obesity in the future, it is necessary to determine an appropriate protein intake level through nutrition education programs and prospective studies on balanced protein intake.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.56-63
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• 2023

In this study, two cases of food poisoning caused by Salmonella that occurred in Gyeongsangnam-do in September 2021 are reported. One of the outbreaks occurred in a school and the other in a company. The molecular epidemiological characteristics of the isolated strains in the two outbreaks were analyzed. In the case of the school outbreak, 29 (4.9%) of 588 individuals experienced diarrhea and abdominal pain. As a result of a test of 36 individuals (patients, n=29; cook workers, n=7), Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis was detected in 17 (47.2%) patients, suggesting this serotype was the principal cause. Meanwhile, Salmonella spp. were not detected in 35 food and environmental samples. In the company outbreak, 87 (3.0%) of 2,900 individuals who had intaked from the same source experienced diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever. In a test of 50 individuals (patients, n=40; cook workers, n=10), S. Enteritidis was detected in 28 patients (56.0%). Also, Vibrio cholerae (NAG) was detected in four patients with S. Enteritidis, and V. cholerae (NAG) only was detected in one patient. Salmonella spp. were not detected in 118 preserved foods, but S. Enteritidis was detected in one eaten food (toast) delivered in group by the company. Through PFGE genetic homology analysis of the isolated strains, all S. Enteritidis detected in patients and consumed foods were the same type. It seems that these S. Enteritidis isolates were the same type as detected in a previous school outbreak and in patients of group food poisoning in other regions, leading to an enhanced problem of food poisoning and epidemiology. Our analytic results can provide data for epidemiological management and food poisoning prevention based on molecular characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.62-90
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• 2023

This study was conducted to study the vascular plants of Balbaeksan, located on the border between Gyeongsan-si and Cheongdo-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do. It was performed 13 times from September 2020 to November 2021, and the investigated vascular plants were identified as a total of 93 families, 302 genera, 485 species, 10 subspecies, 40 varieties, 13 varieties, and 545 taxa. Endemic plants were investigated in 18 taxa, 9 taxa of rare plants; Vulnerable (VU) 5 taxa, Least concerned (LC) 3 taxa, Data Deficient (DD) 1 taxa, Red List plants 5 taxa; 3 taxa of least concerned (LC), 2 taxa of Not Evaluated (NE), 183 taxa of biological resources subject to export approval, 78 taxa of specific taxonomy; There were 9 taxa of grade IV, 20 taxa of grade III, 20 taxa of grade II, and 28 taxa of grade I. 4 taxa of plants subject to climate change adaptation; 2 taxa of endemic plants, 1 taxa of southern plants, 1 taxa of northern plants, 4 taxa of climate change biomarker species, 2 taxa of candidate species of climate change biomarker, 65 taxa of exotic plants, and 3 taxa of ecosystem disturbance species. Plants 235 taxa (43.1%), medicinal plants 257 taxa (47.2%), ornamental plants 148 taxa (27.2%), woody plants 54 taxa (9.9%), herbaceous plants 37 taxa (6.8%), industrial plants 15 Taxa (2.8%), 11 taxa (2.0%) of fiber-bearing plants, and plants of unknown use were identified as 73 taxa (13.4%). The flora of Mt. Balbaek was investigated for the first time, and plants to be preserved in order to secure useful plant resources and biological sovereignty were identified. So continuous monitoring is necessary to prevent the introduction of foreign plants that may be caused by the recent increase in the number of people coming and going.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.548-556
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• 2022

Acylases can have a significant effect on biofilm formation owing to their quorum quenching activity. In this study, we investigated the effects of acylase treatment episodes on multispecies biofilm development. A consortium composed of 9 species belonging to different genera was allowed to form biofilms for 5 days under various treatment episodes (different treatment periods, 1, 2, 3, or 4 days; and two application timings, beginning or later) at 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 mg·l^-1 acylase concentrations. The acylase treatment for 5 days showed that acylase concentration was negative with biofilm development (linear regression, Y = -0.05·x + 2.37, p < 0.05, R² = 0.88). Acylase was more effective in reducing biofilm formation when it was applied in the beginning (vs. in later development stage) at all acylase concentrations (p < 0.05). ANOVA indicated that treatment period was significant on biofilm formation in both application timings at ≥ 10 mg·l^-1 (p < 0.05). Linearity test results showed that all slope values between period and biofilm were negative in both timings at ≥ 10 mg·l^-1 (p < 0.05, except for the later application at 20 mg·l^-1). When temporal biofilm dynamics were monitored at 20 mg·l^-1, biofilms gradually increased with time at all treatment episodes (p < 0.05), and slope values in linear regression between biofilm and time were lower when acylase was applied in the beginning (p < 0.05). Our findings suggest the importance of the acylase treatment period and application timing on biofilm control.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.99-110
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• 2023

Non-point source (NP) pollutants in an agricultural landuse are discharged from a large area compared to those in other land uses, and thus effective source control measures are needed. To develop appropriate control measures, it is necessary to quantify discharge load of each source and evaluate the degree of water quality improvement by implementing different options of the control measures. This study used Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF) to quantify pollutant discharge loads from different sources and effects of different control measures on water quality improvements, thereby supporting decision making in developing appropirate pollutant control strategies. The study area is the Gyeseong river watershed in Changnyeong county, Gyeongsangnam-do, with agricultural areas occupying the largest proportion (26.13%) of the total area except for the forest area. The main pollutant sources include chemical and liquid fertilizers for agricultural activities, and manure produced from small scale livestock facilities and applied to agriculture lands or stacked near the facilities. Source loads of chemical fertilizers, liquid fertilizers and livestock manure of small scale livestock facilities, and point sources such as municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), community WWTPs, private sewage treament plants were considered in the HSPF model setup. Especially, NITR and PHOS modules were used to simulate detailed fate and transport processes including vegitation uptake, nutrient deposition, adsorption/desorption, and loss by deep percolation. The HSPF model was calibrated and validated based on the observed data from 2015 to 2020 at the outlet of the watershed. The calibrated model showed reasonably good performance in simulating the flow and water quality. Five Pollutants control scenarios were established from three sectors: agriculture pollution management (drainge outlet control, and replacement of controlled release fertilizers), livestock pollution management (liquid fertilizer reduction, and 'manure management of small scale livestock facilities) and private STP management. Each pollutant control measure was further divided into short-term, mid-term, and long-term scenarios based on the potential achievement period. The simulation results showed that the most effective control measure is the replacement of controlled release fertilizers followed by the drainge outlet control and the manure management of small scale livestock facilities. Furthermore, the simulation showed that application of all the control measures in the entire watershed can decrease the annual TN and TP loads at the outlet by 40.6% and 41.1%, respectively, and the annual average concentrations of TN and TP at the outlet by 35.1% and 29.2%, respectively. This study supports decision makers in priotizing different pollutant control measures based on their predicted performance on the water quality improvements in an agriculturally dominated watershed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 2023

Solar radiation that is measured at relatively small number of weather stations is one of key inputs to crop models for estimation of crop productivity. Solar radiation products derived from GK-2A and Himawari 8 satellite data have become available, which would allow for preparation of input data to crop models, especially for assessment of crop productivity under an agrivoltaic system where crop and power can be produced at the same time. The objective of this study was to compare the degree of agreement between the solar radiation products obtained from those satellite data. The sub hourly products for solar radiation were collected to prepare their daily summary for the period from May to October in 2020 during which both satellite products for solar radiation were available. Root mean square error (RMSE) and its normalized error (NRMSE) were determined for daily sum of solar radiation. The cumulative values of solar radiation for the study period were also compared to represent the impact of the errors for those products on crop growth simulations. It was found that the data product from the Himawari 8 satellite tended to have smaller values of RMSE and NRMSE than that from the GK-2A satellite. The Himawari 8 satellite product had smaller errors at a large number of weather stations when the cumulative solar radiation was compared with the measurements. This suggests that the use of Himawari 8 satellite products would cause less uncertainty than that of GK2-A products for estimation of crop yield. This merits further studies to apply the Himawari 8 satellites to estimation of solar power generation as well as crop yield under an agrivoltaic system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.143-152
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• 2023

This study was conducted on 115 students from 4 classes of 2nd year intensive courses at B University of Education. Elementary preservice teachers were surveyed on what teaching methods they were aware of regarding the subject of elementary science astronomy. Recognition data of 80 people from whom the questionnaire was collected were analyzed. For this study, a 5-day survey was conducted. Elementary preservice teachers complained of difficulties in teaching methods in the astronomy area among various areas of the science department. The purpose of this study was to find out what difficulties elementary preservice teachers have in teaching elementary science astronomy topics, and to find more efficient teaching methods for teaching astronomy topics. The topic of the survey was set by discussing with the preparatory elementary teachers about what kind of survey to use in teaching the subject of elementary science astronomy. There are many topics for elementary science astronomy, but two questionnaires were prepared focusing on the unit on the earth and the moon. 'What does the earth look like?' in Unit 4 (1/10) of the 3rd year, 1st semester In Unit 2 (1/11) of the 1st semester of the 6th grade, it was set as 'What does the moon look like?'. Candidly describe how to teach the subject of astronomy to elementary school students by mobilizing all the background knowledge of preparatory elementary teachers. The results of these surveys were visualized and displayed using Netminer as a language analysis method, and the contents of the responses to the actual surveys by pre-service elementary school teachers were described and interpreted. Based on these results, preparatory elementary teachers tried to suggest a more efficient teaching method for the subject of elementary science astronomy. In addition, basic procedures and methods for lecturing on the subject of elementary science astronomy were presented. A more efficient teaching method for teaching elementary science astronomy subjects to pre-service elementary teachers was suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 2023

The contribution of hydrophobic residues to the protein folding reaction was studied by using HubWA variant proteins with I and L to V mutation. Folding kinetics of all V variant proteins was observed to be satisfied by a three-state on-pathway mechanism, U ⇌ I ⇌ N, where U, I, and N represent unfolded, intermediate, and native state, respectively. Three-state folding reaction was quantitatively analyzed and the free energy of folding of each elementary reactions and overall folding reaction, ΔG^o_UI, ΔG^o_IN, and ΔG^o_UN, were obtained. From the ratio of free energy difference between the variant protein and HubWA, ΔΔG^o_UI/ΔΔG^o_UN (ΔΔG^o_UI = ΔG^o_UI (variant protein) - ΔG^o_UI (HubWA) and ΔΔG^o_UN = ΔG^o_UN (variant protein) - ΔG^o_UN(HubWA)), the contribution of hydrophobic residues to HubWA folding was analyzed. The residues which are located in the hydrophobic core between α-helix and β-sheet, I3, I13, L15, I30, L43, I61 and L67, showed ΔΔG^o_UI/ΔΔG^o_UN value of ~0.5 when each of these residues was mutated to V, indicating that these residues form relatively solid hydrophobic core in the intermediate state. Residues located at the end of secondary structures and loop, I23, L69 and I36 showed ΔΔG^o_UI/ΔΔG^o_UN value below 0.4 when each of these residues was mutated to V, indicating that the region containing these residues are loosely formed in the intermediate state. V17A, L50V and L56V showed fairly high ΔΔG^o_UI/ΔΔG^o_UN value of ~0.8. Since L50 and L56 are located in the region containing long loop (residue 46 to 62), it is suggested that the high ΔΔG^o_UI/ΔΔG^o_UN value of these residues prevents the formation of aggregate at the early stage of folding reaction.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2023

This study aimed to investigate the effect of a coating agent on pork storage. Pork was coated with a coating agent containing sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and mandarin peel powder (M). The treatments were divided into control, a 0.1% CMC treatment, and a 0.1% CMC +5% M treatment, and pH, color, 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), volatile basic nitrogen (VBN), and the number of viable cell counts were measured. In the case of redness (a), it was found that the reduction over the storage period was less in the 0.1% CMC + 5% M treatment than in the control and the 1% CMC treatment. When stored at 4℃ and 25℃, TBARS of pork tended to increase during the storage period, followed by control, 0.1% CMC treatment, and 0.1% CMC + 5% M treatment, indicating that lipid oxidation was most suppressed in pork coated with mandarin peel powder. As a result of measuring the VBN of pork stored at 4℃ and 25℃, the 0.1% CMC + 5% M treatment showed lower values than the control and 0.1% CMC treatment. When the film-coated pork was stored at 4℃, the number of viable cell counts in the 0.1% CMC +5% M treatment area was 7.13±0.96 log CFU/g on the 12th day of storage, delaying the growth of viable cell counts for approximately 3 d more than other treatments. Therefore, coating pork with a film containing CMC and mandarin peel powder has been confirmed to delay the increase in the number of viable cell counts while reducing the quality change during pork storage, which is an effective alternative to improving the storage of fresh food as an edible film.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.66-77
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• 2023

Background: Along with the increase in consumer interest in and consumption of tattoo products, the controversy over harmful heavy metals associated with the use of tattoo cosmetics is also increasing. Therefore, investigation of hazardous metals in these tattoo products is needed. Objectives: This study was performed to provide useful data for establishing reasonable standards to securely manage tattoo cosmetics, tattoo stickers, and tattoo inks distributed in the market. Methods: Thirteen kinds of hazardous metal contents (Pb, As, Cd, Sb, Ni, Co, Cu, Cr, Se, Ba, Zn, Sn, and Hg) were analyzed for 23 tattoo cosmetics, ten tattoo stickers, and 16 tattoo inks. Hg was measured through the combustion-gold amalgamation method, and other hazardous metals were measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after acidic decomposition using a microwave apparatus. Results: The detected ranges of Pb, As, Cd, Sb, Ni, and Hg in tattoo cosmetics were 0.07~1.18, 0.06~0.41, ND~0.07, 0.01~3.44, 0.12~2.75, and ND~0.01 ㎍/g, respectively. All of the hazardous metals detected were below the recommended maximum standards of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. The mean amount of Pb detected in tattoo stickers for children was 0.24 ㎍/kg and Cd was not detected, meaning both metals met the recommended criteria. There was no statistically significant difference in all measured metals between children's tattoo stickers and adults' tattoo stickers. In the results of the study on the hazardous metal content of tattoo inks, four products (25%) for Pb, one product (6%) for As, 13 products (81%) for Ni, four products (25%) for Cu, and five products (31%) for Zn exceeded the recommended standards approved by the government. The highest predicted exposure amount for hazardous metals exceeding the recommended level of tattoo inks in a single tattooing was 5.69 ㎍/kg for Ni, 8.51 ㎍/kg for Zn, 0.44 ㎍/kg for Pb, 8.07 ㎍/kg for Cu, 0.44 ㎍/kg for As, and 71.36 ㎍/kg for Ba. Conclusions: It is necessary to prepare criteria for content limitation for the management of Co, Cr, Ba and Se tattoo cosmetics, and tattoo inks require thorough quality control.