• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.5-7
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• 1974

1. This study indicates that above the fiber saturation point the drying rate can be increased with increasing the velocity of the air circutation, i.e., the drying rate of sample boards is proportional to the air velocity, but below the fiber saturation point, the effect of the velocity of air circulation is very low as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. 2. Under the controlled temperature and humidity in the kiln, the more the sample boards have moisture, the higher drying rate of it can be obtained. In other words, this means that even though in the case of drying various moisture content of wood, at the final drying stage, approximately the same percentage of moisture content of wood can be secured by employing the higher velocity of air circulation. 3. This study shows that the rate of drying in kiln changes distinctly at the fiber saturation point, i, e., above the fiber saturation point, the drying curve shows concave aginst the X axsis, but below the fiber saturation point, in the range from 30 percent of moisture content to 20 percent of moisture content, the curve shows convex as shown in Fig. 3. As the drying progresses, however, the drying curve shows concave again below 20 percent of moisture content. This means that inflection point of drying curve may be located clearly at the fiber saturation point, i.e., 30 percent of moisture content. As mentioned above, the 30 percent of moisture content of wood at which the inflectional point appears can be recognized as a critical point, i. e., the fiber saturation point at which all free water was removed from wood. The existence of inflectional point indicates that the evaporation of hygroscopic water in a cell wall is more difficult than the evaporation of free water in a cell cavity and the minor space of cell wall. The convex curve in the range of moisture content from 30 percent to 20 percent means that the evaporation of capillary condensed water has a tendency of the same rates of drying approximately, but as approaching to the 20 percent of moisture, the transfusion of moisture from wood becomes difficult because of having less moisture in cell wall. Below 20 percent of moisture content, the drying curve shows concave again, which means that it is difficult to remove the moisture located nearer to the surface of cellulose molecules and the surface bound water. These relations were revealed in Fig. 4. In comparison AC curve which does not have the two inflection points with BD curve which has two inflection points, i.e., Band D, they are mentioned already, by existence of the inflection points, the curve BD shows that the change of drying rate in the interval from 20 percent of moisture content to 30 percent of moisture content is not greater than in the case of the curve AC in the same interval. At the inflection point of 30 percent of moisture content, it can be noticed that the changing of the drying rate is very conspicuous. This phenomenon also can be recognized, as it is noticed by the Fig. 3, the drying rate from green to 30 percent of moisture content is very great. But the inclination of the curve is very slow from 30 percent of moisture content to 20 percent of moisture content, i.e., the inclination of the curve becomes almost horizontal lines. Acknowledgments Gratitude is expressed to Fred E. Dickinson, Professor of 'Wood Technology, School of Natural Resources, University of Michigan, USA for his suggestion to carry out this study.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.353-360
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• 1984

As an effort to expand the utilization of mackerel which has been thought disadvantageous to processors due to the defects in bloody dark color of meat, high content of lipid, and low stability of protein, and to develope a new type of product, so called, preservative fish meat paste, the processing method was studied in which dielectric heating was applied by means of cooking, pasteurization, dehydration, and control of water activity. The principle of this method is based on that dielectric heating can initiate a rapid dispersion or displacement of moisture in the meat tissue so that the level of water acivity can be controlled by dehydration with hot air meanwhile the product is cooked, pasteurized, and texturized. And the product is finally heated with electric heaters and vacuum sealed to stabilize water activity and storage stability. In present paper, a formula for preparing the fish meat-stach paste, the conditions of dielectric heating and dehydration, shape and size of the product, and other parameters were tested to optimize the process operation. A formula of the fish meat-starch paste to provide proper textural properties and water activity was $10\%$ starch, $1.5\%$ salt, $3\%$ soybean, $0.6\%$ MSG, $2\%$ sucrose, and $3\%$ sorbitol against the weight of fish meat. A proper shape and size of the product to avoid foaming and case hardening during heating was sliced disc of 8 cm $diameter{\times}0.8$ cm thickness or $10{\times}10$ cm square plate with 1.0 cm thickness. The disc shape was recommended because it resulted more uniform heating, minimum foaming and case hardening. And it was also advantageous that disc was simply provided when the fish meat disc was stuffed in the same, solidified in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes, and sliced. Condition of dielectric heating was critical to decide the levels of sterility, water activity, and textural property of the product. The temperature at the center of the meat disc slices was raised up to $95^{\circ}C$ in 1.5 minutes so that continuous exposure to microwave caused expanded tissue and hardening ending up with a higher water content. Heating for 5 to 6 minutes was adequate to yield the final water activity of 0.86 to 0.83(35 to $40\%$ moisture). It is important, however, that heating had to be done periodically, for instance, in the manner of 2.0, 1.5, 1.5, and 1.0 minute to give enough time to displace or evaporate moisture from the meat tissue. The product was dehydrated for 2 to 3 minutes by hot air of $60^{\circ}C$, 3 to 5m/sec and finally exposed to electric heaters for 5 to 6 minutes until the surface was roasted deep brown. These conditions of heating and dehydration resulted in a complete reduction of total plate count from an initial count of $5.3{\times}10^6/g$ to less than $3{\times}10^2/g$. General composition of the product was $40.1\%$ moisture, $20.8\%$ protein, $17.4\%$ lipid, $16.2\%$ carbohydrate, and $5.5\%$ ash. Textural properties revealed folding test AA, hardness 42, cohesiveness 0.53, toughness 4.6, and elasticity 0.8.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2016

Sesquiterpenoids are defined as $C_{15}$ compounds derived from farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP), and their complex structures are found in the tissue of many diverse plants (Degenhardt et al. 2009). FPP's long chain length and additional double bond enables its conversion to a huge range of mono-, di-, and tri-cyclic structures. A number of cyclic sesquiterpenes with alcohol, aldehyde, and ketone derivatives have key biological and medicinal properties (Fraga 1999). Fungi, such as the wood-rotting Polyporus brumalis, are excellent sources of pharmaceutically interesting natural products such as sesquiterpenoids. In this study, we investigated the biosynthesis of P. brumalis sesquiterpenoids on modified medium. Fungal suspensions of 11 white rot species were inoculated in modified medium containing $C_6H_{12}O_6$, $C_4H_{12}N_2O_6$, $KH_2PO_4$, $MgSO_4$, and $CaCl_2$ for 20 days. Cultivation was stopped by solvent extraction via separation of the mycelium. The metabolites were identified as follows: propionic acid (1), mevalonic acid lactone (2), ${\beta}$-eudesmane (3), and ${\beta}$-eudesmol (4), respectively (Figure 1). The main peaks of ${\beta}$-eudesmane and ${\beta}$-eudesmol, which were indicative of sesquiterpene structures, were consistently detected for 5, 7, 12, and 15 days These results demonstrated the existence of terpene metabolism in the mycelium of P. brumalis. Polyporus spp. are known to generate flavor components such as methyl 2,4-dihydroxy-3,6-dimethyl benzoate; 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-6-methyl benzoic acid; 3-hydroxy-5-methyl phenol; and 3-methoxy-2,5-dimethyl phenol in submerged cultures (Hoffmann and Esser 1978). Drimanes of sesquiterpenes were reported as metabolites from P. arcularius and shown to exhibit antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus (Fleck et al. 1996). The main metabolites of P. brumalis, ${\beta}$-Eudesmol and ${\beta}$-eudesmane, were categorized as eudesmane-type sesquiterpene structures. The eudesmane skeleton could be biosynthesized from FPP-derived IPP, and approximately 1,000 structures have been identified in plants as essential oils. The biosynthesis of eudesmol from P. brumalis may thus be an important tool for the production of useful natural compounds as presumed from its identified potent bioactivity in plants. Essential oils comprising eudesmane-type sesquiterpenoids have been previously and extensively researched (Wu et al. 2006). ${\beta}$-Eudesmol is a well-known and important eudesmane alcohol with an anticholinergic effect in the vascular endothelium (Tsuneki et al. 2005). Additionally, recent studies demonstrated that ${\beta}$-eudesmol acts as a channel blocker for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction, and it can inhibit angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo by blocking the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway (Seo et al. 2011). Variation of nutrients was conducted to determine an optimum condition for the biosynthesis of sesquiterpenes by P. brumalis. Genes encoding terpene synthases, which are crucial to the terpene synthesis pathway, generally respond to environmental factors such as pH, temperature, and available nutrients (Hoffmeister and Keller 2007, Yu and Keller 2005). Calvo et al. described the effect of major nutrients, carbon and nitrogen, on the synthesis of secondary metabolites (Calvo et al. 2002). P. brumalis did not prefer to synthesize sesquiterpenes under all growth conditions. Results of differences in metabolites observed in P. brumalis grown in PDB and modified medium highlighted the potential effect inorganic sources such as $C_4H_{12}N_2O_6$, $KH_2PO_4$, $MgSO_4$, and $CaCl_2$ on sesquiterpene synthesis. ${\beta}$-eudesmol was apparent during cultivation except for when P. brumalis was grown on $MgSO_4$-free medium. These results demonstrated that $MgSO_4$ can specifically control the biosynthesis of ${\beta}$-eudesmol. Magnesium has been reported as a cofactor that binds to sesquiterpene synthase (Agger et al. 2008). Specifically, the $Mg^{2+}$ ions bind to two conserved metal-binding motifs. These metal ions complex to the substrate pyrophosphate, thereby promoting the ionization of the leaving groups of FPP and resulting in the generation of a highly reactive allylic cation. Effect of magnesium source on the sesquiterpene biosynthesis was also identified via analysis of the concentration of total carbohydrates. Our current study offered further insight that fungal sesquiterpene biosynthesis can be controlled by nutrients. To profile the metabolites of P. brumalis, the cultures were extracted based on the growth curve. Despite metabolites produced during mycelia growth, there was difficulty in detecting significant changes in metabolite production, especially those at low concentrations. These compounds may be of interest in understanding their synthetic mechanisms in P. brumalis. The synthesis of terpene compounds began during the growth phase at day 9. Sesquiterpene synthesis occurred after growth was complete. At day 9, drimenol, farnesol, and mevalonic lactone (or mevalonic acid lactone) were identified. Mevalonic acid lactone is the precursor of the mevalonic pathway, and particularly, it is a precursor for a number of biologically important lipids, including cholesterol hormones (Buckley et al. 2002). Farnesol is the precursor of sesquiterpenoids. Drimenol compounds, bi-cyclic-sesquiterpene alcohols, can be synthesized from trans-trans farnesol via cyclization and rearrangement (Polovinka et al. 1994). They have also been identified in the basidiomycota Lentinus lepideus as secondary metabolites. After 12 days in the growth phase, ${\beta}$-elemene caryophyllene, ${\delta}$-cadiene, and eudesmane were detected with ${\beta}$-eudesmol. The data showed the synthesis of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons with bi-cyclic structures. These compounds can be synthesized from FPP by cyclization. Cyclic terpenoids are synthesized through the formation of a carbon skeleton from linear precursors by terpene cyclase, which is followed by chemical modification by oxidation, reduction, methylation, etc. Sesquiterpene cyclase is a key branch-point enzyme that catalyzes the complex intermolecular cyclization of the linear prenyl diphosphate into cyclic hydrocarbons (Toyomasu et al. 2007). After 20 days in stationary phase, the oxygenated structures eudesmol, elemol, and caryophyllene oxide were detected. Thus, after growth, sesquiterpenes were identified. Per these results, we showed that terpene metabolism in wood-rotting fungi occurs in the stationary phase. We also showed that such metabolism can be controlled by magnesium supplementation in the growth medium. In conclusion, we identified P. brumalis as a wood-rotting fungus that can produce sesquiterpenes. To mechanistically understand eudesmane-type sesquiterpene biosynthesis in P. brumalis, further research into the genes regulating the dynamics of such biosynthesis is warranted.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.69-89
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• 1981

Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) is a perennial herb widely distributed in the mountainous area of Paraguay. It belongs to the family Compositae and contains 6 to 12 percent stevioside in the leaves. Stevioside is a glucoside having similar sweetening character to surgar and the degree of sweetness is approximately 300 times of sugar. Since Korea does not produce any sugar crops, and the synthetic sweetenings are potentially hazardous for health, it is rather urgent to develop an economical new sweetener. Consequently, the current experiments are conducted to establish cultural practices of stevia, a new sweetening herbs, introduced into Korea in 1973 and the results are summarized as followings: 1. Days from transplanting of cuttings to the flower bud formation of 6 stevia lines were similar among daylengths of 8, 10 and 12 hours, but it was much greater at daylengths of 14 or 24 hour and varietal differences were noticable. All lines were photosensitive, but a line, 77013, was the most sensitive and 77067 and Suweon 2 were less sensitive to daylength. 2. Critical daylength of all lines seemed to be approximately 12 hours. Growth of plants was severely retarded at daylengths less than 12 hours. 3. Cutting were responded to short daylength before rooting. Number of days from transplanting to flower bud formation of 40-day old cuttings in the nursery bed was 20 days and it was delayed as duration of nursery were shorter. 4. Number of days from emergence to flower bud formation was shortest at short day treatment from 20 days after emergence. It was became longer as initiation of short day treatment was earlier or later than 20 days. 5. Plant height, number of branches, and top dry weight of stevia were reduced as cutting date was delayed from March 20 to May 20. The highest yield of dry leaf was obtained at nursery duration of 40-50 days in march 20 cutting, 30-40 days in April 20 cutting, and 30 days in May 20 cutting. 6. An asymptotic relationship was observed between plant population and leaf dry weight. Yield of dry leaf increased rapidly as plant population increased from 5,000 to 10,000 plants/10a with a reduced increasing rate from 10,000 to 20,000 plants/l0a, and levelled off at the plant population higher than 20,000 plants/l0a. 7. Stevia was adaptable in Suweon, Chengju, Mokpo and Jeju and drought was one of the main factors reducing yield of dry leaf. Yield of dry leaf was reduced significantly (approximately 30%) at June 20 transplanting compared to optimum transplanting. 8. Yield of dry leaf was higher in a vinyl house compared to unprotected control at long daylength or natural daylength except at short day treatment at March 20. Higher temperature ill a vinyl house does not have benefital effects at April 20 transplanting. 9. The highest content of stevioside was noted at the upper leaves of the plant but the lowest was measured at the plant parts of 20cm above ground. Leaf dry weight and stevioside yield was mainly contributed by the plant parts of 60 to 120cm above ground but the varietal differences were also significant. 10. Delayed harvest by the time of flower bud formation increased leaf dry weight remarkably. However, there were insignificant changes of yield as harvests were made at any time after flower bud formation. Content of stevioside was highest at the time of flower bud formation and earlier or later harvest than this time was low in its content. The optimum harvesting time determined by leaf dry weight and stevioside content was the periods from flower bud formation to right before flowering that would be the period from September 10 to September 15 in Suweon area. 11. Stevioside and rebaudioside content in the leaves of Stevia varieties were ranged from 5.4% to 14.3% and 1.5% to 8.3% respectively. However, no definit relationships between stevioside and rebaudioside were observed in these particular experiments.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.261-272
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• 2004

This study was conducted to investigate indices affecting composts maturity for swine manure compost produced in a commercial composting facility with air-forced from the bottom. The composting was made of swine manure mixed with puffing rice hull(6: 4) and turned by escalating agitator twice a day. Composting samples were collected periodically during a 45-d composting cycle at that system, showing that indices of Ammonium-N to Nitrate-N ratio were sensitive indicators of composting quality. Pile temperature maintained more than 62$^{\circ}C$ and water contents decreased about 20% for 25days of composting. A great variety and high numbers of aerobic thermophilic heterotropic microbes playing critical roles in stability of composts have been examined in the final composts, sbowing that they were detected $10^8$ to $10^{10}$ $CFUg^{-1}$ in mesophilic bacteria, $10^3$ - $10^4$ in fungi and $10^6$ - $10^8$ in actinomycetes, respectively. The results of this study for detennining a factor affecting compost stability evaluations based on composting steps were as follows; 1. Ammonium-N concentrations were highest at the beginning of composting, reaching approximately 421mg/kg. However Ammonium-N concentrations were lower during curing, reaching approximately l04mg/kg just after 45 day. The ratio between $NH_4-N$ and $NO_3-N$ was above II at the beginning of composting and less than 2 at the final step(45 day). 2. Seed germination Index was dependent upon the compost phytotoxicity and its nutrition. The phytotocity caused the GI to low during the period of active composting(till 25 days of composting time) depending on the value of the undiluted. After 25 days of composting time, the GI was dependent upon compost nutrition. The Gennination index of the final step was calculated at over 80 without regard to treatments. 3. E4: E6 ratio in humic acid of composts was correlatively decreased from 8.86 to 6.76 during the period of active composting. After 25 days of composting time, the E4: E6 was consistently decreased from 6.76 to 4.67($r^2$ of total composting period was 0.95). 4. Water soluble carbon had a tendency to increase from 0.54% to 0.78%during the period of active composting. After 25 days of composting time, it was consistently decreased from 0.78% to 0.42%. Water soluble nitrogen increased from 0.22% to 0.32% during the period of 15 days after initial composting while decreased from 0.32% to 0.21% after 15days of composting. In consequence, the correlation coefficient($r^2$) between water soluble carbon and water soluble nitrogen was 0.12 during the period of active composting mule was 0.50 after 25 days of composting time

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.235-244
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• 1991

An epidemiological study and mass treatments of Enterobius vermicularis infection among children near Wonju area of Kangwon province were carried out. The children were divided into 4 groups according to their residing localities; children in the mountainous area, rural area, urban area and in orphanage. They were examined by adhesive cellotape anal swab technique, and egg positive rates were obtained. The rates of egg reduction and re-infection rates after repeated mass treatments were also observed. The results obtained were as follows: 1. The overall egg Positive rate of E. vermicularis in the first screening was 19.9% (251 out of 1, 262 examinees; 19.7% in males and 20.1% in females). The positive rates were 13.0% in the mountainous area, 11 9% in the rural area, 15.1% in the urban (medium-sized) area and 61.9% in orphanages. 2. The highest positive rates were observed in the kindergarten children, and 1st and 2nd grade children of primary schools (26.2~32.2%), and the lowest rate (13.6%) in 6-year grade children of primary schools. 3. Cumulative detection rates from 3 repeated anal swabs at 4~5 days interval were higher (70.8%) than those from single anal swabs (50.0~59.2%). 4. Out of the examinees who showed the highest cumulative positive rate (70.8%), about 39.2% were consecutively positive in 3 anal swabs. Among different groups of children, the higher the total egg detection rates (87.5%), the higher the consecutive positive rates (71.9%) . 5. A total of 2, 609 (male : female=1 : 12.4) worms were collected from 17 egg-positive cases treated with anthelinintics. The mean number of worms per child was 153 (range: 4-824) . 6. The egg-positive cases in several studied groups (180 children) were treated with anthelmintics 6 times at 3-week intervals. In this case, the overall positive rate was decreased from 54.8% to 2.2% at 15 weeks after the treatments, but no complete negative conversion was experienced. However, in a group of children (154 children) including egg Positive and negative cases who were both treated with anthelmintics at 3-week interval, a complete egg-negative conversion was observed in the 9th week after treatments. 7. The egg-detection rate in the brothers or sisters of egg Positive children was 70.0% (28 out of 40 examined), and the egg-positive rate according to the family unit was 69.7%. In summarizing the above results, it is concluded that Enterobius vermicularis infection is still highly prevalent among children in Korea, and that repeated mass treatments of more than 3 times will be effective for control of this infection.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.3-30
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• 1979

Larch ($\underline{Larix}$ $\underline{leptolepis}$ GORDON), one of the major afforestation species in Korea in view of its growing stock and rate of growth, is not favored as a raw material for pulp due to its low yield of pulp and difficulties with bleaching arising from the high content of extractives in wood, and the high heartwood ratio and the active phenolics, respectively. The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of firstly pulping with various additives of cellulose protector for the yield of pulp, and secondly bleaching with oxygen for chlotination-alkali extraction of five stage-sequence to reduce chlorine compounds in bleaching effluents. The kraft cooking liquor for five age groups of larchwood was 18 percent active alkali with 25 percent sulfidity and 5 : 1 liquor-to-wood ratio, and each soda liquor for sap-and heart-wood of the 15-year-old larchwood was 18 percent alkali having one of the following cellulose protectors as the additive; magnesium sulfate ($MgSO_4$, 2.5%), zinc sulfate ($ZnSO_4$, 2.5%), aluminium sulfate ($Al_2(SO_4)_3$, 2.5%), potasium iodide (KI, 2.5%), hydroquinone (HQ, 2.5%), anthraquinone (AQ, 0.1%) and ethylene diamine (EDA, 2.5%). Then each anthraquinone-soda liquor for the determination of suitable cooking condition was the active alkali level of 15, 17 and 19 percent with 1.0, 0.5 and 0.1 percent anthraquinone, respectively. The cooking procedure for the pulps was scheduled to heat to 170$^{\circ}C$ in 90 minutes and to cook 90 minutes at the maximum temperature. The anthraquinone-soda pulps from both heartwood and sapwood of 15-year-old larchwood prepared with 0.5 percent anthraquinone and 18 percent active alkali were bleached in a four-stage sequency of OCED. (O: oxygen bleaching, D: chlorine dioxide bleaching and E: alkali extraction). In the first stage oxygen in atmospheric pressure was applied to a 30 percent consistency of pulp with 0.1 percent magnesium oxide (MgO) and 3, 6, and 9 percent sodium hydroxide on oven dry base, and the bleached results were compared pulps bleached under the conventional CEDED (C: chlorination). The results in the study were summarized as follows: 1. The screened yield of larch kraft pulp did not differ from particular ages to age group, but heartwood ratio, basic density, fiber length and water-extractives contents of wood and the tear factor of the pulp increased with increasing the tree age. The total yield of the pulp decreased. 2. The yield of soda pulp with various chemicals for cellulose protection of the 15-year-old larchwood increased slightly more than that of pure soda pulp and was slightly lower than that of kraft pulp. The influence of cellulose protectors was similar to the yield of pulps from both sapwood and heartwood. The effective protectors among seven additives were KI, $MgSO_4$ and AQ, for which the yields of screened pulp was as high as that of kraft pulp. Considering the additive level of protector, the AQ was the most effective in improving the yield and the quality of pulp. 3. When the amount of AQ increased in soda cooking, the yield and the quality of the pulp increased but rejects in total yield increased with decreasing the amount of active alkali from 19 to 15 percent. The best proportion of the AQ seemed to be 0.5 percent at 17 percent active alkali in anthraquinone-soda pulping. 4. On the bleaching of the AQ-soda pulp at 30 percent consistency with oxygen of atomospheric pressure in the first stage of the ODED sequence, the more caustic soda added, the brighter bleached pulp was obtained, but more lignin-selective bleaching reagent in proportion to the oxygen was necessary to maintain the increased yield with the addition of anthraquinone. 5. In conclusion, the suitable pulping condition for larchwood to improve the yield and quality of the chemical pulp to the level for kraft pulp from conventional process seemed to be. A) the selection of young larchwood to prevent decreasing in yield and quality due to the accumulation extractives in old wood, B) the application of 0.5 percent anthraquinone to the conventional soda cooking of 18 percent active alkali, and followed, C) the bleaching of oxygen in atmospheric pressure on high consistency (30%) with 0.1 percent magnesium oxide in the first stage of the ODED sequence to reduce the content of chlorine compounds in effluent.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.103-134
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• 1977

The physiological and biochemical role of potassium for upland crops according to recent research reports and the nutritional status of potassium in Korea were reviewed. Since physical and chemical characteristics of potassium ion are different from those of sodium, potassium can not completely be replaced by sodium and replacement must be limited to minimum possible functional area. Specific roles of potassium seem to keep fine structure of biological membranes such as thylacoid membrane of chloroplast in the most efficient form and to be allosteric effector and conformation controller of various enzymes principally in carbohydrate and protein metabolism. Potassium is essential to improve the efficiency of phoro- and oxidative- phosphorylation and involve deeply in all energy required metabolisms especially synthesis of organic matter and their translocation. Potassium has many important, physiological functions such as maintenance of osmotic pressure and optimum hydration of cell colloids, consequently uptake and translocation of water resulting in higher water use efficiency and of better subcellular environment for various physiological and biochemical activities. Potassium affects uptake and translocation of mineral nutrients and quality of products. potassium itself in products may become a quality criteria due to potassium essentiality for human beings. Potassium uptake is greatly decreased by low temperature and controlled by unknown feed back mechanism of potassium in plants. Thus the luxury absorption should be reconsidered. Total potassium content of upland soil in Korea is about 3% but the exchangeable one is about 0.3 me/100g soil. All upland crops require much potassium probably due to freezing and cold weather and also due to wet damage and drought caused by uneven rainfall pattern. In barley, potassium should be high at just before freezing and just after thawing and move into grain from heading for higher yield. Use efficiency of potassium was 27% for barley and 58% in old uplands, 46% in newly opened hilly lands for soybean. Soybean plant showed potassium deficiency symptom in various fields especially in newly opened hilly lands. Potassium criteria for normal growth appear 2% $K_2O$ and 1.0 K/(Ca+Mg) (content ratio) at flower bud initiation stage for soybean. Potassium requirement in plant was high in carrot, egg plant, chinese cabbage, red pepper, raddish and tomato. Potassium content in leaves was significantly correlated with yield in chinese cabbage. Sweet potato. greatly absorbed potassium subsequently affected potassium nutrition of the following crop. In the case of potassium deficiency, root showed the greatest difference in potassium content from that of normal indicating that deficiency damages root first. Potatoes and corn showed much higher potassium content in comparison with calcium and magnesium. Forage crops from ranges showed relatively high potassium content which was significantly and positively correlated with nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium content. Percentage of orchards (apple, pear, peach, grape, and orange) insufficient in potassium ranged from 16 to 25. The leaves and soils from the good apple and pear orchards showed higher potassium content than those from the poor ones. Critical ratio of $K_2O/(CaO+MgO)$ in mulberry leaves to escape from winter death of branch tip was 0.95. In the multiple croping system, exchangeable potassium in soils after one crop was affected by the previous crops and potassium uptake seemed to be related with soil organic matter providing soil moisture and aeration. Thus, the long term and quantitative investigation of various forms of potassium including total one are needed in relation to soil, weather and croping system. Potassium uptake and efficiency may be increased by topdressing, deep placement, slow-releasing or granular fertilizer application with the consideration of rainfall pattern. In all researches for nutritional explanation including potassium of crop yield reasonable and practicable nutritional indices will most easily be obtained through multifactor analysis.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2010

Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.546-555
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• 1982

To evaluate the digestibility and absorbability of proteins, and the rates of energy and nitrogen(N) metabolism of the Korean native goats, studies were carried out with open type respiration apparatus based on the nitrogen-carbon method. The results on the nitrogen retention and the metabolic rate of energy, which was obtained with one male (10-month-old) and one female (24-month-old) goats, both weighing ${\simeq}20kg$, are summarized as follows. 1. When the goats were fed ad libitum the medium quality orchard grass hay, they consumed hay about 0.66 to 0.92% of body weight per day. The hay intake was remained the same even when high quality hay was provided. This amount of hay intake was relatively lower than that of dairy goat and sheep. It was believed to be partly due to the change in feeding enviroment. When fed with hay and soybean meal together, the goats ate hay about 1.06% and soybean meal about 0.60% of body weight, corresponding to 1.66% of body weight as fed basis. 2. The $CO_2$ gas produced from the goat in the open type respiration chamber and absorbed with KOH solution was estimated to be 99~117g/day. The difference in feed intake did not influence the $CO_2$ production; however, these seems to be a linea relationship between body weight and $CO_2$ production. 3. When fed orchard grass hay only, the goats showed protein digestibility of 24~41%. The protein digestibility incresed to 58.2% when fed hay and soybean meal together. A negative nitrogen balance(-0.16g N/day) was observed with goats fed 11.53g N originated from 212g hay and 150g soybean meal. Converting that nitrogen ingested to a crude protein, the amount of crude protein intake by the goats per day was 77.9g compared to 40~45g N known to be required in a day by goat weighing 20kg, indicating that the extra protein ingested was metabolized to provide energy. 4. When the male and female goats comsumed 624 kcal gross energy and 824 kcal gross energy by consuming 158g and 213g of hay, respectively, the digestible energy intake was calculated to be 260kcal for the male and 199kcal for the female goat. The daily heat production of male and female goats were 338kcal and 334kcal, respectively, when fed hay only. However, the female goat fed 212g hay and 150g soybean meal produced about 591kcal per day. Consequently, the energy requirment of the Korean native goats weighing ${\simeq}20kg$ was concluded to be $${\geq_-}$$600kcal net energy per day. 5. The fasting heat product ion of a male goat weighing 27.7kg was 412kcal per day when fasted for 2~3 days. When fasted for 3~4 days, the value decresed to 240kcal. The enviromental temperatures during the expreimental period were ranged from 19 to $34.5^{\circ}C$. The goats seemed to be panting when the chamber temperature rose to $32^{\circ}C$ or above. 6. When fed low levels of dietary protein, serum protein levels of the goats were decresed slightly ($${\leq_-}$$10%); however, urea content in the serum was observed to decrese to a great extent (3X).