• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.526-532
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• 2020

A bacterial strain, designated B301^T and isolated from raw chicken meat obtained from a local market in Korea, was characterized and identified using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Cells were gram-negative, non-motile, obligate-aerobic coccobacilli that were catalase-positive and oxidase-negative. The optimum growth conditions were 30℃, pH 7.0, and 0% NaCl in tryptic soy broth. Colonies were round, convex, smooth, and cream-colored on tryptic soy agar. Strain B301^T has a genome size of 3,102,684 bp, with 2,840 protein-coding genes and 102 RNA genes. The 16S rRNA gene analysis revealed that strain B301^T belongs to the genus Acinetobacter and shares highest sequence similarity (97.12%) with A. celticus ANC 4603^T and A. sichuanensis WCHAc060041^T. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values for closely related species were below the cutoff values for species delineation (95-96% and 70%, respectively). The DNA G+C content of strain B301^T was 37.0%. The major respiratory quinone was Q-9, and the cellular fatty acids were primarily summed feature 3 (C_16:1 ω6c/C_16:1 ω7c), C_16:0, and C_18:1 ω9c. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidyl-glycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidyl-serine. The antimicrobial resistance profile of strain B301^T revealed the absence of antibiotic-resistance genes. Susceptibility to a wide range of antimicrobials, including imipenem, minocycline, ampicillin, and tetracycline, was also observed. The results of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phylogenetic analyses indicate that strain B301^T represents a novel species of the genus Acinetobacter, for which the name Acinetobacter pullorum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is B301^T (=KACC 21653^T = JCM 33942^T).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.1519-1528
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• 2013

Bacillus pumilus SG2, a halotolerant strain, expresses two major chitinases designated ChiS and ChiL that were induced by chitin and secreted into the supernatant. The present work aimed to obtain a mutant with higher chitinolytic activity through mutagenesis of Bacillus pumilus SG2 using a combination of UV irradiation and nitrous acid treatment. Following mutagenesis and screening on chitin agar and subsequent formation of halos, the mutated strains were examined for degradation of chitin under different conditions. A mutant designated AV2-9 was selected owing to its higher chitinase activity. To search for possible mutations in the whole operon including ChiS and ChiL, the entire chitinase operon, including the intergenic region, promoter, and two areas corresponding to the ChiS and ChiL ORF, was suquenced. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the complete chitinase operon from the SG2 and AV2-9 strains showed the presence of a mutation in the catalytic domain (GH18) of chitinase (ChiL). The results demonstrated that a single base change had occurred in the ChiL sequence in AV2-9. The wild-type chitinase, ChiL, and the mutant (designated ChiLm) were cloned, expressed, and purified in E. coli. Both enzymes showed similar profiles of activity at different ranges of pH, NaCl concentration, and temperature, but the mutant enzyme showed approximately 30% higher catalytic activity under all the conditions tested. The results obtained in this study showed that the thermal stability of chitinase increased in the mutant strain. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to predict changes in the stability of proteins caused by mutation.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.243-252
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• 2014

Forest tree species usually takes for long periods to be harvested and cultivated but spearmints are a good model system for woody plant because of reducing and shortening cultivation time. Spearmints are good model plants (Mentha species) for research about terpenoids production and industrial essential oil manufacture. Isopentenyl pyrophosphate isomerase (Iso) and limonene synthase (Limo) are the key enzymes of terpenoid biosynthesis pathway. Transgenic and wild spearmints (Mentha spicata, MS) were cultured in vitro and assessed for the essential oil contents. The content of essential oil of transgenic spearmint also was enhanced slightly depending on the target terpenoid genes. In an attempt to increase productivity of terpenoids further, salt and fungal elicitation strategy was adopted on transgenic Mentha spicata. The salt (800 mM NaCl) as abiotic and two fungi (Botrytis cinerea and Glomerella cingulata) as biotic were used for elicitors. In the absence of salt stress four terpenoids were detected from the spearmint extracts, all of them being monoterpenes. On the other hand, the transgenic (MSIso) extracts contained eleven terpenoids (10 monoterpenes and 1 phenylpropene) while transgenic (MSLimo) extracts contained seven monoterpenes. After 3 days of fungal infection, the resistance indices further increased to 4.38, 3.89 and 2.04 for wild type, MSIso and MSLimo, respectively. The salt and fungal elicitators proved beneficial towards modifying both the terpenoids profile and improvement in the composition of essential oil. These results have important applications for the large-scale production of essential oils and forest biotechnology with respect to spearmint.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.186-191
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• 2018

Condition and properties of composites with different chemical structure of epoxy matrix were observed after saline solution treatment. Epoxy was used as matrix and the flexibility was controlled by using 2 typed-epoxies and 3 types hardeners (amine, acid anhydride and amide). Saline water treatment was conducted with 6 wt% NaCl solution at $60^{\circ}C$ for 0, 15, and 30 days. Cross section was observed and interfacial and mechanical and properties was evaluated. Amine type exhibited the highest crosslinking density and mechanical and interfacial properties whereas water absorbance was lowest. It is because that the water molecules can be hardly penetrate into the epoxy matrix or the interface between epoxy and glass fiber and it leads to saline water resistance of composites.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.130-135
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• 2004

This paper describes the physical properties of the factors controlling the electrical resistivity of the subsurface. Resistivities of various types of soil and rock samples saturated with sodium chloride solutions having nine different concentrations were measured, and the measured resistivities of these samples were compared with calculated resistivities obtained using the conventional empirical formulas. From the results obtained, we observed that the resistivity of the soil and rock samples increases with increasing in pore-fluids resistivity regardless of the media type. However, between 20 and 200 ohm-m, which is the normal range of resistivity of groundwater, the resistivity of the pore-fluids have little or no effect on the resistivities of the samples used. Below 10 ohm-m, the resistivities of the samples are mainly controlled by the pore-fluids, whereas, in the normal range of resistivity of groundwater, the sample resistivities are controlled by their intrinsic matrix resistivity more than by the pore-fluids resistivity. Also, the measured resistivity of rock and soil samples having more than $20\%$ clay contents showed a good agreement with the calculated resistivity using the parallel resistance model whereas, the calculated resistivities of glass beads correlate with that obtained using Archie's formula. When the pore-fluid resistivity is high, the computation of the resistivity values of the samples using the Archie's formula could not be carried out. Through this study, we were able to confirm that the tests are only applicable to the parallel resistance model considering the intrinsic matrix resistivity within the normal resistivity range of groundwater in the subsurface.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.86-94
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• 2006

The primary concern on fertilizer recommendations on paddy soils in Korea is not high rice yield but high rice quality, sustainable rice yield, and less environmental loads these days. Based on soil survey data, the paddy soils in Korea were classified into five large management types ; normal, sandy, immatured, poorly drained, saline soil. In order to establish the optimum level of nitrogen fertilizer to increase the rate of head rice yield, field experiments were conducted at 24 farmhouses throughout the country with nitrogen fertilizer treatment levels of 0, 50, 70, 90, 110, 140, $170kg\;ha^{-1}$ from 2003 to 2004. As the result of the experiment, the optimum rates of nitrogen fertilizer for improving rice quality were $90kg\;ha^{-1}$ in normal, sandy, and poorly drained soils, $100kg\;ha^{-1}$ in immatured soils, and $112kg\;ha^{-1}$ in saline soils where the content of NaCl in soil was below 0.1%. The optimum rates of nitrogen fertilizer were determined in view of head rice percent, protein content, and palatability value of rice.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.224-230
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• 2015

This study was designed in the fabricated poly (L-Lactic-co-${\varepsilon}$-Caprolactone) (PLCL) scaffold using chitosan-alginate hydrogel, which would be more suitable to maintain the biological and physiological functions continuing three dimensional spatial organizations for chondrocytes. As a scaffold, hydrogels alone is weak at endure complex loading within the body. In this study, we made cell hybrid scaffold constructs with poly (L-Lactic-co-${\varepsilon}$-Caprolactone) (PLCL) scaffold and hydrogels to make a three-dimensional composition of cells and extracellular matrix, which would be a mimic of a native cartilage. Using a particle leaching technique with NaCl, we fabricated a highly-elastic scaffold from PLCL with 85% porosity and $300-500{\mu}m$ pore size. A mixture of bovine chondrocytes and chitosan-alginate gel was seeded and compared with alginate as a control on the PLCL scaffold. The cell maturation, proliferation, extracellular matrix synthesis, glycosaminoglycans (sGAG) production and collagen type-II expressions were better in chondrocytes seeded in chitosan-alginate hydrogel than in alginate only. These results indicate that chondrocytes with chitosan-alginate gel on PLCL scaffolds provide an appropriate biomimetic environment for cell proliferation and matrix synthesis, which could successfully be used for cartilage repair and regeneration.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.261-269
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• 2015

In this study, we applied a membrane distillation process to investigate a feasibility of treating a wastewater with high concentration of organic matters including nitrogen and phosphorus. The laboratory scale experiment was performed by using a hydrophobic PVDF membrane with the pore size of $0.22{\mu}m$ and porosity of 75%. The installation was direct contact type where the temperature difference between a feed and permeate side was controlled to have a range from 20 to $60^{\circ}C$. We observed a flux variation and a concentration changes of COD, $PO{_4}^{3-}$-P, $NH_4{^+}$-N and conductivity of feed side as well as permeate side with various temperature differences (20 to $60^{\circ}C$), cross flow velocities (0.09 to 0.27 m/s) through the module, and pH (6.6 to 12.0) of the feed that has the initial concentration of COD about 1,000 mg/L, total nitrogen 390 mg/L, total phosphorus 10 mg/L, conductivity of $7,000{\mu}s/cm$. The results showed that the average flux was ranged from 4 to $40L/m^2/hr$ which was almost similar with the flux of NaCl and deionized water used as a feed solution. The lowest flux was obtained at the operating condition with the temperature difference of $20^{\circ}C$ and cross flow velocity of 0.09 m/s while the highest one was measured with $60^{\circ}C$ and 0.27 m/s. Above 99% of COD and $PO{_4}^{3-}$-P in the feed could be rejected regardless of an operating condition. However, the removal rate of ammonium nitrogen was varied from 64 to 99% depending on the pH of feed solution.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.72-76
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• 2003

Ultrafiltration (UF) tests performed on traditional soy sauce (kanjang) using UF flat membrane test cell unit with thin film laminar flow similar to the spiral type membrane module in batch operations revealed reduction in permeate flux is proportional to the logarithm values of volume reduction ratio of the retentate kanjang at different feed rate of kanjang. Feed rate of 1.5 L/min was found to be adequate for long-term UF operation of kanjang using the test unit attached with MW cut-off size of 200,000 dalton polyoleffin plastic membrane in batch operation with the least concentration polarization. The higher the feed rate of kanjang, the lower the permeability of total nitrogen and NaCl, resulting in lower optical density at 500 nm and lower permeability of minerals such as Cu, Mn, and Mg. Microbial cells were completely rejected regardless of the feed rate, whereas most free amino acids were not.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.123-128
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• 2008

The Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) existing in a water includes both hydrophobic and hydrophilic substances however, most of the discussion focuses on hydrophobic substances. The hydrophobic fraction was easily removed by absorption or coagulation more than hydrophilic fraction. Therefore, control of the hydrophilic fraction is very important in water treatment process. This study is to determine the variation of DOC, the removal efficiency of DOC, and Trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) after each stage of water treatment process by fractionating Natural Organic Matters (NOM) into hydrophobic and hydrophilic substance. DOC from raw water was fractionated at acidic pH (pH<2) using XAD 8 resin column, into two fraction : hydrophobic substance (i.e. humic substance) adsorbed on XAD 8 and hydrophilic substance which represent the organics contained in the final effluent. THMFP was carried out according to the following set condition: Cl2/DOC=4 mg/mg, incubation at $25^{\circ}C$ in darkness, pH 7 adjust with HCl or NaOH as necessary, and 72hour-contact time. THMs analyzed in this study were chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethan, and bromoform. Sewage was almost evenly split between the hydrophobic (56%) and hydrophilic fraction (44%). But, Aldrich humic substance (AHS) was found to contain less hydrophilics (14%) than hydrophobics (86%). The formation of THMs may depend on the source which is characterized by the composition of organic matters such as AHS and sewage. The THMFP yield of sewage and AHS were assessed as follows. The value of the THMFP reaction yield, AHS $172.65{\mu}g/mg$, is much higher than that of sewage $41.68{\mu}g/mg$. This illustrates possible significant difference in THMFP according to the component type and the proportion of organic matter existing in water source. Apparently AHS react with chlorine to produce more THMFP than do the smaller molecules found in sewage. Water treatment process may reduce THMFP, nevertheless residual DOC (the more hydrophilic substance) has significant THMFP. Further reduction in organic halide precursors requires application of alternative treatment techniques.