• Molecules and Cells
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.325-330
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• 2005

Ancient cattle bones were excavated from archaeological sites in Jeju, Korea. We used molecular genetic techniques to identify the species and establish its relationship to extant cattle breeds. Ancient DNA was extracted from four sources: a humerus (Gonae site, A.D. 700-800), two fragments of radius, and a tooth (Kwakji site, A.D. 0-900). The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop regions were cloned, sequenced, and compared with previously reported sequences of various cattle breeds (9 Asian, 8 European, and 3 African). The results revealed that these bones were of the breed, Bos taurus, and a phylogenetic tree indicated that the four cattle bones formed a monophyletic group with Jeju native black cattle. However, the patterns of sequence variation and reports from archaeological sites suggest that a few wild cattle, with a different maternal lineage, may have existed on Jeju Island. Our results will contribute to further studies of the origin of Jeju native cattle and the possible existence of local wild cattle.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.561-568
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• 2019

Objectives: The most commonly detected heavy metals in rocks and soils, including Pb, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn and As, are representative pollutants discharged from abandoned mines and have been listed as potential sources of contamination in drinking water. This study focused on increasing the removal efficiency of heavy metals from drinking water resources by surface modification of natural adsorbents to reduce potential health risks. Methods: Iron oxide coating and graft polymerization with zeolites and talc was conducted for bipolar surface modification to increase the combining capacity of heavy metals for their removal from water. The removal efficiency of heavy metals was measured before and after the surface modification. Results: The removal efficiency of Pb, Cu, and Cd by surface modified zeolite showed 100, 92, and 61.5%, respectively, increases compared to 64, 64, and 38% for non-modified zeolite. This implies that bipolar surface modified natural adsorbents have a good potential use in heavy metal removal. The more interesting finding is the removal increase for As, which has both cation and anion characteristics showing 27% removal efficiency where as non-modified zeolite showed only 2% removal. Conclusions: Zeolite is one of the most widely used adsorptive materials in water treatment processes and bipolar surface modification of zeolite increases its applicability in the removal of heavy metals, especially As.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.344-351
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• 2005

Hydrogen energy will be considered one of the most important energy carries for the future not only as raw material of petroleum chemical industry but also as the fuel of the fuel cell. The hydrogen production based upon the water electrolysis system combined renewable energy or atomic power energy is being watched as long-term hydrogen sources. Hydrogen from fossil fuel, especially natural gas steam reforming, is the economical mass production method at this time. But the cost of $CO_2$ reduction is added in the economic analysis of hydrogen production processes. Therefore many different results are suggested from these analyses about old processes, and modified schemes are studying for the efficient development. In this review, status for the technology of hydrogen production from natural gas are summarized.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2019

This paper reports an experimental investigation conducted to evaluate the durability performance of concrete mixtures prepared utilizing blends of Type I Portland cement (OPC) and natural pozzolans (NPs) obtained from three different sources in Saudi Arabia. The control concrete mixture containing OPC alone as the binder and three concrete mixtures incorporating NPs were prepared keeping water/binder ratio of 0.4 (by weight), binder content of $370kg/m^3$, and fine/total aggregate ratio of 0.38 (by weight) invariant. The compressive strength and durability properties that included depth of water penetration, depth of carbonation, chloride diffusion coefficient, and resistance to reinforcement corrosion and sulfate attack were determined. Results of this study indicate that at all ages, the compressive strength of NP-admixed concrete mixtures was slightly less than that of the concrete containing OPC alone. However, the concrete mixtures containing NP exhibited lower depth of water penetration and chloride diffusion coefficient and more resistance to reinforcement corrosion and sulfate attack as compared to OPC. NP-admixed concrete showed relatively more depth of carbonation than OPC when subjected to accelerated carbonation. The results of this investigation indicates the viability of utilizing of Saudi natural pozzolans for improving the durability characteristics of concrete subjected to chloride and sulfate exposures.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.491-507
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• 2018

This study collected and analyzed records related to the Asian dust phenomenon in Korean history books. I collected a wide range of records from diverse sources and identified data for analysis. 290 records were selected through this process. These records provide a variety of information including the occurrence time and duration of the phenomenon, other natural phenomenon occurring at the same date, descriptions of the phenomenon, and so on. Reports on, Asian dust in the historical records was not continuous or uniform. However, their appearance in certain months of the year is similar to that observed in modern times. In addition, I collected 90 records showing it that can be largely divided into two viewpoints which they were a natural calamity or an unusual phenomenon. Generally, natural phenomenons in historical books are mostly recorded in viewpoint of unusual phenomenon. Nevertheless, research result verified the record as actual observational data. Consequentially, it also indicates that this data is important for research from a meteorological point of view. I think that the data collected through this study can be helpful to modern meteorological studies related to the Asian dust phenomenon.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1663-1665
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• 2008

Acyl-coenzyme A: cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) catalyzes cholesterol esterification and plays an important role in the intestinal absorption of cholesterol, hepatic production of lipoproteins, and accumulation of cholesteryl ester within cells. During the course of screening to find ACAT inhibitors from microbial sources, the present authors isolated pyripyropene A from Penicillium griseofulvum F1959. Pyripyropene A, an ACAT2-specific inhibitor, has already been produced from Aspergillus fumigatus. Yet, Aspergillus fumigatus is a pathogen and only produces a limited amount of pyripyropene A, making the isolation of pyripyropene A troublesome. In contrast, Penicillium griseofulvum F1959 was found to produce approximately 28 times more pyripyropene A than Aspergillus fumigatus, plus this report also describes the ideal conditions for the production of pyripyropene A by Penicillium griseofulvum F1959 and its subsequent purification.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.98-103
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• 2009

The forecasting, mitigation and preparedness of the natural disaster impacts require relevant information regarding the disaster desirable in real time. In the meantime it is requiring the rapid and continuous data and information generation or gathering for possible prediction and monitoring of the natural disaster. Since disasters that cause huge social and economic disruptions normally affect large areas or territories and are linked to global change. The use of traditional and conventional methods for management of the natural disaster impact can not be effectively implemented for intial data col1ection with the further processing. The space technology or remote sensing tools offer excellent possibilities of collecting vital data. The main reason is capability of this technology of collecting data at global and regional scales rapidly and repetitively. This is unchallenged advantage of the space methods and technology. The satellite or remote sensing techniques can be used to monitor the current situation, the situation before based on the data in sight. as well as after disaster occurred. They can be used to provide baseline data against which future changes can be compared while the GIS techniques provide a suitable framework for integrating and analyzing the many types of data sources required for disaster monitoring. Developed GIS is an excellent instrument for definition of the social impact status of the natural disaster which can be undertaken in the future database developments. This methodology is a good source for analysis and dynamic change studies of the natural disaster impacts.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.72-81
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• 2022

Numerous studies have investigated the occurrence and fate of microplastics in the environment; however, only limited effort has been devoted to exploring the characteristics of dissolved organic matter (DOM) leached from microplastics. In microplastic (MP)-contaminated environment, MPs are typically mixed with naturally-occurring particles, which interferes with their detection in the environment. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between the DOM leached from MPs and those leached from natural particles and also to characterize their properties. This study investigated DOM leaching behavior from MPs (polystyrene: PS, polyvinylchloride: PVC) and natural particulates (forest soil: FS, litter leaves: LL) under light, which is considered one of the main weathering processes that affect MPs in the environment. The leached DOM concentrations and fluorescence characteristics were compared under dark versus light conditions. Regardless of the origins, UV light promoted DOM release from all the particulates. More DOM was released from natural particles than from MPs under both conditions. However, the effect of promoting DOM release by UV was more pronounced for MPs than for natural particles. It was observed from fluorescence spectra that the intensity of the humic-like region was substantially reduced when MP-derived DOM was exposed to UV light, whereas the change of intensity was very little for natural particles. Under light conditions, the ratio of protein-like to humic-like fluorescence of MP-derived DOM was higher than that of DOM from natural particles. This study implies that a substantial amount of DOM could be leached from MPs even in MP-polluted environment under UV irradiation. Protein/humic fluorescence ratio could be utilized as a fast probing indicator to separate the two sources of particles under light.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.220-227
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• 2012

This study was conducted to analyze the seeding quality of paprika and the growth and early yield after transplanting of paprika nursed under artificial light and natural light. In this study, blue LED, red LED, and white fluorescent lamps (FL) were used as artificial lighting sources. Photoperiod, average photosynthetic photon flux, air temperature, and relative humidity in a closed transplants production system (CTPS) were maintained at 16/8 h, $204{\mu}mol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$, 26/$20^{\circ}C$, and 70%, respectively. Leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, top fresh weight and dry weight of paprika seedlings, and chlorophyll content in paprika leaves nursed under LED and fluorescent lamps for 21 days after experiment were significantly affected by light treatments. As compared with the control (white FL), leaf area of paprika grown under blue LED, red LED, and natural light was decreased by 63%, 63%, and 28%, respectively. Top dry weight of paprika grown under blue LED, red LED, and natural light was 64%, 50%, and 22%, respectively, compared with the control. Number of leaves on 18 days after transplanting showed with red LED, blue LED, and natural light by 86%, 84%, and 48%, respectively, compared with the control. On 114 days after transplanting, paprika nursed under blue LED and red LED had relatively short plant height. This result might be caused that the elongation of its internodes was suppressed by the illumination of sole blue or red light. Average number of fruits per plant harvested during 4 weeks after first harvest was 3.5 with red LED, 3.3 with blue LED, 1.0 with natural light, and 2.2 with control, respectively. Early yield of paprika nursed under red LED, blue LED, natural light, and control were 453 g/plant, 403 g/plant, 101 g/plant, and 273 g/plant, respectively. Larger fruit of 136 g was harvested with red LED treatment. Even though the early yield of paprika was greatly increased with artificial lighting, but total yield was almost similar as the harvest period after transplanting in greenhouses was lengthened. From the above results, we could understand that paprika nursed under white FL, blue LED, and red LED showed good growth after transplanting and was early harvested by a week as compared to the natural light. Therefore, the white FL, blue LED, and red LED as the artificial lighting sources in CTPS could be strategically used to enhance the seedling quality, to shorten the harvest time, and to increase the yield of paprika.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.609-618
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• 2005

$\gamma$-Glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT, EC 2.3.2.2.) catalyzes the transfer of the $\gamma$-glutamyl moiety from $\gamma$-glutamyl containing ompounds, notably glutathione (GSH), to acceptor amino acids and peptides. A second gene (GGTII) encoding GGT was previously isolated and characterized from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. In the present work, the GGTII-lacZ fusion gene was constructed and used to study the transcriptional regulation of the S. pombe GGTII gene. The synthesis of $\beta$-galactosidase from the GGTII-lacZ fusion gene was significantly enhanced by NO-generating SNP and hydrogen peroxide in the wild type yeast cells. The GGTII mRNA level was increased in the wild-type S. pombe cells treated with SNP. However, the induction by SNP was abolished in the Pap1-negative S. pombe cells, implying that the induction by SNP of GGTII is mediated by Pap1. Fermentable carbon sources, such as glucose (at low concentrations), lactose and sucrose, as a sole carbon source, enhanced the synthesis of $\beta$-galactosidase from the GGTII-lacZ fusion gene in wild type KP1 cells but not in Pap1-negative cells. Glycerol, a non-fermentable carbon source, was also able to induce the synthesis of $\beta$-galactosidase from the fusion gene, but other non-fermentable carbon sources such as acetate and ethanol were not. Transcriptional induction of the GGTII gene by fermentable carbon sources was also confirmed by increased GGTII mRNA levels in the yeast cells grown with them. Nitrogen starvation was also able to induce the synthesis of $\beta$-galactosidase from the GGTII-lacZ fusion gene in a Pap1-dependent manner. On the basis of the results, it is concluded that the S. pombe GGTII gene is regulated by oxidative and metabolic stress.