• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.142-146
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• 2007

Panax ginseng has been drawing world-wide attention since it was used for medicinal purposes and its effects was discovered in scientific manners. However, it is necessary to develope new ginseng products as functional foods to compete with western ginseng. Fermented ginseng could be an excellent solution, where useful probiotics are provided and ginsenosides are specifically transformed to functional forms. In this study, we investigated the growth and ginsenoside biotransformation by 21 Bacillus strains isolated from Chongkukjang and 12 lactic acid bacteria. 2.5% (w/v) and 1% (w/v) of ginseng were used in culture media containing only ginseng powder as a sole nutrient source, and their biotransformation abilities were tested after the growths were checked. All used Bacillus strains and lactic acid bacteria were able to grow well in ginseng powder media at higher levels than $10^{7}\;CFU/ml$. Most of Bacillus strains displayed ginsenoside transformation in a strain-specific manner. Therefore, the results of this study demonstrated that the strains tested in this study could be used as potential starters for the ginseng fermentation.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.185-192
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• 2006

This study was performed to investigate factors affecting sensitivity and preference for salty tastes of Korean adult females. Sensitivity and preference for salty tastes were determined as detection threshold concentration of NaCl solution and the optimally-preferred NaCl concentration of the bean sprout soup, respectively. A self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain the information regarding general characteristics, self diagnosis of stress, health-related lifestyle practices, dietary habits and food preferences. Dietary intake using 24-hours recall and blood pressure were measured. Salty taste detection thresholds and optimally-preferred NaCl concentrations were 0.0197% and 0.357%, respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between the optimally-preferred salt concentration and age, despite no significant correlation between either sensitivity or preference for salty taste and sodium intake, which was 3,605mg/day. Those who had bread or cereal with milk as breakfast instead of a traditional Korean meal and those who preferred jjigae to soup had significantly higher NaCl preferences for bean sprout soup. Going to bed after midnight and skipping meals (${\geq}3/week$) decreased salty taste sensitivity without reaching statistical significance. Self awareness of one's own health, recent weight changes, family history of hypertension, sleep quality, getting-up time, rate of eating and other food preferences did not affect either perception. Stress level, TV watching, BMI and sodium intake did not have significant correlation to sensitivity or preference. Further research including a large number of well-controlled subjects and more accurate measurement of sodium intake should be directed to find other factors affecting salt preference and sensitivity in order to decrease Na intake and related diseases.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1199-1208
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• 2019

Korea's protected horticulture is rapidly increasing in scale due to various advantages such as year-round harvesting, labor savings through automation and shortened culture period, and greater income generation. This study was conducted to investigate the impact of protected horticulture on water quality. The results of this study are expected to provide basic data contributing to improvements towards sustainable agriculture and eco-friendly design of protected horticulture complex. The average T-N and T-P loads from vinyl greenhouses were 286.55± 143.98 mg/L and 59.14±13.77 mg/L, respectively and those from glass greenhouses 380.68 ± 150.41 mg/L and 61.85±20.72 mg/L. The annual discharge of wastewater derived from the monthly discharge from the horticulture greenhouses were estimated at 2597 ton/ha, with the annual phosphorus load amounting to 155.3 kg/ha. The average T-N and T-P loads in the tested greenhouse effluents were in excess of 8.3- and 13.5-fold the standards for the Korean wastewater plant effluent. The waste nutrient solution discharged from a protected horticulture complex can cause water contamination. Therefore, there is a need to conduct follow-up research using a water purification system or a trench method to develop a eco-friendly protected horticulture complex for sustainable agriculture.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.46-50
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• 2006

The microorganisms with the antifungal activity against Phytophthora capsici and Colletotrichum acutatum and the plant growth-promoting activity were screened from a forest and natural fields of Gajang-Dong, Sangju-city. One of the isolates, Streptomyces griseofuscus 200401, was selected as a good plant growth-promoting strain in this study. In greenhouse test, the number of leaf, fresh weight, and dry weight of pepper plants, that were grown with treatment of culture suspension or powder containing S. griseofuscus 200401, were higher than those without the bacterial cells. Cultivation of S. griseofuscus 200401 strain for 7 days in a nutrient rich medium produced ammonium chloride up to 0.13 ${\mu}g/ml$ in the culture solution of S. griseofuscus. Treatment of the selected strain significantly reduced the severity of the late blight of pepper plants to show the equivalent disease control activity to chemical fungicide. This study suggests that S. griseofuscus 200401 strain could be a potential biological agent with the biocontrol activity and the plant growth-promoting activity.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.541-548
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• 2010

This study was established on which the selenium (Se), known as one of the functional elements in the human body, treatment was the most effective for the Se uptake in the soil and tree. Se treatments included foliar application, soil fertigation, and trunk injection. Se fertigation and control had similar soil $P_2O_5$, K, and Mg concentrations, and calcium and Se concentrations in the soil were greater on the control and Se fertigation, respectively. Leaf characteristics were not different among the treated trees. No differences were observed for the leaf K and Ca concentrations among the treated trees, and foliar Mg was greater on the Se treated trees than the control. Se foliar application and trunk injection had greater Se concentrations in the leaves and fruits than the Se fertigation and control.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.83-92
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• 2010

Organic farming is a type of agricultural practices based on naturally occurring processes excluding or strictly limiting the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals. This study was conducted to investigate the influences of agro-based materials, effective microorganisms (EM), liquid silicate (LS), and organic liquid fertilizer (OLF) for water dropwort (Oenanthe stolonifera DC.) cultivation. Soil pH, soil organic matter, and plant available phosphorous decreased with LS application. Exchangeable Ca and Mg decreased with EM application, and electrical conductivity and exchangeable Ca and K decreased with OLF application. Most of essential nutrient contents in water dropwort were reduced with the treatments of LS, EM, and OLF as compared with those in control plot, except nitrogen and phosphorus. However, diseases and insect pests were almost not observed in the water dropwort in the agro-based material application plots, except cluster caterpillar (Spodoptera litura). Productivity of water dropwort tended to be reduced: its higher productivity in the OLF and EM+LS plots and lower in the LS and control plots.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.316-327
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• 2018

Liquid fertilizers made from livestock manure contain high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus and thus are used as a fertilizer. However, excessive use of liquid fertilizer causes eutrophication of agricultural land and nonpoint source pollution. In this study, as a means of lowering the nutrient concentrations, struvite ($MgNH_4PO_4{\cdot}6H_2O$) production from the liquid fertilizer was investigated. When liquid fertilizers produced in Gyeonggido were analyzed, its characteristics differed by region and season, but the phosphorus concentration was commonly lower than that of nitrogen. When $K_2HPO_4$ and $MgCl_2$ were added to the liquid fertilizers, the optimal pH for struvite formation was pH 9.5. For environmentally friendly sources of magnesium and phosphate, ferronickel slag (FNS) and sewage sludge ash (SSA) were suspended in deionized water and extracted by sulfuric acid with various mass ratios. The optimum conditions for extracting FNS and SSA were 4.0 M sulfuric acid and 0.35 mass ratio of sulfuric acid to sewage sludge ash, respectively. For forming struvite, 0.233 L of SSA leachate (SSAL) was added into 0.3 L of liquid fertilizer containing 2,586 mg/L of ammonia and 110 mg/L of phosphate, pH was then adjusted to pH 9.5 using 10 M of NaOH. Afterwards 0.333 L of FNS leachate (FNSL) was added to this mixed solution. After a reaction for 1 hr at room temperature, the remaining concentrations of magnesium, ammonium, and phosphate were less than 50 mg/L, 500 mg/L and 150 mg/L, respectively, and 30 g of precipitates were obtained, most of which were struvite.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1996.06c
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• pp.692-700
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• 1996

The objective of this study is to develop a systematic purification plant using the metabolism of aerobic microorganisms. This system is subsequently aerated and continuously removes suspended solids and settling sludges caused by aerating pressure at the bottom of a lower pipe (i.e., Continuous Removal of Suspended solids and Settling sludges, CRSS). The CRSS plants are brought out by introducing fine air bubbles into the liquid phase of a lower pipe in the bio-reactor. These plant uses aeration pipe, with multiple inlets to sweep the floor of bio-reactor tank, instead of the conventional scraper mechanisms. The principal advantage of this system is that it can continuously remove very small or light particles that settles completely within a short time. Once the particles have been floated to the surface, they can be moved into the pipe and collected in the settling tank by sequently aerated pressure. The experimental results shows that about 99.0% of the biochemical oxygen demand(BOD), 99.3% of the suspended solid(SS), 92.3% of the total nitrogen(T-N), 99.0% of the turbidity(TU), 100% of the total coliform(TC)and ammonia was respectively removed during aerobic digestion for 9 days. These result indicates that the CRS S plants are very effective for reduction and deodorization of swine wastewater contaminants, and the efflux from CRS S can either be discharged in the river or used as nutrient solution of formulation for plant growth factories. The developed CRSS plant proved to be flexible and it can simply be adapted to any type of biological waste treatment problem.roblem.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.240-247
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• 2018

Background: Saline soil has negative effects on the growth of most crops. Sodium is the main element that causes salt accumulation in soil. Organic materials such as cow and poultry manure, are frequently used during the preparation stage, which causes an increase in the rate of salt accumulation in the soil. Methods and Results: To investigate the influences of sodium on ginseng, $NaH_2PO_4$, $Na_2SO_4$, and NaCl were used to adjust the sodium concentrations at 0, 12.5, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mM in nutrient solution. In a 2-year-old ginseng, toxic symptoms appeared when the sodium treatment exceeded 50 mM. The sodium concentration in the leaves was 3.33%, which is more than twice as high as that of the control treated at 50 mM. As the sodium concentration increased, the root weight significantly decreased. In the 100 mM treatment, the weight decreased by 28% when compared to that of the control. The Amount of ginsenoside significantly increased with an increase in sodium concentrations. Conclusions: These results suggest that the growth of 2-year-old ginseng is negatively affected when sodium exceeds 50 mM. This result can be used for a as basis in diagnosing the physiological disorders of ginseng.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.565-572
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• 2002

In order to control the root-zone temperature of greenhouse crops in the hydroponics at hot and cold season, heat pump system for cooling and heating was built and tested in this work. The system was air-to-water type and vapour compression type. The heating and cooling mode was selected by the four way valve. Capacity of the compressor was 3.75㎾ and heat transfer area of the evaporator and the condenser were 3.05㎡ and 0.6㎡, respectively. According to the performance test, it could supply heat of 42,360 to 64,372kJ/h depending on the water circulation rate of 600 to 1,500ℓ/h, respectively, when indoor air temperature was 10∼20$\^{C}$. COP of heat pump system was 3.0 to 4.0 in the heating mode. But, COP of the cooling mode was 1.3 to 2.1 at indoor temperature of 20∼35$\^{C}$. The feasibility test in the greenhouse the developed heating and cooling system was installed, showed that the heating cost of the developed system was only about 13% of that of the conventional heating system. The heating cost of the developed system was 367won/day(electric consumption 9.7㎾h/day), while that of the conventional system was 2,803won/day(oil consumption 7.7ℓ/day) at the same heating mode.