• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.112-119
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• 2020

In this study, cellulose-based bacterial pellets was used for the self-healing concrete manufacturing. The pellet is composed of complex cultured bacterial spore powder, methyl cellulose, two kinds of PVA nutrients and water, and is extruded through a hydraulic press to have a shape of 2mm in diameter to 3 to 4mm in length. Cellulose pellets expand at neutral pH, release bacteria and nutrients, and do not react in a basic environment, increasing the long-term survival rate of bacteria in cement mortar. In addition, pellet self-healing performance of pellet mortar was significantly higher than that of control mortar. Cellulose-based pellets are a new type of bacterial carrier system that will help develop self-healing concrete in the future by improving and optimizing pellets.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.437-443
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• 2003

Bioremediation technologies were applied to experimental microcosms, simulating an oil spill in a lower intertidal area. Three treatments (oil only, oil plus nutrients, and oil plus nutrients and microbial inocula) were applied, and each microcosm was repeatedly filled and eluted with seawater every 12 h to simulate tidal cycles. To minimize washing-out of the inoculum by the tidal cycles, microbial cells were primarily immobilized on diatomaceous earth before they were applied to the oiled sand. Oil degradation was monitored by gravimetric measurements, thin layer chromatography/flame ionization detector (TLC/FID) analysis, and gas chromatography (GC) analysis, and the loss of oil content was normalized to sand mass or nor-hopane. When the data were normalized to sand mass, no consistent differences were detected between nutrient-amended and nutrient/inoculum-amended microcosms, although both differed from the oil-only microcosm in respect of oil removal rate by a factor of 4 to 14. However, the data relative to nor-hopane showed a significant treatment difference between the nutrient-amended and nutrient/inoculum-treated microcosms, especially in the early phase of the treatment. The accelerating effect of inoculum treatment has hardly been reported in studies of oil bioremediation in the Tower intertidal area. The inoculum immobilized on diatomaceous earth seemed to be a very effective formulation for retaining microbial cells in association with the sand. Results of this study also suggest that interpretation of the effectiveness of bioremediation could be dependent on the selection of monitoring methods, and consequently the application of various analytical methods in combination could be a solution to overcome the limitations of oil bioremediation monitoring.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.37-40
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• 2014

This research investigates the quality changes during composting of bagasse and pig manure amended with 30% of surfactant-coated charcoal (SC). Two treatments, 30% uncoated charcoal (UC) amendment and no charcoal (NC) amendment, were done as control. Charcoal was coated with 0.37 mM tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TDMA), a cationic surfactant, at the dosage of 10 g/L. At the end of the composting period, the carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio of SC amendment was 9.7; whereas, the C/N ratios of UC and NC amendment were 12.6 and 21.4, respectively. Plant nutrients contents of the compost produced from SC amendment were 20.7 mg $NH_4{^+}-N/g$, 42.8 mg $NO_3{^-}-N/g$, and 41.7 mg P/g. High nitrate and phosphate concentrations in SC amendment were due to the adsorption of these anions on the positive charge of TDMA. Desorption of plant nutrients retained in the compost pellets was also investigated. It was predicted that nitrate was fully desorbed from a pellet at 23 days for SC amendment, which was later than UC (14 days) and NC (10 days) amendment. A slow release of nitrate from the compost pellet will reduce the nitrate leaching into the environment. Thus, the adding of SC in the compost pile is one of the alternative methods to improve the quality of compost and plant nutrient retention.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.146-150
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• 2014

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone or neuropeptide, is secreted in response to intraluminal nutrients by enteroendocrine I-cells of the intestine and has important physiological actions related to appetite regulation and satiety. The stimulation on CCK secretion from the intestine is of potential relevance for body weight management. Naringenin (4',5,7-trihydroxyflavanone) and its glycoside naringin (naringenin 7-rhamnoglucoside) have been reported to have many biological functions. In the current study, we investigated the question of whether naringenin and naringin could stimulate CCK secretion and then examined the mechanisms involved in CCK release. MATERIALS/METHODS: STC-1 cells were used as a model of enteroendocrine cells. CCK release and changes in intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ ($[Ca^{2+}]_i$) were measured after incubation of cells with naringenin and naringin for 1 h. RESULTS: Naringenin caused significant (P < 0.05) stimulation of CCK secretion, but naringin did not. In addition, regarding the secretory mechanisms, naringenin-induced CCK secretion involved increases in $[Ca^{2+}]_i$, influx of extracellular $Ca^{2+}$, at least in part, and activation of TRP channels, including TRPA1. CONCLUSION: Findings of this study suggest that naringenin could have a role in appetite regulation and satiety.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.24-33
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• 2000

The value of beauty and the resources in the southern coastal sea is most important not only ecologically but also economically in Korea. Since 1980s, intensive use and consequent coastal water pollution have caused an increase in the frequency of red tides outbreak in this area. In this study, seawater and sediment were collected in summer and winter of 1998 and 1999, respectively. The status of seawater eutrophication, sediment oxygen demand(SOD), and nutrients release from sediment were measured. There was an obvious trend that COD and total phosphorous concentrations of summer sediments obtained from aquaculture farms were higher than those of winter sediments. It was concluded that sediments accumulated in the shellfish farms of southern coastal sea caused oxygen deficit in the bottom layer of seawater and played an important role for eutrophication.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.992-997
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• 2002

Two in vivo experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of novel urease inhibitor hydroquinone (HQ) on ammonia release rate from urea hydrolysis, nitrogen balance, nutrient digestibility and efficiency of microbial protein synthesis. In Exp. 1, twelve crossbred cannulated lambs were randomly assigned within initial body weight block to one of four HQ treatments, which included 0 (control), 30, 60 or 80 mg HQ/kg DM intake. Ammonia concentration and pH of ruminal fluid were immediately measured at 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 h after feeding. Increasing the dose of HQ tended (p<0.15) to linearly decrease NH3 formation. The ammonia peak concentration (2 h post-feeding) in animals receiving HQ was approximately one-half of that in animals not receiving HQ (p<0.01), and a relatively sustained ammonia release could be obtained at the dose of 30 or 60 mg HQ/kg DM. In Exp. 2, sixteen intact crossbred lambs (weight $40{\pm}0.8kg$) were used in a $2{\times}2$ factorial design experiment. The four rations consisting of soybean meal-based (SBM) or urea-based (Urea) nitrogen source with or without HQ (S1, S0, U1 and U0) were fed in digestion and N balance trials. Apparent digestibility of major nutrients except that of ADF was not affected by either nitrogen source or addition of HQ. Regardless of nitrogen source, supplementation of HQ significantly improved ADF digestibility (p<0.05). The various ration had no effects on N metabolism in the presence of HQ. There was significant difference between total purine derivatives (PD), estimated efficiency of microbial N synthesis (p<0.05) and urea-N excretion (p<0.01) in the urine for the SBM ration and for the Urea ration. However, HQ had little influence on efficiency of microbial N synthesis as proportion of daily intake of total tract digestible OM (p>0.05). No interactions between main nitrogen source and HQ were measured throughout the trial. Results of this study suggest that addition of HQ to ration may improve ADF digestion with having no negative effect on N metabolism and microbial protein production.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.155-161
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• 2008

This study examined effects of the fermented leachate of food waste (FLFW) on nitrogen and phosphorous removal for domestic wastewater containing a low carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio in sequencing batch reactor (SBR). When the FLFW was not supplied in the process, release of phosphorus and excessive intake was not observed at both anaerobic and aerobic stages. On the other hand, when the FLFW was gradually added, active release of phosphorus and intake of phosphorus was noticed at an anaerobic stage and aerobic stage, respectively, resulting in improved phosphorus removal efficiency. The removal efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus was increased from 75% and 37% (R-1, control test) to 97% and 80% (R-4, the highest substrate ratio test), respectively. In addition, although activity of the nitrogen oxidizing microorganisms was reduced when the reaction temperature was decreased to $10^{\circ}C$, the phosphorus removal efficiency was shown to increase with the addition of FLFW, indicating an independence from temperature. Overall, this study suggests that an efficient nutrients removal process can be successfully employed into a SBR when the FLFW is added to a wastewater which has a low C/N ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.854-862
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• 2016

In summer 2010, we measured the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) and nutrients in the water collected at the bottom of Cheonsu Bay, off the west coast of Korea. We also measured nutrient fluxes across the sediment-water interface by deploying a fully-automated benthic lander, which collected time-series water samples inside a benthic chamber. We confirmed on-going hypoxia in the northern parts of the bay where polluted lake water was discharged. DO content in the water at the bottom was 2 mg/l, compared to 5 mg/l at the mouth of the bay in the south. Nutrient concentrations showed a trend that was opposite to that of DO. The variation of N/P ratios implies phosphate desorption and a release of nutrients caused by hypoxia. The organic carbon oxidation rate and oxygen consumption rate in the northern parts of the bay were about twice as fast as those at the mouth of the bay. Benthic fluxes of nutrients in the northern part of the bay were 4 to 6 times higher than those at the mouth. Our results imply that it is important to understand the role of hypoxia events to make an accurate estimation of material fluxes across the sediment-water interface.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.133-140
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• 2005

Although amino acids are substrates for the synthesis of proteins and nitrogen-containing compounds, it has become more and more clear over the years that these nutrients are also extremely important as regulators of body protein turnover. The branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) together or simply leucine alone stimulate protein synthesis and inhibit protein breakdown in skeletal muscle. However, it was only recently that the mechanism(s) involved in the regulation of protein turnover by BCAAs has begun to be defined. The acceleration of protein synthesis by these amino acids seems to occur at the level of peptide chain initiation. Oral administration of leucine to food-deprived rats enhances muscle protein synthesis, in part, through activation of the mRNA binding step of translation initiation. Despite our knowledge of the induction of protein synthesis by BCAAs, there are few studies on the suppression of protein degradation. The recent findings that oral administration of leucine rapidly reduced $N^{\tau}$-methylhistidine (3-methylhistidine; MeHis) release from isolated muscle, an index of myofibrillar protein degradation, indicate that leucine suppresses myofiblilar protein degradation. The details of the molecular mechanism by which leucine inhibits proteolysis is just beginning to be elucidated. The purpose of this report was to review the current understanding of how BCAAs act as regulators of protein turnover.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.861-871
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• 2005

This study was carried out to get more operational characteristics of Anoxic(anaerobic)-Oxic-Anoxic-Oxic $(AO)_2$ sequencing batch biofilm reactors (SBBRs) at the low TOC concentration, The operating time in anoxic (anaerobic) time to oxic time was I : I. Experiments were conducted to find the effects of the aeration time distribution on the organic matters and nutrients removal. Three lab-scale reactors were fed with synthetic wastewater based on glucose as carbon source. During studies, the operation mode was fixed. The first aeration time to the second aeration time in SBBR-I was 2 : 3, and those in SBBR-2 and SBBR-3 were I : 4 and 3 : 2, respectively. The organic removal efficiency didn't show large difference among three reactors of different aeration time distribution. However, from these study results, the optimum aeration time distribution in the first and the second aeration time for biological nutrient removal was shown as 3 : 2. The release of phosphorus was inhibited at the second non-aeration period because of the low TOC concentration and the nitrate produced by the nitrification at the first aeration period.