• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.7-12
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• 2023

Isolation of pollutant-degrading bacteria is important in bioaugmentation, one of the methods for biological degradation of environmental contaminants. We focused on the magnetic activated sludge (MAS) process as a culture method that efficiently concentrates degrading bacteria, and cultured activated sludge with 1,4-dioxane as a model pollutant. After 860 days of operation, MLVSS, which indicates the amount of sludge, increased from 390 mg/L to 10,000 mg/L, and the removal rate of organic matter including 1,4-dioxane, tetrahydrofuran, and glucose in the artificial wastewater reached up to 97%. Based on these results, the MAS process was successfully used to acclimate activated sludge with 1,4-dioxane. Bacterial flora analysis in the MAS showed that bacteria of the genus Pseudonocardia, already reported as 1,4-dioxane degrading bacteria, play an important role in the degradation of this pollutant. The MAS process is a suitable culture method for acclimation of environmental pollutants, and the findings indicate that it can be used as an enrichment unit for pollutant-degrading bacteria.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1985

Three strains (JC1, JC2, and HY1) of aerobic carbon monoxide (CO)-utilizing Acinetobacter were isolated from soil through CO-enrichment culture technique. All of them were Gram-negative, nonmotile, and rod-shated but they were changed to spherical form at the end of logarithmic phase. They were resistant to penicillin and able to frow at $42^{\circ}C$. The guanine plus cytosine contents of the DNAs ranged from 43 to 44.5 mol%. Oxidase was not present in all cells. The colonies were smooth and whitish yellow. Heterotrophic growth occurred on several sugars, organic acids, amino acids, and alcohols. The doubling times under and atmosphere of 30% CO and 70% air at $30^{\circ}C$ were 19h, 25h, and 35h, respectively, for JC1, JC2, and HY1, JC1 was studied in more detail. The cells were grown optimally in a mineral medium (pH 6.8) under a gas mixture of 30% CO and 70% air at $30^{\circ}C$. Growth of the cells with CO did not depend on molybdenum. It was able to grow with 100 ppm of CO in air as a sole source of carbon and energy.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.543-553
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• 2010

This study was focused on the mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of field soil of the Baekje Kingdom from K wongbawigol site in Jeongdongri, Buyeo and whether the bricks from Songsanri Tombs and Muryung's Royal Tomb were made of soil from this site. Soil samples show the similar size fraction as a silt loam and acidic soil, whereas some samples have the enrichment of organic matter, P and S. Also, they have similar geochemical behavior of elements and similar mineral phases consisting of quartz, plagioclase, orthoclase, vermiculite, mica and kaolinite. The enrichment of iron oxide is found in some soil layer, including the iron oxide mottling and precipitation along plant roots and they are attributed to repeat oxidation and reduction environments due to flooding and drainage of field soil. It's anthropogenic alteration by human activity. Especially, it is assumed that the concentration of the iron oxides found in bricks from Muryung's Royal Tomb and Songsanri Tombs is the additional evidence that soil in this study is probably the raw materials of those bricks.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.65-69
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• 2005

We have developed a new method of manufacturing salts by horizontal spray drying technique, using the concentrated deep ocean water after desalination processes. We studied the chemical characteristics of the spray-dried salts. Sodium content in the spray salts is $28.4\%$, which is $10-30\%$ lower than that of bay salts, bamboo salts and boiling salts $(32-38.2\%)$. However, the contents of magnesium, potassium and calcium of the spray salts are 2.5 times, 3 times and 4.5 times higher relative to those of bay salts, respectively. On the one hand, sulfur content in spray salts is 14 times lower than those of bay salts, which is caused by their volatilization during spray and vaporization of the concentrated seawater. Enrichment factors of Mg (0.8), K (0.9) and Ca (1.0) in the spray salts are relatively higher than those in bay salt (0.2-0.3), bamboo salt (0.15-0.4) and boiled salt (0.4-0.7), respectively. On the contrary, enrichment factor of sulfur in spray salts is observed to be 0.07, which is considerably lower than those in other salts (0.3-0.7). It means that the minerals like Mg, K and Ca can be well conserved from seawater to salts through spray drying techniques, while volatile elements like sulfur, lead, mercury and organic compounds can be easily removed from seawater via spray and heating processes.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.30-39
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• 2018

Soil contamination survey was conducted during March - July, 2017 to obtain soil contamination profile of 16 organic and inorganic contaminants in Hanam industrial complex located in Gwangju, Korea. The concentrations of all surveyed contaminants except Cd showed were within 0.3~1.5 times of their natural background levels. Cd showed concentrations as high as 6.9 times of the background level, signifying the influence of the metal processing facilities in the complex. The concentrations of Zn, Pb and Hg in areas nearby industrial facilities were 1.3~5.5 times higher than those within the facility and green area. The concentration of Cu in the green area was 1.4~2.9 times higher than in other areas. The Soil Pollution Index (SPI) analysis revealed 54% of the total area belong to first-grade soil, 43% to second-grade, and 3% to third-grade. The Enrichment Factor (EF) of Zn, Pb, and Cd were 9.2, 15.6, and 88.5, respectively, indicating high accumulation and contamination of the soil with Cd.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.922-930
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• 2021

Objective: Tibetan pigs, predominantly originating from the Tibetan Plateau, have been subjected to long-term natural selection in an extreme environment. To characterize the metabolic adaptations to hypoxic conditions, transcriptomic and proteomic expression patterns in the livers of Tibetan and Yorkshire pigs were compared. Methods: RNA and protein were extracted from liver tissue of Tibetan and Yorkshire pigs (n = 3, each). Differentially expressed genes and proteins were subjected to gene ontology and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes functional enrichment analyses. Results: In the RNA-Seq and isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation analyses, a total of 18,791 genes and 3,390 proteins were detected and compared. Of these, 273 and 257 differentially expressed genes and proteins were identified. Evidence from functional enrichment analysis showed that many genes were involved in metabolic processes. The combined transcriptomic and proteomic analyses revealed that small molecular biosynthesis, metabolic processes, and organic hydroxyl compound metabolic processes were the major processes operating differently in the two breeds. The important genes include retinol dehydrogenase 16, adenine phosphoribosyltransferase, prenylcysteine oxidase 1, sorbin and SH3 domain containing 2, ENSSSCG00000036224, perilipin 2, ladinin 1, kynurenine aminotransferase 1, and dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase 1. Conclusion: The findings of this study provide novel insight into the high-altitude metabolic adaptation of Tibetan pigs.

• Genes and Genomics
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.1157-1167
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• 2018

Sulfolobus species can grow on a variety of organic compounds as carbon and energy sources. These species degrade glucose to pyruvate by the modified branched Entner-Doudoroff pathway. We attempted to determine the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under sugar-limited and sugar-rich conditions. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to quantify the expression of the genes and identify those DEGs between the S. acidocaldarius cells grown under sugar-rich (YT with glucose) and sugar-limited (YT only) conditions. The functions and pathways of the DEGs were examined using gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to validate the DEGs. Transcriptome analysis of the DSM 639 strain grown on sugar-limited and sugar-rich media revealed that 853 genes were differentially expressed, among which 481 were upregulated and 372 were downregulated under the glucose-supplemented condition. In particular, 70 genes showed significant changes in expression levels of ${\geq}$ twofold. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses revealed that the genes encoding components of central carbon metabolism, the respiratory chain, and protein and amino acid biosynthetic machinery were upregulated under the glucose condition. RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analyses indicated that the sulfur assimilation genes (Saci_2197-2204) including phosphoadenosine phosphosulfate reductase and sulfite reductase were significantly upregulated in the presence of glucose. The present study revealed metabolic networks in S. acidocaldarius that are induced in a glucose-dependent manner, improving our understanding of biomass production under sugar-rich conditions.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.459-468
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• 2003

Annual variation of water qualities in the Shihwa Lake were observed 18 times from June 1996 to October 2001. We studied at the station of the upper streams and near the water gate of lake. After the flow of the outer seawater through the water gate, the surface salinity in Shihwa Lake increased to the range of 25-30 psu in both stations after October 1998. Due to the declination of the salinity differences between the surface and the bottom water, the pycnocline in which had existed until 1997 has weakened, and made the water column mix vertically. This led to the improvement of anoxic/hypoxic environment at bottom waters after April 1998. However, despite the continuous flow of the outer seawater, the concentrations of chlorophyll-a at surface layer were varied from $2{\mu}g/l\;to\;60{\mu}g/l$, and these values indicated the eutrophication. The following organic matter load was greatly influencing the surface layer's COD concentration. During the rainy season, the salinity at the surface layer to the below 15 psu resulting in stratification between the surface and bottom layer. Organic matters that were provided from the surface layer to the bottom layer due to active primary production in the year exhausted dissolved oxygen at the bottom layer, and the bulks of organic matters at bottom gave rise to hypoxic or anoxic environment. It was observed that the enrichment of ammonia and phosphate were main factors to worsen the water quality of the Shihwa Lake. The results of examining the annual variations in Shiwha Lake through principal component analysis shown that water characteristics in the rainy season were similar with those before input of outer sea water.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.829-835
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• 2011

A dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction based on solidification of floating organic droplet (DLLME-SFO) has been developed as a new approach for the extraction of trace copper in water and beverage samples followed by the determination with flame atomic absorption spectrometry. In the DLLME-SFO, 8-hydroxy quinoline, 1-dodecanol, and methanol were used as chelating agent, extraction solvent and dispersive solvent, respectively. The experimental parameters related to the DLLME-SFO such as the type and volume of the extraction and dispersive solvent, extraction time, sample volume, the concentration of chelating agent and salt addition were investigated and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factor for copper was 122. The method was linear in the range from 0.5 to $300\;ng\;mL^{-1}$ of copper in the samples with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9996 and a limit of detection of $0.1\;ng\;mL^{-1}$. The method was applied to the determination of copper in water and beverage samples. The recoveries for the spiked water and beverage samples at the copper concentration levels of 5.0 and $10.0\;ng\;mL^{-1}$ were in the range between 92.0% and 108.0%. The relative standard deviations (RSD) varied from 3.0% to 5.6%.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2019

Background: Piton du Milieu (PdM) impounding reservoir is suspected to be eutrophic based on the elevated level of orthophosphate and nitrate. Water supplies from three adjacent rivers are primarily thought to contribute to the nutrient enrichment of the reservoir. It is also suspected that there is leaching of orthophosphate, nitrate and organic matter into the rivers during rainfall events and also as a result of anthropogenic activities within the catchment area. The aim of this study was to ascertain the impact of nutrient loading on the water quality of PdM water and on the population of freshwater microalgae in the reservoir. The enumeration and identification of algae from PdM were performed by differential interference contrast microscopy. Dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH were determined by electrometric methods, whereas nutrient levels, silica and total organic carbon (TOC) were determined by instrumentation techniques. Results: Annual mean orthophosphate, nitrate and total organic carbon input from the three feeders within the catchment area of PdM reached levels as high as 0.09 mg/L, 0.4 mg/L and 2.62 ppm respectively. Over a 12-month period, mean TOC concentration in the reservoir was 2.32 ppm while the mean algal cell count was 4601 cells/mL. The dominant algal species identified were Oscillatoria, Cyclotella, Navicula and Cosmarium. Conclusion: This study highlights the trophic state of the reservoir water and clearly points to the need for constant monitoring in order to avoid the occurrence of an impending harmful algal bloom.