• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.340-347
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• 2001

Seasonal variation of the elemental and biochemical composition of the suspended particulate matter (SPM) was investigated in terms of quantity and quality of diets for suspension feeders from July 1999 to August 2000 in two coastal bay systems of Gosung and Kangjin Bays in Korea. No clear patterns in the seasonal variations of SPM concentration were found in these two bay systems. The results indicated that the seasonal variation of SPM could not be considered the variation of food available to suspension-feeders. The simultaneous peaks in chlorophyll a and biochemical components in summer indicated that the quantity of the particulate organic matter primarily depended on phytoplankton productivity. However, no correlation between chlorophyll a and biochemical components [particulate protein (PPr), carbohydrate (PCHO) and lipid] were found, indicating that other processes might also contribute to the particulate organic matter in the period when the phytoplankton biomass was low. High C: Chl a and C:N, and carbohydrate peaks during the autumn to spring period suggested that resuspension of surface sediments was a probable process to supply the particulate organic matter. The food material, represented by summing up the total quantity of three biochemical components, was highest in spring with minor peaks during the period from autumn to the next spring, The food index, calculated as the ratio of food material to total SPM, did not generally exceed $6\%$ with short peaks during the year. Therefore, nutritional quality of SPM in the bays are relatively poor than in other more productive coastal waters in the world. Our results confirm that the measurement of a single chemical variable cannot describe fully the nutritive value of the seston available to suspension-feeders as previously proposed, and the biochemical composition of SPM can provide effective information on its origin and nutritive Quality.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.193-202
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• 2013

The concentrations of heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), and arsenic (As) in sand samples collected from selected children's playground and their correlation with environmental parameters, such as concentration of particulate matter in the atmosphere ($PM_{10}$), apartment age (> 5 years), clay and organic matter contents in sand samples, were analyzed. The average heavy metal concentration in samples was 0.040 mg $kg^{-1}$ for Cd, 0.200 mg $kg^{-1}$ for Cr, 1.75 mg $kg^{-1}$ for Cu, 15.1 mg $kg^{-1}$ for Ni, 3.42 mg $kg^{-1}$ for Pb, 66.7 mg $kg^{-1}$ for Zn and 0.750 mg $kg^{-1}$ for As, all of which were below the environmental regulatory level established by Korea Ministry of Environment. However, in the consideration of direct and oral exposure by children to playground sand, the risk of the concentration range in the samples might be greatly enhanced. Heavy metal concentration in samples collected from high $PM_{10}$ (> $70{\mu}gm^{-3}$) area was slightly greater than in samples from low $PM_{10}$ (< $70{\mu}gm^{-3}$), indicating the contribution of particulate matter in air phase to heavy metal concentration in playground sand samples. The concentrations of both Cd and Pb were the highest in apartments older than 21 years (0.050 mg $kg^{-1}$ and 5.28 mg $kg^{-1}$ for Cd and Pb respectively) and showed positive correlation with apartment age (p<0.01 and p<0.001 for Cd and Pb, respectively). Clay content in playground sands ranged 3.8~11.2% and was positively correlated with heavy metal concentration. Organic matter content was negligible (mostly < 0.1%) and showed poor correlation with heavy metal concentration. In conclusion, concentration of heavy metals in playground sand was found to be predominantly influenced by the apartment age and clay content in sand samples and supplemented by dust deposition of particulate matter ($PM_{10}$) from atmosphere.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.148-156
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• 1989

This investigation was performed in eutrophic lake within the framework of a series of studies to evaluate the significance of gram reaction for both bacterioplankton and attached bacteria in the dynamics of organic materials at various aquatic ecosystems. In Lake Kasumigaura as a representative of the highly eutrophic freshwater environments, the gram-stain characteristics of the bacterial community changed with the influx of pulses of phytoplankton, as those in the meso trophic environments. The predominency of the gram-negative forms in the bacterial community was about 57% for bacterioplankton and about 53% for attached bacteria. The statistical analysis of the difference of these two distributions showed that these communites were different. Both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria attached to particles were shown to effect the formation and degradation of particulate organic matter. Gram-negative bacteria plankton participate exclusively in the dynamics of dissolved organic matter.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.419-427
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• 2023

This study, analyzed the stomach contents, stable isotope signatures (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) in muscle tissue, and potential food sources (particulate organic matter, Zostera marina, epiphytes, and zooplankton) of Sardinops melanostictus in the southern coast of Korea to evaluate its dietary changes across seasons (summer and autumn 2022). The diet of S. melanostictus predominantly comprised organic detritus (99%) regardless of the season. The isotope results showed that S. melanostictus had mean δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of -17.7±0.4‰ and 10.6±0.5‰, respectively and seasonal variations were observed (t-test, P=0.010, P=0.002). However, the isotopic mixing model showed that particulate organic matter was a major nutritional source for S. melanostictus in summer and autumn (88.7% and 90.2%, respectively). Based on the stomach contents and stable isotope signatures, these results may help improve the understanding of S. melanostictus and establish the management measures for their conservation.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.162-169
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• 2024

Particulate matter (PM) constitutes a hazardous blend of organic and inorganic particles that poses health risks. Inhalation of fine airborne PM with a diameter of ≤ 2.5 ㎛ (PM_2.5) can lead to significant lung impairments. (+)-afzelechin (AZC), a natural compound sourced from Bergenia ligulata, boasts a range of attributes, including antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, and cardiovascular effects. However, knowledge about the therapeutic potential of AZC for patients with PM_2.5-induced lung injuries remains limited. Thus, in this study, we investigated the protective attributes of AZC against lung damage caused by PM_2.5 exposure. AZC was administered to the mice 30 min after intratracheal instillation of PM_2.5. Various parameters, such as changes in lung tissue wet/dry (W/D) weight ratio, total protein/total cell ratio, lymphocyte counts, levels of inflammatory cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), vascular permeability, and histology, were evaluated in mice exposed to PM_2.5. Data demonstrated that AZC mitigated lung damage, reduced W/D weight ratio, and curbed hyperpermeability induced by PM_2.5 exposure. Furthermore, AZC effectively lowered plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines produced by PM_2.5 exposure. It reduced the total protein concentration in BALF and successfully alleviated PM_2.5-induced lymphocytosis. Additionally, AZC substantially diminished the expression levels of Toll-like receptors 4 (TLR4), MyD88, and autophagy-related proteins LC3 II and Beclin 1. In contrast, it elevated the protein phosphorylation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Consequently, the anti-inflammatory attribute of AZC positions it as a promising therapeutic agent for mitigating PM_2.5-induced lung injuries by modulating the TLR4-MyD88 and mTOR-autophagy pathways.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.479-487
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• 2007

[ $PM_{2.5}$ ], particulate matter less than 2.5 um in a diameter, can penetrate deeply into the lungs. Exposure to $PM_{2.5}$ has been associated with increased hospital visits for respiratory aliments as well as increase mortality. $PM_{2.5}$ is a byproduct of combustion processes and as such has a complex composition including a variety of metallic elements, inorganic and organic compounds as well as biogenic materials (microorganisms, proteins, etc). In this study, the average concentrations of fine particulates $PM_{2.5}$ have been measured simultaneously in Asan and Seoul, Korea, by using particulate matter portable sampler from September 2001 to August 2002. Sample collection filters were analyzed by ICP-OES to determine the concentrations of metallic elements (As, Ni, Fe, Cr, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Si). Annual mean $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations in Asan and Seoul were 37.70 and $45.83\;{\mu}g/m^3$, respectively. The highest concentrations of $PM_{2.5}$ were found in spring season in both cities and the concentrations of measured metallic elements except As in Asan were higher than those in Seoul, suggesting that yellow dust in spring could affect $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations in Asan rather than Seoul. The correlation coefficients of Pb and Zn were 0.343 for Asan and 0.813 for Seoul during non-yellow dust condition, suggesting that Pb and Zn were influenced with the same sources. The correlation coefficients between Si and Fe in the fine particulate mode were 0.999 (Asan) and 0.998 (Seoul) during yellow dust condition. It was suggested that these two elements were impacted by soil-related transport from China during the yellow dust storm condition.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.617-622
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• 1992

Four rumen-fistulated swamp buffaloes steers were used in a change-over experiment. This experiment was designed to provide a comparison of the effect of urea-ammonia treatment of rice straw with untreated rice straw. Nitrogen, mineral and trace elements were supplied at adequate levels to both diets in order to overcome deficiencies which may have otherwise confounded a direct comparison. There was a 46% increase in the intake of digestible organic matter (OM) with the urea-ammonia treated diet. This was contributed by a 17% increase in the digestibility of OM and a 25% increase in the voluntary intake of OM. Of the cell wall fraction, the digestibility of hemicellulose increased by the greatest amount (26%). There was an increased rate of passage of particulate matter out of the rumen for the treated straw, along with the increased rate of OM fermentation resulted in a 9% decrease in the amount of digesta dry matter (DM) contained in the rumen. The volatile fatty acid (VFA) pool in the rumen was 24% higher for the treated diet.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.695-713
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• 2023

In coastal waters, phytoplankton,suspended particulate matter, and dissolved organic matter intricately and nonlinearly alter the reflectivity of seawater. Neural network technology, which has been rapidly advancing recently, offers the advantage of effectively representing complex nonlinear relationships. In previous studies, a three-stage neural network was constructed to extract the inherent optical properties of each component. However, this study proposes an algorithm that directly employs a deep neural network. The dataset used in this study consists of synthetic data provided by the International Ocean Color Coordination Group, with the input data comprising above-surface remote-sensing reflectance at nine different wavelengths. We derived inherent optical properties using this dataset based on a deep neural network. To evaluate performance, we compared it with a quasi-analytical algorithm and analyzed the impact of log transformation on the performance of the deep neural network algorithm in relation to data distribution. As a result, we found that the deep neural network algorithm accurately estimated the inherent optical properties except for the absorption coefficient of suspended particulate matter (R² greater than or equal to 0.9) and successfully separated the sum of the absorption coefficient of suspended particulate matter and dissolved organic matter into the absorption coefficient of suspended particulate matter and dissolved organic matter, respectively. We also observed that the algorithm, when directly applied without log transformation of the data, showed little difference in performance. To effectively apply the findings of this study to ocean color data processing, further research is needed to perform learning using field data and additional datasets from various marine regions, compare and analyze empirical and semi-analytical methods, and appropriately assess the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.68-77
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• 2024

Airborne particulate matter (PM) is an environmentally hazardous pollutant that originates from various sources. PM is comprised of solid particles and liquid droplets of diverse composition and size. Hazardous chemical compositions of PM include elemental and organic carbon, organic compounds, biological compounds and metals. Upon acute and chronic PM exposure, toxic contaminants enter and accumulate within physiological systems and prompt cell structure changes accompanied with intracellular endoplasmic reticulum stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, inflammation, lipid accumulation, and cell cycle arrest. Ultimately, these cellular response leads to the development of key characteristics of aging. In addition, PM internalization enhances autophagy reflux and lysosomal dysfunction, which is involved in cell aging. Previous studies have emphasized a positive association between PM and increased mortality or decreased lifespan, although these are evidenced mostly by observational studies. Direct evidence of the link between PM and aging is still limited. This review evaluates the evidence from not only observational studies but also in vitro and in vivo evidence of PM on aging progression and age-related diseases development. This evidence is based on age-associated cellular changes including endoplasmic reticulum stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, inflammation, adipose accumulation, autophagy, which strengthen the association between PM exposure and aging. Understanding the underlying cellular responses under PM may allow for the development of new therapeutic targets for PM-induced aging.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 1992

The adsorption efficiency of some adsorbents for the organic solvents and gas phase of smoke was investigated. 1. Specific surface area of activated carbon increased to 1900 mfg with increased activation time. 2. Adsorption efficiency of benzene and acetone increased with increasing total surface area. Adsorption capacity for gas phase such as hydrogen cyanide, aldehyde was proportional to the micro pore surface area under 20A. 3. The removal efficiency of particulate matter of smoke was higher with the adsorbents of relatively higher pore size compared to that of micro pore.