• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.2 s.57
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• pp.356-368
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• 1997

In effort to determine whether aircraft noise can have health effects such as hearing loss, hypertension and psychological stress, a total of 111 male professors and administrative officers working a college near a military airport in Korea(exposed group) and a total of 168 males and 112 females matched by age groups(control groups) were analyzed. Personal noise exposure and indoor and outdoor sound level of jet aircraft noise were measured at the exposed are3. And pure tone, air conduction test and measurement of blood pressure were given to the exposed(males) and matched control groups (males and females). BEPSI(Brief Encounter Psychological Instrument) and psychological response to aircraft noise were examined for the exposed group. The noise dosimetry results revealed time-weighted averages(TWAs) that ranged from 61 to 68 dBA. However the levels encountered during taking off jet airplanes reached 126 dBA for two half minutes time period. Th, audiometric, test showed that mean values of HTL(hearing threshold level) in exposed group at every frequency(500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, and 8,000 Hz were much lower than them of male and female control groups. And in old age groups, interaction of age and noise was observed at 8,000 Hz in both ears(p<0.05). Conclusively, aircraft noise does not appear to induce hearing loss directly in high frequency, but may decreased hearing threshold level by interaction of aging process and noise exposure. However, difference of mean values of exposed and control groups on blood pressure was not significantly. In psychological test, annoyance was the most severe psychological response to noise in exposed group, but mean value of BEPSI was not correlated with job duration in exposed group.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.312-321
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• 2014

Tricholoma bakamatsutake is one of the edible ectomycorrhizal mushrooms as an allied species of Tricholoma matsutake. This is the first report on physical characteristics of T. bakamatsutake strains collected from Quercus mongolica forests in Korea. The pure cultures of these strains were isolated from the tissues of fruit bodies and the culture characteristics were investigated under different conditions (media, temperatures, nitrogen sources). Most strains showed the highest mycelial growth on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 20 or $25^{\circ}C$. Two strains of T. bakamatsutake preferred the ammonium-form rather than the nitrate-form as an inorganic nitrogen source. T. bakamatsutake showed significantly slower mycelial growth when compared with T. matsutake from a Korean forest, although the optimum culture conditions for the two allied species were similar. We also tested the ability to form mycorrhizae as well as cellulase activity of T. bakamatsutake. All strains showed cellulase activity on a carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) agar plate. The mycorrhizae on axenic Pinus densiflora seedlings were formed by two strains of T. bakamatsutake after 3 or 8 months of inoculation. P. densiflora seedlings inoculated with T. bakamatsutake had a much higher biomass than un-inoculated seedlings.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.248-255
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• 2019

This research confirmed the diversity and characterization of gut microorganisms isolated from the intestinal organs of Muraenesox cinereus, collected on the Samcheonpo Coast and Seocheon Coast in South Korea. To isolate strains, Marine agar medium was basically used and cultivated at $37^{\circ}C$ and pH7 for several days aerobically. After single colony isolation, totally 49 pure single-colonies were isolated and phylogenetic analysis was carried out based on the result of 16S rRNA gene DNA sequencing, indicating that isolated strains were divided into 3 phyla, 13 families, 15 genera, 34 species and 49 strains. Proteobacteria phylum, the main phyletic group, comprised 83.7% with 8 families, 8 genera and 26 species of Aeromonadaceae, Pseudoalteromonadaceae, Shewanellaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Morganellaceae, Moraxellaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, and Vibrionaceae. To confirm whether isolated strain can produce industrially useful enzyme or not, amylase, lipase, and protease enzyme assays were performed individually, showing that 39 strains possessed at least one enzyme activity. Especially the Aeromonas sp. strains showed all enzyme activity tested. This result indicated that isolated strains have shown the possibility of the industrial application. Therefore, this study has contributed for securing domestic genetic resources and the expansion of scientific knowledge of the gut microbial community in Muraenesox cinereus of South Korea.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.121-129
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• 1971

During the Brewing of Soy Sauce on an industrial scale, Saccharomyces rouxii $T_9$ was cultured and added to the soy sauce mash. The comparative experiments of soy sauce mash in non-addition and addition group of yeast were examined in this report. The yeast flora and chemical composition of Soy sauce mash through out the brewing were observed and the results obtained were as follows. (1) The number of Osmophilic yeast in one ml of soy sauce mash showed $185{\times}10^3$ 1 month after mashing and $750{\times}10^3$ 4 months after mashing in case of yeast group, while presented as $98{\times}10^3$ 1 month after mashing and $394{\times}10^3$ 4 months after mashing in case of non-yeast group. And the number of Osmphilic yeast in yeast group was twice of that in non-yeast group. (2) The number of ordinary yeast of TTC red group was shown as $2132{\times}10^3\;to\;3252 ×10^3$ 5 to 6 months after mashing in case of yeast group, while presented $752{\times}10^3\;to\;1251{\times}10^3$ in case of non-yeast group. And the yeast group was shown more than non-yeast group in ordinary, red pink and pink yeast number. (3) TTC red yeast were strongly appeared in both addition and non-addition group of yeast from 1 month after mashing to 6 months after mashing. (4) Though total nitrogen, pure extract, pH and buffer action contents of soy sauce showed similiar tendency in yeast and non-yeast group, alcohol and color density contents were highly appeared in yeast group and reducing sugar content was in non-yeast group respectively. (5) By the results of Organic function test of soy sauce mash, the difference of taste quality in yeast and non-yeast group were not evidently appeared, however, the appearance and flavour of the soy sauce were better in yeast group than in non-yeast group.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.41-63
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to secure objective and precise data through ecosystem monitoring, to reveal ecological characteristics through comparison and analysis with past survey data, and to accumulate basic data for diagnosing the current situation and predicting changes in the ecosystem. The target site is the 'Quercus mongolica forest on the Buksa-myeon of Namsan', which was designated as an Ecological Landscape Conservation Area (ELCA) of Seoul in July 2006. The research contents are analysis of soil environment change (1986~2016), change of actual vegetation (1978~2016), and change of plant community structure (1994~2016). A total of 8 fixed surveys (400~1,200m²) were established in 1994 and 2000. Analysis items are importance value, species and population, and Shannon's species diversity. The soil environment of Namsan is acidic (pH 4.40 in 2016), which is expected to have a negative impact on tree growth and vegetation structure due to its low capacity for exchangeable cations. Quercus mongolica forest in Namsan is mainly distributed on the northern slopes. The actual vegetation area changed from 49.4% in 1978 → 80.7% in 1986 → 82.4% in 2000 → 88.3% in 2005 → 88.3% in 2009 → 70.3% in 2016. In 2016, the forest decreased by 18% compared to 2009. While there was increased growth of Quercus mongolica in the tree layer from 2009 to 2016, the overall decline in vegetation area was due to logging and fumigation management following the spread of oak wilt in 2012. As for the changes in the plant community structure, Quercus mongolica of the tree layer was damaged by oak wilt, and the potential vegetation that can form the next generation was ambiguous. In the subtree layer, the force of urbanization tree species such as Styrax japonicus, Sorbus alnifolia, and Acer palmatum. was maintained or increased. In the shrub layer, the number of trees and species increased significantly due to the open tree crown, and accordingly, the species diversity of Shannon for woody plants also increased. In Quercus mongolica forest of Namsan, various ecological changes are occurring due to the effects of urban environments such as air pollution and acid rain, the limitation of Quercus mongolica pure forest due to oak wilt, and the introduction of exotic species, thus, it is necessary to establish a management plan through continuous monitoring.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.2-4
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• 1998

Proliferation of Nocardia amarae cells in activated sludge has often been associated with the generation of nuisance foams. Despite intense research activities in recent years to examine the causes and control of Nocardia foaming in activated sludge, the foaming continued to persist throughout the activated sludge treatment plants in United States. In addition to causing various operational problems to treatment processes, the presence of Nocardia may have secondary effects on the fate of heavy metals that are not well known. For example, for treatment plants facing more stringent metal removal requirements, potential metal removal by Nocardia cells in foaming activated sludge would be a welcome secondary effect. In contrast, with new viosolid disposal regulations in place (Code o( Federal Regulation No. 503), higher concentration of metals in biosolids from foaming activated sludge could create management problems. The goal of this research was to investigate the metal sorption property of Nocardia amarae cells grown in batch reactors and in chemostat reactors. Specific surface area and metal sorption characteristics of N. amarae cells harvested at various growth stages were compared. Three metals examined in this study were copper, cadmium and nickel. Nocardia amarae strain (SRWTP isolate) used in this study was obtained from the University of California at Berkeley. The pure culture was grown in 4L batch reactor containing mineral salt medium with sodium acetate as the sole carbon source. In order to quantify the sorption of heavy metal ions to N amarae cell surfaces, cells from the batch reactor were harvested, washed, and suspended in 30mL centrifuge tubes. Metal sorption studies were conducted at pH 7.0 and ionlc strength of 10-2M. The sorption Isotherm showed that the cells harvested from the stationary and endogenous growth phase exhibited significantly higher metal sorption capacity than the cells from the exponential phase. The sequence of preferential uptake of metals by N. amarae cells was Cu>Cd>Ni. The specific surFace area of Nocardia cells was determined by a dye adsorption method. N.amarae cells growing at ewponential phase had significantly less specific surface area than that of stationary phase, indicating that the lower metal sorption capacity of Nocardia cells growing at exponential phase may be due to the lower specific surface area. The growth conditions of Nocardia cells in continuous culture affect their cell surface properties, thereby governing the adsorption capacity of heavy metal. The comparison of dye sorption isotherms for Nocardia cells growing at various growth rates revealed that the cell surface area increased with increasing sludge age, indicating that the cell surface area is highly dependent on the steady-state growth rate. The highest specific surface area of 199m21g was obtained from N.amarae cell harvested at 0.33 day-1 of growth rate. This result suggests that growth condition not only alters the structure of Nocardia cell wall but also affects the surface area, thus yielding more binding sites of metal removal. After reaching the steady-state condition at dilution rate, metal adsorption isotherms were used to determine the equilibrium distributions of metals between aqueous and Nocardia cell surfaces. The metal sorption capacity of Nocardia biomass harvested from 0.33 day-1 of growth rate was significantly higher than that of cells harvested from 0.5- and 1-day-1 operation, indicatng that N.amarae cells with a lower growth rate have higher sorpion capacity. This result was in close agreement with the trend observed from the batch study. To evaluate the effect of Nocardia cells on the metal binding capacity of activated sludge, specific surface area and metal sorption capacity of the mixture of Nocardia pure cultures and activated sludge biomass were determined by a series of batch experiments. The higher levels of Nocardia cells in the Nocardia-activated sludge samples resulted in the higher specific surface area, explaining the higher metal sorption sites by the mixed luquor samples containing greater amounts on Nocardia cells. The effect of Nocardia cells on the metal sorption capacity of activated sludge was evaluated by spiking an activated sludge sample with various amounts of pre culture Nocardia cells. The results of the Langmuir isotherm model fitted to the metal sorption by various mixtures of Nocardia and activated sludge indicated that the mixture containing higher Nocardia levels had higher metal adsorption capacity than the mixture containing lower Nocardia levels. At Nocardia levels above 100mg/g VSS, the metal sorption capacity of activate sludge increased proportionally with the amount of Noeardia cells present in the mixed liquor, indicating that the presence of Nocardia may increase the viosorption capacity of activated sludge.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.671-675
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• 2009

Prostate cancer has been a critical health problem due to an increase of prostate cancer-related deaths worldwide. Also, a frequent treatment option for prostate cancer is androgen ablation, but this treatment has a limited scope, especially for hormone-refractory cancer. There is an urgent need for the identification of alternative therapeutic strategies for prostate cancer. Previously, over one hundred species of dried-plant methanol extracts were tested for inhibitory effects on proliferation. One of them, Piper longum Linn. was selected based on its potent anti-proliferation effect. The dried root of P. longum Linn. was extracted with 100% methanol for 2-3 days and its extract was fractionated using chloroform. The chloroform layer was then subjected to column chromatography on silica gel, reverse phase-18 (RP-18) and Sephadex LH-20, in turn. Finally, the pure compound was obtained and identified as pipernonaline by NMR spectroscopic and physico-chemical analysis. In this study, anti-proliferation and cell cycle arrest effects of pipernonaline on human prostate cancer PC-3 cells were investigated using the MTT and PI staining, respectively. Our findings suggest that pipernonaline represents a dose-dependent growth inhibition pattern on PC-3 cells and, moreover, its growth inhibition is associated with sub-G1 and G0/G1 cell cycle accumulation in PC-3 cells. Also, these results provide an anticancer candidate for human prostate cancer.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.103-108
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• 1996

Through the previous studies(I,II), it was observed that human follicular fluid(HFF) was more effective than human fetal cord serum(HFCS) on promoting meiotic resumption of oocytes and improving embryonic development of mouse in vitro. On the basis of these results, we have gradually exchanged HFCS with HFF as protein supplement in human ART. This study was performed to investigate the efficiency of HFF on improving the pregnancy rate in ART. Oocytes were retrieved transvaginally from patients treated with pituitary suppression with GnRH-agonist and ovarian stimulation with human menopausal gonadotro-pin(HMG) and pure follicle stimulating hormone(FSH). Aspirated oocytes were rinsed and cultured in TCM-199 containing HFF, and the concentrations of HFF were adjusted to 10, 20, and 30% according to the use for insemination, embryo growth and embryo transfer, respectively. As possible as, we tried to do embryo transfer into fallopian tube to mimic the coincidence of the cell stage with the place of sojourn in vivo, so we performed various ART programs(IVF & ET; in vitro fertilization, ZIFT; zygote intra fallopian-tube transfer, ZIFT & ET) according to the tubal conditions of patients. On the while, intra cytoplasmic sperm injection(ICSI) was used to assist IVF of the patients who had shown poor standard IVF results by immunological or severe male factor. Of the 255 cycles of ART programs using HFF as protein supplement, 118 cycles were turn out to be succeeded in pregnancy(46.2%, per cycle, p<0.05), while 21 pregnancies were achieved in the 69 cycles using HFCS(30.4%). The 255 cycles using HFF were subdivided into cycles with the type of ART programs, and each pregnancy rate of the ART programs were 44.7% (IVF & ET, 76/170 cycles), 53.4%(ZIFT, 31/58 cycles) and 40.7% (ZIFT & ET, 11/27 cycles), respectively. In the 61 ICSI cycles using HFF, 28 cycles succeed in pregnancy(45.9%), while 7 pregnancies were obtained in the 17 ICSI cycles using HFCS. Also the ongoing pregnancy rate in the group using HFF(78.8%, 93/118 cycles) was higher than that in the group using HFCS(61.9%). Therefore, we found that the use of HFF as protein supplement was more suitable and effective than the use of HFCS to improve the pregnancy rate in ART.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.2111-2111
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• 2001

A chemoinfometrical method for evaluating the quantitative determination of crystallinity one polymorphs based on fourie-transformed near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy was established. A direct comparison of the data with the ones collected from using the and compared with the conventional powder X-ray diffraction method was performed. [Method] The pPure a and g forms of indomethacin (IMC) were prepared by reportedusing published methods. Six kinds of standard samples obtained by physically mixing of a and g forms. After the powder X-ray diffraction profiles of samples have been measured, the intensity values were normalized to against the intensity of silicon powder as the as an external standard. The calibration curves for quantification of crystal content were based upon the total relative intensity of four diffraction peaks from of the form g crystal. FT-NIR spectra of six calibration sample sets were recorded 5 times with the NIR spectrometer (BRAN+LUEBBE). Chemoinfometric analysis was performed on the NIR spectral data sets by applying the principal component regression (PCR). [Results] The relation between the actual and predicted polymorphic contents of form g IMC measured using by the X-ray diffraction method shows a good straight linen linear relation., and it has slope of 0.023, an intercept of 0.131 and a correlation coefficient of 0.986. PCR analyses wereis was performed based on normalized NIR spectra sets offer standard samples of known content of IMC g form. IMC. A calibration equation was determined to minimize the root mean square error of the predictionthe prediction. Figure 1 shows a plot of the calibration data obtained by NIR method between the actual and predicted contents of form g IMC. The predicted values were reproducible and had a smaller standard deviation. Figure 2 shows that the plot for the predicted transformation rate (%) of form a IMC to form g as measured by X-ray diffractomeoy against to those as measured by NIR method. The plot has a slope of 1.296, an intercept of 1,109, and a correlation coefficient of 0.992. The line represents a satisfactory correlation between the two predicted values of form g IMC content. Thus NIR spectroscopy is an effective method for the evaluation to the pharmaceutical products of quantitative of polymorph.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.333-338
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• 2013

Purpose: A growing number of studies have been providing evidence for neural connections between the auditory and somatosensory systems that might be a critical part of the mechanisms underlying certain forms of tinnitus. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) movements on tinnitus. Methods: One hundred sixty-three tinnitus patients participated in this study. All patients underwent a thorough audiological examination including pure-tone audiometry, tinnitus handicap inventory, and evaluation of tinnitus loudness, frequency and severity on a visual analog scale. Somatic testing consisting of nine forceful jaw muscle contractions was performed to evaluate the effect of TMJ movements on modulation of tinnitus. Results: 66.9% of patients had unilateral tinnitus. Somatic testing modulated tinnitus loudness in 125 ears (57.6 %) of 217 ears tested. An increase in tinnitus loudness was observed more often than a decrease. Loudness was most commonly increased by opening and clenching jaw. Tinnitus could be induced by opening, clenching and deviating jaw to the left. Conclusion: Our study showed evidence that TMJ movements may aggravate and even evoke tinnitus and somatic testing can be used for evaluating if stimulation of the TMJ induces or aggravates tinnitus.